The joke is on the sponsors of this challenge since, at least in Catholic theology, going on YouTube and saying that you renounce the Holy Spirit isn't what Jesus' words meant. If I may be permitted, here follows the best exploration of the subject:
The sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is mentioned in Matthew
12:22-32; Mark 3:22-30; Luke 12:10 (cf. 11:14-23); and Christ
everywhere declares that it shall not be pardoned. In what does it
consist? If we examine all the passages alluded to, there can be little
doubt as to the reply.
Let us take, for instance, the account given by St. Matthew which is more complete than that of the other Synoptics. There had been brought to Christ "one possessed with a devil,
blind and dumb: and he healed him, so that he spoke and saw". While the
crowd is wondering, and asking: "Is not this the Son of David?", the Pharisees, yielding to their wonted jealousy, and shutting their eyes to the light of evidence, say: "This man casteth not out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." Jesus
then proves to them this absurdity, and, consequently, the malice of
their explanation; He shows them that it is by "the Spirit of God" that
He casts out devils,
and then He concludes: "therefore I say to you: Ever sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be
forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man,
it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy
Ghost, it shall not he forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the
world to come."
So, to sin against the Holy Ghost is to confound Him with the
spirit of evil, it is to deny, from pure malice, the Divine character
of works manifestly Divine. This is the sense in which St. Mark
also defines the sin question; for, after reciting the words of the
Master: "But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never
have forgiveness", he adds at once: "Because they said: He hath an
unclean spirit." . . .
But the Fathers of the Church,
commenting on the Gospel texts we are treating of, did not confine
themselves to the meaning given above . . . St. Thomas,
whom we may safely follow, gives a very good summary of opinions in
II-II, Q. xiv. He says that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost was and
may be explained in three ways.
- Sometimes, and in its most literal signification,
it has been taken to mean the uttering of an insult against the Divine
Spirit, applying the appellation either to the Holy Ghost or to all
three Divine persons. . . .
- On the other hand, St. Augustine
frequently explains blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to be final
impenitence, perseverance till death in mortal sin. This impenitence is
against the Holy Ghost, in the sense that it frustrates and is
absolutely opposed to the remission of sins, and this remission is appropriated to the Holy Ghost, the mutual love of the Father and the Son. In this view, Jesus, in Matthew 12 and Mark 3 did not really accuse the Pharisees of blaspheming the Holy Ghost, He only warned them against the danger they were in of doing so.
- Finally, several Fathers, and after them, many scholastic theologians, apply the expression to all sins directly opposed to that quality which is, by appropriation,
the characteristic quality of the Third Divine Person. Charity and
goodness are especially attributed to the Holy Ghost, as power is to
the Father and wisdom to the Son. Just, then, as they termed sins
against the Father those that resulted from frailty, and sins against
the Son those that sprang from ignorance, so the sins against the Holy
Ghost are those that are committed from downright malice, either by
despising or rejecting the inspirations and impulses which, having been
stirred in man's soul by the Holy Ghost, would turn him away or deliver
him from evil.
It is easy to see how this wide explanation suits all the circumstances of the case where Christ addresses the words to the Pharisees. These sins are commonly reckoned six: despair, presumption,
impenitence or a fixed determination not to repent, obstinacy,
resisting the known truth, and envy of another's spiritual welfare.
The sins against the Holy Ghost are said to be unpardonable,
but the meaning of this assertion will vary very much according to
which of the three explanations given above is accepted. As to final
impenitence it is absolute; and this is easily understood, for even God
cannot pardon where there is no repentance, and the moment of death is
the fatal instant after which no mortal sin is remitted . . .
In the other two
explanations, according to St. Thomas,
the sin against the Holy Ghost is remissable -- not absolutely and
always, but inasmuch as (considered in itself) it has not the claims
and extenuating circumstance, inclining towards a pardon, that might be
alleged in the case of sins of weakness and ignorance. He who, from
pure and deliberate malice, refuses to recognize the manifest work of God,
or rejects the necessary means of salvation, acts exactly like a sick
man who not only refuses all medicine and all food, but who does all in
his power to increase his illness, and whose malady becomes incurable,
due to his own action . . .
(Read the whole article at the Catholic Encyclopedia)
Going on YouTube isn't good, in fact, it's bad. (Notice the lack of qualification.) Still, if every defiant and foolish teenager were already reprobate, then . . . well, forget about that. In any case, you can't be any more defiant than St. Paul, whose actions did approach what's described above and yet became, well, St. Paul.
Like the penguins in Madagascar said, "Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave."