catholicsphere

Hebrews 6:4-8
For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt. For land which has drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned.

I recently had the opportunity to hear a pastor of a local Evengelical church preach on this (the fuller passage was Hebrews 5:11 - 6:12). The doctrine he was teaching was related to that in the Calvinist tradition, on the “Perseverance of the Saints”. He introduced the doctrine by saying that there were two major views on this passage: 1) you can lose your salvation; or 2) you were not truly saved.

He continued by saying that the language of this particular part of the passage (quoted above) could refer to either believers or unbelievers. He explained that there can be those “who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come” who are not truly saved, basically the same as unbelievers — they have not come to the fullness of belief that is true salvation. To illustrate his point he said that there are both “fruitful people” and “unfruitful people”, using Heb 6:7-8 to back up his point. He said that there are those who have the appearance of faith, who do not have the fullness of belief such that they are truly saved, that they can fall away. There are those that will never mature to the point of being saved.

Now, I could actually see this point in his sermon … if that were the total of the passage. After his sermon, he gave people the opportunity to ask questions that they had about this passage and the doctrine, acknowledging that this passage presents some difficulty. I did not rise to ask the questions I had, partly because I am not an Evangelical, and partly because I did not want to appear to be challenging the senior pastor in open church.

While I was listening to him speak, however, there was one portion of this passage that seems to create a problem. It is the idea of apostasy mentioned in verse 6 “if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.

The Catholic Encyclopedia defines apostasy as “in its etymological sense, … the desertion of a post, the giving up of a state of life; he who voluntarily embraces a definite state of life cannot leave it, therefore, without becoming an apostate.” The Wikipedia entry on apostasy describes it as “the formal renunciation of one’s religion.” Overall, it typically means that one held the beliefs strongly and then rejected them. The usage doesn’t fit the scenario that the pastor seemed to be speaking of — namely those who hadn’t come to full belief.

And, there seems to be an additional problem that the pastor must deal with — in particular, whether the doctrine means anything without “assurance”. He made the point that Paul speaks in the latter part of the passage about the group to whom he’s speaking … that they are not of those who shrink back, but who will go on to maturity.

But, if it means as the pastor of this church was saying, that those who shrink back — who commit apostasy — are simply those who never held the true faith, but merely had the appearance of faith, can anyone ever be assured that they are “of those who won’t shrink back”? And, if they cannot be assured, then the doctrine really becomes akin to what the Catholic Church teaches … “If any one saith, that he will for certain, of an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance unto the end, -unless he have learned this by special revelation; let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, Sixth Session, Cannon 16)” and that
salvation and justification are not one-time events, but part of a life-long process and adherence to the commands, promises and beliefs that are revealed by God.

If this were the pastor’s point, I believe he used the wrong terminology to state it, because it is not that these people are not saved … but rather that they have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved if they perservere until the end.