Too Dangerous

DEVOTION HEBREWS TOO DANGEROUS Heb 6:4-6 4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6 if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. NIV Is this what we call backsliding or is this actually turning around and going the other way? Is there a difference between the two? It would appear when someone backslides they simply lose ground in their walk with God, but they are still walking. Perhaps they become involved to closely with their own desires and yield far too much to the temptations which attack them. The backslider may well stop growing and slip backwards toward being an infant, but never actually stops trying to walk with God. But this conduct described here is not about backsliding but about turning around facing the complete other direction and walking away from God. The term falling away figuratively means to apostatize or abandon one’s religious faith. It would seem so bizarre for someone who has been enlighten, who has tasted the heavenly gift, who has shared in the Holy Spirit, and who has tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age to actually abandon God and walk away. Yet there must have been some in those days who did, and it would make some sense that there may well be some people today who do this as well. Some denominations would claim those people were never truly saved in the first place, believing once saved always saved, but this does not say that. It simply says it is impossible for those who were saved, if they decide to abandon God and walk away, to ever come back. We must be every diligent of the enemy of our souls who tries with all his might to get us to abandon God for the sake of self. Sure, we fall down, sure, we still fail God, and sure we still slip and do that which displeases our Lord. But we must never ever allow ourselves to give up and give in completely to self, and in doing so walk away from God. We must remain committed to being in his word, in his presence no matter the situation. We who are enlightened must remain enlightened. We must never ever turn our back on God, which is way too dangerous.