“Is Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews
written to backslidden Christians?”
“Is
Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews
written to
backslidden Christians?”
ANSWER:
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.
EXPLANATION:
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.
THE
HEBREWS
THAT PAUL WRITES TO
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.
IT’S
GETTING LATE IN THE DAY
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 HAD
DOUBTS
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).
GOING BACK
TO MOSES
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.
THERE ARE
THREE GROUPS IN 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.
When
Christ
appears on earth as the Messiah, he is the actual physical brightness
of God’s
glory (Heb
1:3), and is
the light of the world (John 19). Like a ‘human spiritual light bulb’,
Christ
was the illumination (the illuminator or the one who lights up) to the
world,
such that, “the people which sat in darkness saw a great light...” (Matt
4:16). The disciples
of the
Messiah were ILLUMINATED (Heb
10:32), being
told “Ye are the light
of the world” and “… let your light so shine before men …” (Matt5:14,16)
THE FINAL
STEP
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)
They knew
about the LORD God Jehovah and Christ the Messiah, but not
about Jesus
the Saviour!
Harley
Hitchcock
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www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com
