Grace Theological
Journal 3.1 (Spring, 1982) 67-80.
Copyright © 1982 by Grace
Theological Seminary. Cited with permission.
THE ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
WARNING PASSAGES IN THE
BOOK OF HEBREWS
The
prophetic portions of the warning passages in the Epistle to
the Hebrews contain broad hints as to whom these admonitions
are
addressed. The notices of .judgment and the warnings of failure do
not deal with rewards for Christians but with eternal judgment
and
the missing of millennial blessing.
* * *
INTRODUCTION.
THE
Book of Hebrews fairly bristles with a number of large and
perplexing problems, such as authorship,
destination, the nature
of the work, and the writer's use of the OT. At or
near the apex of
questions concerned with the interpretation of
this work is a con-
sideration of the warning
passages. Are they directed to believers,
advising that there may be a loss of reward, or
do they warn
professing believers about the danger of apostasy? Even if the warn-
ings are only hypothetical,
the reader ultimately is driven back to
these two alternatives. It is quite clear the book is
addressed to a
specific readership in a particular location with
a definite situation in
view (cf.
can hardly be said that one warning passage is
directed to one group
and another warning to a different group. It seems
that the writer is
addressing all the warnings to the same readership.
One great aid in determining the target of the
warning passages
is the eschatology in these passages. In other
words, do the passages
threaten loss of reward or the missing of
salvation? If the former is
correct, the paragraphs in question are
addressed to believers; if on
the other hand the eschatology deals with eternal
damnation or
eternal salvation, the passages are aimed at
professing believers.
It
is the thesis of this article that eschatology is a determinative
factor in coming to the conclusion that the passages
in question are
68 GRACE
THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
concerned with the danger of apostasy. There were
some in the
readership who had made a profession of faith in
Christ but were
seriously considering returning to Judaism. It was
not a case of the
Galatian heresy where some were attempting to
unite Christianity
with Judaism; on the contrary, these people were
about to abandon
Christianity to slip back to the works system of
Judaism.
HEBREWS 2:1-4
A crucial point in this section is the meaning
of "salvation" in
v 3: ". . . how shall we escape if we
neglect so great a salvation?" Does
it refer to believers' rewards or to ultimate
salvation? For several
reasons, the word must be understood eschatologically and soterio-
logically.
First, the same noun is used in
are rendering service for the heirs of salvation.
It is obvious that the
noun swthri<a is used in
The salvation here spoken of lies in the future;
it is yet to be
inherited, even if its blessings
can already be enjoyed in anticipation.
That is to say, it is that eschatological salvation which, in Paul's words,
is now "nearer to us
than when we first believed" (Rom.
Peter's words, is "ready to be revealed in
the last time" (I Pet. 1:5). Our
author does not need to
explain to his readers what he means by this
salvation; the term and its
meaning are familiar to them already. What
they do need to understand
is the fearful danger to which they will be
exposed if they treat this
salvation lightly.1
However, someone may object that the question is
not the
meaning of "salvation" in
but it must be noted that the author of Hebrews
often uses "hook
words," i.e., vocabulary that is employed both
at the end of one
paragraph and at the beginning of the next to link
units of thought
together.2 It appears that
"salvation" is one of those hook words.
(This
is confirmed by the use of dia>
tou?to in 2: 1.) The noun swthri<a
in 2:3 must then have the same meaning as it does
in
eschatological deliverance. Buchanan
agrees with this concept:
"Salvation"
in the Old Testament usually refers either to deliver-
ance of a nation from the
power of the enemy at war, or to receiving a
pardon or verdict of "not guilty" in a court
case. For the author of
1 F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NICNT;
1964),
25-26.
2 Neil R. Lightfoot, Jesus Christ Today: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews
(Grand
Rapids: Baker, 1976); 48-49.
TOUSSAINT: WARNING PASSAGES IN HEBREWS 69
Hebrews it refers to the deliverance that the
Son provides when God
makes his "enemies a
footstool for [his] feet" (
"the staff of
justice" (1:8) to rule over his people.3
There is a second reason why the salvation must
be eschatological;
v 5 clearly defines it in such a manner. In that
passage the writer
refers to ". . . the world to come, concerning
which we are speaking."
The
salvation certainly involves an eschatological age. In discussing
the phrase th>n
oi]koume<nhn th>n me<llousan, Westcott states:
the phrase is not to be
understood simply of 'the future life' or,
more generally, of 'heaven'.
It describes, in relation to that which we
may call its constitution,
the state of things which, in relation to its
development in time, is called 'the
age to come' (o[ me<llwn
ai]w<n), and,
in relation to its supreme
Ruler and characteristics, 'the Kingdom of
God,' or 'the Kingdom of heaven,' even the order
which corresponds
with the completed work of
Christ.4
Michel in the Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament says,
"Hb. 2:5 clearly represents the old apocalyptic phrase xBAha MlAOf.”5
There
is a third factor that enters into the understanding of
salvation in Heb 2:3. This is found in the clause
of the same verse,
"After
it was at the first spoken through the Lord. . . ." The Greek
text has h!tij
a]rxh>n labou?sa lalei?sqai dia> tou? kuriou?. "This
singular made of expression suggests somewhat
more than the simple
fact of having first been spoken, and implies that
the teaching of the
Lord
was the true origin of the Gospel."6 This can hardly be the
doctrine of justification by faith. That truth
had been m effect SInce
man sinned (Heb 11:4; Gen 15:6; Ps 32:1; Hab 2:4). Nor can it refer
to rewards, for this doctrine also is found in the
OT (Dan 12:3). The
salvation which received a beginning in the
preaching of Christ was
the kingdom and its nearness. Bruce comments:
It had, of course, been proclaimed in advance by
the prophets; but
not until the coming of
Christ, when promise gave place to fulfillment,
could it be effectively
brought near. The note of fulfilment was heard
when Jesus came into
"preaching the
gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the
1:14f), and when, as in the synagogue at
3 George Wesley Buchanan,
To the Hebrews (AB; Garden City:
Doubleday, 1972) 25.
4 Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews (
5 TDNT,
s.v. "oi]koume<nh,"
by Otto Michel, 5 (1967): 159.
6 Westcott, Hebrews 39.
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of Isa.
61:1f. which announce "good tidings to the
poor" and "release
to the captives", and
proclaim "the acceptable year of the Lord", and
followed them with the
declaration: "Today hath this scripture been
fulfilled in your ears"
(Luke 4:18ff).7
The kingdom was based on the death and
resurrection of the
Messiah,
but it is not limited to that. The writer is looking beyond
forensic imputation to the age to come so
graphically proclaimed by
the Lord Jesus. That is the salvation which is in
view.
The fourth evidence in favor of seeing the
salvation in this
passage as being eschatological is the usage of
a(swthri<a in Hebrews.
It
is found seven times in the book (
The
occurrences in
The
reference in
obvious reference to the Christian's future
life. In 5:9, the salvation is
described as "eternal." The meaning in
6:9 is not so clear; it may,
however, look at eternal salvation. The author
expects the readers to
bear fruit in their lives as those who are heirs of
salvation. In
swthri<a is the goal of Christ's second coming.
In 11:7, it is used of
Noah's
deliverance in the flood and therefore does not relate to the
subject at hand. Quite clearly then, the writer
of Hebrews looks at
salvation as being eschatological. The occurrence
in 11:7 does not
pertain to Christians. The only debatable uses
are in 2:3 and 6:9, both
of. which probably refer
to ultimate deliverance.
It should be noted that the salvation in view
cannot refer to
believer's rewards. The context has retribution in
view in contrast to
salvation. The argument is a fortiori. If
disobedience to .the angelic
message brought just recompense, how much more
will there be
judgment on those who disregard the good news of
a salvation that
bears fruit in the coming age? At the judgment seat
of Christ there
will be no remembrance of sin (Heb
The
paragraph is looking at eschatological salvation and therefore is
a warning to the professing readers of Hebrews
not to jettison
Christianity in favor of Judaism.
HEBREWS 3:7-4:13
The warning here is for readers to fear coming
short of the
promised rest. The crux interpretum is the meaning of
"rest." The
vocabulary used is kata<pausij (
katapau<w (4:4, 8, 10) and sabbatismo<j (4:9). The noun kata<pausij
was employed in classical Greek to mean "a
putting to rest, causing to
cease," but in the LXX and NT it lost its causal
sense and simply
7 Bruce, Hebrews. 29.
WARNING PASSAGES IN HEBREWS 71
meant "rest, repose.”8 The verb katapau<w has a transitive
meaning in
Heb
4:8, where the writer refers to Joshua's failure to give
In
Heb 4:4 it takes an intransitive sense, where God is said to have
rested from his creative work. The noun sabbatismo<j is an NT
hapax legomenon
and means "Sabbath rest, Sabbath observance.”9
As
one studies the passage he comes to the conclusion the writer
of Hebrews is looking at several facets of rest.
First, there is the
seventh-day rest of God when he ceased from his
creative work (4:4,
10).
There is a second aspect of rest, the rest which involved
taking the promised land (
was viewed as a form of rest is seen in such
passages as Deut 3:20;
12:9;
25: 19; Josh 11 :23;
Hebrews
3 and 4 is the promised rest. Here is the difficulty. What is
being promised?
There are a number who take the promised rest to
be eternal
bliss,10 and several factors support this
position. First, the promise of
entering the rest (4: 1) implies that the
blessing is a future one
(cf.
rest.
Others say that the rest in view is the present
Christian experience
of peace.11 Some who hold this position
say that the existing rest for
the Christian finds its ultimate completion in
eternity. Several lines of
evidence are used to support this interpretation.
For one, the verb
ei]serxomeqa in 4:3 is present
tense, which implies that this is to be
the present experience of believers who walk with
God. However, this
may well be a futuristic present such as one finds
in Matt
14:3;
and 1 Cor 16:5. Turner affirms that such Occurrences
are ". . .
confident assertions intended to arrest attention
with a vivid and
realistic tone or else with imminent fulfillment
in mind. . . .”12 Quite
8 G. Abbott Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the
New Testament (
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937), 237.
9 William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich,
A Greek-English Lexicon C?f the New
Testament and Other Earl.v Christian Literature (
1957),746.
10 Representative of this group are Bruce, Hebrews, 77-79; Thomas Hewitt, The
Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), 89; Philip Edgcumbe
Hughes,
A Commentary on the
Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977),
161-
62;
Homer A. Kent, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary (
Baker,
I 972}, 86-87; Lightfoot, Hebrews,
96-97; Westcott, Hebrews, 98-99.
11 Representative are W. H. Griffith
Thomas, Let Us Go On (
Zondervan, n.d.), 45-50;
Clarence S. Roddy, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand
Rapids:
Baker, 1962), 46-48; Charles Caldwell Ryrie, The Ryrie Study Bible New
American Standard
Translation
(Chicago: Moody, 1976), 1841; R. B. Thieme, Jr., The
Faith-Rest Life (Houston: R. B. Thieme, Jr., 1961), 22-49.
12 Nigel Turner, Svntax, James Hope Moulton, ed., A Grammar of New Testament
Greek, Vol. 3 (Edinburgh: T.
& T. Clark, 1963), 63.
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GRACE THEOLOGICAL
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obviously, this kind of use in Heb 4:3 would catch
the reader's
attention.
There is a second line of support for taking
this to be the peace
of God in one's heart as he walks with God. It may
be that the
invitation of Christ Jesus in Matt 11:28-30
parallels this passage. Of
course, the Lord's solicitation in Matthew 11 is a
call to rest, but does
that prove that this is the meaning in Hebrews? The
idea of peace in
the Christian's walk is completely biblical, but
this by no means
confirms that concept here.
The third support for taking this to be the
Christian's present
experience is typology. Thus, the Exodus is said to
portray redemp-
tion, the wilderness
wanderings illustrate the pre-rest walk of the
believer, and being in the land looks to the
faith-rest walk. This line
of evidence has its own seeds of destruction in
it. The writer of
Hebrews
specifically notes that neither Joshua nor David, who were
in the land, gave the people rest (Heb 4:7-8)! Not
only does every
support for this view lose its force when fully
considered; there are
formidable objections to it. For one, the words of
Heb
oppose such an interpretation. These verses are not
words of assurance
but warning. That they explain the preceding verse
is obvious from
the yap with which v 12 is introduced. It is an
admonition which
predicts judgment for those who do not enter
rest. A second objection
rests on the instruction of
are to cease from works as God did. The clear
implication of the
faith-rest view is that God's works were bad! In other words, the
viewpoint which takes this passage as referring to
the Christian's
intimate walk with God and the peace which
results from it enjoins
the Christian to cease from his law-works, his
striving, his fleshly
labors, and simply to trust in God. If the parallel is
carried out in
A
third interpretation takes this rest of 3:7-4:13 to anticipate the
coming millennial kingdom age.13 A number
of factors point to this
as the best interpretation.
First, in Heb 4: 1, the promise to enter God's rest
remains for
those who receive it. The promise implies that it is
futuristic in
application.
Second, Psalm 95, the basis for the entire
warning section and
the source of the admonition concerning rest, is an
enthronement
Psalm.14
Regarding this type of psalm Kaiser says, "Therefore, each
13 Representatives of this viewpoint are
Buchanan, Hebrews, 64-74; G. H. Lang,
The Epistle to the
Hebrews
(London: Paternoster, 1951),75-80; Walter C. Kaiser,
Jr.,
"The Promise Theme and the Theology of
Rest," BSac
130 (1973), 138-50.
14 Christoph Barth, Introduction
to the Psalms (
Sons, 1966), 21.
TOUSSAINT: WARNING PASSAGES IN HEBREWS 73
of these psalms alike tells the story of a divine
kingdom which is yet
to be set up on the earth.”15 In other words, the
theme of the
enthronement psalms is clearly
eschatological and anticipates the rule
of the Lord on this planet (cf. Ps 93:1-2; 96:10;
97:1; 99:1). The "rest"
of Psalm 95 must therefore anticipate the
millennium.
Third, the concept of sabbvatismo<j (Heb 4:9) was used in
Jewish
literature to refer to the kingdom age. This has
been noted by many.16
In
the Jewish prayer after sabbath
meals the petition is made, "May
the All-merciful let us inherit the day which shall
be wholly a Sabbath
and rest in the life everlasting.”17 Buchanan asserts that
the Epistle to
the Hebrews is so steeped in the OT that the
concept of rest cannot be
limited to a spiritual interpretation but must
include national and
earthly concepts; in fact, he feels that any other
interpretation is
inconsistent.18
Andreasen's view is an illustration
of this.19 While he acknowl-
edges the OT expectation of a Jewish earthly kingdom
in the term
"rest," he goes on to give the word a limited spiritual
meaning in
Hebrews. Westcott does the same. He says,
"The Jewish teachers
dwelt much upon the symbolical meaning of the Sabbath
as pre-
figuring 'the world to come’.”20 But
having said this he goes on to
take this to be eternity. It certainly is more
logical to say that the NT
theology of rest is founded on OT doctrine.
A fourth factor supports the idea of a
millennial rest as being in
the mind of the writer of Hebrews. The OT refers to
the kingdom age
as being a time of rest (Ps 132:12-14; Isa
Fifth, the "rest" spoken of in Psalm
95 clearly involved
dwelling in the land; therefore, the promised
rest can scarcely be
divorced from settlement in the land.
Sixth, Heb 4:8 speaks of another prophetic
"day." This clearly is
a period of
time and is explained in 4:9 as the sabbath rest.
Seventh, the rest was prepared from the
foundation of the world
(Heb 4:3-4) just as the kingdom was (Matt
25:34).
This explains why
Christ
was employed in healing on the Jewish sabbath
in John 5. The
ultimate sabbath had
not yet come so Christ with his Father was
working to bring in that ultimate sabbath or kingdom age. It should
15 Kaiser, "Promise Theme," 142.
16 Westcott, Hebrews, 98-99; cr. Bruce, Hebrews,
75; Buchanan, Hebrews, 73;
Hughes,
Hebrews, 161.
17 Encyclopaedia of Religion
and Ethics, S.v. "Sabbath (Jewish)" by
10(1930):
891.
18 Buchanan, Hebrews, 64-65, 72-74.
19 Neils-Erik Andreasen, Rest and
Redemption (
20 Westcott, Hebrews, 98.
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be noted that this idea of a sabbath
day being the millennial age is no
recent, innovative interpretation. It dates back at
least to the Epistle
of Barnabas in the early second century.
By way of conclusion to this section it may be
said that there are
three "rests" in these paragraphs of
Hebrews. First, there is God's
cessation from His creation work. This rest will
be manifested in the
kingdom age when redeemed mankind enters His
inheritance. The
second rest was
under Joshua. This is a picture of the kingdom rest.
The third rest is
the promised rest which actually is God's rest
which comes to man in
the millennium.
Here then is the warning. If the readers were
mere professors and
rejected Christ in order to go back to the works
system of Judaism,
they would be excluded from the promised kingdom age
or God's
rest.
HEBREWS 6:4-8
This warning, infamous for its difficulty, has
little to say eschato-
logically. The only prophetic statement is made by
illustration and
implication in vv 7-8. There the writer warns,
"For ground that
drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings
forth vegetation
useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled,
receives a blessing from
God;
but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to
being cursed, and it ends up being burned.”21
Obviously, some kind of judgment is in view
here. But is it a
judgment to determine believers' rewards or is it
the condemnation of
the lost? Those who claim the former position point
to the consump-
tion of the Christian's
works by flame in 1 Corinthians 3 as being
parallel with v 8 here. Is this, however, the
best interpretation?
There
is no solid evidence that the picture portrays the damnation
of the lost. No comfort can be derived from the
clause "close to being
cursed" in v 7. The same vocabulary is employed
in
and imminent doom. In other words, the worthless
ground was
destined to be cursed soil, scarcely the kind of
vocabulary to be used
of a Christian, even if he was carnal!
Furthermore, the contrast
between the two verses seems to portray the
condition of the earth
before the fall and after. In its Edenic
state it was blessed and
productive; after the sin of Adam it was cursed and
in need of
redemption.22 Bruce compares the
analogy to the vineyard song of
Isaiah
5.23 In either case the figure graphically portrays
21 NASB. All extended quotations
are from the NASB.
22 Buchanan, Hebrews, 110.
23 Bruce, Hebrews, 124-25.
TOUSSAINT: WARNING PASSAGES IN HEBREWS 75
received the blessings of promises, covenants,
the law, the Scriptures,
and the name of Jehovah. If, however, the people
failed to respond to
the Messiah, the only destiny was eternal
perdition.
"The
whole tenor of the passage demands retribution and destruction
as the emphatic point.”24 Also, as
Hewitt notes, "The context does
not favour the suggestion
that the piece of ground should be burnt by
man to improve it. . . .”25 The
threefold progression in v 8 of
worthless, cursed, and burned hardly looks at the
life of a believer in
Christ.
Finally, the contrast with v 9 implies that a distinction is being
drawn between the future of the lost and saved. As
was noted before,
swthri<a in Hebrews when used of Christians
anticipates eschato-
logical salvation.26 This is the
destiny of the redeemed; v 8 looks to
the future of the damned.
HEBREWS 10:26-39
This fourth warning section has a great deal to
do with future
judgment and some with the promise of future
blessing. In this
paragraph the writer declares:
For if we go on sinning
willfully after receiving the knowledge of
the truth, there no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain
terrifying expectation of
judgment, and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH
WILL CONSUME THE
ADVERSARIES.
Anyone who has set aside
the Law of Moses dies without mercy
on the testimony of two or
three witnesses.
How much severer
punishment do you think he will deserve who
has trampled under foot the
Son of God, and has regarded as unclean
the blood of the covenant
by which he was sanctified, and has insulted
the Spirit of grace?
For we
know Him who said, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY."
And again, "THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS
PEOPLE."
It is a terrifying thing
to fall into the hands of the living God.
But remember the former
days, when, after being enlightened, you
endured a great conflict of
sufferings, partly, by being made a public
spectacle through reproaches and
tribulations, and partly by becoming
sharers with those who were so
treated.
For you showed sympathy
to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully
the seizure of your
property, knowing that you have for yourselves a
better possession and an
abiding one.
24 Kent, Hebrews, 115.
25 Hewitt, Hebrews, 109.
26 Cf. p. 68.
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Therefore, do not
throwaway your confidence, which has a great
reward.
For you have need of
endurance, so that when you have done the
will of God, you may receive
what was promised.
FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE
WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING
WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.
BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE
SHALL LIFE BY FAITH; AND IF
HE SHRINKS BACK,
MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.
But we are not of those
who shrink back to destruction, but of
those who have faith to the
preserving of the soul.
This paragraph is the most severe of the five
warning sections.
Perhaps
this is due to the degree of sin and the descriptions of the
rebellion committed by those who fall into the
peril of the warning.
They
are guilty of willful sin, outright defiance of God (v 26; cf. Num
looks back to Deut 17:2-6. The context of that OT
passage deals with
Israelites
who abandoned the worship of Jehovah to go into idolatry
or the veneration of other gods. In v 29 the
writer of Hebrews
describes the sins of those who apostatize as
trampling under foot
(katapate<w) the Son of God, of regarding (h[ge<omai, a sin of the
intellect) as unclean the blood of the covenant,
and of insulting the
Spirit of grace. In this last sin the
verb is e]nubri<zw,
a compounded
verb which describes the awesome violence of God's
holy name by
insolence.27 It here parallels the
blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matt
Sprinkled throughout these descriptions of sin
and rebellion are
allusions to eschatology, particularly the coming
of judgment and the
promise of blessing.
In several verses there is the prediction of
judgment. The first
allusion to this judgment is found in the
connective yap in v 26. Quite
clearly this particle introduces an explanation
of the significance of
the approaching day referred to in the preceding
verse. That day,
while it will be a time of vindication and
deliverance for God's
people, will bring condemnation for the lost as is
seen in this passage.
Westcott
succinctly asserts, "The mention of 'the day' in v. 25 calls
out the sad severity of the warning which follows.”28
The judgment is described more fully in Heb
10:27, the verse
which follows. The description is very interesting
and significant. To
explain what the judgment involves the writer of
Hebrews quotes
27 The only occurrence of e]nubri<zw in the LXX is in Lev
24:11 where it describes
blasphemy.
28 Westcott, Hebrews, 327.
TOUSAINT:
WARNING PASSAGES IN HEBREWS 77
from Isa 26:11, a passage
which contrasts the righteous with the
wicked. Specifically, the lost are referred to as
"enemies." The Greek
term u[penanti<oj describes what is
"opposed to, opposite or contrary
to.”29 This assize can hardly be a
reference to believers' rewards! The
awesomeness of this judgment is emphasized by the
vocabulary. "The
terror of the expectation is brought out by a more
literal rendering of
the words, 'a certain fearful expectation of
judgment' (ASY); the
indefinite 'a certain' leaves it somewhat open to
the reader's imagina-
tion to fill in the gruesome
details of that judgment.”30 Certainly, as
Wescott puts it, "Such a judgment (c.ix.27)
would be, for those whom
the Apostle describes, condemnation.”31
This future judgment of the lost is further
described in v 29
where the writer uses an a fortiori argument. The
punishment inflicted
for highhanded or willful disobedience was death
(Deut 17:2-6). If
this was true in the OT for defiance of the law, how
much worse will
be God's judgment for scorning the Son of God (cf.
2:2)? What would
be worse than physical death but eternal
perdition? "The judgment
awaiting those who will not trust for their
salvation in the sacrifice of
Christ
must consist of eternal loss in hell. It is pictured as a fire that is
almost personified and is possessed of zeal which is
about to consume
the opponents of Christ.”32
The quotations in v 30 taken from the Song of
Moses in Deut
32:35-36
first sets forth the principle that God avenges his enemies.
This
first quotation is not taken directly from the Hebrew or LXX
and may be a well-known proverb adapted from Deut
32:35.33 While
the objects of the warning in Deut 32:35 are
Israelites, unbelieving
Jews
are in view. As Hughes asserts, "This God whom they have
confessed as the God of grace and mercy is also
the God of holiness
and justice: faithfulness to his covenant leads to
blessing, but rebellion
means retribution.”34 The second quotation
from Deut 32:36 predicts
God's vindication of his people,
passages together describe the deliverance of
believing
judgment of those who do not trust in Messiah.
Bruce comments,
"This
certainly means that He will execute judgment on their behalf,
vindicating their cause against their enemies, but
also that, on the
same principles of impartial righteousness, He will
execute judgment
against them when they forsake His covenant.”35
29 The only other NT occurrence is in Col
2: 14.
30 Lightfoot, Hebrews, 194.
31 Westcott, 329.
32 Kent, Hebrews, 205.
33 The same saying is found in
34 Hughes, Hebrews. 425.
35 Bruce, Hebrews, 262-63.
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Further reference to judgment is found in v 31
of Hebrews 10.
While
the verse parallels David's statement, "Let us now fall into the
hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great" (2
Sam 24:14), the context
is pointedly judgmental. For a believer it is a
merciful thing to fall
into the hands of a loving God, but for apostates it
is punitive and
terrifying.
Not until Heb 10:37-38 is the next reference to
judgment given. It
is a quotation from Hab
2:3-4. In an article of this length it is quite
impossible to discuss the problems of quotation in
this passage. It
may be summarized by saying that the writer of
Hebrews introduces
the Habakkuk quotation by using Isa
26:20, "For yet in a very little
while." The passage from Habakkuk is a free
citation of the LXX
text. In the use of the quotation, the NT writer
refers to the one who
draws back. The nature of this failure is not spelled
out; however, it is
quote clear that it refers to an apostate. In such a
one God takes no
pleasure.
V 39 portrays the destiny of the one who
"shrinks back." For
him the end is (i,7tWAEtav. Concerning this noun
that it
. . . means destruction
or ruin, and is commonly used in the New
Testament of eternal
destruction.
Such passages as Matthew 7:13;
Romans 9:22; Philippians
aspect of the word. Both Judas
and the Antichrist are called 'the son of
perdition' (John
and ruin which their
heinous deeds will bring. The usage of apoleia
here makes it clear that the
judgment described in this context is not
just a chastening of God's
people but the final destruction of apostates.36
This fourth warning section not only contains
eschatology antici-
pating judgment; it also looks
ahead to promise. The first reference to
this blessing is found in
abiding possession. As the Lord had promised in
Matt 6:20, they had
laid up treasure in heaven. Peter also describes the
imperishable
quality of the Christian's inheritance (1 Pet
1:4). The Hebrew believer's.
eschatology in this time of persecution would be a
real source of
encouragement to him.
V 35 refers to the reward that comes from
confidence. This is not
the same as the rewards given in I Corinthians 3
and 2 Corinthians 5.
Very
interestingly, misqapodosi<a occcurs
only in Hebrews (2:2;
has the positive idea of blessing. This noun,
derived from misqo<j and
a]podi<dwmi, looks at a payment of
wages. Quite clearly, this is the glory
36
TOUSSAINT: WARNING PASSAGES IN HEBREWS 79
which awaits God's child (Rom
ship of the present pilgrimage to the future reward
is the relationship of
faith to hope, as the quotation which follows teaches
(vv 37 and 38)
and the next chapter so amply illustrates.”37
What the reward involves is stated more clearly
in
consists of receiving "what was
promised." The Greek literally says
"the promise." The verb used in this verse, komi<cw, is used with the
promise in
occurrences in chap. 11 this vocabulary anticipates
the millennium.
The
promise then looks ahead to life in Christ's earthly kingdom.
V 39 explains this as "the preserving of
the soul." Bruce interprets
the phrase ei]j
peripoi<hsin yuxh?j ". . . a variant expression for
zh<setai in the Habakkuk
quotation in v. 38.”38 "To possess and
preserve one's soul is the essence of salvation.”39
In summary of the eschatology of the fourth
warning it may be
said that the promise of life is made and the
warning of eternal
perdition is issued for apostates.
HEBREWS 12:25-29
This fifth warning section is based on Hag 2:6,
a passage which is
predictive and eschatological. The argument here is
another a fortiori
one. The writer is looking back to
"on earth" as v 25 states. Today Christ who is in heaven
warns
through his earthly messengers. If the voice on earth brought in-
escapable judgment, how much more the voice from heaven (cf.
2:2-3).
From what those who were disobedient did not escape is
left
unstated. It could be the judgment of death for
flagrant disregard of
the law or it may be the failure to enter the
promised land. Probably
it is the latter alternative since that entire
generation failed in this
regard.
To make the point even more forceful and vivid
Hag 2:6 is
quoted, "Yet once more I will shake not only
earth, but also the
heaven." That passage looks back to the shaking
of Sinai.40 The
primary problem here is how literal one is to
take the future shaking
of earth and heaven.
Although some interpret
the prophecy metaphorically as referring
to the upheavals
accomplished by Christ's first coming in its effect
37 Hughes, Hebrews, 432.
38 Bruce, Hebrews, 275.
39 Kent, Hebrews, 215.
40 Cf. Exod
19:18; Judg 5:4-5; Ps 68:8; 77:18.
80 GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
upon Jewish worship and
politics, the parallelism with the former
shaking makes this view
unlikely. The first shaking was physical and
geographical at Sinai. There is no
good reason to take this second
shaking of the earth and the
heavens above it in any less literal sense.41
The writer goes on to say that the only things
which will remain
after this are those things which cannot be shaken. This
is not looking
at the judgment seat of Christ where the
believer's works and motives
are to be tried by fire. The contrast is between
the saved and lost.
This
fits with the conclusion in v 28. It is a kingdom which the
Christian
will receive, not simply rewards in the kingdom.42
Finally, the concept of God as a consuming fire
fits the idea of
the judgment of condemnation. Hewitt affirms,
"At the second
advent of Jesus Christ, just as the material and
transitory will
disappear and the eternal and permanent will
remain, so what is false
and vile will be revealed in the fire of God's
holiness and those whose
characters are such will be consumed by the fire of
His judgment.”43
CONCLUSION
In all five warning passages of Hebrews the
thing to be avoided
by the original readers of that discourse was not
loss of believers'
rewards but loss of salvation. Quite clearly the
writer knew of a group
in that early congregation who had made
professions of faith in Jesus
Christ
but were in peril of jettisoning their confessions to apostatize
and lapse back into Judaism. The prophetic elements
in the warnings
confirm this interpretation.
41 Kent, Hebrews, 275.
42 The present participle paralamba<nontej is both present and futuristic. The
kingdom is received in the present time by
faith; its realization is future. Cf. II :39-40.
43 Hewitt, Hebrews, 204.
This material is cited with gracious
permission from:
Grace Theological Seminary
www.grace.edu
Please report any errors to Ted
Hildebrandt at: thildebrandt@gordon.edu