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NASB | Hebrews 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, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Hebrews 6:4 For [it is impossible to restore to repentance] those who have once been enlightened [spiritually] and who have tasted and consciously experienced the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit, |
Subject: WHO is Hebrews 6:4-11 refering to? |
Bible Note: Doc: :: In re: the young Baptist minister who averted your question about his thoughts on Calvinism, which you took to be a revelation that he didn't have a clue of what Calvinism is about. You may be right. Perhaps he didn't. You follow with, "Shame to the seminary in which he was educated!" Doc, I'm not sure I can go with you on this one. I mean this: why should we measure the value of a seminary by what the seminary student learns about Calvinism or any of the other host of isms floating around? What good is it to poke the seminary students' heads full of ism doctrines if seminary doesn't try to spur them with a passion for lost souls so that when they leave the halls of academe they will be chomping at the bit to go into the highways and hedges and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ; so that they, like Paul, will be willing to press on and keep pressing on in spite of beatings, shipwrecks, jailings or whatever thorn they may have in their flesh? I doubt that the old preacher who pastored the church where I was saved more than 50 years ago knew beans about Calvinism or Arminianism: he probably didn't know enough about them to tell one from the other, but he knew what I had to do to be saved! The faith that saved my soul came by hearing this dear old saint preach the gospel of Jesus Christ from the word of God. I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and I was saved, just as the Philippian jailer did in Acts 16. ...... So I wouldn't shame the seminary for not teaching this young Baptist preacher the five points of TULIP Calvinism, but I would shame them from here to eternity if they did not teach this young preacher and solemnly charge him in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction" (Cf. 2 Timothy 4:1,2). ..... I am in no wise promoting ignorance or waving an anti-education flag. Seminary students invest a great deal of time and money to learn, and seminary professors have a duty to teach them. But I am quite unconvinced that a seminary whose professors do well by their duty to prepare and equip a young preacher candidate for the high calling of proclaiming the gospel of Christ should bow their collective heads in shame if they neglect to make him a master of TULIP theology. There are things higher in the pecking order than this. --Hank |