rungold315 Wrote: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, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.?
Isnt that contradictory to God's nature of always forgiving one who genuinely chooses to repent? A Christian who abandons his faith and realizes his mistake 5 years later cannot come back? What about the parable of the prodigal son?
Im not trying to cause any controversy on this forum, its just that this place appears to be chief among Bible forums and I am wondering if anybody else is as scared as I of what this passage APPEARS to be saying.
What i get from this verse is very different. The bible is written very carefully. Something i see here is a lot of conditions:
The passage speaks about people that:
-were once enlightened
-have tasted the heavenly gift
-have become partakers of the Holy Spirit
-have tasted the good word of God
-have tasted the powers of the age to come
Now, i don't mean to say i know exactly how to understand those qualifications (i sure thik it is well worth a veeeery deep study), but i feel quite sure when i say that very most people calling themselves christians (whatever that means to you) don't qualify here (and that those are not qualifications for salvation, but rather things that can be obtained in the spirit later on). Maybe Judas would qualify (though my own superficial interpretation of the five qualifiers does not allow that). Plus, the text seems to imply they were fully aware of their decision ("were once enlightenment"), which conflicts with what you wrote about someone that "
realizes his mistake 5 years later". The point is, he was enlightened.
Then you also said that God always forgives "one who genuinely chooses to repent", although the passage does not imply Godwon't forgive, but that they cannot be "renew[ed] [...] again to repentance", which is the whole point, God cannot forgive because they cannot repent (not because he rejects their repentance!). Also the passage says " crucify again for
themselves the Son of God" which seems to tell me that the problem exists not with God but with the person (probably his mindset towards his glorious past in the spirit is holding back his repentance).
Basicall, the same thing i see here is also with the blasphemy issue (which basically can only exist when pride enters the heart of a person familiar to God). Read Mark 3:29,but also read John 9:41(!!!), and check back
what exactly they were doing, and
who they were. i am convinced that an unbeliever cannot blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and i am also convinced that you can only blaspheme the holy spirit when you are irreparably poisonned with pride. We have to get to the bottom of why Jesus disliked the scribes and pharisees so much, whereas he could show the greatest compassion to the greatest sinners. Only scribes and pharisees (and people just like them) can blaspheme the Holy Spirit. And again, their pride may hold them away from repentance, which, inmy opinion, is the true reason they cannot be forgiven. The problem is with them, not with God.