Originally posted by psalms 22.3
are you a baptist?
So when your beliefs don't agree with mine you refer to ad hominem attacks? I do attend a Baptist church but so what?
I wrote that last night from the hip without studying it and made a mistake. I was thinking of another verse. My appologies.
I don't believe these verses teach that a true believer can lose his salvation though. I will let the Bible Knowledge Commentary explain since I think it gives a good answer that is lengthy to type out myself. Here are the comments for Hebrews 6:4-6:
6:4-6. This passage has been interpreted in four ways: (1) that the danger of a Christian losing his salvation is described, a view rejected because of biblical assurances that salvation is a work of God which cannot be reversed; (2) that the warning is against mere profession of faith short of salvation, or tasting but not really partaking of salvation (The New Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1315); (3) that hypothetically if a Christian could lose his salvation, there is no provision for repentance (The Ryrie Study Bible, p. 1736); (4) that a warning is given of the danger of a Christian moving from a position of true faith and life to the extent of becoming disqualified for further service (1 Cor. 9:27) and for inheriting millennial glory. The latter is the interpretation adopted here. The entirety of these verses constitutes a single sentence in Greek as well as in the English of the NIV. The central assertion is: It is impossible for those who have . . . to be brought back to repentance. Following the words those who is a description of the persons whom the writer affirmed cannot possibly be brought back to a state of repentance. The description he gave shows that he had Christians in mind.
To begin with, he described them as individuals who have once been enlightened. This is a natural way to refer to the conversion experience (cf. 2 Cor. 4:3-6). The writers only other use of the verb enlightened, is Hebrews 10:32, where the reference to true Christian experience can hardly be doubted. In also calling them people who have tasted the heavenly gift, he again employed familiar concepts related to initial conversion (cf. John 4:10; Rom. 6:23; James 1:17-18). The effort to evade this conclusion by seeing in the word tasted something less than full participation failsin view of the writers own use of this word (Heb. 2:9) to describe Jesus experience of death. One might also compare 1 Peter 2:3, which quotes Psalm 34:8.
The description is continued with the words who have shared in the Holy Spirit. The underlying Greek employs again the word metochoi, used in Hebrews 1:9 of the companions of the messianic King, and in 3:1, 14 of the Christian readers (and is also used in 12:8). The preceding expression evidently led the author to think about those who had received the gift of the Spirit as a result of their conversions. Finally, there are also those who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming Age. Here the thought naturally applies to converts whose instruction in the Word of God had given them a genuine experience of its goodness and who likewise had known the reality of miracles. The word rendered powers (dynameis) in NIV is the usual one in the New Testament for miracles and is an apparent allusion back to the experience mentioned in 2:4. In every way the language fits true Christians with remarkable ease. The effort to see here mere professors of the faith as over against true converts is somewhat forced.
There follows, however, the grim expression if they fall away. But the translation does not do full justice to the original language, where there is no hint of a conditional element. The Greek word parapesontas is in fact a part of the construction to which the preceding descriptive phrases belong. Thus a more accurate translation would be: It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted . . . who have shared . . . who have tasted . . . and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. Far from treating the question in any hypothetical way, the writers language sounds as if he knew of such cases.
Naturally the words fall away cannot refer to the loss of eternal life which, as the Gospel of John makes perfectly clear, is the inalienable possession of those who trust Christ for it. But the writer evidently has in mind defection from the faith, that is, apostasy, withdrawal from their Christian profession (cf. Heb. 3:6, 14; 10:23-25, 35-39). The assertion that such a failure is not possible for a regenerate person is a theological proposition which is not supported by the New Testament. Paul knew the dangers of false doctrine to a Christians faith and spoke of a certain Hymenaeus and Philetus who said that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some (2 Tim. 2:17-18). The author of Hebrews was a solid realist who took assaults against the faith of his readers with great seriousness. And he warned that those who succumb, that is, fall away, after all of the great spiritual privileges they had experienced, could not be brought back to repentance.
The reason is expressed in the words because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace. The words to their loss might be better rendered with respect to themselves. Those who renounce their Christian faith are, with respect to their own conduct and attitude, taking a step that amounts to a fresh public rejection of Christ. When they first trusted Him, they thereby acknowledged that His crucifixion had been unjust and the result of mans sinful rejection of the Savior. But by renouncing this opinion, they reaffirmed the view of Jesus enemies that He deserved to die on a cross. In this sense, they [were] crucifying the Son of God all over again. Since the original Crucifixion was especially the work of the Jewish nation, if the readers were Jews being lured back into some form of their ancestral religion, the writers words made a particular point. Their apostasy would be like stepping back over the line again and once more expressing solidarity with their compatriots who wanted Jesus put on the cross. That this was most serious was precisely the writers point. Such persons could not be won back to the state of repentance which marked their original conversion to Christianity. In affirming this, the authors words suggested a deep hardening of their hearts against all efforts to win them back, not to Christian conversion, but to Christian commitment.
Walvoord, John F., and Zuck, Roy B., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
God Bless