tzalam2 said:
: 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,
5: And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6: 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.
Found in Hebrews, Ch. 6
Does this mean there is no such thing as being backslidden?
As you can see, I need help in understanding these Scriptures.
Couldn't you have brought up a more difficult text to discuss? ;-)
Seriously, the Hebrews 6 warning against apostasy is one of the most difficult passages in all of Scripture. Various interpretations have come up over the years, but I think they can be summed up in the two following positions which stem from either an Arminian or a Calvinist viewpoint:
1) The Arminian position: The writer is referring to people who were once truly saved believers but who turned away from Christ and are now without hope;
2) The Calvinist/Reformed position: The writer is referring to people who never actually became true believers, that is, they were never converted, but who only seemed to be Christians. They came to the "door" of Christianity but never entered fully.
Both positions can be defended fairly well, from what I've seen, but they can leave the sincere inquirer in deeper confusion than before.
It helps a great deal to keep in mind the context of this passage and the purpose of the epistle. The author wrote this epistle to Jewish Christians who were in danger of turning away from Christ as their one true Messiah and returning to the Old Covenant. The author, therefore, spends a great deal of time explaining the transitory nature of the Old Covenant and its extreme limitations compared to the perfect salvation found in the New Covenant through Christ. What the Mosaic Law could not do, Christ did perfectly in the New Covenant. So, if these Jewish believers were going to return to the Old Covenant, they would be essentially rejecting Christ's sacrifice, regarding it as the worthless work of a false messiah, and returning to an outdated system that could never save them. To do this would be to turn one's back on the only hope of salvation ever offered to sinful man (see Heb. 10:26ff for a repetition of this idea).
One approach to a difficult passage in Scripture is to do what (I believe) Martin Luther advocated: interpret unclear passages in light of clear passages. The Bible pretty clearly states that Jesus' sheep will be kept by God and that
nothing can separate the believer from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Something else that Jesus clearly stated is actually one of the most wonderful promises in all of the Bible, IMO:
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37).
Therefore, anyone who fears that they have committed the apostasy described in Hebrews 6 but who comes to Christ for mercy should recall the above promise of Jesus and take comfort from it.
I know this was a very brief answer to a question that deserves a much more detailed, in depth response, but I hope it will help somewhat. My advice to you would be to get hold of some good commentaries on this epistle and spend some time reading through various theologians' interpretations of this passage. You may get frustrated by the variety of takes on this text, but on the other hand you might gain some keen insights that you've never had.
