Saturday, May 21, 2022

Hebrews 10:26 and the Question of Whether an Apostate Be Restored

On Heb 10:26 (cf. vv. 26-31) and the question of whether an apostate can ever be restored, Catholic apologist Karlo Broussard wrote that:


The first thing we can say in response is that the RSV translation “if we sin deliberately” does not reflect the fact that the Greek word rendered “sin” is a present participle, which in Greek conveys the idea of ongoing action. Thus, other translations render this statement “If we go on sinning deliberately” (ESV), “if we deliberately keep on sinning” (NIV, NET), “if we go on sinning willfully” (NASB), “if we willfully persist in sin” (NRSV). The passage thus envisions not a single sin or fall into sin, but an ongoing pattern of willfull sin that has not been repented of.

 

For our second response, we can affirm the author’s statement, “There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” But this doesn’t mean a person can never repent and be restored. IT means that as long as the person remains an apostate, he can’t have the merits of Christ’s death on the cross applied to him. In other words, if we refuse what God has provided for our salvation, then we’re left with no means of salvation at all. As W. Leonard puts it, such a person has “incapacitated himself for the reception of ministrations by the paralyzing ingratitude of his rejection of Christian riches and by his complete break from all contact with the source of salvation” (W. Leonard, “The Epistle to the Hebrews,” in A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, eds. B. Orchard and E. F. Sutcliffe [New York: Thomas Nelson, 1953], 1.164. Leonard here is referring to those spoken of in Hebrews 6:4-6, but his line of reasoning applies here as well). (Karlo Broussard, Meeting the Protestant Response: How to Answer Common Comebacks to Catholic Arguments [El Cajon, Calif.: Catholic Answers Press, 2022], 270-71)