agrogersTodd Friel on Wretched TV (both of which I like) tries in vain to turn the obvious meaning of this passage into something that fits with his reformed theology.
Ironically, it seems to me that he has ignored the key point he asked us to remember – ‘context’.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUobBStX5BM]
He argues that the context – the preceding five chapters – is referring to Old Testament imagery that was fulfilled in Jesus. Certainly this is true. These chapters do refer to OT imagery. But the images were for the instruction of Christians, not non-Christians. Todd argues that the context of the preceding chapters forces us to understand chapter six to be referring to non-Christians. But the evidence is overwhelmingly against this view. The writer had Christians in mind throughout the preceding chapters as he did in chapter six.
Heb 2.1: Therefore we [Christians] must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
Heb 3.1: Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
Heb 4.16: Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
And the verses immediately preceding chapter 6 seem to clearly rebuke believers for not progressing further in the faith.
Heb 5.12: For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food
It is unmistakable that Hebrews was written by a believer to believers.
Todd also fails to deal with a key statement in the verse 6.
and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
The people the writer has in mind are people who have repented and personally benefited from the crucified Christ. The point of the passage is that they will not benefit a second time. Todd is arguing that they have never repented and so never benefited from the crucified Christ.
I find it sad that good men who love the Bible and defend it with great energy are so attached to their theology that they will enthusiastically turn a simple passage on its head before they would rethink their theological position. Todd would do well to remember Occam’s razor: other things being equal, simpler explanations are generally better than complex ones. And they are more often correct.
