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St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 | April 2012 the “hearers not to make such a poor choice" 142 how can those who advocate dual religious belonging or “staying inside” be sure that they are not making a “poor choice”? 4. Unbelief: The heart of unbelief manifested itself in a multitude of ways in the children of Israel. The author of Hebrews senses the same danger. Might a subtle questioning if God is able to save ex-­‐Muslims who are now in Christ, for example, to the uttermost [ i.e. all the way to reaching the Promised land] and putting a concomitant human engineered danger prevention plan in place, be no different than the Israelites who questioned God’s capabilities as they were en route there? 5. Two camps or two worlds: Might a “hankering after Egypt” be an indicator of a heart that is not truly saved? That is to say the focus is on the ‘rear-­‐view’ mirror of where the person has come dominates the vision of the ‘city which is to come.’ Might this be indicative of having a “foot in two camps?” Yet it was those whose “bodies were strewn in the wilderness.” Would it not be much better to strive-­‐-­‐uncomfortable as it might seem-­‐-­‐for the motif of having, as Sang Hyun Lee described, a foot “in-­between two worlds”? 6. Temptation: Geerhardus Vos and more recently Walter Überlacker and others are convinced that the new covenant Hebrews were tired of believing in the invisible and wanted to have tangible rituals and outward ceremony, whether from Judaism or from paganism. Might that same temptation be here today, where staying in Islamic or Hindu rituals might give a sense of comfort? Überlacker affirms: “The situation of the recipients is that they are tempted like the wilderness generation to exchange the invisible promise of salvation for a visible, but temporary good in order to avoid affliction, hardship, and 142 David Arthur DeSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 2000), p. 341. 265