Is Hebrews a Problem for Eternal Security?

The idea of “eternal security” is that once a person receives saving faith and is truly born again, they will forever more be a Christian. Come what may, they will forever maintain faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. God has supernaturally transformed a Christian’s mind so that they cannot deny Him. It is ultimately impossible for them who today would die and go to Heaven to later change their mind, losing that faith which saves them, and therefore spend eternity in Hell. Generally, there are two main arguments against this view. The first is anecdotal evidence that there are Christians who do, in fact, appear to have once believed and then later rejected Christ. The second comes from a number of Biblical references which appear to suggest that one can indeed lose their salvation. I believe that eternal security is true from passages like Romans 8:29-30 or John 10:27-28, which reads “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” I find a lot of support for the eternal security position in Scripture, but many, in opposition, will cite passages from Hebrews like this one...

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (Hebrews 6:4-6)

While I could write for pages and pages defending eternal security, which I believe to be true, today I want to resist doing that and focus only on the apparent disagreement which comes from the book of Hebrews. So we’ll come back to this passage from Hebrews 6. But I want to focus on Hebrews because I am just amazed by the number of Christians who struggle with this, or who twist Hebrews to try to resolve the conflict they perceive in it. And there are a number of ways in which Christians have tried to resolve the conflict. Firstly, I’ve heard evangelists essentially give up, saying “Yes, eternal security is true... unless you’re really, really determined to go to hell!” Others solve the problem by saying that apostasy doesn’t lead to loss of salvation, but to loss of some reward in heaven, and that’s what Hebrews is talking about. But I don’t think that’s what Hebrews is about, as we’ll see. And then there are hyper-dispensationalists, who say that eternal security applies to us in this age, but that Hebrews is written to believers in a whole different age where salvation is by works, and that at that time you will be able to lose your salvation. This view, however, fails to recognize that nobody can ever be saved by works; it’s literally impossible. But generally, all of these views acknowledge that there is strong Biblical support for eternal security, and these are just ways to try to reconcile Hebrews’ apparent conflict with that doctrine. I want to say, however, that there is no conflict between Hebrews and the rest of Scripture.

Now for those who believe, as I do, that our salvation is secure in Christ and that we cannot lose it; we all tend to explain the phenomenon of apostate Christians as those who never really had genuine faith in the first place. And when it comes to this passage in Hebrews, I believe that if we just consider the whole message and purpose of the Hebrews Epistle, this is precisely the kind of person that the writer has in mind. In my view, there are essentially three kinds of people in the world... there are the unsaved, the saved, and then there are those who may have a lot of knowledge about religion and even be deeply involved in the Church and pious living, but who do not really have a genuine faith. And this category of people are not some invention of mine for the sake of getting my theology and hermeneutics to work... the Bible is very explicit about such people. Most overtly, Jesus’ every rebuke to the Pharisees was to try to reveal to them and to us that such a group of people exists, and that they were those very people. The Pharisees were the most deeply involved people in the religion of Yahweh, and yet Jesus said of them...

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. (John 8:44)

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus spoke of such a people, whose outer appearance seems righteous and pious, but who nonetheless have no saving faith...

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

So you see people who have every appearance of being genuinely saved... they prophesy and cast out demons and do mighty works! But there is something lacking in them, and that is ultimately a saving faith which results in their actions aligning with the will of God Himself. Now perhaps when many Christians get to the Book of Hebrews they make the assumption, because this is now an epistle, that the target audience are all genuinely saved Christians. But of course, any epistle was written to a physical body of believers in a particular church, and any particular church will consist of both those who are indeed genuinely saved, but potentially also those who, like the people in Matthew 7, seem to think that behaving like a Christian is all there is to actually being one. They are “nominal Christians”; that is, Christians in name only. So I want to spend some time showing why I think the writer to the Hebrews does have this “nominal group” in mind. Now, I think that this is evident all throughout the book, so I don’t have time to make my case exhaustively. Do please go and read the Book of Hebrews for yourself and see if you can confirm in your own mind that what I’m saying is true.

In terms of the overall purpose of the book, it appears to be written to Jews who have become Christians but who are now considering returning to the former practices of Judaism. If they were to do this, it would certainly be a case of apostasy. So let’s first look at how the writer to the Hebrews approaches this problem. He makes a point from the Old Testament. He reminds them of how, in the days of Moses, there was one congregation of Israel but that many of those sinned (through idolatry) and were judged. And then he says...

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. (Hebrews 4:2)

This makes it very clear, in my mind, that the author is distinguishing between those of faith and those who do not have a genuine faith. Speaking to his audience, he is wanting them to consider carefully... do they, themselves, have genuine faith? Even though they’ve been calling themselves Christians for some time, so too did those Israelites in the desert, of whom the writer says “were not united by faith”, consider themselves part of the congregation of Israel. This distinction is set up even earlier in the book of Hebrews when the writer quotes the Old Testament to make his point...

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion [that is, those who rebelled in the exodus], … They [those in the rebellion] always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ (Hebrews 3:7,8,10)

So they “have no known my ways”. We can look back and see the similarity in Matthew 7; those nominal Christians there were ultimately “workers of lawlessness”. In saying “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts...”, he is referring to the calling of the Holy Spirit to be saved.

When we get to Chapter 6, which we quoted at the start of the post, those who have “tasted the heavenly gift” and “shared in the Holy Spirit” suggests to many that these are genuine Christians. But to “taste the heavenly gift” and “share in the Holy Spirit” means, to me, to have been surrounded by genuine Christians and to have reaped the benefits of being in such a community. It’s to have witnessed the activity of God through the Church, though one may not themselves be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. There are such people... I myself was one for 28 years of my life!

Now I think that what Hebrews 6 tells us is that such people, if they do reject Christ, may find that it becomes supernaturally impossible for them to later make a genuine acceptance of Christ. This is God’s judgement on them; to have received so much of the witness of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and to then reject Him, God seals their fate [See What is the Unforgivable Sin?]. John 16:8-11 teaches us that the Holy Spirit works in the lives of all people, so it’s perfectly consistent to say that the Holy Spirit is involved in the lives of nominal Christians. But the writer goes on to say...

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. (Hebrews 6:9)

That is to say, ‘there are these nominal Christians out there, but we don’t think any of you are...’ In fact, the writer considers that in their case, they are sure of “things that belong to salvation.” This suggests that the group he is speaking of really are nominal Christians, not having salvation at all. Of course he’s writing out of concern for those who appear to be nominal Christians, but here he is probably addressing his immediate audience; the pastor and elders of the church. As an aside, verses 13-20 of the very same chapter are, in fact, a very strong proof text for the eternal security position.

Chapter 10 of Hebrews is the other main passage which suggests, to some, loss of salvation. There we read words like this...

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26-27)

Again, the assumption here is that one who has “received knowledge of the truth” must be a saved person; and so this would suggest a loss of salvation due to persistence in deliberate sin. But there is a very relevant passage in 1 John which reads:

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:6)

John is speaking to a church precisely to help them distinguish between genuine and nominal Christians! So again, it is clear from John that one who deliberately and willfully defies God in sin is a nominal Christian. And much like in Hebrews 6 where the writer says (again I paraphrase), “there are nominal Christians, but I don’t think any of you are...”, he comforts them in chapter 10 with similar words...

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. (Hebrews 10:39)

Again we see clarification that this group who are destroyed through apostasy do not actually have faith, and that faith will “preserve our souls”; a phrase which lends support to the doctrine of eternal security. While the book addresses those who may not have a genuine faith, it is also directed to genuine Christians in a number of ways. When I read the book, I'm not afraid of falling away and being damned because of it. But I am encouraged to stand up for the witness of Christ, and to be an example to all of what true faith can and will achieve.

So I would encourage you to read the book of Hebrews for yourself, keeping in mind that the writer is trying to reach those who have been associated with the church for some time, but through attempts to leave the church (parallel to 1 John 2:19), some have shown that they don’t actually have a genuine faith. They are like those Israelites in the Exodus who saw the miraculous deliverance from Egypt, they saw the pillar of fire and the manna and received the Law from God Himself, and yet had no faith in God, as was evidenced by their idolatry. Likewise, by being in the church they are surrounded by the witness of the Holy Spirit, speaking to them through the Church. The writer is saying ‘don’t be like those idolaters in the Exodus who, despite all they’d seen, nevertheless rejected God’...

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. (Hebrews 12:22-25)