Not By Works

A corollary of this can be seen in Marriage.

>A man and woman meet and begin to court.
>They fall head over heels in love and get married
>The honeymoon is great, nothing could be better. The world to them is perfect, and nobody could ever replace them.
>After a few years, the husband is called for his draft (he is a military man). And off he gets posted to a foreign country for a couple of years.
>In the first few monts of being apart, they write letters regularly to one another. Missing each other. Writing that they cant wait to be in each others arms again.
>More time passes. She thinks of her husband slightly less everyday. But she comforts herself that everything is still going well.
>She notices another man who looks at her in a certain way. Passing glances, the odd flirtation, the casual chat encounter.
>they start spending more time together, looking for opportunities to bump into each other.
>after a number of months they go on their first date together (although she would NOT call this a date). How can it be. They are just "friends".
>This becomes a more regular encounter, until one day it goes past what a healthy engagement should really be. Her heart falls for this new man.
>She hasnt seen her husband in a while. The letters excahnged are few and far between. She begins to justify in her heart that she has the right to be happy. Perhaps her husband doesnt love her so much anymore. She has the RIGHT to be happy. The RIGHT to companionship which her husband is not providing. And hey, she is not getting any younger.
>So this woman begins the affair with the new man. Her heart is now split between two men. And the more time that goes by the easier this becomes on her conscience. What was a nagging feeling of unease becomes easier and easier to deal with. Whats done is done she reasons.
>Her husband returns from the draft, but he finds that his wife is not the same woman he left. The light and sparkle in her eyes went out. She doesn't look at him in the same way as before.
>He can't quite put his finger on it. But shortly thereafter he finds out through the rumour mill that his wife hasd been having an affair for a few years.
>He confronts her with this. At first she denies, but when she is shown the evidence that he has, she finally admits it.
>Her husband still loves her, and says that he will forgive her, if she will repent of her deeds and come back to him and agree to stop seeing the other man.
>Yet she in her heart has fallen for the other man, and is not willing to give up on the other man. He makes her feel better than her husband does.
>Her unwillingness to change leads her husband to seek a divorce.

In the above parable, the Husband is God, the Wife the Believer, and the Other Man is Sin.

Please read Hebrews 4:1-3 which is part of the context of what the writer is talking about in Hebrews 3

He says that the rebellious Hebrews did not enter rest because of unbelief, then he says "we who have believed (perfect tense again) do enter into rest"

Of course believers who believed some time in the past and who still have that belief, which does not have to be repeated, enter in.
It's unbelievers who never believed, or who quit believing that don't enter in.

Review the Perfect tense again carefully. It's a past action that does not need to be repeated. Not a past action whose effect can not be undone. Only those who have the completed action of believing and still have it will enter into the kingdom of God.

From Strong's online concordance:

In Greek corresponds to the perfect tense in English, and describes an action which is viewed as having been completed in the past, once and for all, not needing to be repeated. Jesus' last cry from the cross, TETELESTAI ("It is finished!") is a good example of the perfect tense used in this sense, namely "It [the atonement] has been accomplished, completely, once and for all time." Certain antiquated verb forms in Greek, such as those related to seeing (eidw) or knowing (oida) will use the perfect tense in a manner equivalent to the normal past tense. These few cases are exception to the normal rule and do not alter the normal connotation of the perfect tense stated above.

Don't read that the effects of 'once for all time' will last forever just because the example used is the work of Christ that is complete and does not need to be repeated. As I say, it is the lasting application of that which is perfect and complete that is in question for the one who has believed in the past, not the efficacy of that which the believing is based on. You have to still have the believing you started out in to have the completed past, and not needing to be repeated, work of Christ applied to you.

Regardless of whether or not you physically leave, failing to continue in belief demonstrates that your belief was never firmly rooted and established from the start. There are genuine believers and there are make believers. I've heard others use the term, "fickle believers." Only genuine belief that continues is rooted in a regenerate heart.

No longer believes because belief was never firmly rooted and established from the start is the heart of the issue here.

Physically leaving would be the effect.

We who have believed do enter into rest, and they who did not enter could not enter because the Gospel was preached to them, but was not mixed with faith. What Gospel was preached to the Israelites in the desert that the writer of Hebrews is talking about?

The Family of Hosea
2 When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:

“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry

Faith in the promise made to Abraham about his son inheriting the blessing of God.

The Family of Hosea
2 When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:

“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great [a]harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”

3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:

“Call his name Jezreel,
For in a little while
I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu,
And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5 It shall come to pass in that day
That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:

“Call her name [b]Lo-Ruhamah,
For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,
[c]But I will utterly take them away.
7 Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,
Will save them by the Lord their God,
And will not save them by bow,
Nor by sword or battle,
By horses or horsemen.”

8 Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then God said:

“Call his name [d]Lo-Ammi,
For you are not My people,
And I will not be your God.

The Family of Hosea
2 When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:

“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great [a]harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”

3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:

“Call his name Jezreel,
For in a little while
I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu,
And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5 It shall come to pass in that day
That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:

“Call her name [b]Lo-Ruhamah,
For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,
[c]But I will utterly take them away.
7 Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,
Will save them by the Lord their God,
And will not save them by bow,
Nor by sword or battle,
By horses or horsemen.”

8 Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then God said:

“Call his name [d]Lo-Ammi,
For you are not My people,
And I will not be your God.

The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekelsa of silver and about a homer and a lethekb of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” 4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

Very narrow gate! OSAS very wide, very easy!

Until you can show this in scripture, it's only your once saved always saved biased opinion. Really. And I showed you conclusively that Hebrews 3:6 & 14 can not be interpreted to defend that assertion.

Then you do really mean the fake believer has to physically leave, not just be an unbeliever, to show they never really believed.

i dont understand this ever. why does God tell Hosea to do it? its wrong to take a harlot wife. thats what God told israel to not do why does God go against His own word? even rabbis in commentaries dont understand this.

You have not conclusively proved your argument from Hebrews 3:6 & 14 and it’s your NOSAS bias that keeps you from accepting the truth.

* except, we all sin, including you.

we all have unaddressed sin, hence our need to confess them.

I am not osas, I agree with you that we are saved by belief, but the truth is, the only thing that will condemn one to hell is not believing and having faith in Jesus.

sinless perfectionism is just as much of a lie as osas.

I am not osas,

sinless perfectionism is just as much of a lie as osas.

i dont understand this ever. why does God tell Hosea to do it? its wrong to take a harlot wife. thats what God told israel to not do why does God go against His own word? even rabbis in commentaries dont understand this.

God used His prophets as object lessons for Israel. What they did illustrated what Israel did. Idolatry and apostasy were spiritual harlotry (whoredoms). And that is what was happening in Israel.

The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

I never switched the protasis and apodosis. But your interpretation seems to make it "we will be partakers with Christ, if we hold fast our confidence steadfast to the end." The verb "made partakers" is perfect tense, not future tense. The ones who hold fast their confidence to the end are the ones who HAVE BEEN made partakers with Christ.