You are reading your biased doctrine into the text and are not reading what the text actually says in context. Jude did not say that these
certain men who have have
crept in unnoticed, who
long ago were
marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who
turn the grace of our God into lewdness and
deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ were "once alive" or "once good." Your argument is based on faulty human logic. Again,
a tree being dead to the core as such a tree was utterly
incapable of producing good fruit then being
uprooted is
twice dead. The NAS says
"doubly dead." Nothing is mentioned about these
ungodly men ever not perverting the gospel and being good from the start. That's your assumption based on your biased opinion.
Nothing is mentioned about the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah ever being saved, departing from the faith or losing salvation. Jude 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has
kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns
gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. *That is the point.
He is able to keep you (believers) from falling and
present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. 1 Corinthians 1:8 - He will also
confirm you/keep you strong to the end, that you may be
blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:13 - In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the
guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Praise God!
Jude is exhorting believers to
contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (vs. 3) because
certain ungodly men who have crept in unnoticed. Jude further describes these
ungodly men as ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded,
devoid of the Spirit (vs. 19) In
CONTRAST to
those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and
PRESERVED in Jesus Christ (vs. 1). Psalm 37:28 - For the Lord loves justice, And
does not forsake His saints; They are
PRESERVED FOREVER, But the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off.
Jude doesn't even mention the words "falling away from the faith" or talk about which some had already done. You continue to read your biased doctrine into the book of Jude. There are those who may fall away from the Christian faith, in which they at one time had professed to embrace, but whose faith was never firmly rooted and established in Christ from the start and were never saved. I know of such people and when I ask them about why they believe they were once a Christian but no longer are and what it was they once believed but no longer do, they cannot give me a sufficient answer that demonstrates they previously placed their faith exclusively in Christ for salvation and were genuinely born again. I have chatted with people (in person and on Christian Forums) who once attended Christian churches and claimed to have previously been Christians, but later walked away and some even say they are atheists now. *In every case, they were not able to clearly explain to me what the gospel of Christ is and what it means to believe the gospel. *That says it all for me.
Why did you stop reading there and not continue to read verse 9?
But, beloved, we are
confident of better things concerning YOU, yes,
things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. I've heard three different interpretations for Hebrews 6:4-6 (hypothetical view, lost salvation view, never truly saved view) but am not convinced that it teaches a really "saved" person really "lost their salvation." NOWHERE does the Bible use the words "lost salvation." According to the hypothetical interpretation, the key word in the passage is IF (verse 6). The writer of Hebrews is setting up a hypothetical statement: "IF a Christian were to fall away . . " The point being made is that it would be impossible (IF a Christian falls away) to renew them again to repentance. That’s because Christ died once for sin and if His sacrifice is insufficient, then there’s no hope at all. The passage, therefore, presents an argument based on a false premise (that a true Christian can fall away) and follows it to its senseless conclusion (that Jesus would have to be sacrificed again and again). The absurdity of the conclusion points up the impossibility of the original assumption.
In regards to the words that you
bolded, one may argue:
once enlightened - The word enlightened means to bring to light, to shed light upon or to cause light to shine upon some object, in the sense of illuminating it. Figuratively, photizo means to give guidance or understanding, to make clear or to cause something to be known by revealing clearly. John 1:9 describes Jesus, the "true Light," giving light "to every man"; but this cannot mean the light of salvation, because not every man is saved. This light either leads to the complete acceptance of Jesus Christ or produces condemnation in those who reject such light.
partakers of the Holy Ghost - Partakers describes one who shares with someone else as an associate in an enterprise or undertaking. It speaks of those who are participators in something. Business partner, companion. Participating in. Accomplice in. Comrade. Metochos is used elsewhere in Hebrews in the context of believers (Hebrews 3:14 - "For we have become partakers of Christ") and thus the statement that the readers have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit seems at first glance to be support that true believers are being addressed, yet there are other ministries of the Holy Spirit that precede the indwelling of believers. It is very plausible to envision an individual becoming a sharer in or partaker of the Spirit (and his pre-salvation ministry - convicting of sin, righteousness and judgment to come) by responding for a time to His drawing power intended to lead sinners to Christ. The translation "shared" implies something done in company with others and before salvation all believers shared in the convicting ministry of the Spirit Who drew them to salvation.
Note also that the writer does not state that these individuals were "indwelt by the Holy Spirit" or "sealed by the Holy Spirit" or "possessors of the Spirit's pledge (guarantee) of future inheritance."
tasted the good word of God - They had tasted in such a way as to give them a distinct impression of its character and quality, yet they still turned away. Inherent in the idea of tasting is the fact that one might or might not decide to accept the thing that is tasted. For example, the same Greek word (geuomai) is used in Matthew 27:34 to say that those crucifying Jesus "offered him wine to drink, mingled with gall;
but when he tasted it, he would not drink it." Do we taste into one Spirit or drink into one Spirit? (1 Corinthians 12:13).
fall away - I find it interesting that the term "fall away" or "stumble" was used by the Lord Jesus of His 11 disciples at the time of His arrest. The disciples deserted Jesus as was predicted and Peter obviously denied Jesus three times. They were said to "fall away." Matthew 26:31 - Then Jesus said to them, "You will all
fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE SCATTERED.' 32 "But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." 33 But Peter said to Him, "Even though all may
fall away because of You, I will never
fall away." Obviously, this was not a loss of salvation. For a
righteous man may fall seven times AND rise again, But the wicked shall FALL by calamity. (Proverbs 24:16)
Hebrews 6:7,8 - For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and
bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. In this agricultural metaphor, those who receive final judgment are compared to land that bears no vegetation or useful fruit, but rather bears thorns and thistles. When we recall the other metaphors in Scripture where good fruit is a sign of true spiritual life and fruitfulness is a sign of false believers (for example - Matthew 3:8-10; 7:15-20; 12:33-35), we already have an indication that the author is speaking of people whose most trustworthy evidence of their spiritual condition (the fruit they bear) is negative, suggesting that the author is talking about people who are not genuine Christians. Verse 9 sums it up for me. The writer is speaking to those truly saved (calls them BELOVED). He says that even though he speaks like this concerning THOSE types of people, He is convinced of better things concerning YOU. Things that ACCOMPANY SALVATION. Thorns and briars and falling away do not accompany salvation.
It is generally stated by those who believe salvation can be lost that you can get it back again. If the writer of Hebrews was truly teaching that a really "saved," person really "lost their salvation" then why didn't he simply say, "For it is impossible for those who were once
born again or saved, if they fall away, to
renew them again to salvation? Why is it that we
never find the words "lost or lose your salvation" in the Bible? *That would certainly settle the issue.
