Are Those Who Fall Away Really Christians? Hebrews 6:4-6

Hebrews 6:4-6 speaks about falling away. It reads, “For it is impossible regarding those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted of the good word of God and powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying  for themselves again the son of God, making a public mockery of him.”

If such people rejected Christ after apparently repenting, were they really Christians in the first place?

Hebrews 6:4-6 More Closely

The author of Hebrews turns from directly addressing his audience to speak primarily in aorist participles about others in these verses. The string of participles describe them as once being “enlightened,” having “tasted” of the heavenly gift, having “become” partakers of the Holy Spirit, and “tasted” of the good word of God and powers of the age to come. They experienced all these things prior to their falling away. They ended up rejecting Christ, committing apostasy.*

Such descriptions seem to imply that they had experienced conversion and understood the elementary teachings of the early Christian faith as described in Hebrews 6:1–2. Let us look at some of the various phrases in Hebrews 6:4-6 more closely.

“Once enlightened”

With the immediate context of Hebrews 6:1–3 fresh in the author’s mind, the thought of those who “were once enlightened” (ἅπαξ φωτισθέντας: Heb 6:4a) most likely refers to conversion or “saving illumination.” This is similar to Hebrews 10:32 where the same word φωτίζω refers to the audiences’ actual conversion in the past. This goes beyond mere Christian instruction.

In Hebrews 6:4 the word assumes conversion as a one-time event with the adverb “once” (cf. 9:7, 26–29; 10:2; 12:26f). This conversion, it seems, takes place through repentance, faith, water and Spirit baptism, and perhaps a confession made during the initiation process (Heb 6:1–2).

Other passages in early Christian traditions likewise portray conversion as coming out of darkness into “light” in which the neophyte belongs to God’s people and kingdom (Col 1:13; Eph 5:8; 2 Cor 4:4–6; Acts 26:18; 1 Pet 2:9–12).

“Tasted of the heavenly gift”

Among the options for this phrase, one possibility is that it is an echo from the wilderness generation’s eating of manna (Heb 6:4b; cf. Exod 16:4, 15; Ps 77:24; 104:40; Neh 9:15; John 6:31–58). If so, the allusion might foreshadow partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

Another interpretation suggests the heavenly gift refers to the Spirit, which is seen as God’s agent of grace (Heb 6:2; 10:29; cf. Acts 2:38; 8:20; 10:45; Luke 11:13; John 4:10, 23; Barnabas 1). The idea of tasting in 6:4 might correspond to the notion of drinking in the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 12:13; John 7:37–39). But if the next line in Hebrews 6:4c refers to the Spirit, then the gift in 6:4b probably refers to something else.

Other alternatives include grace or salvation as the heavenly gift (e.g., Rom 5:15; Eph 3:7; 1 Pet 2:2-3). Harold Attridge understands the meaning of this gift to be more eclectic. It is “the gracious bestowal of salvation, with all that entails—the spirit, forgiveness, and sanctification” (Attridge, Hebrews, 171).

Important for our purposes is that the “tasting” of this gift does not mean a mere “sip” or “sampling” but the reality of experiencing something related to personal salvation. The author uses the term earlier in this letter to refer to Christ “tasting” death (Heb 2:9; cf. Matt 16:28). Whatever else the author means in Hebrews 6:4, he is communicating that those who fell away were at one time converted and experienced the grace of God.

“Partakers of the Holy Spirit”

These apostates also shared in the Holy Spirit (Heb 6:4c), a thought that comes close to the mystical union of sharing in a relationship with Christ (cf. Heb 3:1, 14). Here the focus may be on the Spirit’s relationship, communion, and solidarity with the believers (cp. 1 Cor 12:13; 2 Cor 13:13f). Such was an early Christian hallmark for determining conversion-initiation, new life, and sanctification (Acts 11:15–18; Rom 8:9–14; 2 Thess 2:13; Titus 3:5; Eph 1:13–14; John 3:3–7). There is in fact no passage in the New Testament that affirms unbelievers or fake Christians having a share in the Holy Spirit (I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 143, likewise makes this point).

Even Matthew 7:21–23 does not affirm that the miracles done by false prophets in Jesus’ name were performed by the power of the Spirit. On the other hand, as we notice in Galatians 3:1-5 (cf. Gal 5:4) and 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 , authentic Christians who have the Spirit can potentially fall away (see further, B. J. Oropeza,  Jews, Gentiles, and the Opponents of Paul; Apostasy in the New Testament Communities, vol. 1; and further on 1 Cor 10, Oropeza, Paul and Apostasy).

The same appears to hold true for our author in Hebrews, who recalls earlier days of the Spirit’s activity in the congregation (Heb 2:3–4). But he now warns them that outraging the Spirit of grace is tantamount to apostasy (Heb 10:29).

“Tasted of the good word of God and powers of the age to come”

This phrase from Hebrews 6:5 refers back to the theme of God speaking through his Son in the final days (Heb 1:3). The apostates were taught the spoken word, the gospel message of salvation and life (Heb 2:3; 4:1; 5:9; 6:12).

The powers of the coming age likely points back to the signs and wonders experienced by early Christian communities (Heb 2:2–4; cf. 1 Cor 12:4–11). By way of comparison we recall persons such as Ananias and Sapphira from Acts 5:1-11. They probably experienced miraculous events, fellowship with the Spirit, and the gift of salvation. Perhaps they were even among the 3,000 that received baptism on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2; cf. 4:31). Yet they sinned greatly by lying to the Spirit and were struck dead (Acts 5:1–11).

They “have fallen away”

The upshot in Hebrews 6:4–6 is that despite all these salvific blessings these individuals experienced, they then fell away (καί παραπεσόντας). In 6:6 the conjunction kai (καί) may connote temporal succession and be translated as “and then,” highlighting something unexpected.

The severity of language and repeated warnings throughout this letter attest to apostasy. The Greek word, parapipto (to “fall away”) appears nowhere else in the New Testament. But in the LXX, the Greek Old Testament, it normally conveys some form of apostasy from God, righteousness, or wisdom (Ezekiel 14:13; 15:8; 18:24; 20:27; Wisdom 6:9; 12:2).The meaning in Hebrews 6:6 is quite similar to pipto (to “fall [away]”) in Hebrews 4:11. Both words refer to committing apostasy.

There is no conditional “if ” in the Greek text here, and none should be imported as certain Bible versions such as NKJV and KJV mistakenly do. In other words, the warning does not express what hypothetically happens to apostates even though Christians cannot really become apostates. The danger of apostasy is a real threat here!

Warnings and Persecution

The author of Hebrews uses this passage as a springboard to directly warn the recipients not to behave in a like manner. He implies through the larger context that the recipients’ reluctant hearing might become the cause of their own falling away (e.g., Hebrews 2:1-4; 5:11-14).

Unlike the wilderness generation (mentioned in Hebrews 3–4) or Esau (Hebrews 12:16–17), the defectors in this case are believers in Christ. Our author might even have in mind an actual event in the audience’s past in which certain members of their community actually did fall away.

Another possibility, however, is that the author, who may be from Italy (Heb 13:24), is recalling Emperor Nero’s persecutions of Christians in Rome (c. 64 CE). Certain believers probably denied Christ at that time due to the severity of this persecution. Eusebius, a patristic writer in the 4th century, wrote about this and other persecutions. He likewise admits that a number of Christians fell away due to persecution (see his Church History). Pliny the Younger also mentions Christian apostates in his report to Emperor Trajan in his Letters (10.96). Moreover, Mark’s Gospel may have originated in the community of Rome, as many scholars suggest. It emphasizes suffering along with Jesus’s famous saying that the one who saves his life will lose it, and the one who loses his life will save it (Mark 8:34-38).

In any case, the author of Hebrews refers to Christians who were once converted, sharers in God’s Spirit, and experienced gracious salvation, God’s word, and the miracles of the coming age. Despite all this, they fell away. The audience of this letter would doubtless think that these apostates were also once true believers in Christ.

Conclusion

We might assume that both the author and audience would have known people who had left their congregations but were never truly committed. Or, they knew people who doubted their beliefs or perhaps were compromised with immoral conduct. But there does not appear to be a good reason for the author of Hebrews to bother compiling an entire list of salvific blessings described in 6:1–4 unless he was intending to communicate to his audience that these people were genuine believers. Perhaps the author of Hebrews wanted to affirm that he was not referring to the type of half-hearted churchgoer, but to those who had been unmistakably converted.

We have to remember that nearly 2,000 ago, the Christ-followers in this community were not indoctrinated with a “once saved, always saved” belief. Nor did they know about the post-Reformation doctrine of the “perseverance of the saints.” As was common with other groups in or originating from Second Temple Judaism, the potential to commit apostasy remained a grim reality (see my article, B. J. Oropeza, “Apostasy” in T. and T. Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, ed. Loren T. Stuckenbruck and Daniel M. Gurtner). The danger of apostasy is a real threat to real Christians.

Our author presents this passage as part of his effort to shake the audience free from their spiritual dullness. His rhetorical strategy for them comes through loud and clear: “if these other believers fell away who had experienced conversion and spiritual blessings just like you experience, watch out or else the same thing might happen to you!”

Notes

* For a more thorough study on Hebrews and apostasy, see B. J. Oropeza, Churches Under Siege of Persecution and Assimilation: The General Epistles and Revelation. Apostasy in the New Testament Communities, Vol. 3 (Eugene: Cascade, 2012), pp. 3-70 (from which portions of this post are derived)