AG STUDY GUIDE FINAL - The Forerunner

Word of God”; “taste of the heavenly gift”, the “powers of the world to come”
and partake of the blessings wrought by the Holy Spirit as they attend a church
or live within a Christian family, community or culture — and still go to hell
when they die.
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the
heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the
good Word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew
them again to repentance.” ~ Hebrews 6:4-6
This passage in Hebrews 6 is a popular verse for Arminians looking to prove that the
Perseverance of the Saints isn’t true and that a Christian really can lose their salvation.
There isn’t time to look at all the reasons why this interpretation is wrong and why the
true focus of this controversial passage is on outwardly Christian but inwardly
unconverted people living among and sharing the blessings of a Christian family or
community. If you would like to study this in more detail, allow me to recommend the
commentaries of Matthew Henry, John Gill or Matthew Poole. We’ll leave this passage,
however, by pointing out that the Arminian interpretation leads to one inevitable,
profoundly unpleasant and, yes, unbiblical conclusion: that there is no hope for the
backslider.
Dr. George Grant - If Hebrews chapter 6, on the other hand, is simply saying that a
person who persistently and consistently resists grace cannot be brought to repentance
then that provides for us the basis for great hope. In fact, Hebrews chapter 6 is an
incredible encouragement for us to take the benefits of covenant life seriously; to not
take them for granted, to watch the working of the Holy Spirit and see the good Word of
God and to taste the heavenly gift in such a way that the medicine of immortality brings
us home to Jesus.
Dr. Stephen Mansfield - The standard Arminian interpretation of this passage doesn’t
wash. If a Christian can lose their salvation and someone who is backslidden even for a
season has no hope of being restored, because the writer of Hebrews clearly says that the
blood of Jesus cannot be shed for them again. And no Arminian would hold that view.
They urge their backslidden friends to come back to Jesus. And so, clearly, they don’t
really believe their interpretation of this passage.
Dr. Thomas Ascol – “Perseverance of the Saints” is no license to sin. It is a confidence
and assurance, as well as a call to a holy life. Which is why the author of Hebrews
writes in Hebrews 12:14 that we are to pursue peace with all men and the holiness
without which no one will see the Lord. We have to pursue holiness because without
that pursuit, without that holiness, we will not be saved. That doesn’t mean that
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