"Such as should be saved." "Added to the Church."

We see the two aspects, salvation from the Divine wrath, and then membership in the Church, the Israel of God, in the above verse.

On the one hand we read that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus and is baptized shall be saved. Then we find numerous exhortations to lay aside our life and run with patience the race set before us. He who endures to the end shall be saved. Perhaps the concept of the race, the battle to apprehend the promise of the Lord, is directed especially toward the royal priesthood.

Let us add a reminder that if one is called to the priesthood he cannot say, "I will settle for naked salvation from wrath and then go about my business in the world." There may be some who will attempt to "make a deal" with God in this manner. But the end is destruction. The members of the royal priesthood are not judged according to those with a lesser calling but with a much stricter judgment. The higher our calling the more is given to us. The more that is given to us the heavier are the requirements. Much shall be required of them to whom much is given. Jerusalem always receives double for her sins.

The Book of Hebrews is a stern warning to experienced Jewish saints who, it seems, were not as intense as when they first put their faith in Jesus. The writer of Hebrews could not be more severe in his warning to them that they will experience Divine judgment and destruction if they do not press forward into the rest of God.

But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:8)

We have never read a Bible commentator who left the text of Hebrews 6:4-8 intact. Every editor rushes to assure the believers, sometimes making elaborate analyses of the Greek text, that no person who makes a genuine profession of faith, no individual called to the royal priesthood, could ever be near to cursing and then burned in the end.

The editors and commentators who attempt to manipulate the plain, clear Word of God are false prophets and teachers. Our land is filled with error because of false teachers—teachers who are so filled with the spirit of humanism they are willing to pervert the Scriptures. They are on the side of people rather than on the side of the Lord. They are rebelling against God though they are not aware of it.

The following verse, Hebrews 6:9, reveals clearly that the author is referring to genuine believers when he warns them about falling away.

But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. (Hebrews 6:9)

The writer of the Book of Hebrews was reminding the saints that the fruit of righteousness must accompany their salvation. If it does not, the heavenly Farmer will come around to see why His crop is failing to bear fruit.

It is time for the Christian people to cast off the current teaching that a believer can never put himself in jeopardy of the fires of Divine judgment. We have been lied to. We need to awake to righteousness and cease our sinning before the Judge comes and chastens us severely.

To be continued.