According Mark 3 verses 28-30, what types of blasphemies to the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven?

Mark 3:28-30 finds a parallel reference in Matthew 12:31-32 which says, “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”  Speaking against the Holy Spirit is denying the power of God.   

In the context of these passages, the Pharisees were making false accusations against our Lord and denying the power Jesus used to miraculously heal the afflicted as coming from God.   Although they were familiar with the Old Testaments scriptures (quoted in verses 18-21) which spoke of the works of the Messiah that would come, they renounced Jesus’ relationship to God and called him the child of Beelezub, that is, the devil.  It was to this accusation that the Lord responded saying that anyone who denies the power of God, shall not be forgiven, neither in this world or the world to come.

There is a principle that is involved in this announcement. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth (John 15:26) and so anyone that is educated in the truth is responsible for that knowledge. They would be going against their conscience in denying that truth. This was the case with the Pharisees. They refused to accept, through hardness of their hearts, what they had witnessed.  It was a sin against light, a sin of what they knew to be right.

This principle also applies to the Christian of this Christian era.  Hebrew 6:4-8 read, “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify it to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame.”  What is this sin?  It is not one sin but rather living a life contrary to the will of God and the denying the value of the blood by which we have been saved.  A life contrary to God’s will would be living as hypocrites with hardness of heart. Essentially, in public a person might behave righteously, but in private his heart would be far from Christ-like. We need to ask ourselves: Do we love the Lord above all else? Are we willing to suffer as did our Lord?  Do we recognize that without Jesus we have no standing with God?   Are we striving to avoid all sin and enable the power of God to work in our hearts?  If that is so, then we are being transformed into Christ-likeness and not blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.

Was Adam the first man?

Yes, Adam was the first man. Genesis 2:7,8, "And the LORD God formed man (the Hebrew word is Adam) of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." 

Adam was a special creation because he was created in God's image. Genesis 1:26, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Adam did not look like God. He was like His wonderful Creator in that he could reason, be just, love, and exercise benevolent authority. God made man in His character likeness and put him in charge of managing the earth.

Where did Enoch and Elijah go since flesh and blood cannot enter heaven?

“Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” (Genesis 5:24)  The Apostle Paul confirms this thought in Hebrews 11:5, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him.” Notice, neither of these scriptures mentions that Enoch went to heaven to be with God. In fact, he could not have received a heavenly reward at that time, since Jesus had not yet come to earth to pay the price of redemption that would enable the faithful ones to enter heaven.

What, then, happened to Enoch? God took him away as a young man of 365 years (Genesis 5:23) so that he would not see death in the normal way.  He was taken in a supernatural way, as is evidenced by the word “translated.” According to Strong’s, Thayer’s and Bullinger’s Greek Lexicons, “translate” means “to put or place in another place, to transport, to transfer.”  The same Greek word is rendered “carried over” in Acts 7:16 where Jacob’s body was ‘translated’ or ‘transported’ to Shechem where he was buried. Likewise, God took Enoch and buried him somewhere so as not to be found, just as He did with the body of Moses in Deuteronomy 34:6. No man knows where either Moses’ or Enoch’s grave is. God hid them for reasons known only to Him. It is our belief that both of these Ancient worthy ones will come forth from their graves at the time God has appointed for them.

“Suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared . . . and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.” (2 Kings 2:10) Yet, over nine hundred years after this event, Jesus himself said, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” (John 3:13) Are these two Bible statements contradictory? If Elijah did not go to heaven, then where did he go?

The scriptures use the word “heaven” to describe three places, not just one.  The first heaven is the earth’s atmosphere where birds fly  (Genesis 1:20, Jeremiah 4:25; 34:20, Lamentations 4:19, Zephaniah 1:3). This Hebrew word shamayim is translated as “sky” in the scripture comparing Genesis 7:3, “fowls also of the air,” with Genesis 7:23, “fowl of the heaven.”  The word “sky” and “heaven” are used interchangeably from the same Hebrew word (Psalm 8:8).  So the first heaven is synonymous with “heights” or “elevations.”

The second heaven is outer space where the planets and stars exist (Genesis 1:14- 17; 15:5; 22:17; 26:4, Deuteronomy 1:10; 17:3; Psalm 8:3, Jeremiah 8:2; Matthew 24:29).

The third heaven is literally called “the third heaven” in 2 Corinthians 12:2. This third heaven is what Jesus calls his “Father’s house” (John 14:2) and both Jesus and the Apostle Paul call “paradise” (Luke 23:43, 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, Revelation
2:7). This third heaven is where God and the heavenly sanctuary exist (1 Peter 3:22).

Since Elijah could not have gone to God’s heavenly throne, which “heaven” did he go to—the first or second?  We believe that he was taken  into  the earth’s  atmosphere, the  first  heaven,  because  there could be no whirlwind in any other place but in the atmosphere surrounding the earth.

Did Elijah die when God took him up into the atmosphere? We believe he did not. Almost ten years after Elijah was taken from his people, the wicked king of Judah, Jehoram, received a letter from Elijah (2 Chronicles 21:12-15). From the wording of the letter, it is clear that it was written after the events of the last decade had occurred. Elijah speaks of the events as past events and of the diseases as future. Two years after receiving the letter, the king became diseased and died. This letter proves that Elijah was alive and living someplace else. The Bible does not reveal how much longer Elijah lived after writing the letter, but we do know that when he did die, he did not go to heaven.

A similar incident to Elijah’s took place in Acts 8:39-40 where Phillip was caught up into the first heaven and was transported to another location approximately 20-30 miles away. Ezekiel also experienced God’s power of transportation when the spirit lifted him up (Ezekiel 3:12) “between the earth and heaven” and brought him “to Jerusalem, to the door of  the inner gate” (Ezekiel 8:3). Afterwards, the spirit took him up to Chaldea (Ezekiel 11:24).