Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift… Do you ask me whether it is possible for a Christian man to commit a crime, and to sink into a doom like this? I dare not obliterate the tremendous force of this passage by denying the possibility. Far better leave it as it is — an awful hypothesis — to warn us against the danger and the guilt, than venture by fine-drawn speculations, to diminish its practical power. If you ask me how I can reconcile the passage as it stands, with the merciful promises which assure us of God's keeping if we trust in Him, I answer that these promises are to those who trust, and continue to trust, in God, not to those who trusted once, but whose trust has now perished; and I answer farther, that I would rather be charged by a whole council of theologians, with introducing scientific inconsistency into a theological system, than dare to lessen the term of a divinely-inspired warning, the undiminished awfulness of which may be needed to save some soul from death. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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, |
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