ROBERTGUWAPO
Let me say first of all, Thank you for your honesty. You said you teach a Bible study class for new Christians, yet you struggle a bit with the Hebrews 6 & 10 verses. Praise God for you! You are a Christian man, who is honest in what he reads from God's word.
I can explain exactly how to deal with these verses...completely. I will attempt to do this in one post...although I may not make it. It is a "big subject". Here we go.
Handling this issue in Hebrews is a "rightly dividing" issue (2 Tim 2:15). I'm not sure how much you have been taught about rightly dividing the word of truth...but I will give you a quick run down of the correct way to do it.
For doctrinal truths for the Body of Christ, one should read from the books of Paul...from Romans to Philemon. (I realize Paul wrote Hebrews as well, but we won't go into that for right now). This means doctrinal truths such as salvation, justification, imputed righteousness, baptism, eternal security of the believer, etc. should be dealt with in these books.
Why? After the final rejection of the Godhead in Acts 7, God "temporarily" blinds Israel from the truth as a nation...and for the first time ever (read Matt 1:1 through Acts 7) he commands a Gentile to be preached to (Acts 8 with Philip). The very next chapter (Acts 9), God calls out the #1 enemy to the Church, Saul. (what better way to show grace than to make an apostle out of the #1 enemy). Paul is specifically called to be the apostle to the Gentiles...it is "his office".
The message he is given is a revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 1:12). He is also revealed several mysteries that were not revealed to the twelve, Peter, James and John included. Their messages were similar, yet they were considerably different as well.
Under Paul's ministry, we are under grace. No one has any trouble with any doctrine within the books of Romans to Philemon.
However, there will be a time when the Church will come to an end. This is what we call the rapture of the Church (1 Cor 15, 1 Thes 4). This will begin a time known as the great tribulation...where God will be back to dealing with the nation of Israel again, as a nation. Circumstances will be considerably different, the rules will be slightly changed as well.
People will still be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, if you will, but they will not be "kept" the same. Notice in Matt 24, the entire chapter basically is dealing with the great tribulation. Notice though in verse 13, its says:
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Matt 24:13
Many who do not "rightly divide the word of truth" do not know what to do with a verse like this. Does this mean that Christians have to endure to the end of their lives to be saved? What does it mean for a Christian to endure to the end...the end of what? This question is answered simply when rightly dividing...we'll get to the answer in just a second.
Let's jump to Revelation for a second. Look at these two verses:
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Again, these verses are obviously during the great tribulation...and notice how it describes believers...they that (1) keep the commandments of God AND (2) have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Many "non-rightly dividers" say this means that we SHOULD keep the commandments...but as you can plainly see...that is not at all what is said.
All these verses will come together in a second to make sense...just be patient a little bit longer. Next verse:
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This verse is used in the church extensively, and granted, it has application to us. However, let's make a few points here.
First, the verse starts off with a condition..."if". "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins...". Let me ask you, have your sins...past, present and future...haven't they been forgiven already...based on the blood of Jesus Christ? Does't the verse seem to strongly imply that "if" we DON'T confess our sins, that we WON'T be forgiven? How could that be? Let's go with the last half of the verse "...and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". Let me ask you...as a born again believer in Jesus Christ...who's righteousness do you have right now? You have the righteousness of God, right?
Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
We all as born again believers already have the righteousness of God...what unrighteousness do we have? Yes, certainly we still have sin in our lives...and we will till the day we die. But 1 John 1:9, if you read it carefully, implies different things than that.
There are many, many more verses that can be used here to continue to draw out the point...but since this post is long enough already...let's wrap it up here.
The church, the Body of Christ, who's "primary" apostle, if you will, was the apostle Paul...we should get our doctrine from his writings, from Romans to Philemon. When you begin to preach or teach doctrine to the church, outside of those writings...you begin to tread into dangerous waters. We must understand that the New Testament is not only written to us...but to and about those who were before us (during Christ's earthly ministry), who will be here after us (during the great tribulation), and also to those after the tribulation (the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth).
Just because it is all New Testament, doesn't mean that God is dealing with man the same throughout those four periods of time (Christ's earthly ministry, the Church, the Tribulation, the Millenial Reign).
During Christ's earthly ministry...no one was saved by grace through faith in the same sense that they are now...Christ had not died on the cross yet. Our salvation is a gift from God (grace), through faith in His Son. But before the cross...eternal life did not come by that means.
Matt 19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Here, when our Lord is asked what one should do to have eternal life...not one word is mentioned about faith, or grace, or trusting, or the cross...not one word. The answer from the Lord himself is "...if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments".
Now we know clearly from Paul's teachings that a man is saved by grace through faith, and has eternal life, and his salvation is never in jeopardy...those verses we all know...and I will not post those.
But now, after the rapture of the church, the time of the tribulation is here. People will still have faith in Jesus Christ for salvation...but THEY ARE NOT KEPT by faith anymore...such as we are. THEY ARE KEPT BY WORKS. Now...with that in mind...go re-read all of those troublesome texts, Hebrews 6, Hebrews 10, James 2, and so on...and notice how everything makes sense now.
It does not mean that the Church gets no application out of those books...but you must understand where to "rightly divide" so that you understand your doctrine correctly. The Lord commands us to be correct with our doctrine.
I know this post is "record length"...and not even 10% of what needs to be said on this subject have I posted here. But I wanted to try and lay out a few things for a brother in Christ...who serves the Lord by teaching God's word...yet is honest enough to say that he can't make good sense out of those "trouble verses".
Anyone...please feel free to comment.
