> And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:31-32)

Some fall back on the argument that this is a sin that could only be committed in that time and place, but this would still leave open that eternal punishment exists, at the very least for those few people who committed this sin in the first century. Another tack is to say that to say that the sin is never forgiven is not the same as saying its perpetrators will always endure conscious torment for committing it, arguing that a murderer is no more pardoned if executed than if they spend 100 years in prison.

This explanation begs the question. If a special point is made that a sin is "never" forgiven, then it seems to imply that the person will always be around to experience the non-forgiveness. To argue otherwise makes the whole point of Jesus' teaching superfluous. Why make a special point to say that a sin is never forgiven in given time periods, unless one will be around to fully experience those time periods?

Some try to soften the passage in favor of a purgatorical stance, saying, "One could ask what meaning this text could have if it were not possible that some sins could be forgiven in the next world." Even assuming for the sake of argument that this verse allows for forgiveness of some sins, that would still leave one very much unforgivable sin, and that is still disbelief. There is simply no getting around eternal punishment in this way.