Upcoming: Perseverance of the Saints Parts 5 and 6

I hope to have both posts on Hebrews up by the end of next week. I have struggled with how to present the material. I will be giving some brief background on what I believe to be the main purpose of the epistle and the audience to which the letter is addressed. We will then consider the warnings stated in both Heb. 6 and Heb. 10. There are many other warnings in Hebrews, but these two are generally considered to be the most straightforward. I will give the standard Arminian interpretation of Hebrews 6 first and then deal with Hebrews 10.

When addressing Hebrews 10, we will also examine some of the objections raised by Wayne Grudem concerning the Arminian interpretation. Grudem argues forcefully in Still Sovereign [Schreiner and Ware] that the warnings in Hebrews are describing the falling away of unbelievers and not an apostasy of true believers. He focuses primarily on Heb. 6 and then gives a comparatively brief treatment of Heb. 10, along with the numerous other warning passages in Hebrews, due to conclusions he draws from Heb. 6 (especially verses 7-9). It is my contention that Heb. 10 is a far more challenging passage for the Calvinist view and that there are elements to the warning in Heb. 10 that shed significant light on how we should understand Heb. 6. For that reason, my treatment of Heb. 10 will also focus quite a bit on Heb. 6 and the conclusions of Wayne Grudem, who I believe has written probably the best defense of the Calvinist position.