What is falling away as mentioned in Hebrews 6?

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
26,074
13,778
113
#22
What is falling away as mentioned in Hebrews 6?
We need to make sure we interpret this within the context in which it is given.

First of all please notice the IF: If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance...

So this is a hypothetical. Those who are genuinely saved are (1) enlightened, and (2) have tasted of the heavenly gift, and (3) were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and (4) have tasted the good word of God, and (5) the powers of the world to come.

Therefore it is impossible for them to "fall away", and IF (hypothetically) they would fall way, it is impossible for them to be renewed again unto repentance.

Therefore here is the conclusion of the matter: But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#23
Define Judaism. If you mean going back to the policies of our Lord, I would agree.
Judaism, The Whole book of hebrews was trying to keep the new jewish christians from returning to the law. Which was a tutor to lead them to christ. Christ came and went.. They should trust God. Not law.
 
K

KnowMe

Guest
#24
When scripture told me all scripture was true, then I read we were to follow Moses and again that we weren't to follow Moses I felt as if my world that I knew God created was fracturing. I retired and devoted every minute I could to study to find an answer. Here is what I found:

The world as it was during the time Christ lived is full of history, most of it foreign to us. Hebrews were a small part, they were those strange people who lived in strange ways, stared at a we stare at the Amish. In 70 AD and 132AD the Romans put Hebew's rebellion down so completely it made our Holocaust a minor second in disaster.

Until that time Christianity was not very separate from Judaism. Now men who were converted from idol worship became Christian leaders., men who knew no scripture as it was in that day and men who were not convinced all their idol worship customs were wrong. These men did know that being like those strange acting Hebrews was to be avoided.

In order to know what God wants of our church it is necessary to learn how these men changed God's word. They were men like Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp. Constantine made their ways law. The Catholic church helped make church policy follow them. The principles of the Lord as given in the OT were made fun of, as today the 613 laws are made fun of.

In order to bring the church back from pagan influences to God's ways, each policy needs to be looked at, the source of that policy found to be sure it is of God and not these church Fathers, and brought back to the policies of the Lord only.
the holocaust a minor second?, that’s saying a lot.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#26
The world as it was during the time Christ lived is full of history, most of it foreign to us. Hebrews were a small part, they were those strange people who lived in strange ways, stared at a we stare at the Amish. In 70 AD and 132AD the Romans put Hebew's rebellion down so completely it made our Holocaust a minor second in disaster.
WW2 made what happened an AD 70 look like a minor picnic. The holocost is the worst act of genocide against a group of people ever committed..
 
K

KnowMe

Guest
#28
Thanks, I missed that, Where do people get their info from?
Who knows, but about 6 million is quite a lot, 2/3 Jewish population in Europe wiped out, and that is not counting the other groups of people persecuted. the numbers are staggering.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#29
Who knows, but about 6 million is quite a lot, 2/3 Jewish population in Europe wiped out, and that is not counting the other groups and people persecuted. the numbers are staggering.
amen, Not just that, but the torture involved.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#31
yea, humanity insane.

sadly the biggest wasn’t shown in the graph, Jewish death toll.

What is sad to think the great war spoken of By Jesus will be far greater than that.. its almost incomprehensable
 
Apr 15, 2017
2,867
653
113
#32
What is falling away as mentioned in Hebrews 6?

Here's a link to Hebrews 6 on Bible Gateway: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+6&version=NIV

I've had moments where I've possibly stopped believing (being frustrated and finding a reason to not believe or not wanting to believe anymore and stopping after finding a reason not to believe might describe one or more of these moments), would this be falling away?
Falling away is believing something different other than a personal God, the God of Israel, and Jesus as Lord and Savior, after they have believed it for awhile.

They went back to the world with an alternate reality whether it was what they believed before they accepted the truth, or something different, and whether it is being an atheist, or believing another religion.

Heb 6:1 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,
Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

When we first believe, and confess Christ, we go through the basic doctrines of being saved, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, which we believe in the God of Israel, have faith, confess Christ, repent of our sins, our dead works according to the flesh, to do the works of the Spirit.

But after we have the basics down then we move on to understand more of God's word, which is mainly to act like Christ by the Spirit, which the Bible says we grow in Christ, and the preachers, and such, are for the perfection of the saints, which we go on to perfection to become a perfect man.

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6 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.

The people that have fallen away in these scriptures abandoned the truth of God, and Jesus Christ, and went back to the world, and believed an alternate reality, belief, so they abandoned all the basic doctrines of Christ that they went through not believing in them anymore, so they are back to being part of the world, and their salvation is forfeited, and null and void.

Which since they went back to the world abandoning the truth of God, and Jesus Christ, and the truth of salvation, and then believed they made a mistake and believe again, God said it is impossible for them to go through all the basic doctrines of Christ again in order to be saved, for then they put Christ to an open shame for believing, and then abandoning that, and then believing again.

So God will not allow them to come back to the Church, but their salvation is forfeited forever.

Moral of the story, never abandon God, and Jesus, and go back to the world, and this falling away does not have anything to do with sin, for all sin can be forgiven, even if a person lives in sin for a year it can be forgiven.

So these passages cannot mean someone that sins, for there is reversal for that to be back right with God, but there is no reversal for this for they went back to the world not believing the truth of God, and Jesus.

The Bible says they were saved, and they tasted the heavenly gift, and were once enlightened, and were partakers of the Holy Ghost.

1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
1Ti 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
1Ti 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
1Ti 4:4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
1Ti 4:5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

This is a good example right here, which shall occur at the latter times, which is now, real close to Jesus coming back, which is the new age movement who have a false interpretation of the Bible based on the occult, and evolution, which they believe people can still evolve to be greater, and spiritual, provided by the New Age Christ, the final teacher in the evolutionary process.

They do not acknowledge a personal God, but honor the God of forces, or the power of nature as their higher power, and Jesus is not Lord and Savior, but a good teacher in spiritual enlightenment, evolution, and love, and an ascended master, and avatar.

The Bible says some shall depart from the faith of the Bible, and Jesus, and go by their false interpretation of the Bible, which they went back to the world for they do not believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior anymore, so they abandoned their faith in Him, and forfeited salvation.

These people are lost forever, for if they believe again, they cannot be saved again, for they went back to the world believing an alternate reality, belief.

But if people were not saved, and believed the new age movement interpretation of the Bible, and then believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior, then they can be saved for they did not abandon it, for they did not believe it yet, but if they go back to the new age movement, the world, and believe again in Jesus as Lord and Savior they cannot be saved again.

2Th 2:2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

This speaks of falling away, but it is not the Church that fell away, for the Church can never fall away, for the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church, but it is only individuals that can fall away.

But this has to do with the condition of the world in response to the Gospel, which the nations came together to try to establish peace on earth, and the new age movement the unified religious system, with all religions interpreted by them, and they hinder anything that is taught contrary to the unified religious system, for they believe it is not the truth, and they are disrupting the peace plan for the world, and are hateful towards other people.

Which it is not someone that claims Jesus, and then abandons it, for that falling away, but it is still a falling away for the world stopped the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So the falling away in Hebrews 6 is someone that believed the truth, and were saved, but they abandoned the truth of God, and Jesus, and went back to the world believing an alternate reality, or belief, so they cannot be saved after that forever if they believe again.

2Pe 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
2Pe 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2Pe 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
2Pe 2:22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

These scriptures have to do someone that has been saved, and repented of their sins, and turning away from them, and then after a while of living for Jesus went back to the world enjoying sins, and if they stay that way then they are not saved, and it would of been better for them to not have known the way of righteousness, than to depart from it.

Because we can abstain from sins by the Spirit, and sin does affect our relationship with God.

2Ti 3:4 lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2Ti 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
2Ti 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

But many live in sin and think they are still right with God, but it appears according to these scriptures that they were never saved when they first confessed Christ, but had the improper belief concerning repenting of their sins, and abstaining from sins.

But they denied being led of the Spirit for they still wanted to enjoy the world, but believed there were saved, and could not fall despite their sins.

Hebrews 6, falling away, abandoning the truth of God, and Jesus, for a different belief, cannot come back to the Church.

2 Peter 2, went back to the world to enjoy sins after they repented, and were saved, and if they stay that way there is no salvation, but there is reversal here for they can repent of their sins, and be right again in their salvation.

But some people are ever learning but never able to come to the truth, which they did not even get saved when they first confessed Christ for they had the wrong belief about repentance, and enjoyed the world, and fleshy pleasures, and money, and material things for their wants, above their needs, and believed they were alright with God.
 

Blik

Senior Member
Dec 6, 2016
7,312
2,428
113
#33
Judaism, The Whole book of hebrews was trying to keep the new jewish christians from returning to the law. Which was a tutor to lead them to christ. Christ came and went.. They should trust God. Not law.
Through your misunderstanding of the words Paul uses you are blaspheming the word of God.
 

Ahwatukee

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2015
11,159
2,376
113
#34
The context is going back to judaism. Thats what the book of Hebrews is about.
Well, whether Jew or Gentile, the information would apply to both as being in Christ for those who would turn away, i.e. complete apostasy.

"So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding."
 

stonesoffire

Poetic Member
Nov 24, 2013
10,665
1,829
113
#35
IMO Hebrews was a book written to Hebrew Christians, and as EG points out, there's the warning not to go back to the law, or trusting in the law. There would not be another sacrifice for them.

I wonder how far these believed. Surface belief? Not fully in faith? And does the scripture about they went out from us for they were not of us, fit with this?
 

John146

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2016
17,153
3,697
113
#36
So, are you saying that the Epistle to the Hebrews was not written to the Church, and if not who was it written too?
Uhhhh, the Hebrews...the Israelites. It serves as an amendment to the mosaic law because a better covenant was established by the Messiah. The pro unions us, we, and our are not Christians but the Jewish brethren.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#37
Through your misunderstanding of the words Paul uses you are blaspheming the word of God.
Whatever dude

For once in your life study a book and try to figure out what the contextof the book is.. It is not even SURE that paul wrote it. So everything you said here is based on conjecture and opinion, not fact.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#38
Well, whether Jew or Gentile, the information would apply to both as being in Christ for those who would turn away, i.e. complete apostasy.

"So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding."
Yep. They know all that

So the author does not need to go into that any more

Like most church goers. They have knowledge of the gospel

Whether they had FAITH in that gospel and are saved, however, is a different matter altogether

People who have true faith do not walk away and go back to what they repented of in the first place. You do that BECAUSE you always had real faith in that to begin with, You just tried this “new” thing our for awhile. And found out it did not satisfy your thirst, so you return to what you always knew and always trusted.

In the case of the Hebrews, it was returning to law.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#39
IMO Hebrews was a book written to Hebrew Christians, and as EG points out, there's the warning not to go back to the law, or trusting in the law. There would not be another sacrifice for them.

I wonder how far these believed. Surface belief? Not fully in faith? And does the scripture about they went out from us for they were not of us, fit with this?
You hit the nail on the head sis
 

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
26,074
13,778
113
#40
This is not Church Age doctrine.
It is most definitely Church Age doctrine. The Church Age began with thousands of Hebrew Christians being saved in Jerusalem and Judea. They all needed a full explanation of the difference between the Old and New Covenants.

And today we have thousands of Messianic Jews within the Church Age who also desperately need the teaching of the epistle to the Hebrews.

BTW, for those who are unsure whether Paul wrote Hebrews, the last portion of Hebrews clearly shows that he is indeed the author: Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you. (Heb 13:23) Only Paul had a very close and loving relationship with Timothy as his son in the faith.