They could not stay faithful and loyal to the Lord for the long run, and as a result, they tried to rebel against Him and were eventually thrown right out of heaven! There is no doubt that the above two verses are talking about nonbelievers. But is it also talking about Christians?
I guess we will all find out once we cross over into heaven and we see who has made it and who has not. But I would not want to be taking any chances with the Lord by wallowing in any of the above sins on any type of regular and frequent basis. This next powerful verse is coming direct from Jesus Himself.
What is the will of God the Father? I personally believe that He may be referring to Christians. If Jesus is specifically referring to Christians with this phrase, then this is another verse that is showing that a Christian could possibly lose their salvation.
I believe this verse is also telling us that God will not be mocked! You cannot accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and then turn around and start to enter into some of these heavier sin areas — and then think you can get away with it and that God will just look the other way.
The sins of adultery and homosexuality are two very scary sins for any Christian to want to engage in with the way some of the above verses are worded. I would not want to be tempting my eternal fate with God the Father by engaging in these two sins, or any of the other sins mentioned in the above two verses. Notice that Jesus is specifically talking about people who have prophesied and cast out demons in His name. Is Jesus referring direct to Christians? I believe that He is, especially on the second act that these people had been doing — casting demons out of people in His name.
An unbeliever cannot cast demons out of someone because they do not have the legal authority to be able to do so. Demons are cast out of people by the power of the Holy Spirit. You have to have the Holy Spirit living and operating on the inside of you before you can cast demons out of someone. Only born-again Christians have the Holy Spirit living and operating on the inside of them — unbelievers do not! As a result, unbelievers do not have the power of the Holy Spirit or the legal authority from God the Father to cast demons out of anyone, including themselves if they have been caught in their death grip.
Two Scripture verses will back this up. In Acts , several Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call on the name of Jesus to try and cast demons out of several people. When they tried to cast these demons out in the name of Jesus, one of the evil spirits replied back to him stating that they knew who Jesus and Paul were, but they did not know who he was.
And not only were they not able to cast the demons out, but the demons were allowed to physically attack them and were able to drive them right out of the house without a stitch of clothing left on them!
And these men were Jewish men, not total unbelievers. Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Notice in the first verse listed above that Jesus is not contesting that these people really were casting demons out of people in His name.
I believe Jesus is directly acknowledging that these people really were casting demons out in His name. And if Jesus is acknowledging this fact — then these people have to be born-again Christians, because only born-again Christians have the power of the Holy Spirit operating on the inside of them to be able to cast demons out of anyone. I have heard some scholars argue that the people Jesus is referring to in this verse were unbelievers, not saved Christians.
These unbelievers were then casting demons out of people and prophesying in His name as a direct result of operating under some kind of demonic influence or possession. In other words, they were all doing this operating under the power of a demonic spirit rather than the power of the Holy Spirit. However, the second verse stated above is telling us that unbelievers cannot cast demons out of people, even if they are operating under some kind of demonic influence and power. Another very powerful verse to help back up the revelation that demons are not going to be casting out other demons in a person is found in Mark In this verse, the Scribes are accusing Jesus of casting demons out of people by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.
Jesus then responds back stating that Satan is not going to be casting out himself, and that a kingdom will not be be able to stand if it becomes divided against itself. In other words, not even Satan or one of his demons are going to try and cast out other demons in a person, as they would just be defeating their own purposes in trying to do so. It is someone who is doing this on a regular and consistent basis, not someone who is just occasionally slipping up.
Again, I believe Jesus is giving us a major clue in this verse in that He is really talking about Christians, not unbelievers. And if He is, then this verse is more proof that a Christian can lose their salvation if they push the envelope too far and too long with the Lord, with no intentions of ever pulling out of their sinful behaviors, and no remorse for doing it in the first place. This next verse is very interesting. It talks about a sin that could lead to death and a sin that will not lead to death.
Again, is this verse referring to Christians? If it is, then it is definitely delineating between certain types of sins. It is implying that some sins are obviously worse than others. Some of these sins could cause us to lose our salvation and other types of sins will not.
Here is the verse:. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. God will obviously be the final judge on what sins could lead to death and which ones will not. But again, as a Christian, I would not want to be tempting my eternal fate with God the Father by engaging in some of the heavier sins mentioned in the above verses, thinking that He will look the other way just because we got saved earlier on in our lives.
If you put both of these phrases right next to one another, then I believe they could be telling us that a Christian could lose their salvation. Put this verse together with all of the other ones mentioned above — and the Scriptural evidence may really be there that a Christian could possibly lose their salvation if they try and push the envelope to far with God the Father by falling into and engaging in some of the heavier type sins as described above.
I will leave with you with one very scary intense verse from the Bible. This verse is coming direct from Jesus Himself from the Book of Revelation. The Book of Life is a Book that has every single saved and born-again believer recorded in it. Once you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, your name is then written and recorded in this Book. But notice what Jesus says in reference to this specific Book. Love Worth Finding's purpose is to bring people to Christ and mature them in the faith.
This happens primarily through efforts in publishing and broadcasting biblical truth. John Have you ever known someone who was spiritually born twice? Nowhere in the Bible will you find a passage that describes anyone being saved twice. Now there were times when I disappointed my parents. There were times when my father had to chastise me, but I am a Rogers.
I will be a Rogers for all eternity. It is fixed. It is done. We're glad you're here! It really helped me to understand the content. No, he says, clearly the person being talked about is a born-again believer.
Yes, I agree with you. Some may disagree with me in this point but this is my current understanding. Well, I also agree with you for the most part that His grace is not irresistible because He respects our human will. I believe this to be one of the most honest and stimulating discussions I have ever had the privilege of sharing with another like-minded Christian lady.
Thank you for being willing to be open regarding this topic: I really appreciate your feedback! Of course, I hope to look at other Bible texts in the future; be free to mention any that you feel will contribute to this ongoing conversation.
I really enjoyed this post, and also the video. However, I recently saw a different video with an entirely different interpretation and I wonder what you might think about it. I will link it here if you want to watch. But, basically he says that the passage is meant for Messianic Jews who after coming to a saving knowledge of Christ and tasting of the Holy Spirit were trying to then go back to the High Priests and the Temple to make sacrifices for their sins.
In other words those verses are saying that it is impossible to have your sins covered by an animal sacrifice once Jesus came and became the sacrifice. Its a lengthy video, but worth watching in my opinion. I will definitely watch the video. Thanks for your input!
FYI, while I appreciate the Bible lesson in his video, you should know ahead of time that he can be quite harsh and vulgar. The message is good, if not his manners. The way the speaker ties the text together with the cultural and religious background of the Jewish believers is, of course, natural.
It is natural to assume that since this letter mainly addresses the Hebrews and their preoccupation with the Mosaic law and the priesthood, along with the sacrifices that used to be offered as part of that, that this section of Hebrews 6 would be in response to that.
So then, where does the impossibility lie? I believe that the genuineness of our commitment to Christ, while it starts with a simple and sincere belief from the heart, will naturally continue to bring forth fruit in our lives and a faith that is evidenced by works.
I hope that clarifies some things! But if not, or if you have other comments or questions to add, please let me know! I was spending as lovely evening re-reading some of your posts and came across this. I absolutely agree with your conclusions.
Now I understand that Jewish culture can be known from reading the Old Testament, but I still believe that a lot of the foundational ties he makes in his argument would be almost impossible for a non-Jew to grasp without outside information. What do you think? I do faintly remember it, but I would have to watch it again to be able to answer more specifically.
However, I can say right now that most of the Bible seems pretty clear and simple to me without having to know all the details about the culture of those times. So, one of the best ways to understand a text—after reading it carefully, slowly, and openly—is to compare it with other similar passages in the Bible. Even without much understanding about a specific culture, this should give us the information we need.
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