Hi Contendah,
I have no doubt that every single person who has gone forward at an altar call at a Billy Graham Crusade or at a Harvest Crusade with Pastor Greg Laurie -- felt just as you have described. Yet, a large percentage of those who went forward at a Crusade -- went back into the world soon after. Why?
That night, they would have told you that they had been "made partakers of the Holy Ghost," they also are said to have been "enlightened" to have "tasted of the heavenly gift," and to "have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come."
And, yet they go back into the world. Why? Because this was an intellectual and emotional experience. Because they were still seekers, still "inquirers" -- and not yet true "converts" -- had not yet taken that final step, opened the door, and allowed Jesus Christ to enter and be Lord and Savior of their lives. Because they had not gone that final step -- the world was able to lure them back into its secular, pleasure filled arms.
Just as those Jews were lured back into the religion of Judaism -- with which they were comfortable, for they had grown up under Judaism. Familiarity is a strong pull -- and these people, according to the writer of Hebrews -- were being pulled back into that old state again. Jesus Christ had been crucified to bring them out of Judaism and into a personal relationship with Him -- and they turned back to the old and familiar.
Actually, I believe the writer of Hebrews is not telling them they cannot repent and be forgiven -- but, that they will NOT allow themselves to do this. Like Pharaoh, by going backwards, they hardened their hearts to the point of no return.
This make much more spiritual sense to me -- and it fits the person and attributes of God. Keep in mind that they Bible tells us that the ONLY sin which cannot be forgiven -- is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. How does one blaspheme the Holy Spirit? By preventing Him from doing His main task -- leading us to salvation in Jesus Christ. So, when a person hardens his/her heart and dies without knowing Jesus Christ, that is a slap in the face of the Holy Spirit -- that is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And, because the person has already died in sin, there is no second chance -- thus the unforgivable sin.
And, I believe this is what the writer of Hebrews is telling these people -- harden your hearts by going back into Judaism -- and you will not allow yourself to return to Christ.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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True, a large percentage of those who went forward at Billy Graham or Greg Laurie crusades were not saved. It is questionable whether ANY of them were saved as a consequence of what happened during the subsequent counseling they received after coming forward. That, however, does not prevent either Laurie or Graham as claiming them among the alleged hundreds of thousands of person allegedly saved in those evangelistic charades.
But those people were not "partakers of the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit does not come in segments like a Tootsie Roll. A partaker of the Holy Spirit is one who "share[s] in"(from the Greek, "metecho"; see Vine, W.E. An Exposition of Biblical Words, pp. 833-34) the Holy Ghost. Your artificial contrivance of a person who somehow just brushes up against the Holy Ghost, being allegedly just "caught up in the excitement of the moment" does not do justice to the true meaning expressed by the writer of Hebrews. You have merely contrived a facile device to avoid acknowledging that the persons described by Paul had indeed been faithful believers and then had fallen away.
I am going fishing; will check for your reply when I return.