Category: Hebrews

Hebrews 6:1-6, can you lose your salvation?

Hebrews 6:1-6, can you lose your salvation?

1. According to Roman Catholic doctrine no man can know if he is saved.

2. This is the Arminian position.

3. This is the Calvinist position.

4.  This seems to be the position of the author.

The difference between Arminius’ and Calvin’s five tenets.

Numbers 20:8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

This is a clue to what the impossible verses really mean. Think of Jesus as the rock, which he is. God told Moses to speak to the rock , not strike it as he did the first time, but instead he struck the rock twice. Jesus was struck once at the cross for our sins, from now on we speak to Christ. The Hebrews came out of the sacrifice culture, and some looked wistfully at the time when they could atone for their sins yearly. The temple was still standing at the writing of this letter, and the pressure was high to go back to their old ways. After the cross there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, and this is why it says “To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.”

Hebrews 4:1-10, the Sabbath-rest (“σαββατισμος”) for the People of God.

Hebrews 4:1-10, the Sabbath-rest (“σαββατισμος”) for the People of God.

Psalm 95:11 “So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Genesis 2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

Psalm 95:7b Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,[quarreling]
    as you did that day at Massah[testing] in the wilderness,

October 24, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read the last chapter of the letter to the Hebrews and one chapter of Ezekiel.

October 24: Hebrews 13, Ezekiel 15 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Hebrews 13. Show love for each other, be hospitable, practice outreach, honor marriage and be content. But “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” Remember, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever”, and we have a heavenly altar, not made with hands, and our sacrifices are sacrifices of praise, thanksgiving, doing good and with joy. This was the last two of the “let us” in the book of Hebrews for a total of fourteen. The theology part ends with “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” This covenant was instituted before time began, that is why modern translations call it the eternal covenant. Finally, I add my personal thoughts on who was the author of the book of Hebrews.

Ezekiel 15. The word of the LORD: “Jerusalem is a useless vine.”

October 23, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read the twelfth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews and one chapter of Ezekiel.

October 23: Hebrews 12, Ezekiel 14 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Hebrews 12. Let us fix our eyes to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. This and four other “let us” in the book of Hebrews bring us to a total of twelve, all intended to teach us how to live and bring us closer to Jesus and in so doing we get disciplined by God for our benefit. But it also comes with the fifth and final warning to us: “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven”

Ezekiel 14. Idolatry was to be punished, judgment on the Israelis’ unfaithfulness was inescapable.

October 22, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today, back to normal. We read the eleventh chapter of the letter to the Hebrews and one chapter of Ezekiel.

October 22: Hebrews 11, Ezekiel 13 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Hebrews 11 is called “the great faith chapter”. “Without faith it is impossible to please God“. In the faith hall of fame the people recorded are in order, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses’ parents, Moses, the people crossing the Red Sea, the fall of the walls of Jericho and the innkeeper Rahab. Then the author ran out of time to mention Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets. “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

Ezekiel 13 proclaims woe to the false prophets.

October 21, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today is different. We read only one chapter of Hebrews

October 21: Hebrews 10 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

This chapter deals with Christ’s sacrifice of himself “once for all“. This is what constitutes the new covenant. and since sacrifice for sins are done away with it means we must live “in a new and living way“. In the letter to the Hebrews there are eight “let us” to tell us how. After that I divert into the difference between dispensationalism  with its ten covenants and covenant theology, which has only three, and the different dispensations, of which we now are in the dispensation of grace. The next question is, when did the dispensation of grace, or church age, as it is also called, start? This too is quite interesting, but that was when it hit me. It doesn’t matter, we live in “today”. This is quite fantastic, and the narrative returns to Hebrews, where it explains that the law of Moses was inferior to the new and living way. It comes with a warning though: Do not sin deliberately! Verses 28 through 31 are quite tough, and give us pause to ponder. Is it really that bad? No, there is still hope for the believer, “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” The verse 38 was the verse that convinced me I had to be baptized in a believers baptism, even though I had been baptized as an infant. It really had nothing to do with salvation, that was settled at the time of belief. It was an act of faith and obedience to remain in close fellowship with God. “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

October 20, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read the ninth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews and two chapters of Ezekiel.

October 20: Hebrews 9, Ezekiel 11, Ezekiel 12 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Hebrews 9 tells of the earthly sanctuary and the much superior heavenly sanctuary into which Christ entered once and thus fulfilled the new covenant. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

Ezekiel 11. The prophet saw in a vision hat God will bring judgment on wicked counselors, and  that He will eventually regather and restore Israel!

Ezekiel 12. Things were getting worse, people would see visions of peace where there is no peace,  Judah’s future captivity is portrayed and the judgment is not to be postponed.

October 19, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read the eighth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews and two chapters of Ezekiel.

October 19: Hebrews 8, Ezekiel 9, Ezekiel 10 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Hebrews 8. Jesus, among all other things is forever the High Priest of the New Covenant.

Ezekiel 9.  The prophet Ezekiel saw in a vision how the idolaters were to be slain.

Ezekiel 10. The vision continued with Ezekiel seeing the same whirling wheels as in Ezekiel 1 and while they were hovering over Jerusalem the Glory of God departed from the Temple.

October 18, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today we read the seventh chapter of the letter to the Hebrews and four chapters of Ezekiel.

October 18: Hebrews 7, Ezekiel 5, Ezekiel 6, Ezekiel 7, Ezekiel 8 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Hebrews 7 tells of Jesus, the high priest, after the order of Melchizedek. Thanks to this, animal sacrifices according to the Law are done away with, and “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.”

Ezekiel 5. God told Ezekiel to prepare himself and prophesy that there will be a sword against Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 6, God proclaimed judgment on idolatrous Israel.

Ezekiel 7. And this judgment on Israel was to be in their near future,

Ezekiel 8, Because there were abominations in the Temple.