Hebrews 6.4-6: The Impossibility of Repentance

Greetings from the land of Saguaros and Scorpions. Recently Hebrews 6 has become a text used to claim that a Christian that is "erring" has simply become a "non-Christian." This person would have to be baptized anew. There are many disturbing things about this horrendous abuse of God's word but the basic rejection of the text from its setting is mind blowing. This text makes no such claim. Just a couple of observations on the nature of repentance that I think should be made:

The "Old Testament" Sub-Text/MATRIX for the Preacher's Church

First, Hebrews 6.4ff and 10.26 have a specific historical, situational, and literary context. These are either rejected or minimized to our own peril. In both contexts the "sin" under consideration is outright REJECTION of the Messiah. The sin that is "willfully" (10.26) persisted in in the context of Hebrews is the rejection of Jesus' mission, his ministry, and his cross. There is no salvation here because the very basis of the removal of sin (the Cross) is being rejected.

Second, the term "adunatos" (translated as "impossible" in most English txts) needs some reflection and study. A couple of things need to be recognized.

The author (really the PREACHER, that is Hebrews is an ORAL composition, cf. 13.22) engages in rhetorical flare (hyperbole) for the sake of emphasis. Just as Paul would say the Gospel had been preached to the whole world there are very few that would suppose that is a literal statement. This is not only an effective communication device in oral presentation it is also figures in many narrative passages in the Scriptures.

What is meant by adunotos? and for whom? F. F. Bruce cites the great commentary by Spicq (unfortunately never translated into English) as "when understood of man in relation to the moral plane, should be translated as 'incapable'; the impossibility in question is subjective and relative, due reservation being made with regard to divine intervention, and it is in this sense that Hebrews conceives the impossibility, not of the apostate's pardon, but of his turning" (Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 118).

It is not impossible for God to forgive. He is eager to forgive and relent. The Preacher 'to the Hebrews' was not ignorant of these wonderful texts in his Septuagint:

"Who is a God like you, canceling iniquities, and passing over the sins of the remnant of his inheritance ... for he delights in mercy" (Micah 7.18, LXX)

Texts like the one above could be multiplied but the one that matters most is the Golden Text of the entire Bible ... found in the Torah itself. It is God's self-revelation

"the LORD passed by before his face, and proclaimed, The LORD God, pitiful and merciful, longsuffering and very compassionate and true ... mercy for thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin" (Ex 34.6-7, LXX)

The God of Israel delights in mercy.

The issue, however, is not God. It is the arrogant rejection of the Messiah by those who had once claimed allegiance to him.

Third, and I consider this to be both a neglected though crucial point. The Preacher "to the Hebrews" is in constant dialogue with the Hebrew Bible he knows in the Greek translation, the Septuagint. There are five "warning" passages in Hebrews other than 6.4ff (begins at 5.11). Each one has a specific example from the LXX in mind. They are

1) 2.1-4 disobedience to the Torah
2) 3.7-4.13 failure at Kadesh-barnea
3) 10.19-39 disobedience to Torah
4) 12.14-29 failure of Esau/listen to God's voice at Sinai (25-26)

The background for 6.4-6 remains the episode at Kadesh-barnea. This sad episode was paradigmatic of unbelief and rebellion (see for example Deut 1.19-35; Ps 106.21-27; Damascus Document 3.6-9; 2 Esdras 7.106 and Paul in 1 Cor 10.5-10 in addition to the ones cited in this post). It is related narratively in Num 13-14 and is interpreted in Psalm 95 (quoted explicitly in 3.7-11). It figures in the Levitical prayer in Nehemiah 9 as well. The story is the "subtext" or the "matrix" from which the Preacher exhorts his audience. Linguistically and semantically the parallels for a Jewish audience steeped in the "Old Testament" ring loud and clear. And a "word picture" usually conveys MORE than simply the word but the associations with it. (For more on this kind of "Cultural Literacy" that communicators of all kinds assume see my previous post "Cultural Literacy: Improving Our Bible Reading") Here are a few examples:

Enlightened

Neh 9.12 "by day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night a pillar of fire TO GIVE THEM LIGHT" (the linguistic parallel in the Greek of Nehemiah 9 and Heb 6 is not accidental)

Neh 9.19 "...to shine on the way they were to take ..."

Having tasted the heavenly gift

Neh 9. 15 "you gave them bread from heaven" (see Ps 105.40 & 78.24)

Having become partakers of the Holy Spirit

Neh 9.20 "You gave your good Spirit to instruct them" (cf. Isa. 63.11)

etc, etc.

The Preacher assumes a typological relationship between his audience and the people of Israel in the wilderness. The Preacher's congregation is on a journey or pilgrimage toward the promised land just like their ancestral fathers. The Exodus event is the "lens" through which our preacher views his own sojourn ... in other words he has situated and found his own Gathered fellowship in the Story and he assumes the biblical narrative directly address his congregation's needs (talk about the authority of the "Old Testament!!). I believe this is even why he uses the Tabernacle imagery rather than the temple because the Exodus narrative is the matrix for speaking to his own pilgrim people. The wilderness generation experienced all these things (God's good word, provisions & miraculous powers, the presence of God's Spirit among them) and they responded not in joyous gratitude but in unbelief and rebellion. His hearers have also experienced these things. Here is the sin they are in danger of:

The deliberate and calculated rejection of the Messiah

The danger is not simply a "return to Judaism" as some Gentiles have imagined (or some mistaken doctrinal understanding). Jewish believers were never asked to "leave" Judaism in the first place. Gentiles believers are grafted into the Israel. The danger is nothing less than the rejection of the once accepted Jewish Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the Son of God.

What a dreadful place to find oneself - and by choice! This is not a mere mistake on their part. This is not a failure to understand certain teachings ... it is rejection and shaming the Jewish Messiah again.

Impossible? Oral Rhetoric?

Now if, as I believe is true, the Preacher is preaching from, and out of, the LXX and applying that to his audience (as all good preachers must do) then the rest of that LXX informs us on the hyperbolic nature of the "impossibility" of repentance. It was not Impossible (literally) for Israel to repent and thus receive the gift of grace. Israel, as the Hebrew Preacher knows all to well, existed by and through God's grace. Perhaps the greatest example of God's grace for incredibly obtuse people is seen in the story of Hosea and Gomer and then in the king named Manasseh. The Hebrews' Preacher would even have known (without a doubt) that prayer that was in the LXX known as the Prayer of Manasseh where God is described as "the God of those who repent" (v. 13e). Manesseh is the wickedest king in history according to Kings. Yet he becomes the grand example of the mercy of God in Chronicles. Part of that magnificent prayer of repentance reads ...

O Lord, according to your great goodness
you have promised repentance and forgiveness
to those who have sinned against you,
and in the multitude of your mercies
you have appointed repentance for sinners,
so that they may be saved ...

And now I bend the knee of my heart,
imploring you for your kindness.
I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned,
and I acknowledge my transgressions.
I earnestly implore you,
forgive me, O Lord, forgive me! ...

For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent ...

[F]or unworthy as I am, you will
save me according to your great mercy.

So our Preacher is not saying that it is literally impossible for a person to renew their repentance but he is saying ... and warning seriously ... that like the children of Israel in the wilderness that rejection of God and his covenant (or Jesus in the case of his audience) is to place ourselves in a dangerous. Those who choose to reject become like Pharaoh ... God waits in eager expectation to be loving and gracious. Grace is not beyond God. He even forgave those with the blood of Jesus on their hands at his crucifixion ... and for those who reject will find him to be equally merciful IF they are able to turn to him again.

Two Valuable Resources:

Dave Mathewson, "Reading Heb 6:4-6 in Light of the Old Testament," Westminster Theological Journal 61 (1999): 209-225

Scot McKnight, "The Warning Passages of Hebrews: A Formal Analysis and Theological Conclusions," Trinity Journal 13 (1992): 21-59

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Black History Links on Stoned-Campbell

Greetings from the land of Saguaros and Scorpions. I was asked about some links on "Black History" since February is Black History Month ... the first is for Fred Gray. Most of the ones I have listed will have a connection to the Stone Campbell Movement. May you be blessed ...

Fred D. Gray: Hero Lawyer?

S. R. Cassius: A CofC Booker T. Washington

Pardee Butler: An Amos on our Family Tree

Loving when it isn't Easy: Reflections on a Parable

Sharing the Dream

Forever Free

PG-13 Rant Post: Corporate Murder or ...

May you find something to bless your walk with God, something to help in being salt and light and in loving our neighbor as our selves.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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How's Your African-American History??

Here is a "different sort of" post. I hope it is fun and personally enlighting at same time. Most of us have attended public schools and we have some recollection of the Revolutionary War, slavery and so forth. But how well do we know some very basic factiods of some stories we have heard about frequently but forget some details. Here is a simple test on African-American history ... BE HONEST and DO NOT CHEAT (that means do not look up on the web).

1) _____ Won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964
2) _____ Helped 300 slaves escape to freedom through the "Underground Railroad."
3) _____ First person to die in the Boston Massacre in 1770.
4) _____ Civil Rights leader who converted to Islam and slain in 1965.
5) _____ First African American to serve on the Supreme Court.
6) _____ African American statesman and educator who founded the Tuskegee Institute.
7) _____ First African American to play major league baseball.
8) _____ First black to win an all race election in South Africa.
9) _____ Famous 19`" century African American abolitionist, orator and statesman.
10)_____ Scientist at Tuskegee Institute invented Peanut Butter and dozens of other useful products.

To be nice I will supply the correct answers

Answers:
A. Martin Luther King Jr.
B. Harriet Tubman
C. Crispus Attucks
D. Malcom X
E. Thurgood Marshall
F. Dr. George Washington Carver
G. Dr. Booker T. Washington
H. Jackie Robinson
I. Nelson Mandela
J. Frederick Douglass

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Nobody Knows My Name ... Thoughts Prompted By James Baldwin & Black History Month

"Consider the generations of old and see ..." said the ancient Jewish sage Jesus the Son of Sirach (cf. Sirach 2.10).

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself" said the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth (Mt 22.39)

If "considering," "honoring" or even "listening" to previous generations is difficult for the living then it is doubly so when we speak of previous generations from different ethnic backgrounds. Yet that is exactly what Carter G. Woodson dreamed of in February 1926 when he created what became Black History Month. The month of February was chosen to honor two men of a previous generation, one black and one white. Those two men were Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. This post, and possibly a few more to come, are an effort to consider, listen to and learn from generations different than my own.

Since the mid-1990s, during the Valentine sojourn in New Orleans, I have attempted to expand my horizons and perhaps (that is a PERHAPS!) understand people different from myself - though my own grandfather was Italian and African. African American history is an unknown commodity for many non-African Americans often to our impoverishment. Sadly it is also often unknown for black Americans. In previous years I have read Lerone Bennett's Before the Mayflower, the anthology Crossing the Danger Water, or Parting the Danger Waters. This year I have spent some time reading a few selections of James Baldwin. Baldwin is a brilliant and sensitive writer. Nobody Knows My Name is a powerful book with layers of eloquence and pathos. It is a journey of self-discovery as much as it it is on race relations in America.

Nobody Knows My Name is a collection of essays published in various magazines between 1954 and 1961. Baldwin, characterizing his effort as leaves from his "private logbook," wrestled with the issues race but more important the "graver questions of self." One of his discoveries during his self-imposed exile in France was what it meant to be an American. This revelation pushed him to the conclusion that he and white Americans have a common bond whether confessed or not!

"... I proved to my astonishment, to be as American as any Texas G.I. And I found my experience was shared by every American writer I knew in Paris. Like me, they had been divorced from their origins, and it turned out to make very little difference that the origins of white Americans were European and mine African-they were no more at home in Europe than I was." (p. 4).

Baldwin had a stake in what happened in the USA. Yet in spite of the common bond to America, Baldwin confesses he was "afraid." It was the fear that made him return to end his exile and return to the United States. One gets the feeling while reading "The Discovery of what it means to be an American" that Baldwin is saying he could no more return to Africa (and thus absolving America of her race issue) than whites could/would return to Europe.

The essay that lends its name to this book is a reflective, even interpretive, account of a visit by Baldwin to Atlanta. This is followed by a brilliant rebuff of renowned southern writer William Faulkner. Faulkner had made excuses for segregation and suggested things were getting better in Mississippi because "only Negroes were killed by whites last year" (p. 125). What Faulkner fears and laments is "real change." "Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety" (p. 117).

Near the end of his book Baldwin offers an analysis of Richard Wright. Wright's works can make the reader uncomfortable (Native Son did me!). Baldwin states insight-fully that "Wright's unrelentingly bleak landscape was not merely that of the Deep South, or of Chicago, but that of the world, of the human heart" (p. 185). Put another way Wright opens a window into the "demoralization of the Negro male and the fragmentation of the Negro family ..." Theologically, we might say that, Wright captures well the fallenness and the alienation that pervades a world in need of redemption.

Times have changed considerably since this small book was published. We have Martin Luther King Jr day as a federal holiday. There are black mayors, members of congress and the Supreme Court. Colin Powell and Condeleezza Rice have served as Secretary of State. And Barack Obama is President of the United States. Yet for all the change Americans are still incredibly uncomfortable with talking about race. There are still huge disparities between between neighbors and there is still plenty of prejudice. But we as Christians, those who pledge allegiance to the kingdom of God, confess that God has called us to love our neighbors. It is difficult to love when we do not even know our neighbor! Sometimes getting to "know" and learning to love means listening to those of a different generation. Getting to know and coming to understand requires walking in their shoes. That journey is what opens us up as humans to authentic and realistic dialogue where honor and respect can take place. Listening to the past helps us to examine ourselves. And "if we are not capable of this examination," Baldwin opines, "we may yet become one of the most distinguished and monumental failures in the history of nations" (p. 116).

It is my prayer that we continue to join God's mission of redeeming his world. That we open ourselves up to points of view that may require us to refocus on "what it means to be an American" or better what it means to be God's healing shalom in a dark and hurting world. Dare we be ministers of reconciliation?

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