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{"id":14736,"date":"2013-05-31T18:27:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-31T22:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=14736"},"modified":"2013-05-31T18:27:35","modified_gmt":"2013-05-31T22:27:35","slug":"is-claiming-the-holy-spirit-as-author-of-the-bible-an-unforgivable-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/05\/is-claiming-the-holy-spirit-as-author-of-the-bible-an-unforgivable-sin.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Claiming the Holy Spirit as Author of the Bible an Unforgivable Sin?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I have been having a Facebook interaction with someone who claims that the Holy Spirit is author of the writings in the Bible.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ On the one hand, this claims does not seem to make sense, since the same person also claims to accept that there were human authors as well. But what does it mean to say that Paul authored or composed Romans (Tertius\u00a0wrote<\/em> it<\/a>), and at the same time that the Holy Spirit wrote it? If Paul did not choose the words, if they were not his ideas, then there is no meaningful sense in which he was the\u00a0author<\/em>.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the claim that the Holy Spirit authored Romans seems like it may well be blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Because the start of the letter to the Romans names its author: Paul. And so the claim that the Holy Spirit was the true author also makes the Holy Spirit a liar, claiming Paul to be the author when he wasn\u2019t really, and mimicking Paul\u2019s style for good measure just to mislead readers into believing that claim to authorship.<\/p>\n

And so let\u2019s take this to its logical conclusion. If you believe the Bible\u2019s teaching about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit being the unforgivable sin<\/a>, then you ought to think long and hard about the implications of claiming that the Holy Spirit is the author of the works in the Bible. You are in effect saying that the Holy Spirit lied through Paul about who the author of the letter to the Romans was. And that is not something to be done lightly.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"