Are “Soul Ties” Taught in Scripture?

Does the Bible teach there are such things as soul ties? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We are open for the next 25 minutes or so, and we would love to hear from you.

Again, that's 833-843-2673. By the way, you can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch us right now on YouTube, and you can email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

Well, first up today, let's go to Phillip in Houston, Texas. Phillip, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? The reading in Mark says that blasphemy of God is the only unforgivable sin. So my question is, what exactly is blasphemy? And two, is it something that can be done accidentally and you don't realize you did it?

And how would you fix it if you did? Hey, Phillip, thank you for that question. And it's a question that we often get on this program, you know, in the Gospels, where Jesus talked about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

What exactly was he talking about? You see this in Mark chapter three. You also see this in Matthew chapter 12.

The first thing I'll say is, no, this is not something that you can do accidentally. I know a lot of believers who have had this question. They think, oh, did I accidentally commit the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

Was that sin that I did yesterday or last month the unforgivable sin? And if you're concerned about that, you have not committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The people who committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in the Gospels were people who wanted nothing to do with Jesus. In fact, they were attributing the miraculous works of Jesus to Satan.

Jesus, you know, cured, healed a demon possessed man, cast out the demon. And the religious leaders said, you know, he does this, Jesus does this by Beelzebub. In other words, Jesus is working for Satan, and it's in that context that Jesus warned about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. He says in Matthew chapter 12, for example, verse 31, Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people. In other words, there are other kinds of blasphemy, you know, speaking against God, his name, his worship, that can and will be and are forgiven.

But this is something very specific here. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. And so there you have this language of an unpardonable sin. And I think what it is, is this persistent, hard-hearted unbelief, the rejection of Jesus Christ, the rejection of the gospel, so much so that they're even attributing the works of Jesus, the miraculous works of Jesus wrought by the Holy Spirit to Satan.

They're that confused, they're that lost, they're that hard-hearted, and they get to a point where they, these religious leaders in particular, where they're given over to this sort of debased understanding, and where they're just lost forever. And so, brother, if you're concerned about this, if you're concerned, have I committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, then the very fact that you're asking that question to me indicates that you haven't. And there's really quite an encouragement there, where Jesus says all sins and blasphemies will be forgiven. We have a great hope in the gospel that when we've fallen, when we've failed, when we've sinned, we can turn to the Lord in faith, and He does forgive us. No matter what you've done, you can go to Him, and when you come in faith, you receive forgiveness. You know, Adriel, I'm confused why so many Christians are constantly asking this question. Have I committed the unpardonable sin?

Have I blasphemed the Holy Spirit? Do you think it's because they don't understand the context of this particular section of scripture, or do you think it's just that they're wracked with guilt, thinking, maybe I've done something so bad that God could never forgive me? Yeah, well, part of it is, you know, not understanding the context, that's an issue. We talk about that a lot on this broadcast, the importance of understanding scripture in its context, but I think that this is just such an important question. And for us, when we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we experience His presence, His grace, His forgiveness. The fear that we might lose that, or maybe do something to forever compromise, you know, it's terrifying. And I remember as a newer believer really struggling with that fear as well, thinking, okay, great, Jesus has saved me, but what if I mess this up?

You know, I know I still fail. And so, you know, we really have to understand these passages in their context, and I think we comfort those who are concerned, concerned about their salvation. I tend to worry a little bit more about the people who just say, oh, it doesn't, you know, the Word of God, yeah, not that big of a deal. I'm a Christian, I said a prayer many, many years ago.

Don't go to church, don't really care about, you know, walking with Jesus or the sin in my life, that kind of a thing. You know, in my mind, that's indicative of a real heart problem, a spiritual problem. But when people are concerned about their salvation, there's a sensitive conscience, I think that's a sign that the Spirit is at work, and so it should be comforting to us. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We would love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, here's the number to call right now, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Michelle in Post Falls, Idaho. Michelle, welcome to the program.

Hi, thank you for taking my call. My question is regarding Matthew 16-27, for the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what they have done. I'm kind of curious about the reward each person part. I'm not sure it's been a topic of conversation in our household the last week, and I'm just trying to figure that out.

Yeah, Michelle, thank you for your question. This is just the language of the final judgment. Typically, Jesus or even the apostles in the letters that they wrote, when they talked about the final judgment, they talked about this final judgment where God is essentially dealing with us as to what we've done.

A lot of people get concerned about that language. They think, well, does that mean that I'm saved by grace, but then when it comes to the final judgment, if I don't have enough works, God's not going to let me into heaven? They think, well, how can I ever be confident before the Lord?

That kind of a thing. What you need to understand is first, when we believe in Jesus Christ, when you believed in Jesus, you were justified. That is, God declared you righteous, not on the basis of your own righteousness that's inside of you, that's infused into you, however you want to put it, but on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is given to you.

It's as if you're clothed in the righteousness of Christ so that you can stand before God on the day of judgment with confidence. This is actually something that John talks about in his first letter. He talks about the importance of us being able to have confidence in the day of judgment. We get that confidence from the love of God, the fact that God loves us, that he's forgiven us, that he's cleansed us, but you still have this language. Another place, Michelle, where you see this language is at the very end of the Bible in the book of Revelation chapter 20.

John says he has this vision. I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it, from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. There again, sort of echoing the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 16. This is the judgment that includes everyone. You see this in the New Testament, Acts chapter 17 verse 31. Paul talks about the fact we're all going to stand before the judgment, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10. It's a very detailed judgment.

All our works are going to be taken into account. Again, people think, boy, I'm in trouble, but believers have confidence in the day of judgment. Let me just take you to one other passage of scripture. It's in the Gospel of John, Michelle.

Maybe this will clear things up for you. It's in John chapter 5. Listen to what Jesus said about the judgment and about those who believe in him entering into judgment.

He says this, John 5 verse 24, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. That is to say, you're not going to be on the day of judgment. You're already justified.

You've been justified. You've been declared righteous on the day of judgment. Your works, your failures, your sins, the sins that we still struggle with every day, aren't going to keep you from eternal life because you're clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

We're going to be commended, I think, for the good things that we've done. We're going to hear the words of Jesus, well done, good and faithful servant. Jesus says it right there very clearly, Michelle. You have already passed from death to life through Jesus, justified in him, and we will not enter into the judgment, not be condemned, I think is what Jesus is referring to there. Thank you for your question, sister. I love how so many of our listeners dig into God's word and then have these great questions. Really good questions and an important question because I think, again, we were talking about context. If we're assuming that, okay, I'm saved by grace now, but then on the day of judgment, I'm saved by my works, that kind of a thing, we'll get in a lot of trouble. We could never have confidence in the day of judgment, and yet that's precisely what John says we're supposed to have on the day of judgment is confidence before the Lord. We actually have a great core question that delves into this topic.

What's the difference between justification and sanctification? You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash questions and read up on that topic. Let's go to Tommy, who's calling in from San Diego, California. Tommy, welcome to the program.

Oh, hey, thank you for having me, and I appreciate the work that you do, Pastor. Quick question on the Second Commandment. It's just a Second Commandment violation. I've gone to places, churches, where they're really, really very sensitive that they'll put stickers on the face of Jesus or whatnot in their storybooks, like the Jesus Storybook Bible or so.

I wonder if that's extreme or is that common? If I were to go out, for example, and buy an art piece, the Salvator Mundi, for example, just as an obvious exaggeration, but is that wrong to buy that? I mean, we're not worshipping the image. Can you clarify?

Hey, Tommy, thank you for your question. I just want to give our listeners a little bit of background here, you know, because the reality is I think most people who are listening right now might say, yeah, what's the big deal with that? And part of the issue is we've sort of lost sight of some of these commands in Scripture. The Second Commandment in particular, you know, says don't make any images of God. And it seems to me when I read the New Testament, the focus is never on sort of trying to depict God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit through painting or that kind of thing. The way in which the apostles depicted Jesus was through preaching. That's what the Apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter 3. I placarded Jesus Christ and him crucified before you Galatians. The word that he uses there, it was an ancient word that simply meant to billboard. He said, I'm billboarding Jesus before you. How?

Not by, you know, an acrylic paint thing that I did. I did it through the preaching, through the preached word. It's the same thing that you see in First John. I love the way John introduces his first letter. He says that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes. The apostles saw Jesus, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was that the Father and was made manifest to us.

See what John does there, Tommy. He says, look, we apostles, we saw Jesus, we were with him and we proclaimed him to you. That's how you know Jesus is through the preaching of the word. And so I think one concern that I have is when we focus a lot on these sort of images and depictions of Jesus, we can get confused about who Jesus is. We need to know Jesus through the preached word. And so that's where I'll leave it. I think, you know, in terms of where we should focus as a church, we need to help people see Jesus through the scriptures. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. How does God want us to worship him and how does the Bible define worship?

We have a wonderful resource which is free and will help you answer those questions. Yeah, here we go again. I mean, that's what we were just talking about. The second commandment really is focused also on worship, how to worship God and how to not worship God. And historically in the history of the church, that's how it was understood. There are certain ways in which God wants to be worshiped and there are certain things that we can do in worship that are displeasing to the Lord.

I think of that story in Leviticus chapter 10 verses one through three where you have these two priests, Nadab and Abi, who offer strange fire to the Lord and the Lord consumed them with fire. I mean, it really is this kind of crazy text of scripture, but it just highlights the fact that God cares about how he's worshiped. And so it's so important that we understand this and that's why we have this resource for you, Nine Things You Should Know About Worship.

Friends, this is something that God cares about and something that we should care about. So get a hold of this resource. It's yours for free, Nine Things You Should Know About Worship. You can find that by going to COREChristianity.com forward slash offers to download the PDF. Again, it's Nine Things You Should Know About Worship. You can also call us at 833-843-2673 for help getting any one of our offers.

Again, that number is 833, the CORE. Well, let's go to a voicemail that we received from one of our listeners named Noel. Hi Pastor Adriel, I was wondering what are soul ties and are they mentioned in the Bible? I hear about Christian influencers and people online and even some pastors I know in real life talk about soul ties and why God wants against sex before marriage, but I never actually see any verses in the Bible referring to soul ties.

I just want to know if this is something that is actually real that we should be wary of. Thank you. Hey Noel, thank you for your question. It sounds to me like you're discerning.

I love that you're being brilliant about this. Yeah, pastors and quote unquote Christian influencers can talk about soul ties, but the real question you need to ask yourself is, is that biblical? Where does the Bible talk about quote unquote soul ties? I think when I've heard some people talk about these soul ties, the idea is when you get involved in a particular sin, you mentioned sex outside of marriage, that you are now sinfully bound to this person. There's this sort of soul tie that requires maybe spiritual warfare to break that bond, to break that tie. I think really what's happening here is maybe just an over spiritualization of the fact that sin does have consequences. When we get in relationships that we shouldn't be in, that can be traumatic, that can be painful, that can give us memories that stick with us that are burned into our mind. There are healthy ways of dealing with that, and obviously there's forgiveness and grace, but my concern is that people are being put in bondage when they're told, hey, you have these soul ties.

You're going to have to try to figure out what those are, and you really aren't given the materials, the resources to be able to do that. One thing I'll say is this. If you are a Christian, you have a new identity. You're no longer attached to your sin, if you will.

It doesn't have you under it anymore. I think of what the apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 6. Here's your identity as a follower of Jesus.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means how can we who died to sin still live in it. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death. In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

He goes on to say this. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. That's our identity as followers of Jesus.

We're dead to sin, we're alive to God, and we present the members of our body as instruments for righteousness for the Lord's service. When people get caught up in all this talk about soul ties, I fear that they're beginning to look at themselves in a way that's not biblical. Oh yeah, I'm a Christian, but I have all these demonic soul ties from past relationships that I need to deal with, and maybe that looks like some kind of a spiritual warfare. Prayer is important, friends. Yes, we pray, we get the healing that we need when we've experienced these traumatic things, or when we've been sinned against, or when we've engaged in some sin and the thoughts still plague us. But that's just the natural consequence of what it looks like to live in a fallen world, those experiences that are burned into our minds. So we do pray and we ask God for healing. Another thing that could be helpful is just processing through those things.

You think of maybe getting a counselor. Sometimes we tend to, in some churches, over-spiritualize this stuff. We start talking about soul ties and whatnot, but the Bible doesn't say anything about that. If you're a Christian, no matter what your past is, you've been forgiven. You are now alive in Christ, dead to sin. That doesn't mean that your past sins aren't going to creep into your mind, that you're going to have to work through those things and process that, but you're forgiven.

You're no longer tied down. And I would add, Adriel, for our young people that are listening, that are thinking about the decisions they make as far as relationships and sexuality, God has designed us to function in a certain way. He's designed sex for a marriage relationship and that covenant for life. When we go outside of that design, there are going to be psychological consequences, and there could be emotional baggage that we carry.

What does God want us to do? He tells us right there in his word to leave your mother and father, cling to your wife, and that's where the sexual relationship is designed to take place. I'm glad you brought that up, Bill, because like we were saying, there are natural consequences, psychological consequences, even to our sin that we wrestle with. There are ways to process that and to heal, and obviously there's a difference between being forgiven, which we are as Christians, and not struggling with those thoughts. We're still going to maybe struggle with those thoughts, but that doesn't mean that we're in bondage to some soul tie. It just means that we need to pray and process through those things and receive the healing.

Sometimes it takes time. My concern is that in some churches people are being burdened with these ideas of, you know, you have all these soul ties, and then they're trying to cast the devil out of themselves, when in reality the Bible says, if you're in Christ, you're a new creation. Amen. What a great promise for each one of us. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to David in Grand Island, Nebraska. David, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

My question is, thank you all for what you do, for your blessing in my life. It's about the immigration and stuff from overseas. We have a lot of local churches here, not just Catholic. They go to these poor, warring countries like Sudan and Somalia, and it seems like a lot of the funds and money they spend, it seems like they bring them over here, separating them from their culture and their customs, instead of using those funds to try to make life better for them in their home countries.

And I've seen so many try to assimilate here in our region, and they just seem to be tribal, kind of in their own area. I mean, they're not encouraged to learn our ways, our customs, learn our language and things. And so I just have a question on what is the Church's purpose on how they deal with spreading God's Word across other countries, but then again, bringing their people here. Yeah, David, well, the Church's purpose was given to us by Jesus himself in Matthew 28, when he said, Go into all the world and make disciples, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe not what our particular cultural preferences are, but everything that Jesus Christ has commanded. That's what the Church does.

The Church, whether it's here at home or abroad, it sounds like you were talking about missions and the work of missionaries, you go to make disciples, to share the love of Jesus Christ with people and to instruct them in the Word of God. I'm not as concerned with whether or not people are adopting my particular cultural customs. I'm more concerned with, are they growing in grace? Are they growing in their understanding of what God's Word is? And that's the concern of the Church.

That's where we should be focused and where we should devote our energy. And so if churches are doing that by sending missionaries to other countries, that's wonderful. I think typically that can be really helpful if they have people on the ground there already who know the language and are able to identify with the culture and share the love of Jesus there. Where I live in Southern California, San Diego, we have a lot of refugees, a lot of people coming in, and I think it's a beautiful thing. It's almost as if the Lord is bringing the mission field to our doorstep with these neighbors, different cultures.

But it's a wonderful thing. The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, is made up of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. That was one of the beautiful things about the New Covenant. God's Church does not just consist of one people group or one culture. It's all these different peoples and cultures and nations coming together, and what unites us together is not that we have the same dress, not that we have the same food, not that we like the same kind of music. It's that our sins are forgiven. It's that we're sinners united by the blood of Jesus, united by baptism. That's something that we should celebrate and pursue, even within the life of the local church. Local churches should be a reflection of the communities where God has them, and I think that really depicts, in a powerful way, the gospel, at least the power of the gospel to unite people who ordinarily wouldn't be united because we're different. We have different cultures.

Such a beautiful thing. The Church, brother, the job of the Church is to make disciples of all nations, to bring us together into that one new man that the apostle Paul talks about in the book of Ephesians, that one new man with Christ as the head. We're united together in Jesus.

Neither Jew nor Greek. It's pretty clear that we all are. Obviously, we have different ethnicities, different cultures, different traditions, but under Jesus and His headship, we're all together.

And here's the thing. Sometimes in the Church, we want people to adopt our culture, not our Jesus. We have to be careful that we're focusing on Jesus. It's not about people becoming more like us. It's about people becoming more like Jesus. And that's what the Church does. It helps people to grow in Christ through the preaching of the Word. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-the-core. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.