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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | What if willfully return to a sinning li | Eph 1:11 | Morant61 | 141419 | ||
Greetings Mark! That is exactly what Spurgeon is saying! :-) Personally, I believe that there is a much easier way of explaining this passage. Here is a portion of a previous post I made on this passage. ************************************* Thanks for your patience! I was hesitant to go beyond what I wrote because of the difficulty of the verse. So, I have been doing some more research. Here is what I have concluded! The problem with Heb. 6:6 is that all of the verbs in this verse occur only one time in the New Testament. This makes it very difficult to be dogmatic about what they mean, since we have no context to compare them with. With that in mind, I believe the following: 1) That the author is writting to Christians, not pagans or hearers only! 2) That this passage is describing a continuing attitude or action! 3) That the person who persists in this attitude is lost! 4) That any sin or attitude can be repented of! Let's look at the progress of the passage. Beginning in verse 4, the passage says that it is impossible to renew to repentance those who: * have been enlighted (aorist participle). * have partaken of the heavenly gift (aorist participle). * have shared in the Holy Spirit (aorist participle). * have tasted the word of God (aorist participle). * have fallen away (aorist participle). The key, I think, is found in the last two verbs. I believe that they give the reason why these people cannot be brought to repentance again. These two verbs say that: * they are cruciying afresh (present participle). * they are exposing Him to public disgrace (present participle). All of the other verbs are aorist participles. They describe past actions. These last two are present participles describing present actions and attitudes. I think that the people described here are similar to those in Heb. 10:26 and 10:29. They are believers who despise the blood of Christ and wilfully sin against Him. The context of Heb. 6:7-8 would seem to support this. But, here is the key point. The impossiblity of renewing them to repentance seems to be tied to their current and ongoing attitude. I don't see anything is the passage that indicates that such a person can never be saved again or can never repent. It is impossible now, because they are crucifying, they are publicly shaming Christ, and they are sinning wilfully. If that attitude changes, I don't see any grammatical reason why they could not repent. One of the basic rules of interpretation is to let clear Scripture interpret less clear Scripture. Heb. 6:6 is not real clear. But, 1 John 1:9 is clear. No where else in Scripture are we told that it is impossible for someone to repent. Therefore, I would say that Heb. 6:6 desribes the lost condition of those who are actively and currently rejecting Christ wilfully. As long as they remain in this state of rejection, it is impossible for the to repent, since salvation is found only in the Christ they are rejecting. If they have a change of attitude toward Christ, I believe that this passage would no longer apply to them. ************************************** Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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2 | What if willfully return to a sinning li | Eph 1:11 | lionheart | 141432 | ||
Tim,EdB thank you thank you thank you! God bless your hearts!! You just made something crystal clear for me. This is something I've had a deep conviction about for quite a while. I just never been able to present this with any amount of clarity or confidence. Man oh man. It's simple. We at heart can be so emotional and sentamental we can be blind to whats looking us right in the face. No doubt,we cant lose something that we gaurd or cherish. When we are walking with God in faith and trust we cant lose our salvation. The Bible even says knowone can pluck us from Gods hand. Repentance is the key for us as believers. 1 Jn1:9 But when we willfuly continue in sin we can and do walk away from God or as you EdB put it we can lay it down.Tim 1 Jn1:6-10 fits well with the He 6:4-6 passage. Also I think there is a passage in the OT where it says God will not forever endure an unrepentant heart maybe you guys can help me out with that one. Thats why when it comes to our relationship with God it is encumbant for us to be gaurding our hearts every single day. The consequences of not doing so are too tragic to even imagine. One thing I'd like put on the table is Gal 6:1 Talks about restoring our brother, I beleive also God will restore those who come back to him with a Godly sorrow and truly repentant heart. Granted when one willfuly turns their back on God the odds are not good. But thankfuly for us all things are possible with God. I will definatly check out Spurgeons website. Again thank you both for making this so much clearer for me. Always your brother in Christ, lionheart |
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