Objection 14

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

Hebrews 6:4-6, those "once enlightened" who "fall away" cannot be renewed.

Three answers converge. First, the description, enlightened, tasted, partakers, deliberately stops short of the language Hebrews uses elsewhere for the regenerate ("sanctified... perfected for ever," 10:14); Israel in the wilderness was enlightened by the cloud, tasted the manna, and partook of the Spirit's works, yet "with many of them God was not well pleased" (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). Second, the passage is a warning to Hebrew professors drifting back to the temple system: to abandon Christ for the sacrifices that only foreshadowed Him is to seek renewal in a fountain that never cleansed anyone. Third, and decisively, the writer immediately adds: "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak" (6:9), the writer himself says the falling-away description does NOT depict the saved. In practice, quotation of this passage very often stops at verse 6. It should never stop before verse 9, where the writer states whom his warning does not describe. The reader is asked to make this a habit with every hard text in this dispute: read to the end of the paragraph.