Featured Resisting the Holy Ghost

"Conviction" -- the Greek elegcho -- carries a two fold aspect, one of confronting (Stephen) and the other of correcting, which would have been the crowd to whom he preached had they allowed the Spirit to do the work He was attempting, but they refused it, instead killing the messenger. There was no conviction here, only accusation that was rejected.

 

Oh my dear brother Tim, you are reaching here...:laugh:

Lets face it, we have grown comfortable with the issues you have raised. They have become the sacred cows and the hot potatoes of our lives.....probably areas where we indulge in our own private sins & absolutely no one gonna touch that!

The greatest threat, and this is a warning to you, is for someone to come along and disturb that paradigm. Invariably you will be ostricised & called evil (IE heretic, apostate, nut job, Hyper-whatever) . Bottom line your robbing them of their comfort zones & thats Bad Bad Bad! :tonofbricks:

 

I can identify with your illustration as I once believed that myself. However, I came to find out that when you are driving in a city all possible options are already preplanned. For example, the streets are already laid out and depending upon where you are at in the city at any particular point in time you have limited options available for choice. The street grid at your particular point limits your options. Likewise, God's providence limits your options. There are many limitations placed on you at any given time and place which greatly limit your options and choices. I don't believe in blind fate or luck but in providence or that God is in control working "all things" not merely some things for your ultimate good and His own purpose regardless of how bad or good your particular circumstances may be at any given point in time. Even my choices to sin, or poor choices have limitations placed on them by Divine providence where I cannot go beyond the bounds of God's ultimate purpose. This is why there is not a sparrow that falls without the permission of the Father or a hair that falls from your head which has not been numbered. As a child of God even my sins, although never committed with God's approval, are nevertheless used by God to refine me, teach me, humble me, and ultimately make me more like Christ in spite of what they are.

I do many times take the driving wheel into my own hands but when and where I do that, God has already limited the options available in those specific instances and whatever option I choose never takes me where God has not already determined by available options so that I never drive beyond His ultimate purposes for my life (Psa. 76:10) whether I take the rough road or the smoother road, I always end up exactly where the designed and limited options will take me. Now, if I yeild the steering wheel to the Holy Spirit, then the option He chooses at that specific junction in my life will experientially prove to be more of a blessing than the option I would have chosen if I resisted His leadership - the college of hard knocks.

The bottom line is that God has already limited the options available to me at any given juncture in my life and none of them will take me outside of God's ULTIMATE purpose for my life. The issue is whether I want to go the easier path or the rough path.

 

There were sinners, those who wee refusing to obey the lord, and they were resisiting Him due to being sinners in their very natures, and desiring to do their own thing!

To go their ways, not Gods way!

Sinners alwats resisiting the lord, its their very natures, as only those sinners whom God chose to save in the Cross of Chrsit will actually obey and come to Jesus for salvation, as the father gives them to Jesus, and the Holy spirit makes sure they get saved/sealed/and delivered as scheduled!

 

Egad folks, don't read more into the text than is intended; it's AUDIENCE RELEVANCE, pay attention to the first rule of interpretation here:

The Scriptures are to be taken in the sense attached to them in the age and by the people to whom they were addressed. - Charles Hodge

Once again, the Spirit THROUGH STEPHEN laid out the long history of their fathers 'resisting' the Spirit:

9 And the patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt...
27 But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
39 to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him from them, and turned back in their hearts unto Egypt,
40 saying unto Aaron, Make us gods that shall go before us: for as for this Moses, who led us forth out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye. Acts 7

 

"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears"

Do any of you honestly believe the above applies to youselves?

 

'That generation' of Jews killed Christ, period. Not the Romans, not me, not you nor anyone else; the Holy Spirit makes no bones whatsoever about 'who killed Christ', it was 'that generation' of Jews that betrayed and murdered Christ. The Holy Spirit, in Acts 7, THROUGH STEPHEN is convicting 'that generation' of Jews of the judicial murder of Christ. Period.

[add]

THAT GENERATION OF JEWS KILLING CHRIST WAS THE ULTIMATE ACT OF 'RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST'.

Is there something about this that's hard to understand?

 

THE ULTIMATE ACT OF RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST:

51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers; Acts 7

 

As I've already pointed out, and see no need to go into detail about yet again, that represents an unbiblical understanding of the meaning of the word "convicted" relative to the Holy Spirit. You're using it as a legal term. In relationship to the Holy Spirit, it is not.

 

Florida Believer

This is not biblical.....Abimelech,Jonah, Nebuchadnezzar,.....

 

"Stiffnecked" is used with Pharisees in scripture.

"Uncircumcised in heart and ears" Jews were circumcised in flesh, and lived by the Law. The Law shuts up faith, they cannot hear God with uncircumcised ears.

How is it possible? The Spirit was there.
Their hearts were hard and couldn't recognize the Holy Spirit because they were sin conscience 24/7.

The same happens today, only it's Christians rejecting the Holy Spirit.They don't recognize him, but instead continually look for and focus on sin and how to avoid it.

 

Nah, I'll stick with Pink on this one:

"...And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). There is hardly a sentence in this Gospel which has been more generally misunderstood than the one just quoted. With rare exceptions this verse is understood to refer to the benign activities of the Holy Spirit among those who hear the Gospel. It is supposed to define His work in the conscience prior to conversion. It is regarded as a description of His gracious operations in bringing the sinner to see his need of a Savior. So firmly has this idea taken root in the minds even of the Lord’s people, it is difficult to induce them to study this verse for themselves—study it in the light of what precedes, study it in the light of the amplification which follows, study the terms employed, comparing their usage in other passages. If this be done carefully and dispassionately, we feel confident that many will discover how untenable is the popular view of it.

It should be very evident that something must be wrong if this verse be interpreted so as to clash with Christ’s explicit statement in John 14:17, "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive." What then is the character of the "reproof" that is here spoken of? Is it an evangelical conviction wrought in the heart, or is it something that is altogether external? Almost all the older commentators regarded it as the former. We, with an increasing number of later writers, believe it is the latter. One of the leading lexicons of the twentieth century gives as the meaning of elencho, "to bring in guilty; to put to shame by proving one to be wrong; to convict with a view to condemnation and judgment, but not necessarily to convince; to bring in guilty without any confession or feeling of guilt by the guilty one."...........It is rather refutation by proofs, convicting by unanswerable arguments as an advocate, that is meant.".........."Here the Holy Spirit is not spoken of as dealing with individuals when He regenerates them and they believe, but as bringing conviction to the world because of sin. The Holy Ghost being here, convicts the world, i.e., what is outside where He is. Were there faith, He would be in their midst: but the world doth not believe. Hence Christ is, as everywhere in John, the standard for judging the condition of men" (Mr. W. Kelly)...."

http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/John/john_54.htm

....and He used His 'witnesses' to convict those apostates of their crime, just as in a court of law:

Acts 10:
39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom also they slew, hanging him on a tree.
40 Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest,
41 not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
42 And he charged us to preach unto the people, and to testify that this is he who is ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.

 

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Read the record of the Spirit convicting the apostate ecclesiastical system of the Jews, through the testimony of His witnesses, of the murder of the Righteous One, and declare Him indeed to be righteous. Take note, in all these examples given, of the redundancy of the message from the Comforter to the Jews; YOU KILLED HIM, BUT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD.

Acts 2:
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spake forth unto them, saying, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my words.
22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know;
23 him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay:
24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
40 And with many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

Acts 3:
12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this man? or why fasten ye your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him to walk?
13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Servant Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.14 But ye denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you,
15 and killed the Prince of life; whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
23 And it shall be, that every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.

Acts 4:
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders,
9 if we this day are examined concerning a good deed done to an impotent man, by what means this man is made whole;
10 be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even in him doth this man stand here before you whole.

Acts 5:
27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them,
28 saying, We strictly charged you not to teach in this name: and behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man`s blood upon us.
29 But Peter and the apostles answered and said, We must obey God rather than men.
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, hanging him on a tree.
31 Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.
32 And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

Acts 6:
8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, wrought great wonders and signs among the people.
9 But there arose certain of them that were of the synagogue called the synagogue of the Libertines, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen.
10 And they were not able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake.
15 And all that sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
Acts 7:
51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers;
53 ye who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
56 and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Acts 7

Acts 10:
39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom also they slew, hanging him on a tree.
40 Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest,
41 not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
42 And he charged us to preach unto the people, and to testify that this is he who is ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.

Acts 13:
16 And Paul stood up, and beckoning with the hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, hearken:
27 For they that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.
28 And though they found no cause of death in him, yet asked they of Pilate that he should be slain.
29 And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb.
30 But God raised him from the dead:
31 and he was seen for many days of them that came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses unto the people.