We have the early Catholic church to thank for our profound ignorance of the old testament. But that is where so much understanding is derived for so-called difficult passages of the New Testament. In Hebrews 10:26-31, the author compares sinning in the willful rejection of the New Covenant of Priest and Sacrifice with the willful rejection of the old covenant of priest and sacrifice. He says if they were punished so severely by being cutoff from the covenant for rejecting the old covenant, how much
more so for rejecting the New Covenant.....
Hebrews 10:26-31
26If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?30For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,”f and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”g 31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
These are the passages about rejecting the law of Moses the author is referring to....
Deuteronomy 29:18-21
18Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,c 19because when such a person hears the words of this oath,d he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’
This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 20The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven 21and single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
Numbers 15:30-31
30But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the LORD. That person shall be cut off from among his people. 31He shall certainly be cut off, because he has despised the word of the LORD and broken His commandment; his guilt remains on him.”
There was no sacrifice provided in the old covenant for sinning in unbelief, and there isn't in this covenant either, even though
@Blood Bought 1953 and others insist there is. Just like the old covenant, you can't willfully reject the New Covenant of Priest and Sacrifice and live in your old life in unbelief without being condemned to hell.
Now we can argue all day long if a true believer is capable of doing that, but what difference does it make? Having once believed, or having never believed, if you find yourself in the position of trampling on the Son of God by willfully sinning in unbelief you're going to hell. No theology of man is going to change that fact. Not even BB's heretical 'abounding grace' theology changes that truth. It doesn't matter if the person who falls under that condemnation was ever a believer or not. The point is the person who does that is going to hell. They are an unbeliever. Unbelievers do not inherit the kingdom of God.
Instead of focusing on that truth many in the church have comforted themselves with a horribly misguided once saved always saved theology that has them entering the kingdom of God at the end of the age
no matter what. Instead of making sure they're really saved the way the Bible says to make sure you're saved, the church today makes salvation sure by saying once you are saved you are always saved no matter what. Not even unbelief being able to keep you from being saved. But as we see from the Bible, there is no truth whatsoever to that teaching.
The unbeliever goes to hell. Period. There is no grace given to allow an unbeliever living in his unchanged, willfully sinning life to enter into the kingdom. Grace does not abound all the more where there is no faith. The person who "
invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart’" (Deuteronomy 29:19) is going to hell,
no matter what. That was true in the old covenant, and it is all the more true and severe in this New Covenant. No once saved always saved theology can change that truth.