The Journal of Biblical Accuracy

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Hebrews 3:4-6: Holding fast our confidence until the end

Further in Hebrews, in chapter 3 we read:

Hebrews 3:4-6
"For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house — whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end."

And the passage continues:

Hebrews 3:7-14
"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.’ Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end."

Is it possible for a Christian "to fall away from the living God"? "Take care brothers" is how the related passage starts. Therefore, yes it is possible for a brother to fall away from the living God.

Furthermore, see also the two conditional statements starting with an "if". We are the house of Christ "if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end". And again "we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." Here we see once more what we have seen several times up to now: faith is a race with a beginning and an end. When is the end? If Christ has not come back during our lifetime, then the end is the end of our life. Else, it will be the time of His coming and our gathering to Him. Those who "hold their original confidence firm to the end", i.e. the ones who kept the faith to the end will enter the kingdom of God. But those who gave up the faith will not be there. They will NOT "share in Christ", nor will they be His house. This is what the "if" statements in these passages clearly say.

Next section: Matthew 24:13: "But the one who endures to the end will be saved"

 

Author: Anastasios Kioulachoglou