Re: Naked Bible 177: Hebrews 2 and Naked Bible 181: Hebrews 3
To be honest, in Hebrews 2, Heiser gets lost in his effort to shut down any talk of angels or elohim being offered redemption. Throughout the entire canon and supporting literature (Second Temple, Apocrypha, Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.) the only object of redemption has only ever been humans. This was never seen as an option for the eternal beings on His staff. If you read the text of Hebrews 2 in any good English translation, this is manifestly obvious. Moreover, when Christ comes to restore all things, humans will be elevated over the angels, taking their place on the throne with the Lord.
Just for good measure, Heiser pulls in references to Colossians 1-2 and chunks of Revelation to get this point across. Nowhere does anyone suggest angels or elohim will have a chance at redemption. For us, there is nothing in that podcast that is even the least bit surprising. About the only new concept he offers is the enduring Old Testament theme that the Law of Moses was revealed through angels, echoed in Hebrew thinking across the centuries. For us, the Law of Christ is revealed in the Son Himself; that’s the point the author of Hebrews makes here. Christ’s superiority to Moses is a recurring theme in this letter.
The focus of the podcast on Hebrews 3 is the believer’s heart. Heiser doesn’t use the heart-led terminology, but there’s no other way to wrestle with this effectively. He raises the question of losing one’s spiritual redemption. There are conditions, but it’s a uniquely Hebrew concept of “conditions”. As always, we must remind ourselves that the Hebrew mind never delved into ontology (the nature of things). It was only a matter of experience and what you could do with it. Hebrews instinctively avoided trying to delve into God’s business.
Whether and how a human would be restored to Eden was God’s business. What He reveals for us to concern ourselves with is whether we truly believe to the point we are committed. Our eternal destiny is “already but not yet” – you aren’t supposed to understand how that works, only what it requires of you. There are no performance measures as humans perceive such things. He says you must keep believing; it must be something inside of you that draws you regardless of human boundaries. The one thing you can think about is your loyalty to Him. Heiser claims here to believe in eternal security. Unfortunately, he leaves the door open to losing it elsewhere.
The comment in verse 5 about Moses as a “servant” is not the Greek word doulos, an ambiguous term which includes slaves, but therapōn – someone who quite willingly serves. Moses was a personal attendant of God, but still not the Son. The testimony of Moses was incomplete, pointing to things that would come later, the fulfillment of the Son. Was it really possible to slip back into Moses after coming to know the Son? If so, then you cannot be part of God’s house. However, in verse 6 the author uses a particular Greek expression that indicates he is optimistic on behalf of his readers that their faith will hold. Indeed, he refers to their “confidence” (Greek parrēsia, in some translations “boldness”), which in Greek grammar indicates a certain audacity to promote something so incredible to the rest of the world.
The passage goes on to warn the Hebrew readers that far too many of their nation had already disqualified themselves from God’s promises. There is a reference to the rebellion of the spies at Kadesh Barnea who discouraged the people from confidence in God’s power to conquer the Nephilim (Numbers 13-14). Their failure was not a matter of obeying the law, but of failure to trust the Lord in what He affirmed. They resolved to select a new leader to take them back to Egypt.
God was ready to wipe them out there and then. Moses interceded on the grounds of God’s reputation, particularly in the context of having destroyed Egypt and triumphed over the elohim ruling there. Thus, God pardoned Israel, but still condemned them to dying in the wilderness over the next forty years. The entire Exodus generation would die without entering the Promised Land of shalom.
In the context of this story his readers knew so well, the author of Hebrews warns them not to rebel like that again. It would be the same thing, only worse. I say: This is a rhetorical flourish you would expect from someone who had learned Greek styles of debate. He says that slipping back into Moses is the same as the crowd trying to go back to Egypt. It’s slavery all over again. It has nothing to do with whether the writer actually believes they would go that far; he’s trying to polarize their thinking about the issue. They cannot go back to Moses.
Heiser doesn’t address this angle of Greek rhetoric. So far as I can see, he never looks at it. It shows up later in this same letter, and I feel Heiser misses the point on that sometimes. He does clarify that failure to understand God or having doubts about what He is doing in your life is not unbelief. Those are simply human emotions working in the flesh. Your heart has the authority to vanquish those quarrels if you learn to live in your heart, not in your intellect or feelings.
Through the end of the podcast, Heiser undermines some of his own talk of eternal security by insisting that you can lose your faith and then repent and get it back. He’s very soft on what we believe to be a clear statement of Scripture that faith is not in our hands, but is a gift of God through the Presence of the Holy Spirit. You can fail to believe – fail to engage the mental process of reckoning on faith. However, you cannot cross that invisible line once the Holy Spirit has entered. We believe that; Heiser didn’t.
We believe the word “salvation” as found in most English translations refers to the blessings of the Covenant here in this world. That’s the Hebrew conception from the Old Testament, and there’s no reason to shift the meaning for the New Testament. You can lose your Covenant salvation by ceasing to be faithful, by going after other gods, so to speak. You cannot simply stop being Elect, since nothing about that was ever in your hands in the first place.
