Featured Was Hebrews written to believers or unbelievers?

Neither. It was written to Hebrews.

 

Without a doubt, it was written to believers. There is no other Scriptural answer.

 

Yeah, like God is in the business of warning someone he has saved and given eternal life that they may lose it if they fall away. Yep, I am going to buy into that alright.

 

Where do you get that idea? The writer of Hebrews wrote:

Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

 

Don't you know how to read a letter? If you read one that is addressed to your neighbor and it says he has won the lottery of 100 thousand dollars, are you so silly to think that you can go and claim it just because you read the letter?

 

Can someone please help KenH understand that the addressee of a letter is the only ones who can claim the specifics in the letter. If it contains a universal truth in it, like the sun rises in the east, then one can quote it as a universal truth whether is was written in the letter or not. However, if it stated that one had won the 100 thousand dollar lottery, this would apply to only the addressee.

If the letter to the Hebrews were addressed to the Hebrews during a certain time, why would KenH think the specifics of the letter was about him? Does he think he is a Hebrew with covenant promises from God?

 

The book of Hebrews was addressed to Christians who were previously following the Law of Moses before God regenerated them, and who were now being pressured to abandon Christ and return to the Law of Moses.

 

ALL SCRIPTURE is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. - 2 Timothy 3:16-17

(EMPHASIS MINE)

 

Romans 15:4. 'For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we, through the patience and comfort of the Scripture might have hope.'

 

Pagans

unbelievers

 

Wrong again. The Hebrews letter was written to Hebrews. The warnings in this letter are not meant to apply to the believing Hebrews, they are to the unbelieving Hebrews. In He 9:39, the believing Hebrews, of which the author was one, was not of the number of the Hebrews who drew back, he said.

If you drew back, it would not be to the law of Moses.

 

Exactly. Thanks for making my point. We learn from it but we are not instructed to do it. Have you offered a bullock today?

 

Yes, it would have been what the danger was for the initial recipients of the letter.

 

Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Hebrews 10:10-14 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Thus we see the clear necessity for these Hebrew believers, who were the initial recipients of this letter, to resist the calls to abandon Christ and return to the sacrifices of the Law of Moses.

 

In their book "The New Testament; It's background and message" by Thomas D. Lea and David Alan Black they write:


"The heading of Hebrews in Greek reads "To the Hebrews." Considerable evidence supports the idea that Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians. The frequent appeals to the Old Testament, the presumption that the readers knew Jewish rituals (see Hebrews 9), the warning against returning to Judaism as the intended recipients."



In their book "An introduction to the New Testament by D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo they write:

"All agree that the book is written for Christians , who are urged to maintain their confession. Their ethnic background is more disputed. Although the book is steeped in Old Testament allusions and Levitical ritual, it does not necessarily follow that either or the readers are Jewish Christians; doubtless some Gentile believers immersed themselves in the Greek Old Testament,"

There should be no doubt by the contents of the book and by the view of scholars that it is written to Christians. Unbelievers would not understand much of the contents of the book.

 

Help me out here. Where exactly in the letter to the Hebrews are they instructed to offer a bullock?

The letter to the Hebrews was written IMO to an ethnically Jewish Christian church, probably the one in Jerusalem. It would be a mistake to imagine that everyone in a large church is saved. 'He who endures to the end shall be saved.'

 

Believers will not abandon Christ. You quoted He 10 to me. Believers who were Hebrews and unbelieving Hebrews who had the gospel of Christ preached to them for these years but had not yet been saved and who were likely to follow Judaism. The letter was written to them in 66 AD. The time of probation was nearly over. It was drawing towards the end. That is the meaning of the end in the epistle.

Look at what Jesus said about a probationary time for Israel. It is a prophesy in a parable.

5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.
7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:
9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

Here is something you need to know.

The fig tree is the symbol in scripture for national Israel. The vineyard is Judah or the land. The certain man is Jesus whose the vineyard is. The 3 years represents his ministry to the nation. The decision was to cut it down because it did not bear fruit in fruit bearing time. The appeal was made by the dresser for probation. It was given but it yet did not bear fruit and it was cut down and removed from the vineyard in 70 AD. It was 40 years between the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ until the dispersion. Forty is the number for probation in scripture.

Being unteachable is a sin.

 

It was you who quoted Rom 15:8. Those ceremonial things, as well as the prophesies of the OT, teach us about God and his ways but they do not instruct us to do them. Someone back in the day was instructed to offer a bullock actually, but it was not us. We will be much better informed if we do learn what God meant by having Israel to do them.