Bible Discussion Thread

(Part 3)

Hebrews 6:5, "And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,"

All these tastes, it's like sampling. A non-believer can sit in with believers and receive the same ministry of God's Spirit to that group, even in their own lives, as to the truth of Christ. And then it says "And the powers of the world to come." They were actually there to participate.

I recall the ten lepers that approached Jesus and wanted their healing. So He healed the ten lepers and sent them on their way, and only one of them stopped and returned to worship the Lord, and the Lord turns to the disciples and says weren't there ten lepers?

Nine of them just took their healing and took off. Only one turned to worship Christ.

There are people who participate in the powers of God's Spirit moving in amongst His people, and they're not even saved.

And then Hebrews 6:6 says, "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."

Here's the literal translation from the Greek text. The King James says "if they shall fall away." There's no "if" in the Greek text. It's just after having fallen away. They've already done it.

It's after having fallen away. And you can see in all these things that he's listing, they are all past tense. It's something they used to do that they don't do anymore.

Verse 4 started off by saying it's impossible for these people. Verse 6 says to renew them again unto repentance; Impossible! Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame.

These are Hebrews and Jews who went back and denounced the whole thing and were back professing their unbelief, and hatred, and anger toward the Lord and they were doing it publically.

Hello Jesse. Thank you for taking the time to share more explicitly about that great Truth - I fully agree with what you wrote: the impossibility of a truly born again person, baptized in & filled with God's Holy Spirit, to ever find in his heart to want to leave the wonder & experience of a divine change of heart & mind, and want to turn back to the weak & beggarly things of the past life ( Galatians 4:6-9).

But for any here who will continue to maintain that our understanding is incorrect, I would then explain vv 4-6 in this way: the Hebrews writer is sharing an 'impossible' scenario. "It is impossible" because of the 'impossibility' to re-crucify Jesus again (& maybe, again & again), putting the whole blessed, final work of God for our salvation into a disgraceful mess & shame. And since that is an impossibility (that a true believer who has received the goodness of Heaven) to again shame the Lord, the Hebrews writer quickly expresses, "But (I) am "persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation" (verse 9).

So why should he write this in the first place? For the very purpose of this letter: to show to these believers who were largely saved from judaistic legalism & error, that Jesus Christ & the merits of His Cross cannot be lightly regarded, even as seen by His exemplary Character (as written right throughout Hebrews): Him being far superior to any prophet, the angels, even Moses, by His Priesthood & by the Power of Faith, Hope & Love He gave to us. So, if some say that these are saved people in vv 4-6, then the writer is saying that such a situation cannot arise, since an apostate would have to re-crucify Christ to be saved again - which thing IS an impossibility ( Romans 6:10). And the RC belief in the Eucharist & Transubstantiation are related here.

So your word is correct Jesse: these were not believers spoken about because such a scenario cannot happen, rather the writer was persuaded that the believers' faith was genuine & strong.

Thanks, Chris,

That means a lot to me. I never considered Galatians 4:6-9, but it makes perfect sense. And yes, I do notice the transition in verse 9, where the writer says "I am persuaded better things of you." He is now speaking to those who were probably genuine believers and continued on until the end. We don't see that in verses 4-6. There were many people following along, some continuing on, and some leaving. Those who left never surrendered their life to Christ. But then there were those who did surrender.

Sadly i know of more than one incident where some one has joined a congregation ,confessed their faith and been baptised for the sole purpose of pleasing their potential spouse ,they say all the right things and then some where down the line ,after marriage ,they confess that they never really believed or even understood the Truth .