by Lane Rogers

Peril of Falling Away (Them or us?) A Look at Hebrews 6: 1-8_________________________

1Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on tomaturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance fromdead works and of faith toward God, 2of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and theresurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. 3And this we will do, if God permits. 4For 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, 5and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6and 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. 7For 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; 8but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless andclose to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

This is probably one of the most misused passages in the New Testament. For that reason, we have this note. There is a tendency to pull this passage out of the context of the book and assign a meaning to it that the original author never had in mind. If we leave this section of text in the context of the book, we are forced to interpret this part of chapter 6 only in light of what we know has already happened in chapter 2. Notice this passage:

" (3) how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard

(4) God also testifying with them by both signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the holy Spirit according to His own will."

The people spoken to in Hebrews chapter 6 were people who resided in a congregation that had been at minimum visited and probably established by an apostle. This apostle distributed miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit (v.4). It then was those people (those who had seen the apostolic miracles and gifts) who had been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit. They in fact did get a glimpse of the "age to come."

It was those recipients of the letter to the Hebrews that experienced all of this and not us. No living person has witnessed apostolic miracles since the purpose of apostolic miracles was to confirm the Word (the Bible) and that has already been done.

Here is the jest of the argument the Hebrew author is putting forth. God sent an apostle to this congregation with the ability to distribute miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit which you have participated in. God did this to prove to you that this apostle was in fact speaking the Word of God. Yet you now have rejected that and returned back to Judaism. If you won't believe apostolic miracles and gifts of the Spirit, there really isn't anything else that God will do for you. You have reached the (Hapex) or the summit. If what God has done for you did not convince you, the only other thing that might be done is to crucify Christ and start all over again and that will not happen. See notes on Lesson six above for more on chapter 6.

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