Question 10

Question 10

The Correct Answer Is: FALSE

 

Hebrews 3:7-4:16: "7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.' 11 So I swore in My wrath,' They shall not enter My rest.'"  12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." 16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.  4 1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.  3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest,'" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works";  5 and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest."  6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today," after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts."  8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.  11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.  14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

 

What the Hebrew writer in this section of the book is doing, is reminding the Hebrew Christians of Israel's promise made by God of physical rest in Canaan found in the Old Testament, and comparing that to the promise made by God of spiritual rest for Christians in Heaven.  When God originally made the promise to Abraham that his descendants would receive physical rest in Canaan (i.e. that they would inherit Canaan), that promise, though sure to be fulfilled, was still in the future.  When the time came to realize the promise, the first generation of Israel who came to Canaan after leaving Egypt, rebelled against God, and didn't receive the promise.  They died in the wilderness.  Only those who obeyed God received the promise of physical rest.  The Hebrew writer is warning Christians not to follow the example of Israel in the Old Testament in rebelling against God: for the promise of spiritual rest is still ahead: it will not be realized until the Resurrection Day.  Thus, just like the Israelites who rebelled against God, didn't receive physical rest, but died in the wilderness, Christians who rebel against God and return to a life of sin, won't receive spiritual rest, but will die in Hell (with death simply meaning eternal separation from God).  Christians shouldn't worry about going to Hell, as long as they're walking by faith in relying on God's grace and mercy for their salvation.  We should worry though if we stop walking by faith: if we return to a life of sin, or abandon Christ for another Gospel.  God knows our hearts: He knows who are His.  And he will either reward us with rest in Heaven, or punish us with death in Hell.  The choice is completely up to us. 

 

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