Hi Denise,
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 Spirit,
v. 5 and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come,
v. 6 and who have fallen away; it is impossible, I say, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify the Son of God afresh to themselves and put Him to an open shame.
I believe what is being said in Hebrews 6 is a warning to believers to not become complacent, because there will be some that will fall away and lose out on the first resurrection. There are other warnings like this as well, look at the parable of the wheat and the tares. The wheat is the Elect and the tares are those that were among the wheat and appeared to be one, but was not and was separated at Christ's return and sent to the Lake of fire.
Paul also warned that you need to keep striving and not let down, because he knew that even he could be a castaway. Here is a excerpt from the 2006 Mobile Conference on 'A Word About Humility.'
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3720.msg116702.html ----------
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9 that I subject my body and hold it down and bring it under control and all of these things and I keep telling you how to live and how to act and I myself could be a castaway.
1Cor 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Now there’s a couple of things we should learn there. Number one is would he ever say such a thing if any of it is not within the realm of possibility for him to be a castaway? Now I want to tell you something, listen carefully to what I’m going I say.
If God has called you, you know He has called us from the foundation of the world (Matt, 25:34), predestined us (Eph. 1:5) to be called and to be justifies and those that He justifies He glorifies and all of that. If God has called you from before the foundation of the world to be one of His Elect, then you will be one of His Elect! You will not and cannot fall away! It’s impossible, I Scripturally believe that firmly, you cannot fall away.
2Peter 1:10 …for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
1Thes 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
v. 24 Faithful is He that calls you, WHO ALSO WILL DO IT.
But there is a little bit of a problem here. The Scripture says that Christ knows those that are His.
2Tim 2:19 Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are His…
Why does it say that, that Christ knows those that are His? BECAUSE WE DON'T! We don’t… He knows. We don’t. We don’t know 100%, maybe up there around 99.44%, but we don’t know 100% that we cannot fall away and be a castaway. We won’t be if we truly have been elected of God to be in the first resurrection, but He doesn’t tell us for sure that we are His Elect, it may only APPEAR.
There are these people that were just as sincere as I knew people to be on the outside and I know what happened to some of them. They were not what they appeared, they were not. It’s not that they changed from being an Elect, to not being an Elect. They were never Elect, it just appeared that way from out front.
But if you are an Elect, you will be! So the only question is. . . Am I?
Well God leaves a little question there. Why? To keep you humble! So you won’t say, well if we knew for sure and just say, ‘forget everything, I’m in like Flynn. I can do no wrong. Maybe I will do some sins and stuff, but it won’t matter, I already know in the end I will be in there.’
So Paul said that and he didn’t lie when he said it, I’ve got to be sure I do the right thing or I could be a castaway myself and what would that be if I’m teaching you all and I be a castaway. I’ve got to be sure I do what is right. So he did say that and it wasn’t a lie.
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I think we can surely have confidence if we are sincere, but we have to be careful not to get cocky as well.
mercy, peace and love
Kat