BULLSEYE!
ACCURATE
BIBLE KNOWLEDGE!
QUESTION:
“Is
Paul’s
Epistle to the Hebrews written to backslidden Christians?”
No. They
were NOT Christians and they were NOT the Old Testament
Pentateuch hardliners under Moses’ law. They were ‘caught’ in the
middle. They
had to make a decision whether to return to the blood sacrifices of
Moses or take
the next step forward and become Christians. They had become stuck in
the dispensation
of being Messiah Believing Jews and extremely hesitant about having
Jesus as
their Saviour as presented by Paul.
If Paul is
writing to backslidden Christians,
all he has to do is to refer them to his other books he has written to
the
churches, where there is more than enough correction for sins and sin.
Take your
pick – in the Corinthian church there’s lust, idolatry,
fornication, tempting, murmuring and factions within the church.
If their
sin was drifting away from their love of Jesus, we have the
epistle to the Ephesians.
If they
were going back to weak and beggarly elements, there is the book
to the Galatians.
If they
needed a refresher on imputed righteousness, they had the book
of Romans. If they were being beset with gnostic knowledge,
they had the
book of Colossians with liars, evil beasts, slow bellies,
heresies,
sound doctrine.
There’s
the
book of Titus where they were tempted by an extremely evil
society with booze,
prostitutes, brawling, gambling and every vice under heaven.
There’s 1&2
Thessalonians and fearful of persecution, but
with encouragement about being caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
Now, ALL
these books were written before Paul’s epistle
to the Hebrews.
Before
Christ went to the cross, the Hebrews to which Paul writes,
believed Christ was continuously fulfilling the law on their
behalf, and
they were more than happy attending the temple for animal blood
sacrifices to cover their sins. All this was with Christ’s
endorsement.
Yes, they believed that Christ was their Messiah and that he would
eventually
establish some sort of earthly kingdom. As to the how, when, where or
why, they
weren’t quite sure.
But
after 30 years, it is now late in the 60’s, around 65-68AD, when
Paul writes to them, things hadn’t much changed. In fact, persecution
from the
Romans was on the increase as Emperor Nero was burning the Christians.
They
were feeling mightily insecure and unsafe, because although they
themselves
weren’t Christians, they had a lot of sympathy for them. They liked
Paul and
the other Christians as they were friendly, nice and welcoming.
They
were starting to question whether Christ was the Messiah at all,
and have serious doubts as to his promises. Their hearts began to grow
cold to
the idea of Christ. In fact, they were becoming like the many who
walked away
when Jesus was alive on earth (John 6:66).
They
were thinking about going back under Moses, where at least there
was security with the animal sacrifices for sin. But they were being
warned by
Paul that this type of on-going and daily blood atoning for sin had
finished.
They now had to trust on the shed blood of Christ for eternal security.
Should
they fully retreat back to trying to fulfil the law themselves and
atone for
their sins with animal blood, or should the take the ‘big leap of
faith’ and
become Christians as Paul urges them to do. They were afraid! To become
a
Christian and be burned at the stake. THIS IS THE THEME OF THE BOOK
OF
HEBREWS.
God
is light (1John 1:5) and when God came to Abraham, the first Hebrew,
and his descendants the Hebrews, they were ENLIGHTENED (Heb
6:4). The
Hebrews first brought the light of God into a dark world, and every
time Aaron
lit the lamps in the temple (Exodus 30:8) he was demonstrating this.
In
his Hebrew’s Epistle, Paul urges these illuminated Messianic
disciples to take the final step forward and trust on the
Lord Jesus
Christ as their Saviour and become CHRISTIANS. Like being on 3rd
base in a baseball game, Paul urges these unsaved, but
believers ON
Christ the Messiah, to run home INTO Jesus the Saviour like the
jailer
(Acts 16:31)
Harley Hitchcock
This
website’s front page is:
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“WHY ‘THE END’ IS NOT ‘THE END’ ”