Every Warning, Gathered

This page is for one kind of reader: the one who has been told that once he is saved nothing he does can change it, and who has never seen the warnings set side by side. Most of us met them one at a time, each explained away as we came to it. Gathered, they read differently. Here they are, 51 of them, quoted whole from the King James without comment, grouped by where they fall in the Book. The eight great assurances are at the bottom, quoted just as fully, because the point of this page is not to take assurance away. It is to put it where Scripture puts it. Read the warnings first. Then read the assurances and notice what almost every one of them says in the same breath.

The Law and the histories

Cain, before he killed. "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him" (Genesis 4:7)

The generation that saw the miracles. "Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:" (Numbers 14:22-23)

Moses, at the end. "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:" (Deuteronomy 30:19)

Samuel to Saul. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king" (1 Samuel 15:23)

The Spirit departs. "But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him" (1 Samuel 16:14)

Mordecai to Esther. "For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

The Wisdom and the Prophets

The watchman, and whose blood it is. "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand." (Ezekiel 3:18)

Said again, so it could not be missed. "But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand." (Ezekiel 33:6)

The shepherds who fed themselves. "The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them." (Ezekiel 34:4)

Wisdom, refused. "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; … I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;" (Proverbs 1:24-26)

Jeremiah. "But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward" (Jeremiah 7:24)

The righteous who turns. "But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die" (Ezekiel 18:24)

Trusting a past righteousness. "When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it" (Ezekiel 33:13)

Rejected for rejecting. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children" (Hosea 4:6)

The watchman, and whose blood it is. "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand." (Ezekiel 3:18)

Said again, so it could not be missed. "But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand." (Ezekiel 33:6)

The shepherds who fed themselves. "The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them." (Ezekiel 34:4)

The words of Christ

Salt that lost its savour. "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men" (Matthew 5:13)

"Lord, Lord". "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. … And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:21-23)

Endure to the end. "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 10:22)

Gathered out of His kingdom. "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:41-42)

The unforgiving servant. "Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: … And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses" (Matthew 18:32-35)

The two servants. "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? … But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; … And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 24:45-51)

The unprofitable servant. "And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 25:30)

Believe for a while. "They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away" (Luke 8:13)

Hand to the plough. "And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62)

A portion with the unbelievers. "The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers" (Luke 12:46)

The branch that does not abide. "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" (John 15:6)

The love of many. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matthew 24:12) — cold love is the Spirit quenched; see What Is Love?.

The house on the sand. "And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:26-27)

The wedding guest, already inside. "And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 22:11-13)

Counting the cost. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish." (Luke 14:28-30)

The servant who began to beat the others. "But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 24:48-51)

The unprofitable servant. "And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 25:30)

Nine of these are gathered and weighed together in The Parables of Readiness and Judgment.

Paul

Live after the flesh. "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13)

The olive tree. "For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off" (Romans 11:21-22)

Paul himself, a castaway. "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:27)

Him that thinketh he standeth. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12)

Examine yourselves. "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Corinthians 13:5)

Fallen from grace. "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:4)

Sowing and reaping. "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Galatians 6:8)

Fear and trembling. "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12)

If ye continue. "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;" (Colossians 1:23)

Labour in vain. "For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain" (1 Thessalonians 3:5)

Shipwreck. "Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:" (1 Timothy 1:19)

Some shall depart. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" (1 Timothy 4:1)

If we deny Him. "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:" (2 Timothy 2:12)

Before the epistles, one modern voice on how the thing actually happens, because none of these warnings describe a man who fell over a cliff:

It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

— C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Which is why the warning Hebrews gives is a daily one and not a dramatic one: “exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13). Deceitfulness, because a slope with no milestones does not announce itself.

Hebrews

Let them slip. "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. … How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;" (Hebrews 2:1-3)

An evil heart of unbelief. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. … For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;" (Hebrews 3:12-14)

The same example of unbelief. "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief" (Hebrews 4:11)

Once enlightened, fallen away. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6)

Sin wilfully. "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries" (Hebrews 10:26-27)

Esau. "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears" (Hebrews 12:15-17)

James, Peter, John

Sin, when it is finished. "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (James 1:15)

Save a soul from death. "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins" (James 5:19-20)

Escaped, then entangled. "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them" (2 Peter 2:20-21)

Fall from your own stedfastness. "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness" (2 Peter 3:17)

The verse the other side uses, fairly. "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us" (1 John 2:19)

Lose not what you wrought. "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward." (2 John 1:8)

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

Ephesus: the candlestick removed. "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent" (Revelation 2:5)

Smyrna: faithful unto death. "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10)

Sardis: not blotted out. "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Revelation 3:5)

Laodicea: spued out. "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:16)

His part taken out of the book of life. "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book" (Revelation 22:19)

The men God used, and what they did when it cost them

The warnings are not abstractions. Scripture shows us men God had plainly used, standing at the same fork, and going both ways. On one side, the ones who chose man over God. Saul, when Samuel asked why he had not obeyed: "And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice" (1 Samuel 15:24). Aaron, the high priest, with the calf still warm: "And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief" (Exodus 32:22). Solomon, the wisest man alive: "For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father" (1 Kings 11:4). Uzziah, a good king for fifty years: "But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense" (2 Chronicles 26:16). And the rulers in Jerusalem who believed in Jesus and would not say so: "Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:42-43). Balaam, who heard from God directly and went to the king who was paying anyway, until the angel in the road told him "thy way is perverse before me" (Numbers 22:32); Peter names his sin for all time: "Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;" (2 Peter 2:15). And the unnamed man of God in 1 Kings 13, who carried God's message to King Jeroboam without flinching, was told "eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest" (1 Kings 13:9), and then let an old prophet's lie talk him into one meal on the way home, and "a lion met him by the way, and slew him" (1 Kings 13:24). Faithful at the altar, dead on the road, in the same afternoon. Not one of these men was a stranger to God. Every one of them feared people, or money, or a friendly voice, more than they feared Him, and it cost them.

On the other side, the ones who obeyed when obedience looked like death. Elijah on Carmel, alone against four hundred and fifty, did not hedge his bet; he made the fire harder: "Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time" (1 Kings 18:33-34), and then the fire of the LORD fell and licked up the water in the trench (1 Kings 18:38). The three men before the furnace: "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up" (Daniel 3:17-18). "But if not" is the bravest phrase in the Old Testament. Daniel, with the decree signed, "kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime" (Daniel 6:10). Esther: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish" (Esther 4:16). And the seven thousand nobody had heard of, "all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal" (1 Kings 19:18).

The difference between the two lists is not that one group had faith and the other did not. Saul had prophesied. Aaron had stood before Pharaoh. Solomon had built the Temple. The difference is what each of them did at the moment obedience became expensive. That is what the warnings are about, and that is why they are addressed to people who already believe.

And the assurances, all of them, quoted just as fully

Read them again and mark the conditions inside them. We are "kept by the power of God through faith." He "is able to keep you from falling," which is a promise about His power, not a statement that no one falls. "None shall pluck them out of my hand" is spoken of sheep who "hear my voice, and they follow me" (the verse before it). "Nothing shall separate us from the love of God" was written by the man who, two chapters earlier, said "if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die." Not one of the assurances is false. Not one of them is unconditional in the way it is usually quoted. Paul held the whole list, both columns, in one mind, and so did every writer above. So can we.

How the oldest church read them

This letter has gathered the warnings and let the commentators speak, and every one of those men lived after 1500. The church had these texts for fifteen hundred years before any of them, and read them without flinching.

The Shepherd of Hermas, written in Rome around the middle of the second century and read aloud in churches, exists largely because of this question. What happens to a believer who falls after baptism? Its answer is not that he was never a believer. It is mercy: "The Lord, therefore, being merciful, has had mercy on the work of His hand, and has set repentance for them."

Clement of Alexandria puts it in one sentence, and he is expounding the hardest warning in the New Testament while he does it. God has vouchsafed, he says, "in the case of those who, though in faith, fall into any transgression, a second repentance; so that should any one be tempted after his calling, overcome by force and fraud, he may receive still a repentance not to be repented of." And then he quotes the text this page quotes: "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins."

Read that twice. Those who, though in faith, fall. Around AD 200, the question is not whether a believer can fall; it is what mercy is available when he does. Clement adds the guard that keeps it from becoming licence: "continual and successive repentings" are not what he is describing.

A Syriac document of the same era says the other half, and says it harder: "if, after ye have known Him, and He has had compassion upon you, you return to the like courses, even your former offences will be laid to your charge."

None of this settles the argument, and it is not offered as if it did. What it shows is that the warnings were not a Reformation-era problem to be managed. They were read early, plainly, and pastorally, by men who assumed a real believer could be in real danger and that mercy was still on the table. That is the ground this whole letter stands on, and it was there long before anyone quoted on this page was born.

And what we owe each other

Every warning above is aimed at the reader. Scripture does not leave it there. The same book that warns you also makes you answerable for the man beside you.

The watchman, again. Ezekiel is on this page twice for a reason: the blood is required at the hand of the one who saw it coming and said nothing (Ezekiel 3:18; Ezekiel 33:6). That is not a warning about the wicked. It is a warning about the watchman.

James says the same thing in the New Testament. "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James 5:19-20)

Notice what he assumes without arguing for it. A brother can err from the truth. He can be turned back. And the turning saves a soul from death. James is writing to the church, and he does not pause to explain any of that.

And the same duty, pointed inward. Paul to Timothy: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." (1 Timothy 6:12). And: "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen." (1 Timothy 6:20-21). And at the end of his own life, the same three verbs, in the past tense: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:" (2 Timothy 4:7).

This is one of the few places on this page where the traditions do not divide. Calvin, Gill, Wesley, Clarke, Barnes, Jamieson and the Pulpit all read the watchman and James the same way, and none of them softens either. Gill, who resists every conditional reading elsewhere, says the one converted here is “a backsliding professor, for such an one is meant by a sinner, and not a profane person; or… a poor bewildered believer, who is got out of the way of truth and holiness.” Clarke turns Ezekiel on the preacher: “his blood will I require at thy hand. I will visit thy soul for the loss of his.” The argument in the church is over whether a warned man can actually fall. It has never been over whether we are obliged to warn him.

And Paul, who did it. To the Ephesian elders, at the end: "I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God" (Acts 20:26-27). Pure from the blood: Ezekiel's word, claimed by a man who had "ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears" (20:31). Gregory the Great, writing to a man who did not want to hear it, put the watchman's duty in one line and then obeyed it in the next:

Whether you will or no. That is the tone of this page, and it is the reason this site argues at all. It is not the tone of the sneer; the measure cuts toward the writer first (see Loving the Church You Disagree With). But a watchman who sees the sword and stays polite has not loved anyone.

Fought, finished, kept. Paul does not say he was carried. He says he kept it, and he says it as a man who has just told Timothy to fight the same fight. The warnings and the assurances on this page are both true, and between them sits a duty: to hold what was committed to you, and to go after a brother who is losing it.

Where this lands

What "salvation" is doing in this argument

A great deal of the fight over the warning passages comes from one word carrying two jobs. Alexander Maclaren, opening the verse where Hebrews turns from its sternest warning to reassure the readers — "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation" (Hebrews 6:9) — stops to say which sense is in play:

it is clear that the word salvation is not here used to mean the ultimate, complete deliverance from all evil of sorrow or sin… but for that earlier stage of itself — which unfortunately, too often is supposed to be all that is needed, and to be sure to last, if once possessed, whether diligently tended or left neglected — the initial gifts which are received by a convert in the very beginning of his Christian career, viz., the assurance of divine forgiveness, and the establishment of a new relation between him and God… And, he says, it does not come alone.

Alexander Maclaren, on Hebrews 6:9

Read the clause he tucked in the middle: which unfortunately, too often is supposed to be all that is needed, and to be sure to last, if once possessed, whether diligently tended or left neglected. That is the whole error this page is written against, named in 1900 by a Baptist preacher, and named as a confusion about a word rather than as a heresy. The beginning of salvation is real and it is God's doing. It is not the finish, and Hebrews says so in the same breath as its comfort: things accompany salvation. Something travels with it. A salvation with nothing accompanying it is not what the writer is reassuring them about.

A caution from the other side of the aisle

There is a way of reading Hebrews 6 that does more damage than the error it was meant to correct, and the man who says so most bluntly is not who you would expect. John Gill was a Baptist and a strict one, and he does not believe a true believer can finally fall. He still stops in the middle of his own commentary to warn against a reading of this passage that shuts the door.

The reading he has in mind is ancient. In the third century Novatian held that a Christian who fell into serious sin after baptism could be cut off from the church and never restored to it, no matter what he did afterward, and he built a rival communion on that principle. Gill names it and answers it in one sentence, and every clause of the sentence is a separate reason:

This gave rise to, and seems to favour the error of Novatus, that those who fall into sin after baptism are to be cut off from the communion of the church, and never more to be restored unto it; contrary to the promises of God to returning backsliders, and contrary to facts, as well as to the directions of Christ, and his apostles, to receive and restore such persons; and such a notion tends to set aside the intercession of Christ for fallen believers, and to plunge them into despair.

John Gill, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, on Hebrews 6:4

Take the clauses one at a time, because Gill is not repeating himself. It is contrary to the promises: God said "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings" (Jeremiah 3:22), and a doctrine that bars the door calls that promise a bluff. It is contrary to facts: Peter denied Christ with oaths and was restored by Christ Himself. It is contrary to the directions of Christ and his apostles, who told us plainly what to do with such a man, "ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow" (2 Corinthians 2:7). It sets aside the intercession of Christ, who "ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25) and whose intercession does not expire on a believer's worst day. And it plunges them into despair, which is the pastoral point and the reason a commentator bothered to say it.

Two things are worth noticing about where that comes from. The first is that Gill and this page do not agree about perseverance, and it does not matter here. He argues on the same page that the truly regenerate are held by a threefold cord and cannot finally fall; we hold the warnings to be real warnings addressed to real believers. Both of us arrive at the same door and find it open. A caution that survives the disagreement between two readings is worth more than one that depends on winning it.

The second is the shape of the mistake. Novatian was not careless. He was rigorous, he took holiness seriously, and he could quote this very chapter. He went wrong by taking a warning written to keep people from falling and turning it into a verdict on people who had already fallen. That is the specific misuse Hebrews 6 invites, and it is still being made. When someone uses "impossible to renew them again unto repentance" on a man who is at that moment trying to come back, the verse is being run backwards. The passage describes a heart that will not turn. It was never a lock on the door for a heart that is turning.

If you came to this page sure that you stand, you are the reader Paul was writing to, and his word is "take heed." Not "despair," and not "you were never saved," but take heed. The warnings are not the enemy of assurance. They are how a living faith stays alive, the way a fence is not the enemy of the road. Every one of them was written to believers, by believers, in letters read aloud in churches, and the church that heard them did not conclude that God had abandoned them. It concluded that it had better keep walking. "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." The door home is never barred to the one who turns back, and the whole argument of this page can be reduced to a single verse: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven."

Related: No Man Plucks Them, Take Not Thy Holy Spirit From Me, What the Word Says, and What We Believe It Means, The Security of Salvation, Perseverance, The Parables of Judgment, The Soul That Sinneth, Abiding, When Grace Becomes a License, The Bored Ear, and The Three Tenses of Salvation. Every verse is the King James Version, quoted whole and linked to BibleHub; the words of God are marked in gold, the words of Christ in purple.