Butch5 said:
I agree, however, that's not the issue. The issue is the one who stops believing/trusting. In this passage believes is a present tense participle. It literally translates "is believing." Here is Young's Literal Translation.
YLT John 5:24 'Verily, verily, I say to you -- He who is hearing my word, and is believing Him who sent me, hath life age-during, and to judgment he doth not come, but hath passed out of the death to the life. (Jn. 5:24 YLT)
Jesus' words pertain to the one who "is hearing" and "is believing". There is nothing here promised for the one who "used" to believe. So, yet the one who "Is believing has eternal life, however, that says nothing about the person who stops believing.
You are adding "the one who stops believing" into scripture. There is not one scripture that says a believer can stop believing.
The Barrd said:
Can any OSASer explain this passage?
Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Read verse 7 and 8 for me. What do they say Barrd. These passages all go back to the Crop / Farmer / Root / Seed / Soil / Thorns and Thistles / Unbelief / Vine. Unbelieving jews who had no root of salvation...
THE WORD "PARTAKERS" - Partakers is not referring to believers. None of the terms used below here are used anywhere else in Scripture to refer to salvation. Nor are any of the normal New Testament terms and synonyms for salvation used in this passage. Nowhere is it stated that these people have been justified, sanctified, born again, regenerated, or saved. No mention is made of faith or of eternal life. Verse 6 does not say that these people cannot be renewed to salvation, but that they cannot be renewed to repentance.
1. It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened
2. who have tasted the heavenly gift
3. who have shared in the Holy Spirit
4. who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age
5. and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance.
Notice the term "fallen away" here. This passage is speaking to non-believing Jews specifically in Israel, being that Hebrews is a JEWISH book. Why did they fall away? Because they had no root of salvation! It all goes back to the verses you are ignoring, verses 7-8..
Matt 13:21 NIV
But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.
Heb 6:4-8 NIV It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a
crop useful to those for whom it is
farmed receives the blessing of God. 8But land that produces
thorns and
thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.