How do you know they did not commit the unpardonable sin in Acts 2:13? Perhaps they did, and they were damned forever. The text does not say that all of the people mocked the disciples, but only some of them. It says the people were amazed and wondered, “What does this mean?” (v. 12). And then others mocked and said that the disciples were drunk (v. 13). There were many thousands of people there, and about three thousand of these people were saved (v. 41). It is possible that the mockers were not among the three thousand. However, if their insults and attitudes did not amount to blasphemy against the Spirit, then they were not forever damned, and perhaps some of them were among the three thousand. Both possibilities are consistent with a straightforward acceptance of what Jesus said about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Now if a limited group of people who questioned a particular manifestation of the Spirit incites us to discuss if they had committed the unpardonable sin, what must we say about a whole tradition or creed that makes the sweeping claim that all of this has ended? Cessationism is worse than what the people said in Acts 2:13.

How did Simon insult the Spirit in Acts 8:19? It is not obvious why you would think he did, so it is not easy to respond directly. Nevertheless, while we are on this passage, we should correct a common distortion. Philip had preached Jesus Christ to the people, and those who believed were saved. Then Peter came to the people to impart the Holy Spirit to them, so that they would receive power as Jesus promised. Simon did not ask to buy the Holy Spirit. He offered money to Peter, not to influence the Spirit, but to influence Peter to confer the ability or the ministry of the laying on of hands to impart the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He said, “Give me this power.” What power? He did not say, “That I may receive the Holy Spirit,” but he said, “That anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 19). To use healing as an illustration, Simon would not be offering to buy a miracle of healing to heal himself, but to buy a ministry of healing to heal others. The “gift of God” (v. 20) that Peter said he could not buy was not the Holy Spirit, but the ministry to impart the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Certainly Simon was wrong. But in his perverted way, he admired the Holy Spirit and the ministry of imparting the Spirit. In fact, he was much closer to a proper attitude than the cessationists.

Peter told him to repent, but you must read the text you use. Peter told him to repent so that “if possible” or “perhaps” he might be forgiven (v. 22). When you speak carelessly about the Holy Spirit, you are treading on dangerous grounds. Of course there would be no room for repentance if a statement amounts to blasphemy against the Spirit. Even when it is unclear to us, it is always clear to God. However, when it is uncertain to us that a statement amounts to blasphemy against the Spirit, even an apostle could only say it might be “possible” for the person to be forgiven. Simon did not call the manifestations the work of demons. He did not say Philip or Peter preached false doctrine. He did not say the manifestation was “strange fire.” He did not say that what Jesus promised about the Spirit had ceased. He did not make accusations of counterfeit or fanaticism. Cessationists have said all these things and more, but Simon did not say these things. He did not utter any criticism at all about what was happening. He acknowledged the reality of God’s power and wanted to participate. He had only praise and desire for it, but his perverted attitude was enough to earn a rebuke, with enough room for only a “possible” forgiveness. Consider what this means for the cessationists.

Simon was arguably in a better place both theologically and spiritually than the cessationists. He grasped the distinction between receiving the Christ (Acts 8:12-13) and receiving the Spirit (Acts 8:14-16). He also grasped the distinction between receiving the Spirit (Acts 8:17) and imparting the Spirit (Acts 8:18). Theologically, this makes him superior to almost every Christian tradition and scholar in the past two thousand years. The fact that he understood both of these distinctions establishes him as not only incrementally superior, but paradigmatically superior, to almost every single Christian tradition and scholar in all of church history. Nevertheless, this was the basic gospel that the early converts everywhere learned on the first day (Acts 2:38, 19:2, 5-6). He was also spiritually and ethically superior. Although his attitude and motive were surely defective to the point of sin, at least he was — wickedly, selfishly — stumbling toward the direction of endorsement and participation of the work of God, rather than making it a matter of creed and policy to resist the Spirit!

What? Do you say that whereas Simon was probably unsaved, at least the cessationists believe in Jesus? The Bible says that Simon also believed and was baptized, and even continued with Philip (Acts 8:13). Do you think that Philip was stupid? If Simon was a false convert, this does not make the cessationists look any better. If Simon was a false convert, and he possibly was, what is there to prevent the immediate worldwide excommunication of every cessationist without trial? If Simon was a false convert, what about the cessationists? Their criticisms are explicit, deliberate, self-aware, and full of unbelief and malice. They leave no excuse for themselves. How do you know when a cessationist has committed the unpardonable sin? There are cases when it is obvious. There are indeed cessationists who have blasphemed the Holy Spirit as clearly as the Pharisees did, sometimes even more explicitly than the Pharisees did. There is no repentance and no forgiveness for them. They are damned. They will burn in hell forever. But when it is less clear, we do what Peter did. We rebuke them harshly and command them to repent, so that “if possible” God might forgive them.

There is nothing in these texts that contradicts our straightforward acceptance of what Jesus said about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. If you speak against the Spirit, you are finished. It does not matter how much you appear to have contributed to the advance of the gospel in the world. It does not matter if you have been faithful to this or that historic creed — a creed that probably also blasphemes the Spirit. It does not matter that you are famous as a defender of the faith. It does not matter if you have preached thousands of sermons and written volumes of biblical commentaries. It does not matter if people regard you as one of the most significant preachers in church history. If you have committed this sin, you will burn and burn and burn in hell. This is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Some people might criticize me when they attempt to hide the fact that they refuse to agree with Christ, but I have no authority to recant the doctrine. I am just as powerless as they are when it comes to arriving at a different conclusion. It cannot be done. Jesus said what he said. Attacking me does not refute him. But if I say what he said, then to attack me is to attack him.

The texts that you mentioned do not weaken the doctrine of Jesus on the topic, but they emphasize the spiritual depravity of the cessationists. They show that a cessationist’s understanding and appreciation of God’s power is worse than a sorcerer who was possibly a false convert, and possibly unsaved. Jesus said that his religious critics did not know the Scriptures or the power of God. We face the same situation today. The modern religious critics of Jesus — the cessationists who call themselves Christians, and those who espouse other forms of unbelief, such as those who reject the physical healing and material blessing promised by Christ — do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. From the intellectual perspective, in the face of what the Bible teaches, to maintain the doctrine of cessationism implies a level of reading comprehension below many mentally disabled individuals. From the spiritual or ethical perspective, the cessationists are worse than sorcerers and occultists, because they refuse to extend the respect and acknowledgment that even satanists offer to the power of God.

Again, they answer that at least they believe in Jesus Christ. But the Bible explicitly declares that Simon also believed, and received enough recognition for this that he was baptized in water. Then he followed Philip, who most likely could have detected a fraud better than we can. So if Simon was a false convert, then the cessationists can also be false converts. But then Simon had more knowledge and appreciation of God’s Spirit than the cessationists. Rather than accepting and obeying the word of God, they make up their own doctrines and make traditions out of them, setting them in stone in their historic creeds, and hiding behind their idol theologians, who were also wrong. After that they speak from their traditions and creeds as their actual starting point, casting aside the gospel of Christ and the word of God. The religious experts did the same thing in the time of Christ, and finally murdered him so that they could continue their way.

We are not afraid of them. As Joshua said concerning the heathens, “Their defenses have departed from them. The Lord is with us. Fear them not.” The Spirit of God has long departed from them, and they do not know it, and refuse to admit it. They are helpless. They cannot do anything to us. They cannot stop us. But even if they manage to kill us, our teachings from the word of God move forward — automatically, it seems — propelled by the Spirit of God, entirely devastating centuries of false doctrines and traditions. Still, God is merciful. Just as God is able to miraculously heal mental diseases by faith in the name of Jesus, he can perform an even greater miracle and restore sanity and intelligence to the cessationists, so that they may at last approach the starting line of faith, no longer as false leaders who deceive, but as unlearned spiritual children and weaklings who will begin to know the true gospel and power of Jesus Christ.

Recommended
Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
The Unpardonable Sin
The Doctrine that Jesus Weaponized