I must concede that I stand in agreement with many things you have written on and appreciate the depth and time you have put into your research. Not many today are willing to take the time. It is not difficult in our day and age to locate a plythera of books, concordances, lexicons, translations, commentaries and the like on the internet. Libraries at our finger-tips. We must each determine "truth" according to our faith in the source(s) we place our attention on and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
My question to you (and you might have already answered it for someone else, if so please direct me to the response):
In Heb. 10:26-31 please give your insight on what the Hebrew author is conveying towards/about the "willful sinner".
vs. 26 "...there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins"
vs 27 "but a certain terrifying/fearful (o'-meg-ah = finality) expectation of judgment (kree'-sis = justice - accusation, condemnation, damnation,judgment), and the fury of a fire (poor = lightning) which will consume/devour (es-thee'-o = to eat) the adversaries." (emphasis mine)
vs. 29 "of how much sorer punishment..."
Thanks- Chuck
"If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified." — Leonard Ravenhill
Dear Chuck: I am going to have to do a bit of "interpretation" on this one, as the words themselves are not precise enough. "Willfully" in the King James means "voluntarily." It is like a "freewill" offering in the Old Testament which meant nothing more than an offering given "voluntarily"--it was not demanded.
When one sins willfully or voluntarily, it means that he has lost his conscience about those particular sins. He feels no guilt nor shame for committing them. We all sin, but sin is not to "reign" over us, as Paul admonishes. When we sin, we should recognize it as sin, and feel shame, and repent, and go on. Once we feel no guilt nor shame, there only remains "judgment" which will assuredly remove (through fiery trials and purging) these "adversaries" that plague the human race. Hope that helps.
God be with you,
Ray
