by Shannon Rayford

Created on: December 03, 2008   Last Updated: December 31, 2008

Hebrews 6:4-6 states, "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace."

This passage often scares many Christians. It scares them because they interpret it as meaning that all they have learned about Christian repentance and God's forgiveness are contradicted in this passage. We often hear Christians say things like, "once saved, always saved," but I believe that statement along with this passage can have two different meanings.

Many credit the authorship of Hebrews to Paul, but the author is unknown. It is apparent from the writing that the author is writing to a group of Christians who have been persecuted in some way, shape, form. If we try to put ourselves in the author's place we can imagine how he/she must feel about fellow Christians facing persecution. The author must feel that he/she should write something to convince these Christians not to turn their back on their fairly new religion. When I think about it this way, I believe the author is not trying to say that there is no forgiveness once you turn your back on God. I believe he/she is saying that if you turn your back on God, you were never truly with Him.

Look at the author's use of the word "impossible." Some have taken this to mean that once you have been a Christian and fall away, it is not possible for God to forgive you. In my opinion, the author actually means that it is not possible to taste the heavenly gifts, Holy Spirit, and taste the goodness of the word of God, then fall away. The difference is the first interpretation puts the impossibility on God forgiving you after you fall away. My interpretation puts the impossibility on a Christian falling away. In other words, I believe the author is saying a true Christian could never experience the word of God and choose to turn away from it.

Confusing? Take this example, if I said it is impossible to love someone, cheat on them, and ask for forgiveness because you would have broken the other person's heart. Some make interpret this as meaning that if you cheat on someone they will never forgive you, but what I actually mean is if you truly love someone you would never cheat on them, because if you cheat you never really loved them. Hebrews 6:4-6 can be interpreted the same way - if you are really a Christian you would never fall away, because if you fall away you were never really a Christian.

We must remember there are many ways to interpret the Bible along with any other writings, so it is important that we read it for ourselves repeatedly because we can find something new each time. We should study the Bible as if it is life's directions rather than read it as a daily chore, and never take anyone else's interpretation as our own because we may see things differently. Like when I hear people say, "once saved, always saved," many people interpret that as meaning a Christians can do whatever they want because they will always be saved, but I interpret it as meaning that once you are truly saved, there should be no need to be saved again and a true Christian would not do anything he/she wants just because they think they have a reserved seat in heaven.

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