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"For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6).
I want to give my take on this Scripture to make a bit clearer exactly who this Scripture refers to.
Right at the outset I want to say that it does not refer to genuine believers who fall into sin while yet retaining their general faith in Christ. I know they need to repent, and the opportunity for repentance is always open to them without restriction of any kind. We need to not only confess our sins but to keep our bodies under subjection by doing what we can to forsake any sinful habit patterns we might have. We need the strength of the Holy Spirit to accomplish it in most cases. That is a given.
The Scripture also doesn't apply to atheists, agnostics and cult members who have never known the truth of the gospel, have never received Christ or partaken of the Holy Spirit. The door to repentance is always open to them.
But there is a class of people where the Scripture does apply and that the door to repentance is firmly closed to them. These are the ones who previously received Christ, got filled with the Holy Spirit, and enjoyed the Christian life for a period of time. Then, knowing full well what they were doing, they decided, or some reason, to reject Christ totally and go back to a sinful, atheistic world-view. According to the Scripture I have quoted, there is no way they can be restored to repentance and faith in Christ again. The door is firmly closed against them. Now some may not be able to accept that because the God they believe in has to accept everyone who desires repentance back into the fold, even though the Scripture says differently.
We see the example of Esau, when he lost his birthright and blessing, sought it earnestly with tears, but to no avail. Because he sold his birthright to Jacob, he had lost it forever. He had it and rejected it. This is the same as a person who receives Christ, and then afterward totally rejects Him and declares himself as an atheist. He fits right into the person described in the Scripture as totally unable to be restored to repentance because he has trodden the blood of Christ underfoot and crucified Christ afresh.
Now, this is the reason why some atheists on Christianforums.com and possibly on this forum, who were once born-again Christians, but for some reason, have rejected Christ and departed the faith altogether and declared that they are atheists, in spite of every attempts to persuade them to see reason and re-affirm faith in Christ, they remain totally adamant in their atheism, to the point of viciously attacking those believers who try to help them see and understand the gospel.
The fact is, they fully understand the gospel, they have already experienced what it is to be a born-again believer filled with the Holy Spirit, but with that full knowledge, they have rejected Christ, trodden His blood underfoot and crucified Him afresh, and so there is no way they can repent; and so they can do no other but argue vehemently against any attempt to persuade them back to faith in Christ.
Even if they do decide to attempt to come back to Christ, and seek Him with remorse and many tears, their hearts cannot be changed, because the door to repentance is firmly closed against them. This is because a person can repent only through the work of the Holy Spirit, and if the Holy Spirit doesn't do it, there is no way they can repent. So although they might desire to undo their tragic rejection of Christ, they can only wait in fear for the judgement time where they will have to face the Lord and give an account for their rejection.
An example of one such atheist is the one who said in a post that they were once a born-again Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit, but because of an incident in their church, they decided to abandon the faith and become an atheist. Another person, who happened to be the Principal of a school I taught at, told me that he was a Spirit-filled Christian once, but because of all the "hypocrites" in the church, he decided to leave it and become and atheist. He told me that he wanted to go to hell, because his wife was also atheist and he wanted to go to where she is going so he wouldn't be separated from her. How very, very sad for him and her! So, according to the Hebrews 6 Scripture, there is little possibility that they will ever be restored to repentance.
I want to give my take on this Scripture to make a bit clearer exactly who this Scripture refers to.
Right at the outset I want to say that it does not refer to genuine believers who fall into sin while yet retaining their general faith in Christ. I know they need to repent, and the opportunity for repentance is always open to them without restriction of any kind. We need to not only confess our sins but to keep our bodies under subjection by doing what we can to forsake any sinful habit patterns we might have. We need the strength of the Holy Spirit to accomplish it in most cases. That is a given.
The Scripture also doesn't apply to atheists, agnostics and cult members who have never known the truth of the gospel, have never received Christ or partaken of the Holy Spirit. The door to repentance is always open to them.
But there is a class of people where the Scripture does apply and that the door to repentance is firmly closed to them. These are the ones who previously received Christ, got filled with the Holy Spirit, and enjoyed the Christian life for a period of time. Then, knowing full well what they were doing, they decided, or some reason, to reject Christ totally and go back to a sinful, atheistic world-view. According to the Scripture I have quoted, there is no way they can be restored to repentance and faith in Christ again. The door is firmly closed against them. Now some may not be able to accept that because the God they believe in has to accept everyone who desires repentance back into the fold, even though the Scripture says differently.
We see the example of Esau, when he lost his birthright and blessing, sought it earnestly with tears, but to no avail. Because he sold his birthright to Jacob, he had lost it forever. He had it and rejected it. This is the same as a person who receives Christ, and then afterward totally rejects Him and declares himself as an atheist. He fits right into the person described in the Scripture as totally unable to be restored to repentance because he has trodden the blood of Christ underfoot and crucified Christ afresh.
Now, this is the reason why some atheists on Christianforums.com and possibly on this forum, who were once born-again Christians, but for some reason, have rejected Christ and departed the faith altogether and declared that they are atheists, in spite of every attempts to persuade them to see reason and re-affirm faith in Christ, they remain totally adamant in their atheism, to the point of viciously attacking those believers who try to help them see and understand the gospel.
The fact is, they fully understand the gospel, they have already experienced what it is to be a born-again believer filled with the Holy Spirit, but with that full knowledge, they have rejected Christ, trodden His blood underfoot and crucified Him afresh, and so there is no way they can repent; and so they can do no other but argue vehemently against any attempt to persuade them back to faith in Christ.
Even if they do decide to attempt to come back to Christ, and seek Him with remorse and many tears, their hearts cannot be changed, because the door to repentance is firmly closed against them. This is because a person can repent only through the work of the Holy Spirit, and if the Holy Spirit doesn't do it, there is no way they can repent. So although they might desire to undo their tragic rejection of Christ, they can only wait in fear for the judgement time where they will have to face the Lord and give an account for their rejection.
An example of one such atheist is the one who said in a post that they were once a born-again Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit, but because of an incident in their church, they decided to abandon the faith and become an atheist. Another person, who happened to be the Principal of a school I taught at, told me that he was a Spirit-filled Christian once, but because of all the "hypocrites" in the church, he decided to leave it and become and atheist. He told me that he wanted to go to hell, because his wife was also atheist and he wanted to go to where she is going so he wouldn't be separated from her. How very, very sad for him and her! So, according to the Hebrews 6 Scripture, there is little possibility that they will ever be restored to repentance.
