As I find it in Scripture, so do I by constant observation of Satan’s order and wiles in drawing men to infidelity, that this which I have laid down is his usual method. If he cannot keep men from knowing of Christ and his works, he would keep them from believing the truth of the report. If he cannot keep men from believing that such works are done, his last refuge is to persuade them that it was by witchcraft or some power of the devil, and not by God. – Richard Baxter, The Unpardonable Sin Against the Holy Ghost

The ancients never spent much time figuring out what the unforgivable sin was.  But we  flock to it as a distraction.  Can you see the circus attraction all lit up in neon?  “Come and See the Unforgivable Sin!”.   We love pastors who bash the sins of the theoretical charismatics or the theoretical catholics just as long as they don’t get down an dirty into our own sins. But that is what we are called to do, those are the sins that really matter.  This is the deceitfulness of our hearts we like to worry about things that our not our problem.  We will even accuse ourselves of sins we are not guilty of and focus on the sins other people are guilty of, rather than the sins we are guilty of, now.

We do it in every area of life.  The media is going crazy over a missing plane, meanwhile ignoring ex KGB lunatic Vladimir Putin’s attempts to reassemble the USSR.  We like to blame the government for it’s spending problems, while we don’t spend money wisely ourselves.  People are concerned about Global Warming, yet their ‘preventative’ measures are bankrupting us right now.

Really this is just the fallacy of the straw man.  In argument, this is creating a fake person and then attacking him.  It’s much easier than addressing an actual argument, because we can build the man out of straw so he is easy to knock down.  Of course everyone is for saving the planet.  Everyone is for good government. Everyone is for what the Bible says.  “Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to help mom do the dishes,” As P.J. O’Rourke puts it.  But it is much more difficult to read the passages specifically written for us, for our sin.  Sinful humans don’t like this sort of thing so they mass for themselves teachers who say nice things and flatter them by attacking other sins out there II Timothy 4:3.  Behavior contrary to this is truly the work of the Holy Spirit.