Hebrews 6:1-10 - Heb
6:1-10 - Rejecting the Word - Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
Hebrews 6:1-10: Most approach this passage to argue for or against eternal security. However, Paul warns against shallow understanding of the Words of Christ which are Spirit and Life.
Dear Brother Sublett,
Thank you for your time and consideration,
hope all is well. Sincerely I assure you that my views will be tentative.
However, from a quick review -- and I will restudy and update this --
I hear Paul warning people not to reject the Word as Christ's Spirit
power and the worship of God's Spirit or Mind with our spirit or
mind. The word "therefore" means that we need to back up to chapter
five.
Paul would love to share the true meaning of
Christ being called after the order of Melchisedec. This would demand
a lot of understanding of the Old Testament but they are in danger of
absolute apostasy or the rejection and ridicule of Christ
because:
Of whom we have many things to
say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are
dull of hearing. Hebrews 5:11 For when for the time ye ought to
be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first
principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of
milk, and not of strong meat. Hebrews 5:12
For every one that useth milk is unskilful in
the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. Hebrews 5:13
But strong meat belongeth to them
that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their
senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Hebrews 5:14
Worse than being shot at or a storm in the
North Atlantic on a fragile fishing boat, is the spiritually and
emotionally devastating experience of returning to a fellowship after
a half-century absence to see people exactly where they were back
before their great grand children became almost a new "species" with
minds which "surf" the internet and a sixth-grade daughter helps you
with a computer problem and an eight-year old girl asks a fairly deep
Biblical question and kids from all over the world are soaking up
knowledge like sponges. Along with this comes a totally new way of
evaluating truth which may be more Biblical than their parents. At
the same time, their parents and grandparents are "worshipping
for you"
with singing, clapping, dancing, loud music and preaching loud enough
to take the paint off your new
car."
And one can project most churches out to
another half-century and they will be at the same level spiritually
as their great grandparents and someone will have to pay the
price.
This was also part of Paul's spiritual
"cross." He saw an ancient "educational program" and a "preaching
schedule" (well, they didn't really have preachers back then as we
understand the term) which was going to give birth to a crop of
believers. Then, they would engage in child abuse, nay, child
molestation: yelling and screaming and moralizing but feeding 100
pound children of God with "first principles" which were never
understood by those Paul lamented could not comprehend
Melchisedec. Paul then pleads with these people to get on
with training adult believers with heavy stuff or they were in danger
of spiritual malnutrition. (A lovely lady: "Oh, I am so glad they are
not going to let you teach that ole In Depth Bible Stuff!)
Paul literaly says, and we paraphrase, get off
the potty training chair and don't get paranoid when the steak is
passed around: THEREFORE leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith
toward God, Hebrews 6:1 The principles are the Greek
Arche
(g746). This is the cornerstone, the
beginnings, the applications of doctrine "in order of
time." Jesus told the apostles that they would apply
these first principles because they had been with Him from the
beginning: And ye also shall bear witness,
because ye have been with me from the beginning. John
15:27 The NIV understands that Paul is not saying
that we should abandon the first principles or foundation
but:
Therefore let us leave the
elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not
laying
again
the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of
faith in God, Hebrews
6:1NIV
If you spend your entire Christian life
"building foundations" but can never get the walls going they you
have a very serious problem with "spiritual-stuttering." You are in
danger because there is no demand for such nonsense. Repentance does not come before hearing
the word but it comes
before we have faith in the sense of
"placing our full confidence in Christ." We believe the first
principles and we turn or repent from our old understanding and
practices and turn toward Christ. This gives us the power to listen
and develop faith which always means "belief which obeys whatever it believes."
In verse two: Of the doctrine of baptisms,
and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of
eternal judgment. Hebrews 6:2 When Israel sinned at Mount Sinai with their
musical worship of Apis' bull, God gave them the Book of the Law.
This was a set of commandments to regulate their external
body:
Which stood only in meats and
drinks, and divers washings (note the plural), and carnal ordinances,
imposed
on them until the time of reformation.
Heb.9:10
The Jews washed everything. The word for these
washings is the
Greek:
Baptismos (g909) bap-tis-mos'; from 907; ablution (cerem. or
Chr.): - baptism, washing.
And when they come from the
market, except they wash, they eat not, And
many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the
washing of cups, and pots, brasen
vessels,
and of tables. Mk.7:4 This superstitious practice ignored the true
meaning of God's commandment: For laying aside the commandment
of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and
cups: and many other such like things ye do. Mark 7:8 Their Christian baptism was a principle doctrine "in
order of time." The laying on of hands to bestow gifts to certain
people would cease as Paul told the Corinthians in chapter 13. They
should not dwell on their old washing of pots and pans, their
personal baptism, the laying on of hands or their understanding of
the resurrection of the literal body which was now assured. Paul said
that their baptism (g907) accepted a true resurrection and they
shouldn't be concerned over the old worn-out
body:
For if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the
likeness of his resurrection: Romans
6:5 This is a "once for all" washing and it does
not have to be repeated as a legal method because the blood of Christ
does -- present tense -- cleans
us.
Paul defines people who have built a
foundation which reached all of the way to an assurance that they
would not come under judgment. He determined at one point that he needed to
make application of Christ to those who had gone through these steps
and not dwell on the technicalities of their "growth"
process:
And this will we do, if God
permit. Hebrews 6:3 For it is impossible for those who
were once enlightened
(taught), and have tasted (experienced) of
the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy
Ghost, Hebrews 6: 4 Paul, I believe, has explained the principles
which began with their old beliefs and has resulted in a birth into a
heavenly or spiritual realm. Now, if a physical birth goes wrong, it
is impossible to return to the womb and be born
again.
In the same way, if we denounce our spiritual
birth we cannot do a better job than God. The heavenly
gift was the once-for-all sacrifice of
Jesus Christ. In their baptism they had personally identified with
that sacrifice (g14305). Paul said that they were "burried along side
Christ" in that one-time baptism. We cannot pay for the sacrificial
gift: FOR every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he
may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
Heb.5:1 To partake of the holy ghost is to be a sharer
or associate. Partnership with the Mind of Christ makes us also
participate, in a tiny way, with His discipline: WHEREFORE, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider the Apostle and High
Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Heb.3:1 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof
all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Heb.12:8
The Holy Spirit as a "Being" is Lord Jesus
Christ in invisible form. His Mind is the Holy Spirit
or the "mental
disposition" of God (1 Corinthians 2).
He said that His words were "Spirit" and "Life." Therefore, to be a
partaker of the Holy Spirit is to take on the mind of Christ as a
growing
faith.
And have tasted the
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, Hebrews
6: 5 Looking as verse 4 and 5 in a parallel form we
understand what Paul has said by
repetition:
They have been given the only "cure" Jesus has
for them. Therefore: 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. Hebrews 6: 6
To fall away does not mean to "miss Wednesday
night when the preacher has already told you that if you do you will
have to come up front and confess before you can be a happy camper
again." To fall away is to apostatize and reject
the faith: Parapipto (g3895) par-ap-ip'-to; from 3844 and 4098; to fall
aside, i.e. (fig.) to apostatize: - fall away.
Not only so but you begin to ridicule Christ and
insult the power of His blood to
save.
Paradeigmatizo (g3856) par-ad-igue-mat-id'-zo; from 3844 and 1165; to
show alongside (the public), i.e. expose to infamy;- make a public
example, put to an open shame.
We do that when we reject the Word as having
the Spirit power of Lord Jesus Christ and begin substituting our own
songs and
sermons.
The word "renew" means to restore. The object of
the restoration is repentance. The truth is perhaps like that of a cancer
victim who has rejected his only doctor and ridiculed his treatement
before the public. If he could change his mind the doctor would give him the
cure. However, after he has had the best evidence totally marked into
his heart and he has experienced the beginning of the healing power
and then denounces it it is not likely that he can recover from
blasphemy.
If we plant the Word as seed and a spiritual
believer germinates, pokes through the earth and begins to bear the
"peaches" of the Word then the person has the gift or fruit of
his own spirit made holy by
Christ.
However, if the seed is perverted and produces
a fig tree which has no fruit then Jesus gave us the visual aid that
He will blast it with His withering spirit and it will die. This
"plant" refused the value of a baptism of spirit or mind and he will
experience the baptism of fire: For the earth which
drinketh
in the rain (the Spirit Word) that cometh oft upon it, and
bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it
is dressed, receiveth
blessing from God: Hebrews 6: 7
But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and
is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to
be burned. Hebrews 6:8 Now, a tree does not become a peach tree
because
it has peaches on it. That is, the fruit is the product and not the
producer. Therefore, we can tell whether we fall under Paul's warning
or not based upon our
product:
But, beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you, and things that
accompany salvation, though we thus
speak. Hebrews 6:9
For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his
name, in that ye have ministered to the
saints, and do minister. Hebrews 6:10
If we can believe the Word then most of the
"fig tree" churches -- the overwhelming majority -- have a huge sign
hanging on their tree: "The One True Fig Tree" but then spends all of
their time providing shade and producing fig leaves to cover the fact
that it is naked of figs. The wrath or the withering blast from Christ
generates a lot of heat and light but the "talent
show" is just the chaff burning itself
up.
Now will I arise," says the LORD.
"Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up. Isaiah
33:10
You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw;
your
breath
is a fire that consumes
you. Isaiah 33:11 The peoples will be burned as if
to lime; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze." Isaiah 33:12
The only people who will escape are the ones
who meet God in the Most Holy place which only has room for
two: He who walks righteously and
speaks what is right, who rejects gain from
extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops
his ears against plots of
murder (literal or spiritual) and
shuts his eyes against contemplating evil-- Isaiah 33: 15
this is the man who will
dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the
mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not
fail him. Isaiah 33:16 Your eyes will see the king in his
beauty and view a land that stretches afar. Isaiah 33:17 Well, I believe that Paul said, and still
says, that people who turn to play, noise and ritual and refuse to
think above a third-grade level may think that they are spiritual and
you are
legalistic but they are just dull of hearing and are in danger of
having a visit from the Spirit of Christ Who will cause the playing
children to burn out and burn
up from
their own breath. Paul does not repudiate "eternal security."
Once we are in God's fold no
external force can pluck us out.
However, the Bible makes it clear that we can decide to repent and
serve Him or we can repent and decide not to serve Him. To
deny free will actually denies God the
power to give us the right to choose."
.
Kenneth Sublett
Well, Jonathan, I am going to post your question because it is too
big for an e-mail and perhaps another one or two will listen to
opinions.
