Just what is the unpardonable sin?

Question: In Matthew 12:31–32, Jesus spoke of an unpardonable sin. What is this sin, and why can it not be forgiven?

Answer: The thought of being cut off from God forever is horrible to contemplate. Yet many sincere people have misunderstood this matter and are needlessly worried.

Our world is changing faster than you can read this magazine. What will be the end? The surprising answer is that we are advancing toward a world at peace! But let’s not get ahead of the near future. The time just ahead is not going to be pretty. A new dark age is coming prior to that peaceful age.

Recent decades have witnessed the global resurgence of militant Islam. This modern eruption is surprising to scholars, especially those who assume that as societies modernize and become more secular, religion will gradually fade away. However, Islam is now the fastest-growing religion in the world, and within that faith, an Islamist revival is driven by zealous believers determined to reverse the course of history.

In some ways, science is reminiscent of one of the biblical proverbs: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2). The “hard” sciences—physics, chemistry, biology, and their subdisciplines—represent the spirit of this verse well. Each of these disciplines is an effort to explore the works of the Creator’s hands and seek out facts hidden under the surface.

Folk singer Harry Chapin’s 1974 song “Cat’s in the Cradle” poignantly depicts a scenario familiar to too many families. The first two verses of the song describe a father who is repeatedly too busy to spend time with his growing son. The last two verses tell of the son, now an adult, who does not have time for his dad. Between each verse, the heartbreaking chorus repeats the point that each says he will spend time with the other when he has more to spare.