Is It Possible for a Saved Person to Be Lost?
J. Vernon McGee
Hebrews 6:4-6
For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)
This is, by all accounts, the most difficult passage in the Bible for an interpreter to handle, regardless of his theological position. Dr. R.W. Dale, one of the great minds in the earlier field of conservative scholarship, wrote: ''I know how this passage has made the heart of many a good man tremble. It rises up in the New Testament with a gloomy grandeur, stern, portentous, awful, sublime as Mount Sinai when the Lord descended upon it in fire, and threatening stormclouds were around Him, and thunderings and lightnings and unearthly voices told that He was there.''
Every reverent person has come to this particular passage of Scripture with awe and wonder, and every sincere person has come to this passage with a sense of inadequacy - and certainly that is the way in which we now approach it. In moving into the heart of a study of these verses, we are immediately confronted with the amazing fact that commentators, generally, have avoided this chapter. Even such a man as Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, the prince of expositors, has completely bypassed it in his book, God's Last Word to Man. However, when we do come upon the interpretations available and summarize each, we can well understand why men have chosen to remain clear of this scene of confusion.
Several Interpretations In the interest of an honest search for the evident meaning of these verses, let us examine some of the interpretations. In the first interpretation - to me the most unsatisfactory of all given - the teaching suggested is that the Christians ...
J. Vernon McGee
Hebrews 6:4-6
For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)
This is, by all accounts, the most difficult passage in the Bible for an interpreter to handle, regardless of his theological position. Dr. R.W. Dale, one of the great minds in the earlier field of conservative scholarship, wrote: ''I know how this passage has made the heart of many a good man tremble. It rises up in the New Testament with a gloomy grandeur, stern, portentous, awful, sublime as Mount Sinai when the Lord descended upon it in fire, and threatening stormclouds were around Him, and thunderings and lightnings and unearthly voices told that He was there.''
Every reverent person has come to this particular passage of Scripture with awe and wonder, and every sincere person has come to this passage with a sense of inadequacy - and certainly that is the way in which we now approach it. In moving into the heart of a study of these verses, we are immediately confronted with the amazing fact that commentators, generally, have avoided this chapter. Even such a man as Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, the prince of expositors, has completely bypassed it in his book, God's Last Word to Man. However, when we do come upon the interpretations available and summarize each, we can well understand why men have chosen to remain clear of this scene of confusion.
Several Interpretations In the interest of an honest search for the evident meaning of these verses, let us examine some of the interpretations. In the first interpretation - to me the most unsatisfactory of all given - the teaching suggested is that the Christians ...
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