Inquiring Mind
Team Owner
My point in providing those passages revolve around its language:
1. Who is the audience?
2. Why is the author giving a warning to the audience regarding staying in the faith?
3. What are the consequences of "Falling away" or being "tangled" again in sins, or continuing to "sin willfully"?
-Again i think the context is plain and the warning is for a specific purpose. If there is no way that a born again believer can fall away from the Lord, then why the warning?
I have to say, as I read those scriptures, it would appear that if one has 'backslidden' they have NO chance of returning to the fold.
I mean read the Hebrews scripture without the commas:
"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened to renew them again unto repentance."
Really? Can that be true?
If so, how does one know when they have reached this state?
For example, if I knowingly cuss out the customer service rep @ a retail establishment, am I no longer saved? :
If I strike my wife in a burst of anger, my salvation is gone?
I dunno, authentic.