Since you use scripture to refute scripture I would counter that Heb 6:4-6 demonstrates that one whose heart has been changed can choose. Heb6:4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen[a] away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
What scripture did I use to refute what scripture? I gave scripture that refutes your belief. There is a difference. And you are using this one to refute what I was claiming about Eph 2 by your understanding of this scripture---all based on what you have determined enlightened means, and what you determine that being raised to spiritual life from being spiritually dead mean. It is a false equivalence.
Before we get to unpacking the Hebrew 6 text, we need to get what Eph 2 means. This makes for long posts, but if is how we find if we are getting meaning and doctrine from our presuppositions or from Scripture itself. You can either not read it, or read it and dismiss it on the grounds that you don't agree with it, and don't want to, not on what was actually done/said. I realize that at this point, you have no intention of changing you mind, no matter what.
Eph 2:1-2
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked----- 4-6 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus---.
The us are Paul's recipients---the church at Ephesus, believers. Once they were dead in sin, but were made alive by God and seated with Christ. This was done by grace. Note, they have been/are raised to life, they have been/are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. So what part of being raised to life and being seated with Him, by grace, is merely an offer of grace? A choice on whether or not to accept this grace? If being made alive seats one with Christ in the heavenlies how is being made alive merely the ability to choose or reject? You need to answer these questions.
You give as support for your position a scripture in Hebrews that would contradict the clear teaching of Eph 2. It becomes a contradiction because of a misinterpretation of Eph 2.
This is what you say of Hebrews 6:4-6 and slightly change the subject.
How could one be enlightened, taste the Heavenly Gift, share in the Holy Spirit, taste of the goodness of the Word of God and the Powers of the coming age not be born again? How could all of these attributes come from an unregenerated heart? How could this not be from a person who has experienced Eph 2:1-3 Are you prepared to agree that a person who has not been made alive can exhibit all of these attributes with a sinful dead heart?
They aren't attributes in that text, you presume they are. They are external to those who fall away, not internal. As was the case with Judas. And how do I know this? Even though this text leaves room for equivocation, and has been the subject of controversy forever, if it means that the saved can be lost it directly contradicts scriptures with no equivocation. John 10:27-29
My sheep hear my voice, and I now them, and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
Romans 8:30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
Eph 1:13-14 In him also, after listening to the message of truth the gospel of your salvation---having believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.
We have the Scripture that says He who began a good work in us will finish it. We have every verse that promises eternal life for those who believe. If eternal life is given, it cannot be lost, and if it could be, it was an empty promise and temporary not eternal.
That being the case, let's look at Heb 6:4-6.
It is a mistake to isolate these verses from Heb chapters 1-5. Heb 6:1 begins with the word "therefore". It is part of an ongoing conversation. Heb 1 begins by identifying Christ and ends with "Are they (angels) not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" Chapter 2 begins with a "therefore." "we must tpay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it---". The writer then expounds even deeper on who Christ is and His supremacy,, ending with "For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."
Chapter 3 begins with another "therefore". Chapter 4 with another "therefore." Chapter 5, no "therefore" but an exposition of the priesthood of Christ and how through obedience in suffering He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. It ends 11-14 with "About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 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 mik, not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have the powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."
Chapter 6 "Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance----"
It is apparent that the author is writing to immature Christians, who have the basics of salvation and believe it, but are not growing in training in righteousness. There are no doubt a lot of reasons for this, including heavy persecution by both unconverted Jews and the state. Along with this would come discouragement in doing good and in letting go of Jewish traditions and law. The rest of the book deals heavily with both of these, instruction wise.
Verses 4-6 are not an indictment or accusation, but a warning of what it would mean if they abandon their faith. There are a couple of understandings of the words "enlightenment", etc. refer to. They could refer to persons who align with the church and its teachings, have borne witness of all those things, in proximity without denying it and participating in them, but had not been born again, and eventually flat out rejected it. That happens ALL the time. The tares growing alongside the wheat. And if that happened, not that it did, a rejection to the knowledge and understand that was given, they could not be restored again. But enlightened does not always and everywhere mean born again, and it is not saying here that a person who is born again can be unborn again. Or that eternal life is not really eternal. In fact, it is not actually dealing with the subject OSAS doctrinally, but as a warning, and as encouragement to pursue righteousness in the face of suffering.
