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Can A Believer
Fall Away? “For in the
case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of
the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age
to come, 6 and then have fallen
away, it is impossible to renew them again to
repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God
and put Him to open shame.” Hebrews 6:4-6 Probably the most
definitive of all scriptures, this one clearly defines a believer
(“have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit”). On cannot partake
of the Holy Spirit unless he indeed is born again. It describes
the believer in a fallen away state (again the Greek is clearly
translated accurately) παραπιπτω
- parapipto
NT:3895, akin to A, No. 2, properly, "to
fall in one's way" (para, "by"),
signifies "to fall away" (from adherence to the realities
and facts of the faith), Heb 6:6. (from
Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright (c)1985,
Thomas Nelson Publishers) παραπιπτωin
the pap. mostly=become lost) fall beside, go astray, miss.
In other manuscripts =fall away, commit apostasy.” Greek-English
Lexicon - Walter Bauer’s by Arndt and Gingrich “For if, after
they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge
of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in
them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them
than the first. 21 For it would be better for them not to have known
the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from
the holy commandment handed on to them. 22 It has happened to them
according to the true proverb, "A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,"
and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."
2 Peter 2:20-22 One can only escape
the defilements of the world by entering into grace. The “way of
righteousness” is the way of Jesus as the passage itself defines.
"Then they
will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will
be hated by all nations because of My name. 10 "At that time many will fall away and will betray one another
and hate one another. Matthew 24:9-10 Jesus
warned of a great falling away in the end times. "He who
overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not
erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name
before My Father and before His angels.” Revelation 3:5 The following
scriptures help the understanding of what is being referred to as
“the book of life”. Jesus spoke of not erasing a name IF HE OVERCAME.
He indicated here that erasing a name was a possibility. The other
scriptures indicate there are also names that were never put in
the book of life. “And if
anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was
thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15
“All who
dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not
been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life
of the Lamb who has been slain.” Revelation 13:8 "So
because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I
will spit you out of My mouth.” Revelation 3:16
This
passage is yet another concept of having position and then being
rejected because of choices that were made. The concept of
having and then losing a position of grace is so clearly demonstrated
throughout the Bible, I have never quite understood the attempts
to remove the meaning from the above passages.[
i.e. Saul - lost his kingship, Esau - lost his birthright, Reuban
- lost his first born status. One generation of the nation of “Therefore let
us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through
following the same example of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:11 While we were looking
at a pre-cross list, the writers of the New Testament, including
Jesus, refer again and again to the concept of loss of position
with God as a New Testament possibility. One of the
patterns I’ve found present in the eternal security teaching is
a weak understanding of the doctrine of repentance being held by
its advocates. The concept of living life in an entirely different
way (“do not be conformed to the thinking of this world”) seems
to be somewhat neglected within their teachings. A true understanding
of repentance and its resulting fruits makes it rather difficult
to believe one can live an unrepentant life after receiving the
truth of the Gospel and continue in that state of grace. While the
act of being saved is attributed to God and Christ, the act of repentance
rests with us. It is clearly that of a choice which one can do or
not do as he so desires. The outcome then rests with each believer
and is similar to the calls made by Joshua. “Choose this day whom
you will serve”. Jesus saves and we determine what we will do with
our salvation. (“work out your salvation
with fear and trembling”.) Acts
2:38-41 Peter said to them, "Repent,
and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit. 39 "For the promise is for you and your children and
for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to
Himself." 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified
and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be
saved from this perverse generation!" 41 So then, those who
had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added
about three thousand souls. One of the
biggest problems that I see in the teachings that embrace this concept
of eternal security, as well as the concept of being selectively
pre-saved (Calvinism) is the tendency to isolate a truth from the
rest of the scriptures and build a doctrine from a notion rather
than build a doctrine from the whole. Knowing how to “rightly divide
the word of truth” is critical to building sound doctrine. What
I’ve seen those do who fall into a miss-interpretation is begin to build a doctrine
out of a part rather than the whole. Rather than put the pieces
of the puzzle together and see what the picture is like, they will
start with a desire for a particular picture and pick only those
pieces which tend to show their picture, discarding or peerverting
the rest. To rightly divide the word is to let the Bible interpret
the Bible. If all the pieces of the puzzle don’t fit into ones doctrine,
then one really needs to re-think their doctrine. To see what the
bible is about, take the picture as a whole and see what it represents
and then build from that. When a teacher
teaches the Bible, he teaches more than just the relative facts.
Also taught to the student is the manner in which the teacher interprets
the scriptures. Those who have grown up in Calvinism unfortunately
tend to build their doctrine the same way. The same flaws that produce
Calvinism are propagated throughout their understanding. The best
way to come out of this type of teaching it is to throw out what
has gone before and build from scratch, letting the Holy Spirit
put the Bible together as a whole and try to truly build “line upon
line” and “precept upon precept”. I was taught
how to interpret the scriptures. I was taught how to do exegetical
studies of the Greek and Hebrew and how to develop the passages
in those languages. I studied Greek enough to have a working knowledge
of it and break down the different forms of a word as well as their
roots. Paul himself demonstrated quite often how to build New Testament
doctrine from Old Testament scripture within his writing. This of
course was the only Bible of the day then. I don’t spend a lot of
time studying other men’s work. Not because I don’t accept any other
teachers or am proud of my own accomplishments, but so that I am
open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. The best text book for the
Bible is the Bible. Paul
spoke of his revelation of the gospel in a similar manner. “For
I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but
I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Galatians
1:11-12 Though I don’t
presume to be of Paul’s stature his methods are valid. I also realize
that no scripture is of any private interpretation according to
Peter, so I take particular care if my doctrine seems to deviate
from the main stream of Christian thought. I will compare my findings
with those who have gone before and be extremely critical of any
of mine that deviate. I also have men of stature whose opinions
I value and seek, though I don’t always draw the same conclusions
in all instances. In the matters I have just discussed however we
are of complete agreement. Hopefully
this will give a better understanding of what the Bible has to say
about this foundational doctrine. Because it is foundational, a
valid understanding of it is critical to the whole, as it is something
that one eventually must build on. If it is flawed the rest of the
house suffers. Paul talked of the Bereans
as being more noble because they spent their time studying the scriptures
and not the works of man. A valid commendation! By the same token,
it is critical that one develop sound doctrine and in order to do
that one must develop a strong and valid system for interpreting
the scriptures. I did some research into the Calvinist teachings
and from that came to the conclusions about their teachings that
I have mentioned. Their basic premise for building doctrine is not
sound. One of the reasons I have a requirement for those of the
Place to study the foundational teachings is so that those who lead
the flock of Christ will be able to build solidly within the framework
of the Bible itself. |
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the
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