Hebrews 6:4-8

Hebrews 6:4-5 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, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

*G5346 φημί phemi (fee-miy) v.

1. to disclose or reveal one’s thoughts (as bringing them to light).
2. (by extension) to reply.

**G40 ἅγιος hagios (ha’-ǰiy-os) adj.

1. holy (set apart by Yahweh God unto himself and apart from the world).

Hebrews 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***.

*G3895 παραπίπτω parapipto (pa-ra-piyp’-tō) v.

1. to fall aside.
2. (figuratively) to apostatize.

**G3341 μετάνοια metanoia (me-ta’-noi-a) n.

1. (subjectively) remorse and repentance for wrong doing, including as necessary, restitution.
2. (by implication) a change (reversal) of one’s mind (or the reversal of another person’s decision).

***G3856 παραδειγματίζω paradeigmatizo (pa-ra-d̮eig-ma-tiy’-zō) v.
to show alongside (the public), i.e. expose to infamy.

Hebrews 6:7-8 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

In the very same manner as the first 2 verses of this chapter, the four verses here are packed with powerful words delivering a much larger message. Paul is warning the people of the dangers of false living and false doctrine influencing the people. When we take on the name of YHVH and become His people we bare His name. If we behave outside of His will then we bring shame to His Holy Name. Let me give you a modern day example.

While driving I often see vehicles with the Christian symbol of Ichthys or “the fish”. I am to immediately understand that the person driving said vehicle is identifying with this particular group, and that the group recognizes Jesus as Savior. There has been more than one occasion where a vehicle with said symbol has passed my vehicle in excess of the posted speed limit, not just in an attempt to pass but this was their preferred traveling speed in direct violation of the law. Say what you will, but, this looks bad on the community of Christians when a member is willing to flaunt lawlessness.

What we are left witness to in this behavior is the hyperbolic nature of the modern church to the gift of Grace. This is not the message that Paul has been delivering here in Hebrews. In fact, it is quite the opposite. This lie of hyper-grace has existed since the Garden of Eden.

• Genesis 3:4 “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:”
• Jeremiah 7:8-10 “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, [biblical sin] and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?”

The Devil is constantly trying to weasel his way into our relationship with YHVH. God does not want to play games with His people so he created a marriage contract with them. As such, He is our loving protector and we should be His faithful partner. Additional heresies exist within the teaching of hyper-grace like the “magical get out of jail free card” played in the name of ‘the Rapture’. The outright denial of the “Old Testament” or Torah as the truth of God’s will for mankind opens pandora’s box for New Testament understanding.

The modern 501c3 has its claim to heaven while living like hell. They claim the Torah is bondage without the understanding behind it. They confuse Paul’s doctrine, despite Peters warning, as a result of Greco-Roman influence that has crept into the world of religion. Religion is an all-together different entity than God ever intended, it is a creation of man. Religion has so corrupted the Gospel of Truth that it is nearly unrecognizable.

None of the Protestant religions “call on the Name of YHVH” as prescribed in the Bible. They have created for themselves their own form of worship. They have taken for themselves days from the ancient pagan system of worship and dressed them up fancy claiming they are for God. Sounds exactly like a Golden Calf. Sounds exactly like what Jeremiah prophesied against and what the Devil used to fool Eve.

Marcion crept into the halls of the faithful in the first century and immediately started the hyper-grace movement. This is one of many to come. The 1840’s in America was fraught with the hyper-grace movement and they called it the Second Great Awakening. According to Wikipedia….

“The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. Revivals were a key part of the movement and attracted hundreds of converts to new Protestant denominations. The Methodist Church used circuit riders to reach people in frontier locations. The Second Great Awakening led to a period of antebellum social reform and an emphasis on salvation by institutions. The outpouring of religious fervor and revival began in Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1790s and early 1800s among the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists.

It led to the founding of several well known colleges, seminaries, and mission societies.

Historians named the Second Great Awakening in the context of the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1750s and of the Third Great Awakening of the late 1850s to early 1900s. The First Awakening was part of a much larger Romantic religious movement that was sweeping across England, Scotland, and Germany.

New religious movements emerged during the Second Great Awakening, such as Adventism, Dispensationalism, and the Latter Day Saint movement.”

I have highlighted the Methodists here for the simple reason they are in the current newsworthy buzz here in America. More on that to come, as for dispensationalism, we have covered that topic greatly in the past blogs, but basically it is the concept of one outcome for Jews and a different one for Christians.

• Jude 4-5,8 “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

• 2 Peter 2:1-3 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
• 2 Peter 2:18-22 “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 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. 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. 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. 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.

We can see from these first century champions of the faith… it is the life lived according to the doctrine of the Messiah. Torah! The world religions want you to adhere to their rules and rituals despite them having zero biblical basis. The modern 501c3 says that they too are “delivered to do these abominations.” Hyperbolic Grace.

• Jeremiah 8:4-6 “Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.”

Satan is currently working overtime to create divisiveness among the inhabitants of the earth. Not only do we see the dispensationalism we have referred to so many times, we see these fractured faiths splitting among themselves to create even more vitriol in the name of faith. Recalling our Methodist connection earlier, let’s look at recent events.

According to USA Today, in the fall of 2022, “The Global Methodist Church, a new, more conservative Methodist denomination, announced Thursday it will officially launch in May, the biggest step so far in the highly anticipated split of the United Methodist Church over LGBTQ rights.” The article continued with “The Global Methodist Church’s official launch was part of a widely agreed upon plan –called the “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation,” or the Protocol.”

This sounds more like “woke” gibberish than a plan. I that you can reconcile, by definition “to restore, make whole”, by separation. Doesn’t make sense. What is really going on here? Why are the next statements about money and control? The article finishes up with, “UMC delegates have not voted on the Protocol, meaning conditions of the plan have not received approval. A key stipulation in the Protocol is for the UMC to pay the new denomination $25 million to get started. As of 2018, the denomination had more than 12 million members worldwide.”

Now we have 12 million lives hanging in the balance. 12 million people have to decide where they stand on the issue this protocol. Now then, the Bible has a very clear stance on relationships. Why would the Methodist church adopt any stance outside of these clearly defined positions established by YHVH Himself?

This is the very plain example that Paul is laying out for us here in Hebrews. The modern church, and here specifically the Methodists have walked away from the Torah. As a result of this disobedience the Methodists have turned their focus to ecumenicalism. Ecumenicalism is the blurring of the doctrinal lines of the religion to make it more palatable to a wider audience. It is about pleasing men and not about pleasing God.

While the UMC battles uselessly over protocol they also claim the sanctity worthy of Gods approval. With heads held high they proclaim “Laypersons may become members and live out their faith through their local church without respect to sexual orientation or practice.” While the Bible states “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”

• Leviticus 20:13 “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

Looking back to the last verse listed here in Hebrews we see the outcome of this fruitless activity – “whose end is to be burned.”

• Luke 3:16-17 “John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.”
• Matthew 7:21-23 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

When the Torah was completed it was perfect. So much so, God finishes it with; Deuteronomy 12:32 “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”