Losing Faith

Introduction

We've all heard or used the idiom: "I'm losing faith in__________," you fill in the blank. If your car becomes unreliable, you might begin to lose faith in your car. If a weather forecaster is consistently wrong, you might begin to lose faith in that person's ability to forecast the weather. If your government is corrupt then you might lose faith in your government. There are countless other circumstances which might cause us to lose faith. Having said that, if the circumstances are right, is it possible for Christians to lose their faith in God? This is not a new question. There are those who insist that once a Christian professes faith in Christ, there is nothing they can do to lose their salvation (Calvinism). Conversely, there are those who believe that even though a Christian professes faith in Christ at one point in their life, it is possible to reject that faith at some other point in life (Arminianism). As usual, there is biblical truth in both positions. However, also as usual, both sides ignore the salient points of the other side's argument and fail to consider that there is a narrow middle road that is entirely consistent with the character and actions of God witnessed in all of scripture as opposed to a few select verses that support either one or the other position. This is an extremely important matter as we seek confidence in the persevering efficacy of our salvation without the self-deception of cheap grace. This lesson takes a close look at a section of verses in the Book of Hebrews that deals specifically with the warning of losing our salvation. Let's look at our subject verses before we begin.

Hebrews 6:4-8

⁴ It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, ⁶ if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. ⁷ Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. ⁸ But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

Literary Context and Structure

I know I can be kind of a pain when it comes to insisting that we always look at the context of our subject text but it’s especially important for this lesson. In the immediate context of Hebrews 6:4-8, the author is strenuously urging his audience to press on towards Christian maturity. These verses are sandwiched between the author’s exposition on the supremacy of Christ as a perpetual intercessor and great high priest whose sacrifice is sufficient to atone, once-for-all, for the sins of people. In the context of Hebrews as a whole, this passage is one of five passages described as “warning” passages. At issue seems to be that the readers were in perilous danger of falling away from their faith in Christ. This is perhaps one of the clearest passages to support the possibility that believers can lose their eternal salvation. However, this seems to be at odds with other scripture verses that seem to teach just as clearly the security of the believer’s salvation or in theological terms, the doctrine of election and perseverance of the saints. This polemic is no small matter. However, in order to understand the warning of Hebrews 6:4-8, it is essential that all the warning passages be seen as a common thread weaving its way through the entire book. All this is offered up with the primary purpose of motivating and encouraging these believers to press on in their Christian maturity.

Before addressing the matter of Hebrews 6:4-8 directly, let’s first position it within the context of the other five warning passages of Hebrews specifically. The first warning passage is found in 2:1-4. The audience is exhorted to pay attention to the salvation message previously heard and attested to by miraculous signs and wonders, as well as the distribution of gifts by the Holy Spirit. Failure to do so is identified in v. 1 as a “drifting away.” The second warning passage is 3:7-4:13. The audience is warned to not allow a hard, sinful, unbelieving heart to cause them to turn away from God resulting in the forfeiture of eternal rest. The third warning passage is the subject passage of 6:4-8, where the audience is warned to press on toward maturity lest they fall away from their faith entirely and subsequently relinquish their salvation. The fourth warning passage is 10:19-39. In this passage, the audience is warned about the dire judgment that awaits those who profess faith in Christ yet continue a life of willful sin. The fifth and final warning passage in Hebrews is 12:1-29. Here the audience is warned not to ignore God’s instruction or discipline but instead worship God with proper awe and reverence. When these warning passages are analyzed synthetically, they begin to form a pattern according to McKnight: “If one element serves to focus the overall paraenetic program of Hebrews it is the exhortation to be faithful.”[1]

These repeated exhortations are a small window into the pastoral heart of the author. The letter lacks the usual elements of a letter from the Greco-Roman era. It lacks an opening prayer for grace and peace and there is no thanksgiving or blessing. Instead, the letter opens with an acclamation of the superiority of Christ. Thereafter, the letter reads like a rhetorical discourse. Perhaps more than any other literary form, Hebrews should be seen as a sermon. Martin and Davids write, “The writer confirms the sermonic genre when he describes the discourse as a ‘word of exhortation’ (Heb 13:22), an idiomatic expression for a sermon in Hellenistic-Jewish and early Christian circles.”[2]

Historical/Cultural Background

Technically, Hebrews is an anonymous letter. However, some have suggested that the author may have been Priscilla. This is unlikely in light of some of the masculine grammatical constructs of the letter. Instead, it is probably correct to see the author as a man. In this vane, some have supposed the author to be the Apostle Paul. However, this too is unlikely since the author makes it clear that he did not hear the message of salvation directly from the Lord. “Paul vociferously insists that he came to faith by direct, divine intervention in his life and not by hearing someone preach.”[3] While the author is eloquent, devout, pastoral, a gifted preacher, and charismatic, he is nonetheless anonymous.

Establishing a historical context for the audience is essential to understanding their sitz im leben and what precipitated the writing of Hebrews. In attempting to date the document, a number of givens must first be acknowledged. First, according to Heb 2:3-4, the audience came to faith based on the message received from those who heard Jesus. Thereafter, the audience is identified as having been believers for an extended period of time (Heb 5:12). It’s possible these believers are second-generation believers. Hebrews 10:32-34 identifies a past event in the lives of the believers that possibly sheds additional light on the dating of the letter. The description of suffering is similar to that experienced by Christians during the reign of Claudius in AD 49. As a result, the letter was probably written after that date. In order to establish an upper limit date, it is more important to notice what is not said in the letter as opposed to what is said. Considering the many references to the Old Testament and how the old had been replaced by the new, if the letter were written after the destruction of the Temple, it is unlikely that the author would have neglected to mention such a monumental event. This leads us to believe that the letter was probably written before AD 70 when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. If Heb 12:4, “you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood,” is understood to be literal, it would mean that the community had not yet suffered to the point of death even though they had suffered otherwise. This would probably mean that the letter pre-dates the Neronic persecution of AD 65. Consequently, many scholars date Hebrews at approximately AD 64 and a time that can envisage the coming persecution.

The spiritual composition of the audience is significant and will be addressed in great detail at a later point. However, suffice it to say that the text clearly depicts a community in crisis. “Their numbers had been depleted…and those who remained were subject to loss of confidence in their convictions. Their former sense of identity as the new covenant people of God had been undermined…Their formerly bold commitment in the face of public abuse, imprisonment and loss of property…has given way to discouragement…and weariness in sustaining their Christian confession in the face of hostility.”[4] Therefore, the purpose of the letter is, “To strengthen, encourage, and exhort the tired and weary members of a house church to respond with courage and vitality to the prospect of renewed suffering in view of the gifts and resources God has lavished upon them.”[5] More to the point, the letter serves to, “Discourage these professing Jewish Christians from reverting back to a form of Judaism less distinctively Christian so as to exempt themselves from the onset of Neronic persecution.”[6] Without attempting to identify the audience’s spiritual composition at this point, it is nevertheless appropriate to identify them more generally.

The title, “To The Hebrews”, is somewhat misleading. How the term “Hebrews” was to be understood is unclear. There are other instances in the New Testament where “Hebrews” is used to identify a distinct class of Jews or Jewish Christians. “No doubt it was natural for second-century readers, like many others since their day, to think of the addressees as Jews or Jewish Christians. The whole argument is conducted against a background of Old Testament allusion; considerable familiarity with the Levitical ritual, and interest in it, are presupposed.”[7] Consequently, “One can make a persuasive case for the author writing to one or more Jewish Christian house-churches in Rome.”[8]

Word Studies

In order to begin constructing a foundational base that may help to clarify some of the interpretive problems presented by Hebrews 6:4-8, it is essential that some key words are identified and their relative meanings expounded upon.

fwtisqve,ntaj – This participle is from the root word, fwti,zw, meaning to cause to be illuminated or to give light to. It also means, “To make known in reference to the inner life of transcendent matters and thus enlighten.”[9] Some scholars argue that within the context of Heb 6:4, the use of this term does not necessarily imply a thorough enlightenment but instead, “Heb 6:4 may well refer to people who have been in close contact with the gospel, who have taken some significant steps in professing acceptance of it.”[10] However, in the context of the way the audience is further described in chapter six and elsewhere in the letter to the Hebrews, this can hardly be the intended meaning in v. 4. Other scholars contend that, “It seems best to take the spiritual enlightenment described here as a reference to the regenerating work of the Spirit experienced by all true believers.”[11] Additionally, “The audience…is composed of people who received the message of the gospel, and it transformed their mental and spiritual perceptions. This is language of conversion and shows that…the author perceived his readers to be converts and treated them as such.”[12] Therefore, narrowing the definition further, when used figuratively as in the case in v. 4, the meaning takes on the distinction of not only basic enlightenment but to, “Cause to be fully known.”[13]

geusame,nouj – This participle is from the root word, geu,omai, meaning literally “As testing a liquid by sipping.”[14] Figuratively meaning to “Come to know, experience, partake of.”[15] Clearly, in the context of Heb 6:4, the term is intended to be figurative. Certainly the author was not referring to something that was orally ingested. Instead, he more probably meant that his audience had, “Experienced something cognitively or emotionally.”[16] Here, too, scholars disagree.  Some insist that, “It means, ‘to make a trial or experiment.’ This manifestly may remain so far short of a true commitment that in some cases it may not even imply an external profession of allegiance.”[17] The alternative position is that this view is trying to split a theological hair between simply tasting and fully ingesting in order to create a, “Theological nicety…for those whose system requires that the audience cannot be Christians in a genuine sense…The author gives no hint that the readers were only ‘partially converted’ or that their experience was only partial.”[18] There seems to be no doubt that the author recognized that his audience had fully experienced the reality of the referenced “heavenly gift,” which is probably a reference to the “gift” of salvation. Gleason makes a perfect analogy from Heb 2:9 speaking of Jesus’ death when he reminds us, “‘That by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.’ Jesus did more than merely sample death. He vividly experienced its reality.”[19]

meto,couj – A noun in its simplest form meaning, “sharers” or “participants.” Although, substantivally it can mean, “partner, partaker, companion.”[20] Some scholars argue that “partaker” in its English form is stronger than its use in the Greek. Gleason claims that instead of a personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit (as would seem to be the case in this context), the audience may, “Have been simply exposed to the benefits that accrue to the whole congregation because of the Spirit’s presence, or again, they may be people who have received for a season some spiritual gifts without being renewed unto salvation.”[21] This seems like a strange interpretation of receiving the Holy Spirit when Paul clearly teaches in Eph 1:14 that the Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing our heavenly inheritance. It is not much of a guarantee if the deposit of the Holy Spirit is not efficacious to “Renew unto salvation.” More appropriately, “The word functions as a technical term for Christians who have responded to God’s call of salvation…The author described more than a temporary or superficial participation; instead he referred to an actual ‘partaking or sharing’ in the benefits of salvation.”[22]

parapeso,ntaj – This participle is from the root word, parapi,ptw, meaning literally to fall beside, go astray or become lost. More importantly however is its figurative meaning which is used in the context of Heb 6:6. Its figurative meaning is that of “Abandoning a former relationship, turn away, commit apostasy.”[23] No doubt this was the intended meaning behind the author’s use of this word. However, some scholars claim that the context refers instead to, “The danger of falling into a permanent state of immaturity through a willful ‘once for all’ refusal to trust God to deliver them from the present troubles.”[24] If the danger was simply the possibility of falling into a perpetual state of immaturity, one would have to ask, “So what?” Compared to real life hardships and persecution, spiritual immaturity in and of itself hardly seems like a threatening consequence. Surely this cannot be the intent of the author’s warning. Instead, Collin Brown certainly seems closer to the author’s intended point when he writes, “The thought behind all these passages where pi,ptw is used is of the incurring of guilt and the consequent loss of salvation, rather than of a mere failure from which recovery can be made. It is a catastrophic fall, which means eternal ruin. If it were not so, all the warnings against falling would lose their threatening urgency. To fall into sin and guilt, as an expression of a total attitude, is to plunge into irrevocable misfortune.”[25]

Grammar Studies

If it is presently assumed that the audience has been enlightened through God’s grace and the preaching of the Gospel, have fully tasted God’s heavenly gifts, and have received the deposit of the Holy Spirit, then the construction of the warning passages throughout Hebrews including the warning contained in Heb 6:4-8 describes the possibility of a tragic spiritual reality for the audience. Grammatically, the key sentence is, “It is impossible to restore unto repentance.” Of the ensuing string of participles after this statement (some of which have been identified above), five clarify the subject and two clarify the reason for the impossibility of the stated “restoring unto repentance.” “Stylistically, the final aorist participle, parapeso,ntaj…stands out…as something unjustified and tragic. The aorist tense indicates a decisive moment of commitment to apostasy.”[26]  The sin of apostasy can best be described as the willful decision to reject God’s gifts. “In Hebrews the characteristic terms for sin that display contempt for God are compounds of para-, many of which occur nowhere else in the NT.”[27] The grammatical construct of this passage in the context of the other “warning passages” of Hebrews makes it clear that the author certainly had in mind that his audience was in grave danger of committing apostasy if they continued on their same course.

Major Interpretive Problems

The greatest problem created by Hebrews 6:4-8 would have to be the question of the spiritual condition of the letter’s intended audience. While the problem may not be immediately obvious to the casual observer, the Calvinist armed with his doctrine of election and perseverance of the saints is immediately at odds with the Arminian and his doctrine of free will over the interpretation of these verses. These verses have traditionally been interpreted against the background of an audience defined in four different ways: 1) The verses are strictly hypothetical; 2) The audience are false believers; 3) The verses are directed toward the covenant community; and 4) The audience are true believers. Below is a brief survey of each of these views and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each.

Hypothetical View: This view advances the position that these verses are a warning against apostasy that cannot, however, be committed. There are many strengths to this view. Most important, this position allows the audience to be true believers. It also does not conflict with the security of the believer as taught elsewhere in Hebrews such as 7:25, 9:14-15 and 10:14. Its primary weakness, however, is rather obvious. If the warning describes the dire circumstances of a sin that cannot be committed then what good is the warning? No, F. F. Bruce is correct when he writes, “The biblical writers…are not given to the setting up of men of straw. The warning of this passage was a real warning against a real danger, a danger that is still present so long as ‘an evil heart of unbelief’ can result in ‘deserting the living God.’”[28]

False Believers View: This is the view that is widely held by Calvinists primarily because it protects the security of the believer’s salvation. Supporters of this view see these people as having professed their faith publicly, even to the degree of having been baptized. In fact, they may have even exhibited signs of having received the Holy Spirit. However, their profession was only an external profession that never resulted in regeneration or transformation. Consequently, when they were faced with persecution, they turned from their previous profession and went back to their old way of life. This view is very popular but unless one comes to the text presupposing what it says, this position is simply part of a well-rehearsed support of the doctrine of election. A simple reading of the text exposes this view’s greatest weakness. The audience had been enlightened by God’s grace through the preaching of the Gospel, they received God’s heavenly gift of salvation and they received the Holy Spirit. Lane writes, “Together, the clauses describe vividly the reality of the experience of personal salvation enjoyed by the Christians addressed. The Holy Spirit had not only formed the community but was bringing it to eschatological fulfillment.”[29]

Covenant Community View: This view, advanced by V. D. Verbrugge, claims that individual Christians are not being addressed but instead the covenant community as a whole is being addressed and consequently warned. Verbrugge suggests that, “Isaiah 5:1-7 forms the backdrop of Hebrews 6:4-6 and that the author has in mind God’s rejection of a whole community rather than individuals.”[30] However, there appear to be clear cases where individuals are envisioned in Hebrews. McKnight writes, “When the author turns from the apostasy of the old covenant people he says, ‘See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart.’”[31] McKnight then goes on to write, “The biggest obstacle to Verbrugge’s interpretation is that the exhortation in Hebrews is to perseverance, and when the author gives examples of what perseverance is he lists individuals, not covenant communities.”[32] At least some of the warning passages of Hebrews dealing with apostasy clearly envision individuals. As a consequence, if an individual under the Old Covenant was individually punished for disobedience, it seems logical to conclude that an individual under the New Covenant is likewise individually punished.

True Believers View: This view has the benefit of being the most natural reading of the passage. I. Howard Marshall, in his book, Kept By The Power of God, does a masterful job of systematically addressing this matter in the form of an internal debate with John Calvin and Calvinist apologist John Owen. Interestingly, Marshall’s argument revolves around some of the terms identified in the word studies above.

Continuing with Marshall’s logic, the term, “once enlightened” refers to being instructed in gospel truth leading to an acceptance of that instruction resulting in Christian conversion. The term, “to taste” is interpreted by Calvin and Owen to be a distinction between something that is tasted in part and something that is eaten in its entirety. This interpretation seems completely out of context considering that the quality, not the quantity, of the experience is in view. Furthermore, its use here is entirely analogous to the use elsewhere describing Christ as having tasted death (Heb 2:9). I certainly doubt Calvin or Owen would argue that Christ did not taste death in its entirety but instead experienced death in its fullest sense. In this case, the “heavenly gift” tasted, although not specifically identified, most likely refers to the gift of salvation and that gift was likewise experienced in its fullest sense. Finally, the term, “sharers” is a specific reference to sharing in the Holy Spirit. This most definitely is the mark of a true believer as “There is no place in the New Testament where an experience of the Spirit such as is described here is attributed to people who were not Christians.”[33] According to Marshall, Owen’s only response is, “‘The Holy Ghost is present with many as unto powerful operations with whom he is not present as to gracious habitations.’”[34] That sounds strangely like religious double-speak from someone who cannot find a place for the plain reading of these verses within their theological presuppositions. Consequently, based on the evidence present, these verses and a natural reading of the passage, the letter to the Hebrews was most probably addressed to true believers.

Interpretive Summary

The author of Hebrews is writing to Jewish Christians undergoing or anticipating dire persecutions, he is desperately trying to encourage his audience to move forward in their Christian maturity. In the immediate context of these verses, he is reminding them of the process and experiences through which they came to faith. In the immediately preceding and immediately succeeding verses, the author stresses the supremacy of Christ and the sufficiency of His sacrifice respectively. These two elements are the foundational elements on which their faith is supported! The warning of this passage is not some abstract, hypothetical argument; it is not aimed at false believers who share all the external and apparently internal attributes of true believers but according to J. Owen’s arbitrary judgment, “‘Are not true and sincere believers in the strict and proper sense of that name,’”[35] nor is it aimed at the covenant community at large. Instead, it is aimed at individual, true, regenerated believers who had received the Holy Spirit but who through their failure to press on in their Christian maturity and in anticipation of further persecutions, were facing the possibility of completely falling away from the faith they had previously professed.

Undoubtedly, there are those who simply make an external and superficial profession of faith as depicted in Christ’s parable of the sower and the seed. Understanding whether or not salvation is still available for these people is not the intent of this lesson. It is however clear that those who have previously received God’s gift of salvation cannot once again receive that gift if they have rejected the gift which they previously accepted. There is no question that God gives individuals the strength to persevere in the face of trials or persecution (See previous post; Title: Grace to Persevere; Label: Theology; Date: 6/27/12). Nevertheless, the believer has a part in the responsibility to persevere. Perhaps it is best said this way: “Larger theological systems, Calvinist or Arminian, may unintentionally blunt the edge of the biblical witness either by diminishing one’s sense of the need to persevere or by subverting one’s confidence in God’s commitment to and provision for the struggling saint. Scripture affirms both God’s active work in his people and their own responsibility to pursue salvation (Phil. 2:12-13). Ultimately, the believer lays hold of God himself as ‘him who is able to keep you from falling’ (Jude 24).”[36] What, then, is the contemporary significance of these verses for believers today?

Application

We have all watched new Christians “on fire for Christ” burn out within a few months or years and revert to their pre-Christian way of life. Whether or not these Christians have abandoned their faith is debatable. There are, however, those who have literally rejected as false what they once so vociferously accepted as true. Furthermore, stories abound about Christians persecuted to the point of recanting their profession of faith. Our culture upholds Christians as enlightened who reject their profession of faith and instead adopt a mixture of philosophy, naturalism, and universalism. Many families experience the pain of a family member who has rejected their faith. How should Christians specifically and the Church generally deal with these people? Guthrie has perhaps the best advice when he writes, “To those who have fallen or are close to falling away we should offer strong warnings in line with Hebrews 6:4-8. For those who have come into the church, joining our communities of faith, we should offer strong nurture in doctrine and relationships. For any of us who have struggled to throw off spiritual mediocrity and maintain passion about Christian commitment, we should offer encouragement.”[37] In the end, however, the failure to persevere in our faith says nothing about God’s faithfulness or ability to uphold his promises and everything about the degree of our spiritual laziness and sinfulness. It is only by God’s grace that we have the strength to persevere, but we have a responsibility as well. And that responsibility is to lay hold of God’s gift of salvation that he has made available to us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and thereafter press on in our Christian maturity, gradually and eventually becoming what God already knows we are.

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[1] Scot McKnight, “The Warning Passages of Hebrews: A Formal Analysis And Theological Conclusions,” Trinity Journal, no. 13NS (1992), 31-32.

[2] Ralph P. Martin and Peter H. Davids, eds., Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments, (Downers Grove:  InterVarsity Press, 1997), 450.

[3] David A. de Silva, An Introduction to the New Testament, (Downers Grove:  InterVarsity Press, 2004), 787.

[4] Martin and Davids, Dictionary of Later New Testament, 447.

[5] William L. Lane, Word Biblical Commentary:  Hebrews 1-8, (Nashville:  Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), c.

[6] Craig Blomberg, “Understand the Epistles & Revelation”, NT512 Class Notes (2004), 61.

[7] F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, (Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990), 5.

[8] Blomberg, Epistles & Revelation, 61.

[9] Frederick William Danker, ed., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago:  The University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1074.

[10] Roger Nicole, “Some Comments on Hebrews 6:4-8 and the Doctrine of the Perseverance of God with the Saints,” Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation, Gerald F. Hawthorne, ed., (Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975), 360.

[11] Randall C.Gleason, “The Old Testament Background of the Warning in Hebrews 6:4-8,” Bibliotheca Sacra, no. 155 (1998), 76.

[12] McKnight, The Warning Passages Of Hebrews, 46.

[13] Timothy Friberg and Barbara Friberg, eds., Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 2000), 405.

[14] Ibid., 98.

[15] Ibid., 99.

[16] Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon, 195.

[17] Nicole, Some Comments on Hebrews, 360.

[18] McKnight, The Warning Passages Of Hebrews, 46.

[19] Gleason, The Old Testament Background, 76-77.

[20] Friberg, Analytical Lexicon, 261.

[21] Nicole, Some Comments on Hebrews, 360-361.

[22] Gleason, The Old Testament Background, 76-77.

[23] Firberg, Analytical Lexicon, 297.

[24] Gleason, The Old Testament Background , 79.

[25] Colin Brown, ed., Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 1, (Grand Rapids:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 611.

[26] Lane, Word Biblical Commentary, 142.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 148.

[29] Lane, Word Biblical Commentary, 141.

[30] George H. Guthrie,The NIV Application Commentary:  Hebrews, (Grand Rapids:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1998), 227.

[31] McKnight, The Warning Passages Of Hebrews, 54.

[32] Ibid.

[33] I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, (London:  Epworth Publishing, 1969), 138.

[34] Ibid.

[35] Ibid.

[36] T. Desmond Alexander et al., eds., New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, (Downers Grove:  InterVarsity Press, 2000), 385-386.

[37] Guthrie, NIV Application, 233.