Exposing what exactly though.
This seems to only ever come down to my sin is bigger than your sin or my obedience is better than your obedience. This is not the subject of Hebrews 6.
feedm3, I think you may have me confused with someone else.
Or at least you think I'm making a claim I'm not making.
I read all of your post, several times be be sure I see what your issue is.
I shortened it because it says the post is too long. I can address each point again, but I think I see where I am going sideways in this conversation.
If you actually read what
I SAID (not reading into it what others may have said), I do not disagree with you at all -
except on one single issue, which carries over into (and becomes a distortion) the whole use of Hebrews 6 over and over again, against (or for, as you prefer) people
who are currently and actively professing Jesus and purposing to go to their graves doing so.
With everything that entails; losing old friends; hating sin; finding an assembly of believers; communicating with God through prayer; relying on the Bible as their daily bread; acting on the love He has shed abroad in their hearts; talking about Him to others who don't believe; etc.
As an exhortation to continue in the faith until death - great! as a threat about being cut off due to willful sin, it's terrible! All sin is willful! If we stopped having sin completely on conversion Jesus doesn't need to be High Priest!
I guess I'm trying to say that
no one rooted in the truth will depart for a lie. That includes just tossing the Bible out and saying, Oh well, I don't believe now." Maybe they will, but I surely don`t understand HOW that would work.
But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. - 2 Thessalonians 2
With that said, we all know there are people all around the world today, it can be seen everywhere on the internet, who say they "used to be" or "were raised" Christians. They say they are now atheists; or have chosen some world religion. They say generally something like: "I used to believe in God but this or this happened and now I don't believe in that kind of God..."
We know as well that there are people today who do claim the name of "A" christ. and their christ sounds very much like the Biblical, Actual Jesus Christ, but is another christ entirely.
And specifically to the point of the Book of Hebrews and the warning against
going BACK to Moses - you will be extremely hard pressed to find many people who were raised in the Jewish Community who convert to Christianity that ever "return" to Moses, since Judaism today doesn't teach Moses. They are converting from a religion that has nothing to do with Moses.
So, what danger is there that is readily recognized TODAY as a departing from Christianity returning to Law (of the sort in the warning in Hebrews)? The only candidate for that is the same as it has always been - people who do not pass from the Old Testament with its shadows, and types, into the New, but seek to be justified by LAW (which could never save).
I am in total agreement that the danger is INSIDE the Church, just as it has always been. The false brothers Paul condemned (anathematized) evidently escaped detection in Jerusalem! They were cursed. This again is in agreement with the parable of the wheat and tares -
it's teaching from within the Church about HOW we are justified that is going to make or break it. If the seed falls on good soil, will it not take root.
side thoughts:
What is eternal security based on? (let's forget OSAS for now as it's a trigger).
Do you believe in eternal security at all?
HERE'S THE REASON I REPLIED TO YOUR POST (and before doing so did some looking into your writing) - all this contention in the OSAS threads, if we are honest,
always and without fail comes down to...
"if we shall
sin willfully.....there remains no more sacrifice for sins"
Right?
So before creating another round of hundreds of posts,
isn't all sin willful? (I know there are sins of ignorance; unknown sins that must be covered by Christ as well, I'm not talking about them).
Said another way, is there a single man or woman on earth who is placing their trust in and striving to obey the LORD who does not sin willfully? I know you can't answer for anyone else, but really only for yourself.
Is your sin (and you do have sin) willful or not?
We have a conundrum for those who have a combination of beliefs which have at their core human free will in all areas of life including every part of salvation + whether they actually willfully sin, and when they do they are condemned.
If we are using Hebrews 6 to mean that every Christian who commits a sin after conversion is condemned, not one single person would ever be saved.
Now I know you have made this remark, and I agree (if you read what I said, and did not confuse me with someone else):
So, if willful sin actually means "all unrepentant sin in general", where did you EVER get the idea I said we shouldn't repent of our sin in general, or specifically, daily?
And repentance means not only being sorry for it, but purposing to stop doing it.
There are two kinds of "believers" I can imagine who do not confess their sin to the LORD:
1) Those who believe they are not sinning/have no sin, or
2) Those who believe they are accepted by works of The Law.
So I am back where I started with this issue, particulary in Hebrews
- you can determine for yourself (if you dare) whether these people described as "we" included
John, and/or whether or not we are 'saved' if there is no truth in us:
1) If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. - 1 John 1:8
2) There Is Only One Good News
6I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ.c You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.
8Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. - Galatians 1
14When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
15“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. 16Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”d
17But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 18
Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20My old self has been crucified with Christ.e It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21
I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. - Galatians 2
Okay?
My point was not the sillt term OSAS.
I
do believe in eternal security. I do believe in obeying as best we can each and every day, and confessing when we sin.
My point was the
"cut off due to willful sin" = anti eternal security being TWISTED by those opposed to The Grace of God! The warning about returning to THE LAW in Hebrews means there's No Grace, no Sacrifice, no forgiveness for anyone under the Law, even if they are confessing their sin (supposedly), since they are NOT going to the True High Priest, not understanding where forgivness comes from!
So, did they REALLY ever truly KNOW and believe THE TRUE GOSPEL?
If they did, would they have left it? I don't know. What person knows without question that Jesus is the Only Way then leaves Him? Someone who didn't actually believe!
How obvious is it?
All I know is I have absolutely no plans to abandon my faith and trust in the Only One who can save me.
I also know the only reason I can say this is because he gave me the information to begin with!
Without Him - hell and death.
With Him - eternal life and joy.
God Bless
marianna.