Hebrews Chapter Two, Drifting

 

Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.

 

The writer arrests our attention with the adverb, therefore. Because of these things, he says, give the more earnest heed to what we have been taught. The typical date given for Hebrews having been written seems to hover around 68 A.D., two years before the destruction of the temple at the hands of the Roman general Titus. Angels, while playing a large role in the Old Testament, could become an inappropriate object of fascination, as is demonstrated in the Book of Enoch, an Apocryphal text, typically excluded from Protestant Bibles. More than this, however, one must consider the advent of Gnostic teaching and its emphasis on angels, including ones Gnostics term aeons.

Spiritual Lethargy in America

 

The Oxford Dictionary of Current English defines lethargy as, “a lack of energy and enthusiasm.” It hails from the Greek, “lethargos,” which means, “forgetful.” I believe this term does an adequate job defining much of modern Christianity, or as the term is coined, Churchianity.

Hebrews Chapter One, Sealed By The Holy Spirit

Herein let us pause a brief moment to reflect on the profound difference between the Old Testament’s filling of the Holy Spirit and the New Testament’s sealing of the Holy Spirit. In numerous instances through the Old Testament we read of the saints being filled with the Holy Spirit in readiness for ministry of various types. But we also read David’s very real fear, expressed in Psalm 51:11, “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” Can a believer be cast away? On the surface this verse appears to suggest that. But it is extremely unwise to build doctrine off of a single verse of Scripture. 

Hebrews Chapter One, Angels, Prophets, And Apostles

 

The chastening by the hands of the apostles has since passed with the deaths of the apostles. The criteria for becoming an apostle seems to be this: “Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection,” Acts 1:21, 22. The apostleship was finished, and perhaps no longer needed by the time of John’s passing and the completion of the New Testament. Peter alludes to this notion, likening the OT prophets to the NT apostles in compiling the doctrinal body we now refer to as the Bible, 2 Peter 3:2. Paul had doggedly taught that each local church was to have elders and deacons to govern the body. Note, he never mentions pastors, though pastoral duties would be a part of the eldership.