Heb 6
4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
Not unlike the example Christ gives of the rocky ground where the seed of eternal life DOES bring forth life and for a time it grows and flourishes - life from the dead - as ONLY God can bring about. Brought "to repentance" in such a GOOD way that when one falls away we might seek to RENEW them to such a GOOD state.
But then.... it perishes.
IN the case of those WHO HAVE once BEEN enlightened!
(This is the view of the lost - in darkness ACCEPTING light such that they ARE enlightened - at least at one time).
AND have tasted of the heavenly gift
Not the description of the totally depraved lost.
AND have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
This is never the description of the totally depraved lost experience.
"AND THEN HAVE FALLEN AWAY"
clearly FALLING away from being LOST is not a bad thing - it is a GOOD thing.
In Calvinism the
lost never "fall away" from being lost. ONLY THE SAINTS can "fall away" ONLY THE SAINTS fail to remain in their initial condition, it is
impossible for the totally depraved LOST to “fall away” from being lost.
Paul speaks of those that
THEN have FALLEN AWAY from repentance, from the Holy Spirit, from
the Heavenly Gift which is in fact salvation itself given as a gift through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Notice the first state of REPENTANCE is NOT called into question –
Notice the first state of “The Heavenly gift” and “partaking of the Holy Spirit” is the state in which they are supposed to have REMAINED. They are never chastised for BEING in that state – as if that was still “the lost state”. Indeed falling away from “a lost state” could only have been
a good thing.
On the other hand – if that state were merely the corrupt state of false profession and halting just outside the threshold of the kingdom- then who cares whether we can RENEW THEM AGAIN to such an indecisive, unsaved, lost and totally depraved state of corruption?
Calvinists make a mockery of this text by denying it's clear meaning regarding RENEWING people back to Godly - genuine repentance and “tasting of the REAL heavenly gift” which is salvation itself.
Eph 2: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Heb 6
7 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;
8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.
As OSAS flees in derision when confronted with this devastating text against OSAS from Heb 6 the one “spot of bright hope” it draws from the text is that maybe by “drawing on what it does NOT believe in Heb 6 about being saved and then lost” it can find a way to defeat the text of scripture in Romans 11 as Paul ALSO highlights the fact of “Saved-lost-Saved” as God is able to “Graft them in again IF they do not continue in unbelief”. In other words the last desperate ploy of OSAS in Heb 6 is to simply accept what it claims to reject in that chapter and try to use it in an “either-or” fallacy against Romans 11.
But their failing here is all too obvious since in that tactic we note that NONE of that argument is exegesis of either Heb 6 OR Romans 11 of any kind!.
1 John 5 addresses BOTH the case of those who have fallen and are subject to return AND those who have fallen and are beyond return!! The OSAS camp simply “avoids the text”.
It is “obviously true” that a child may leave home and go into a life of crime NEVER to return – while another DOES return. The either-or “fallacy” argument of some in OSAS is that one truth can be used to defeat another while they reject BOTH TRUTHS!
In Christ,
Bob