Do Christians apologize?

[cslewislover]

Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened,...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.

1. It is referring to born again children of God (enlightened, tasted of the heavenly gift, etc.). - agreed
2. It is possible for them to fall away ("if they shall fall away") - agreed
3. Parapipto means to "fall aside". -hopefully agreed.
4. No where does it say lose their salvation, lose eternal life, or become unborn as a child of God.
5. It says that it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance, or for them to go back to repentance, because in going back to repentance if it were possible they would crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.
6. It does not say that it is actually possible for anyone to crucify the Son of God afresh, but rather that it is impossible.

Can you provide a commentary or two that claims this?

[truthman]

B.W.
Again, well said. Ultimately, God alone knows where anyone else stands, and God alone is judge.
I can only be certain of where I stand.

[truthman]

Can you provide a commentary or two that claims this?

Why a commentary? Are they superior to Scripture??
Let us read the Scriptures for ourselves, study them for ourselves being careful to read and understand the correct grammatical meaning of the words, pray the Holy Spirit guide us into all truth as Jesus promised, and then stand on what the Scriptures say.

[Gabrielman]

Why a commentary? Are they superior to Scripture??

No because they are often written by studied scholars who have looked at the original language and the context in what is said. You wouldn't have a problem with that, would you? -_- I do not think that commentaries are bad, they make you think about your position and make you have to re look at everything at times, and possibly change your view. Commentaries can also be written by strong men and women of God, inspired by Him to write them. There is nothing wrong with them and they can be helpful. Now, can you provide a cometary or two that claims this? A simple yes or no would suffice.

[Canuckster1127]

Can you provide a commentary or two that claims this?

Why a commentary? Are they superior to Scripture??
Let us read the Scriptures for ourselves, study them for ourselves being careful to read and understand the correct grammatical meaning of the words, pray the Holy Spirit guide us into all truth as Jesus promised, and then stand on what the Scriptures say.

And then too, be ready in humility to be open to be shown where what is being stood on may not be in fact what the scriptures say. Interpretation is easily mistaken for the scripture itself and persons who confuse the two have painted themselves into a corner. I'm not saying you're doing that or that Scripture shouldn't be stood upon. I just have noticed of myself in my past and in other situations where spiritual pride in not being willing to adopt some level of humility in this regard can lead to spiritual pride and an unteachable spirit.

[truthman]

No, no commentary.
Please look at each step, consider what is said and address it accordingly.

[truthman]

Can you provide a commentary or two that claims this?

Why a commentary? Are they superior to Scripture??
Let us read the Scriptures for ourselves, study them for ourselves being careful to read and understand the correct grammatical meaning of the words, pray the Holy Spirit guide us into all truth as Jesus promised, and then stand on what the Scriptures say.

And then too, be ready in humility to be open to be shown where what is being stood on may not be in fact what the scriptures say. Interpretation is easily mistaken for the scripture itself and persons who confuse the two have painted themselves into a corner. I'm not saying you're doing that or that Scripture shouldn't be stood upon. I just have noticed of myself in my past and in other situations where spiritual pride in not being willing to adopt some level of humility in this regard can lead to spiritual pride and an unteachable spirit.

True, humility is good for us all.
There is also the danger of when we read Scripture and don't want to study it out for ourselves of taking the easy way out and adopting what a commentary says. Commentaries are fallible: every one of them. The Scriptures are infallible. Commentaries are just as dependent upon interpretation as the Scriptures and any other written text. Commentaries are useful for giving us ideas of possible meaning, but that is all. They are not and cannot be the final authority.

[Byblos]

It is consistent with once "saved always saved."
In the parable of the sower and the seed, only when the seed (the word of God) bore fruit was the person saved.

No it is not consistent with it because there is always the chance that it will turn out to be a false belief. Time is not an indication, amount of works of charity and love are not an indication, nothing is an indication because there is always a chance it may not turn out to be a genuine faith. Which leaves you with nothing more than a moral assurance, not an absolute one. Now don't get me wrong, I am one who wholeheartedly agrees with moral assurance. But if you want to stick with absolute assurance and OSAS then the ONLY reasonable (of reason) choice you have is Jac's free grace interpretation. It is the only internally consistent position wrt OSAS, sorry. That is what Jac has been arguing all along and it makes perfect sense.

[sinnerbybirth]

Hey Truthman,
This is just a small paragraph from "Hard Sayings of the Bible" Could there not also be truth in the following statement?

His warning comes as a description of what it would mean to apostatize. That he is talking about full-blown apostasy is clear, for he uses the phrase "they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace" (Heb 6:6). That is, they once confessed that Jesus was Lord and Messiah, which means they repented of the injustice of the crucifixion. Now in rejecting the faith they are declaring that the crucifixion was correct after all - Jesus was a blasphemer and not Messiah. Such a public recantation exposes Jesus to public disgrace.

Just a thought.

[truthman]

OK, for those who require a commentary, here is what the Bible really says.

If they shall fall away; apostatize, renounce Christ, and return again to unbelief and sin.-- Put him to an open shame; expose his name and his cause to public reproach. The defection of one from any cause, who has been ranked as a friend to it, always tends to this result. There can be no doubt that this terrible warning against the guilt and the hopeless ruin attendant on apostasy, (#4-6 ,) is well as many others of similar import, contained in the word of God, (#10:26-29 ,) is addressed to real Christians. But they ought not to lead us to question the certainty of the final salvation of all who truly believe. Indeed, the moral influence which such warnings are designed to exert, is a part of the system of means by which God fulfils his design, very distinctly made known in other passages, (# John 17:2. Rom. 8:29, 30. 1 Pet. 1:4, 5 ,) effectually to keep those who once truly give themselves up to his care. -Abbott

Verse 6. If they shall fall away. Literally, "and having fallen away." "There is no if in the Greek in this place — ' having fallen away.'" Dr. J. P. Wilson. It is not an affirmation that any had actually fallen away, or that, in fact, they would do it; but the statement is, that on the supposition that they had fallen away, it would be impossible to renew them again. It is the same as supposing a case which, in fact, might never occur: — as if we should say, "had a man fallen down a precipice, it would be impossible to save him"; or, "had the child fallen into the stream, he would certainly have been drowned." But though this literally means "having fallen away," yet the sense, in the connexion in which it stands, is not improperly expressed by our common translation. The Syriac has given a version Which is remarkable, not as a correct translation, but as showing what was the prevailing belief in the time in which it was made, (probably the first or second century,) in regard to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. "For it is impossible that they who have been baptized, and who have tasted the gift which is from heaven, and have received the spirit of holiness, and have tasted the good word of God, and the power of the coming age, should again sin, so that they should be renewed again to repentance, and again crucify the Son of God, and put him to ignominy." The word rendered "fall away" means, properly, "to fall near by any one"; "to fall in with, or meet"; and thus to fall aside from, to swerve or deviate from; and here means undoubtedly to apostatize from, and implies an entire renunciation of Christianity, or a going back to a state of Judaism, heathenism, or sin. The Greek word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is material to remark here, that the apostle does not say that any true Christian ever had fallen away. He makes a statement of what would occur on the supposition that such a thing should happen but a statement may be made of what would occur on the supposition that a certain thing should take place, and yet it be morally certain that the event never would happen. It would be easy to suppose what would happen if the ocean should overflow a continent, or if the sun should cease to rise, and still there be entire certainty that such an event never would occur.
To renew them again. Implying that they had been before renewed, or had been true Christians. The word again" —  παλιν  — supposes this; and this passage, therefore, confirms the considerations suggested above, showing that they were true Christians who were referred to. They had once repented, but it would be impossible to bring them to this state again. The declaration, of course, is to be read in connexion with the first clause of #Heb 6:4, "It is impossible to renew again to repentance those who once were true Christians, should they fall away." I know of no declaration more unambiguous than this. It is a positive declaration. It is not that it would be very difficult to do it; or that it would be impossible for man to do it, though it might be done by God; it is an unequivocal and absolute declaration that it would be utterly impracticable that it should be done by any one, or by any means; and this, I have no doubt, is the meaning of the apostle. Should a Christian fall from grace, he must perish. HE NEVER COULD BE SAVED The reason of this the apostle immediately, adds.
Seeing. This word is not in the Greek, though the sense is expressed. The Greek literally is, "having again crucified to themselves the Son of God." The reason here given is, that the crime would be so great, and they would so effectually exclude themselves from the only plan of salvation, that they could not be saved. There is but one way of salvation. Having tried that, and then renounced it, how could they then be saved? The case is like that of a drowning man. If there was but one plank by which he could be saved, and he should get on that, and then push it away and plunge into the deep, he must die. Or if there was but one rope by which the shore could be reached from a wreck, and he should cut that and cast it off, he must die. Or if a man were sick, and there was but one kind of medicine that could possibly restore him, and he should deliberately dash that away, he must die. So in religion. There is but one way of salvation. If a man deliberately rejects that, he must perish.
They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh. Our translators have rendered this as if the Greek were —  ανασταυρουντας παλιν —  crucify again, and so it is rendered by Chrysostom, by Tindal, Coverdale, Beza, Luther, and others. But this is not properly the meaning of the Greek. The word ανασταυροω is an intensive word, and is employed instead of the usual word "to crucify," only to denote emphasis. It means that such an act of apostasy would be equivalent to crucifying him in an aggravated manner. Of course this is to be taken figuratively. It could not be literally true that they would thus crucify the Redeemer. The meaning is, that their conduct would be as if they had crucified him; it would bear a strong resemblance to the act by which the Lord Jesus was publicly rejected and condemned to die. The act of crucifying the Son of God was the great crime which outpeers any other deed of human guilt. Yet the apostle says, that should they who had been true Christians fall away, and reject him, they would be guilty of a similar crime. It would be a public and solemn act of rejecting him. It would show that if they had been there they would have joined in the cry, "Crucify him, crucify him!" The intensity and aggravation of such a crime perhaps the apostle meant to indicate by the intensive or emphatic ανα in the ανασταυρουντας. Such an act would render their salvation impossible, because
(1.) the crime would be aggravated beyond that of those who rejected him and put him to death — for they knew not what they did; and
(2.) because it would be a rejection of the only possible plan of salvation, after they had had experience of its power and known its efficacy. The phrase "to themselves," Tindal renders, "as concerning themselves." Others, "as far as in them lies," or as far as they have ability to do. Others, "to their own heart." Probably Grotius has suggested the true sense. "They do it for themselves. They make the act their own. It is as if they did it themselves; and they are to be regarded as having done the deed." So we make the act of another our own when we authorize it beforehand, or approve of it after it is done.
And put him to an open shame. Make him a public example; or hold him up as worthy of death on the cross. See the same word explained in See Barnes "Mt 1:19", in the phrase, "make her a public example." The word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Their apostasy and rejection of the Saviour would be like holding him up publicly as deserving the infamy and ignominy of the cross. A great part of the crime attending the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, consisted in exhibiting him to the passing multitude as deserving the death of a malefactor. Of that sin they would partake who should reject him, for they would thus show that they regarded his religion as an imposture, and would, in a public manner, hold him up as worthy only of rejection and contempt. Such, it seems to me, is the fair meaning of this much-disputed passage — a passage which Would never have given so much perplexity if it had not been supposed that the obvious interpretation would interfere with some prevalent articles of theology. The passage proves that if true Christians should apostatize, it would be impossible to renew and save them. If then it should be asked whether I believe that any true Christian ever did, or ever will fall from grace, and wholly lose his religion, I would answer unhesitatingly, No. Comp. See Barnes "Joh 10:27,28 Ro 8:38,39 Ga 5:4. If then it be asked what was the use of a warning like this, I answer,
(1.) It would show the great sin of apostasy from God if it were to occur. It is proper to state the greatness of an act of sin, though it might never occur, in order to show how it would be regarded by God.
(2.) Such a statement might be one of the most effectual means of preserving from apostasy. To state that a fall from a precipice would cause certain death, would be one of the most certain means of preserving one from falling; to affirm that arsenic would be certainly fatal, is one of the most effectual means of preventing its being taken; to know that fire certainly destroys, is one of the most sure checks from the danger. Thousands have been preserved from going over the Falls of Niagara by knowing that there would be no possibility of escape; and so effectual has been this knowledge, that it has preserved all from such a catastrophe, except the very few who have gone over by accident. So in religion. The knowledge that apostasy would be fatal, and there could be no hope of being saved should it once occur, would be a more effectual preventive of the danger than all the other means that could be used. If a man believed that it would be an easy matter to be restored again, should he apostatize, he would feel little solicitude in regard to it; and it has occurred, in fact, that they who suppose that this may occur, have manifested little of the care to walk in the paths of strict religion, which should have been evinced.
(3.) It may be added, that the means used by God to preserve his people from apostasy have been entirely effectual. There is no evidence that one has ever fallen away who was a true Christian, Comp. #Joh 10:27,28, and #1Jo 2:19; and to the end of the world it will be true, that the means which he uses to keep his people from apostasy will not in a single instance fail.
{a} "seeing" "Since"
{b} "afresh" "again" - Barnes

Verse 6. If they shall fall away και παραπεσοντας And having fallen away. I can express my own mind on this translation nearly in the words of Dr. Macknight: "The participles φωτισθεντας, who were enlightened, γευσαμενους, have tasted, and γενηθεντας, were made partakers, being aorists, are properly rendered by our translators in the past time; wherefore, παραπεσοντας, being an aorist, ought likewise to have been translated in the past time, HAVE fallen away. Nevertheless, our translators, following Beza, who without any authority from ancient MSS. has inserted in his version the word si, if, have rendered this clause, IF they fall away, that this text might not appear to contradict the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. But as no translator should take upon him to add to or alter the Scriptures, for the sake of any favourite doctrine, I have translated παραπεσοντας in the past time, have fallen away, according to the true import of the word, as standing in connection with the other aorists in the preceding verses."

Dr. Macknight was a Calvinist, and he was a thorough scholar and an honest man; but, professing to give a translation of the epistle, he consulted not his creed but his candour. Had our translators, who were excellent and learned men, leaned less to their own peculiar creed in the present authorized version, the Church of Christ in this country would not have been agitated and torn as it has been with polemical divinity.

It appears from this, whatever sentiment may gain or lose by it, that there is a fearful possibility of falling away from the grace of God; and if this scripture did not say so, there are many that do say so. And were there no scripture express on this subject, the nature of the present state of man, which is a state of probation or trial, must necessarily imply it. Let him who most assuredly standeth, take heed lest he fall.

To renew them again unto repentance As repentance is the first step that a sinner must take in order to return to God, and as sorrow for sin must be useless in itself unless there be a proper sacrificial offering, these having rejected the only available sacrifice, their repentance for sin, had they any, would be nugatory, and their salvation impossible on this simple account; and this is the very reason which the apostle immediately subjoins: — 

Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God They reject him on the ground that he was an impostor, and justly put to death. And thus they are said to crucify him to themselves — to do that in their present apostasy which the Jews did; and they show thereby that, had they been present when he was crucified, they would have joined with his murderers.

And put him to an open shame. παραδειγματιζοντας. And have made him a public example; or, crucifying unto themselves and making the Son of God a public example. That is, they show openly that they judge Jesus Christ to have been worthy of the death which he suffered, and was justly made a public example by being crucified. This shows that it is final apostasy, by the total rejection of the Gospel, and blasphemy of the Saviour of men, that the apostle has in view. See the note on "Heb 6:4" -Clarke

if they shall fall away this sense of a deliberate renunciation of the Christian God, which is equivalent to εκουσιως αμαρτανεις "sin wilfully" in #Hebrews 10.26. The sin against the holy Spirit, which Jesus regarded as unpardonable, the mysterious αμαρτια προς θανατον "sin unto death" of #1John 5.16, and this sin of apostasy, are on the same level. The writer never hints at what his friends might relapse into. Anything that ignored Christ was to him hopeless …  The meaning of the vivid phrase is that they put Jesus out of their life, they break off all connexion with him; he is dead to them. This is the decisive force of σταυρουσθσαι "crucify" in #Gal 6.14. The writer adds an equally vivid touch in και παραδειγματιζοντας "put him to an open shame" (= τον υιον θεου λαταπατησας κτλ., "trodden under foot the son of God" #Heb 10.29) — as if he is not worth their loyalty.

Moffatt, Hebrews, 79f

impossible …  to renew them again unto repentance "Yes" he now adds, "and in some case that is impossible. Relaying a foundation of repentance, etc.! That cannot be done for deliberate apostates." The implication is that he reader are in danger of this sin, as indeed he has hinted already (in #Heb 3.7 4.14), and that one of the things that is weakening them is their religious inability to realize the supreme significance of Jesus. To remain as they are is fatal; it means the possibility or a relapse altogether. "come on," the writer bids, them, "for if you do not you will fall back, and to fall back is to be ruined." The connexion between this passage and the foregoing, therefore, is that to rest content with their prsent elementary hold upon Christian truth is to have an inadequeate grasp of it; the force of temptation is so strong that this rudimentary acquaintance with it will not prevent them from falling away altogether, and the one thing to ensure their religious position is to see the full meaning of what Jesus is and does. This meaning he is anxious to impart, not as an extra but as an essential. The situation is so serious, he implies, that only those who fully realize what Jesus means for forgiveness and fellowship will be able to hold out. And once you relapse, he argues, once you let go your faith, it is fatal; people who deliberately abandon their Christian confession of faith are beyond recovery.

Moffatt, Hebrews, 77

if they shall fall away The nominal church of God is just in this state. There is to be falling away, and they are to be broken off; prophesied of in Romans 11, to be cut off, if they do not continue in His goodness. The apostasy will come, and no renewing them again unto repentance.

Now a little word for ourselves — what we have got in Christ. We have heavenly things, we are associated with Christ in heaven; "because I live, ye shall live also." I have all in Christ. He is my life, my righteousness, before God. Then God rests with delight in me, because in Christ. What place have I in Christ? In heaven, and He has given me the Holy Spirit to know it and enjoy it, so that my soul rests on it as the testimony of God. God cannot lie. Abraham got a promise, and he believed in it; an oath, and he believed it. I have more than that. I believe He has performed it. I have a righteousness now in the presence of God; and we have more in hope, namely, the glory that belongs to His righteousness. I have life, righteousness, the Holy Ghost as the seal, and more, the Forerunner is gone in, and the Holy Ghost gives me the consciousness of my union with Him; not merely the fact that sin is put away. We have the Spirit in virtue of the righteousness. The Holy Ghost has come to tell me I am in that Christ. What is the practical consequence? If the glory He has is mine, I am going after Him. Then all in the world is dross and dung.

"They might have had opportunity to have returned": that is, where faith is exercised and put to the test. You who have known the Lord some time have had opportunity to have returned, how has it been with you? A stone left on the ground gradually sinks in. There is constantly a tendency in present things to press down the affections — not open sin, but duties, and nothing is a greater snare than duties. We have one duty, that is to serve Christ. On the side of God, it is all bright. -Eclectic notes

6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they {d} crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame.

(d) As men that hate Christ, and as though they crucified him again, making a mockery of him to all the world, to their own destruction, as Julian the Apostate or backslider did. -Geneva Bible notes

6. If — Greek, "And (yet) have fallen away"; compare a less extreme falling or declension, #Ga 5:4, "Ye are fallen from grace." Here an entire and wilful apostasy is meant; the Hebrews had not yet so fallen away; but he warns them that such would be the final result of retrogression, if, instead of "going on to perfection," they should need to learn again the first principles of Christianity (#Heb 6:1).

to renew them again — They have been "once" (#Heb 6:4) already renewed, or made anew, and now they need to be "renewed" over "again."

crucify to themselves the Son of God — "are crucifiying to themselves" Christ, instead of, like Paul, crucifying the world unto them by the cross of Christ (#Ga 6:14). So in #Heb 10:29, "trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith … sanctified, an unholy thing." "The Son of God," marking His dignity, shows the greatness of their offense.

put him to an open shame — literally, "make a public example of" Him, as if He were a malefactor suspended on a tree. What the carnal Israel did outwardly, those who fall away from light do inwardly, they virtually crucify again the Son of God; "they tear him out of the recesses of their hearts where He had fixed His abode and exhibit Him to the open scoffs of the world as something powerless and common" [BLEEK in ALFORD]. The Montanists and Novatians used this passage to justify the lasting exclusion from the Church of those who had once lapsed. The Catholic Church always opposed this view, and readmitted the lapsed on their repentance, but did not rebaptize them. This passage implies that persons may be in some sense "renewed," and yet fall away finally; for the words, "renew again," imply that they have been, in some sense, not the full sense, ONCE RENEWED by the Holy Ghost; but certainly not that they are "the elect," for these can never fall away, being chosen unto everlasting life (#Joh 10:28). The elect abide in Christ, hear and continuously obey His voice, and do not fall away. He who abides not in Christ, is cast forth as a withered branch; but he who abides in Him becomes more and more free from sin; the wicked one cannot touch him; and he by faith overcomes the world. A temporary faith is possible, without one thereby being constituted one of the elect (#Mr 4:16,17). At the same time it does not limit God's grace, as if it were "impossible" for God to reclaim even such a hardened rebel so as yet to look on Him whom he has pierced. The impossibility rests in their having known in themselves once the power of Christ's sacrifice, and yet now rejecting it; there cannot possibly be any new means devised for their renewal afresh, and the means provided by God's love they now, after experience of them, deliberately .and continuously reject; their conscience being served, and they "twice dead" (#Jude 1:12), are now past hope, except by a miracle of God's grace. "It is the curse of evil eternally to propagate evil" [THOLUCK]. "He who is led into the whole (?) compass of Christian experiences, may yet cease to abide in them; he who abides not in them, was, at the very time when he had those objective experiences, not subjectively true to them; otherwise there would have been fulfilled in him, "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance" (#Mt 13:12), so that he would have abided in them and not have fallen away" [THOLUCK]. Such a one was never truly a Spirit-led disciple of Christ (#Ro 8:14-17). The sin against the Holy Ghost, though somewhat similar, is not identical with this sin; for that sin may be committed by those outside the Church (as in #Mt 12:24,31,32); this, only by those inside. -Jameson, Faucet & Brown

Ver. 6. If they shall fall away; a falling away, or apostatizing, in proportion like Adam, such a παραπτωμα as his was, #Ro 5:15-17, whereby they are totally unchristianed, as he was turned into a sinner; perfidiously revolting from all those supernatural workings of the Holy Ghost, whereby their natural spirit was elevated, but not changed, unto their old swinish and canine temper of spirit and course of life that they led before they professed themselves Christians, as #2Pe 2:18-22. They freely forsake their professed Christian state, and make shipwreck of all; #Jude 1:4,10,16,18,19. Whether παλιν, again, ought to be referred to falling away, so as to denominate the apostate no Christian, as he was at first, before his profession, or to renewing following, it makes no difficulty, for it is a real truth in both parts; only interpreters generally refer it to the latter, as do ours, and so we shall consider it.

To renew them again unto repentance; they cannot renew and bring themselves to the same state they enjoyed, and from which they fell; nor can the Christian ministry do it by their exhortations or counsels, thunders or comforts; the offended, wronged Spirit withdraws, and will not assist or elevate theirs to act above nature again, #Ge 6:3 Isa 63:10; but leaves them justly to themselves, so as he will neither by himself, nor by others, suffer it to be done having limited his power by his will in it. They shall neither have a new principle infused into them, nor their minds or hearts changed by him to repentance, because they have undervalued his lower operations and motions on their souls, revealing Christ to them through the gospel, and have by their sinful negligence not improved them to seek from him the better and higher ones which he mentions, #Heb 6:9,10, and were to be effected by the exceeding greatness of his power.

Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh: that which renders this renovation of them impossible, is their ill treatment, by their apostacy, of their Redeemer, who was to bring them as children to glory, which they by the gospel knew, and by profession owned him ascended and sat down on the right hand of God, and who had, by the operation of his Spirit, elevated their natural principles so to discern him, and to confess him: by this their apostacy they look on him as an impostor and deceiver, as #2Pe 2:1 Jude 1:4, and deny him to be a Saviour to them, rejecting his sacrifice, and would, as much as in them lieth, dethrone him, and, if he were within their reach, would crucify him again, and tread him under their feet, as #Heb 10:29, and actually do it to him in his members; as the apostate Julian did in former ages, and the papists do at this day. -Poole

It is impossible to renew them again (αδυνατον παλιν ανακαινιζειν). The αδυνατον (impossible) comes first in verse #4 without εστιν (is) and there is no "them" in the Greek. There are three other instances of αδυνατον in Hebrews (#6:18; 10:4; 11:6). The present active infinitive of ανακαινιζω (late verb, ανα, καινος, here only in the N.T., but ανακαινοω, #2Co 4:16; Col 3:10) with αδυνατον bluntly denies the possibility of renewal for apostates from Christ (cf. #3:12-4:2). It is a terrible picture and cannot be toned down. The one ray of light comes in verses #8-12, not here.

Seeing they crucify to themselves afresh (αναστραυρουντας εαυτοις). Present active participle (accusative plural agreeing with τους  …  παραπεσοντας) of ανασταυροω, the usual verb for crucify in the old Greek so that ανα- here does not mean "again" or "afresh," but "up," sursum, not rursum (Vulgate). This is the reason why renewal for such apostates is impossible. They crucify Christ.

And put him to an open shame (και παραδειγματιζοντας). Present active participle of παραδειγματιζω, late verb from παραδειγμα (example), to make an example of, and in bad sense to expose to disgrace. Simplex verb δειγματισαι in this sense in #Mt 1:19. -Robertson's Word Pictures

Which one is right???

[sinnerbybirth]

Hmmm........Maybe all of them.

Maybe if you think you can loose your salvation, you can. Maybe if you believe you can't loose your salvation, you won't.
Then again, what happens if I, being a christian, blasphime the Holy Spirit? Some Christians go so far as to say you can't do that. What do you think?

[truthman]

I started a new topic since this one is way of topic. See the topic "Children of God are Born Again with Eternal Life"