The Epistle of Warning Unto Perseverance
The warnings in the book of Hebrews are frankly terrifying. Here are some, just as a sampler: “How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3); “there is no creature hidden from His sight” (4:13); “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance” (6:5); “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God...?” (10:29); “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking” (12:25).
But such warnings raise many questions. What exactly are they warning against? And who are they warning? Hebrews 6 seems to imply that believers can lose their salvation; what are Calvinist/Reformed Christians suppose to do with those?
Hebrews is one of my favorite books of the Bible, so I really enjoyed investigating the answers to these questions. To investigate this issue, I answered six pertinent questions about the warning passages:
Which passages in Hebrews are the warning passages?
What are the purposes of these warnings?3
Who is being warned?
What sin is being warned against?
What are the consequences of the sin warned against?
What is the pastoral exhortation inherent to the warnings?
In the essay I wrote, I conclude that the author of Hebrews exhorts the covenant community against the sin of apostasy—a sin that leads to eternal damnation—and towards perseverance in the faith, especially by appealing to the covenant theology of the OT. You can download the essay here.