ok...this is now my 2nd official post on this site. I happen to notice a lot of questions concerning charismatic doctrine. That's understandable considering the wide use of television etc.
Does this sound familiar? "Depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I NEVER (that should be bold and underlined) knew you"
Never. not even for a time.
now to answer the question posed concerning Hebrews 6.
Yes...this is a supposed "proof" text that people use saying you can loose your salvation.
Here are my thoughts:
People can go to church years and hear the gospel over an over again, even be faithful church members, and never really make a commitment to Jesus Christ.
Who was this letter written to? Jews. But the warning does apply to us today.
Some people have adopted a form of Christianity, but they do not have the reality of it. Remember, Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prphesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform amany miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness'" (Matt. 7:21-23).
Let's break this down verse by verse and keep it in context.
verses 1-2
"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment."
The key ideas of "leaving" and "let us go on" are really two parts of the same idea. Together they are the first step into these Jews' (remember, Hebrews was written to the HEBREWS) becoming spiritually mature. They had to leave once and for all their ties with the Old Covenant, with Judaism, and accept Jesus Christ as Savior.
"leaving" in the Greek is apheiemi, which means to forsake, to put away, let alone, disregard, put off.
It is the provisions and principles of the Old Covenant, of Judaism, that are to be dropped. It is not a question to adding to what one has.
The Old Covenant has 6 features that are pointed out in verses 1-2. These are: repenance from dead works, faith toward God, instuction about washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. These are NOT, as is often interpreted, elemntary Christian truths that are to be abandoned in order to go on to maturity. They are Old Testament concepts. To be sure, they pointed to the gospel, but they are not themselves part of the gospel.
Let's cover these in detail:
1. Repentance from Dead Works.
This is turning away from evil deeds, deeds tha bring death.
In John the Baptist's preaching, and even in Jesus' own early minstry, the basic message was, "repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Only repentance was preached. Turn from evil toward God. Bt the doctrine of repentance becomes mature, complete, in Jesus Christ. (read Acts 20:21; Acts 26:20-23).
Now that the New Covenant is in effect, repentance is meaningless without faith in Jesus Christ. (John 14:6).
2. Faith Toward God
It does no good at all today to have faith in God unless there is also faith in His Son, jesus Christ, who is the only way to God.
The Old Testament taught repentance from dead works and faith toward God. The New Testament teaches repentance in faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, the only way to God. The distinction is clear. The Jews in this letter believed in God; but they were not saved. Their repentance from works and faith toward God, no matter how sincere it may have been, could not bring them to God without Christ. (Acts 4:12).
3. Instruction about Washings
The King James translation ("doctrine of baptisms") is misleading, especially since everywhere else, including Hebrews 9:10, the same Greek word (Baptismos) is translated washings. It is not "baptizo", which is always used for the ordinance of baptism.
Every Jewish home had a basin by the entrance for family and visitors to use for ceremonial cleansings, of which there where many. It is THESE washings that the readers are told to abandon and forget. Even the Old Testament predicted that one day its ceremonial cleansings would be replaced by a spiritual one that God Himself would give (Ezek. 36:25).
It is the being born again (regeneration) of water and the Spirit that Jesus told Nicodemus was necesarry for entrance into the kingdom (John 3:5).
4. Laying On of Hands
This has nothing to do with the apostolic practices (Acts 5:18; 6:6; 8:17; 1 Tim. 4:14; etc.). Under the Old Covenant the person who brought a sacrifice had to put his hands on it, to symbolize his identification with it (Lev. 1:4; 3:8, 13).
Our identification with Jesus Christ does not come by putting our hands on Him; it comes by the Spirit baptizing us into union with Im by faith.
5. Resurrection of the Dead
The Old Testament doctrine of resurrection is not clear or complete. We learn of life after death and of rewards for the good and punishment for the wicked -- and much more about resurrection than this. From Job, for instance, we learn that resurrection will be bodily, and not just spiritual (Job 19:26). There is little else we can learn of it from the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, of course, resurreciton is one of the major and most detailed doctrines. It is the theme of the apostolic preaching. It comes ot fullness in the very Person of Jesus Christ, who said "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25).
6. Eternal Judgment
We can learn little from the Old Testament about final judgemtn than what is given in Ecclesiastes "God will bring every act to jugment, everything which is hidden, wheter it is good or evil" (12:14).
In the New Testament, we are told a great deal about eternal judgment.
The point of Hebrews 6:1-2 is simply that the unbelieving Jews should let go completely of the immature, elemntary shadows and symbols of the Old Covenant and take hold of the mature and perfect reality of the New.
That brings us to verse 3:
"And this will we do, if God permit."
Interpretting this verse is difficult, despite its brevity and simplicity.
Some interpreters believe we is an editorial reference of the writer to himself. He is saying, "I will go on and teach you what you need to know if God permits me." Others believe the writer is simply offering to identify himself with those to whom he writes, and is saying, "You will go on to maturity if God permits."
I believe both could be correct. They are not mutually exclusive of the other.
This brings us to the "crux" of the passage... the folling verses.
Let's put that under the heading of "Five Great Advantages". What are they?
Glad you asked!
1. They had been enlightened.
First of all, we should notice this passage makes no refernce at all to salvation. There is no mention of justification, sanctification, the new birth, or regerneration. They are not born again, made holy, or made righteous. None of the normal New Testament terminology for salvation is used. In fact, no term used here is ever used elsewhere in the New Testament for salvation, and none should be taken to refer to it in this passage.
The enlightenment spoken of here has to do with intellectual perception of spirtual, biblical truth. They had an intellectual understanding of biblical truth. This has occured in a few other places in the New Testament (Matt. 4:16; John 12:35-40; 2 Peter 2:20-21).
I think we all know people who have been "enlightened", or have heard or understood the gospel but not have partken of it.
which brings us to our next point.
2. They had tasted of the heavenly gift.
This group not only had seen the heavenly light but had tasted! The heavenly gift could be one of several things. The Holy Spirit is spoken of in Scipture as a heavenly gift, but, since He is mentioned in the next verse, I do not think He is the gift meant here. The greatest gift, of course, is Christ Himself and the salvation He brought (Eph. 2:8). Christ's salvation is the supreme heavenly gift, and no doubt the one referred to here.
This great gift, however, was NOT RECEIVED! It was not feasted on but simply tasted, sampled. It was not accepted or lived, only examined.
Tasting is not eating. God placed the blessing of salvation to the lips of these New Testament Jews, but they had not yet eaten. The tasing came from waht they saw and heard, as many today have seen the transforming power of Christ and heard the gospel.
3. They had partaken of the Holy Spirit.
Partakers (Greek, metochos) has to do with association, not possession. These Jews had never possessed the Holy Spirit, they simply were around when He was around.
The Bible never speaks of Christians being associated with the Holy Spirit. It speaks of the Holy Spirit being WITHIN us!
Here, however, are some persons who are simply associated with the Holy Spirit.
4. They had tsted the Word of God.
Again, these readers are spoken of as having tasted something of God, this time His Word. The Greek word here for word (rhema, which emphasizes the part, not the whole) is not the usual one (logos) for GOd's Word.
Any person who has heard the gospel and perhaps made a profession of Christ, but who is uncertian of salvation, should take Paul's advice: "Test yoursleves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!" (2 Cor. 13:5). Such a person needs to learn if he has only tasted the gospel without eating it.
5. They had tasted the powers of the age to come.
the "age to come" is the future kingdom of God. The "powers" of the kingdom are miracle powers. These Jews had seen the same kind of miracles that are going to come when Jess brings in His earthly kingdom. They TASTED them. They saw the apostles do signs and wonders. The more they saw and tasted without receiving, the more their guilt increased. They were like those who saw Jesus Himself perform miracles. How hard it is ti explain the hatred and unbelief of those who saw a resurrected Lazurus, who saw the blind given sight and the dumb given voices, and yet who rejected Christ. How guilty they will stand before God in the Great White Throne judgment.
Ok...for the final (or fourth) warning. Verses 4-6:
"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
Still speaking to the UNSAVED who have heard the truth and acknowledged it, but who have hesitated to embrace Christ, the Holy Spirit gives a fourth warning, the crux of 6:1-8. Summarized, the warning is: "You had better come to Christ now, for if you fall away it will be impossible for you to come again to the point of repentance." They were at the best point for repentance -- full knowledge. To fall back from that would be fatal.
Because they believe the warning is addressed to Christian, many interpreters hold that the passage teaches that salvation can be lost. If this interpretation were ture, however, the passage would also teach that, once lost, salvation could never be regained. If, after being saved, a person lost his salvation, he would be damned forever. There would be no going back and forth, in and out of grace. But Christians are not being addressed, and it is the opportunity for receiving salvation, not salvation itself, that can be lost.
It is the unbeliever who is in danger of losing salvation -- in the sense of losing the opportunity ever to receive it.
I'm sorry for the lengthy post but I've seen many Christians struggle with this passage. Any study of hermenuitis (the art of interpretting Scipture) tells you to consider WHO the passage was written. We've done that. We also have taken it in context and hopefully you can now see, Hebrews 6 was written to the unbelieving Jew and not to Christians. We are not in any danger of losing our salvation. If you need further reference I would be happy to provide!
David Piearcy
dpiearcy@sbcglobal.net
Pastor
