Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 04041. Few questions unsettle a tender conscience like falling away, and few passages of Scripture stir more argument than Hebrews 6:4-6. There the writer describes people who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, and who tasted the goodness of the word of God, and yet fell…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10085 Paul warns in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 that the day of the Lord “will not come, unless the rebellion comes first.” The word translated “rebellion” or “falling away” is the Greek apostasia, and its meaning, scope, and timing have been the subject of sustained debate among interpreters. Understanding this apostasy is essential for grasping…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 7008 Few passages in Scripture have generated more debate than Hebrews 6:4-6. The writer declares: “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 07070 Apostasy is a word that Christian communities use with varying degrees of precision. Sometimes it is applied loosely to any serious moral failure or extended period of spiritual decline. Used with its proper biblical meaning, it describes something far more specific and, theologically speaking, far more grave. The Meaning of the Word The…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 06063 There is a difference between a person who stumbles into sin through weakness or momentary failure of judgement, and a person who looks at what they know to be wrong and chooses it anyway, with full awareness and deliberate intent. Scripture recognises this distinction, and Hebrews 10:26 addresses it in terms that have…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 7009 Near the end of his first epistle, the apostle John writes something that has puzzled believers for centuries: “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1133 The word “deconstruction” has become unavoidable in Christian conversations. Social media is filled with stories of people, often raised in evangelical churches, who are dismantling their faith, questioning everything they were taught, and sometimes walking away from Christianity altogether. What does Scripture have to say about this phenomenon? How should we understand and…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 7062 Judas Iscariot is one of the most disturbing figures in Scripture. He spent three years in Jesus’ company, witnessed miracles, heard the Sermon on the Mount, was numbered among the Twelve and sent out to preach and heal, and then sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver. The question of whether he…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 07059 The word “apostasy” comes from the Greek apostasia, meaning a departure, a standing away from. In Christian theology it refers to a decisive, final abandonment of the faith, not a season of backsliding or spiritual coldness, but a definitive renunciation of Christ. The question of whether a genuine, truly converted believer can commit…