The warnings that are given to us in the book of Hebrews have been a concern to theologians ever since this book was written. There have generally been four views that have been held by evangelicals over the years. However, there are problems with each of these views.
The first is the loss of salvation view. In this view the recipients were Christians who were being warned about the danger of losing their salvation. The problem with this view is that it contradicts the security of the believer that is taught in the rest of Scripture.
The second is the loss of rewards view. In this view once again the recipients were Christians but there is no danger of losing their salvation but their rewards. The problem with this view is that it minimizes the awfulness of apostasy.
The third view is the test of genuineness view. This view assumes that the recipients were not Christians but this does not fit with the rest of the epistle which assumes that the readers were Christians.
The final view is the hypothetical loss of salvation view. In this view the readers are once again believed to be Christians but the author is putting forward a hypothetical case. The problem with this view is that we would then just ignore the warnings because they really don’t have any meaning for us today.
I believe that we are asking the wrong question. We begin with our belief and then try to interpret the warnings in light of our doctrinal position. We ask the question, “How do these warnings line up with the promises of God?” The question we should be asking is "Why are these warnings in the Bible?"
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