Heb 6:4-8:
Hebrews
6:4-8 is one of several “warning passages” in Scripture. There is a charity in
the New Testament toward professing believers who appear to be falling away.
New Testament writers seem to assume they are New Covenant members and true
Christians until proven otherwise. However, these individuals are warned against
apostasy in light of their profession of faith, not in light of their infant membership
in the New Covenant. These warning passages are difficult for both Baptists and
paedobaptists to explain. . . . This warning passage certainly calls professing
believers to persevere to the end. However, it never defines apostates as members
of the effectual New Covenant. The basis for addressing them as Christians is
their outward repentance and faith, not their New Covenant membership: “ . . .
let us hold fast our confession” (4:14; see also 3;1; 10:23).
Even if it were true that they were considered in the New Covenant by their profession,
they were not infants. They had outwardly repented as professing disciples
(6:4). (Fred A. Malone, The Baptism of Disciples Alone: A Covenantal
Argument for Credobaptism Versus Paedobaptism [rev ed.; Cape Coral, Fla.: Founders Press, 2008], 101, 102)
Heb 10:29:
First
and foremost, it [the “conditional security” interpretation] ignores several fundamental
principles of hermeneutics. It fails to take into account the context; the
passage is not designed to define who is in the New Covenant, as are Hebrews
8:8-12 and 10;16-17. It is not wise to take a secondary or passing reference to
overrule a clearer didactic passage that clearly defines covenant members.
Another
hermeneutical principles violated is that of building a doctrine on a disputed
or unclear text . . . There is no real question that this is an obscure and
disputed text. (Ibid., 107)
John 15:
John
15 often used to describe people who once were members of the New Covenant but
who have been cast out as covenant breakers. Jesus said:
Every
branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that
bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. . . . If anyone does
not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (John 15:2, 6)
The
claim is that if this passage describes actual former members of the New
Covenant as “covenant breakers,” then it is permissible to allow infants of believers
to be in the New Covenant and visible church so that they are entitled to
baptism (and for some the Lord’s Supper) even though alter they may become covenant
breakers.
However,
John 15 makes clear that those disciples who do not “abide in Christ”
were never “in” the New Covenant to begin with. The footnotes to the
paedobaptist New Geneva Study Bible describe John 15:1-17 as “the union
of Christ the Mediator with his redeemed people” [emphasis mine]. They continue to state that professing disciples
who do not abide in Christ, and prove it by bearing not fruit, were not disciples
at all (15:8), for “no branch that is Christ’s can be wholly fruitless.”
The issue in John 15, therefore, does not concern whether someone can be in the
New Covenant yet fruitless, but instead
deals with who is a disciple at all and who is really in the
effectual New Covenant.
Jesus
clarified, “By this is My father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you
will be My disciples” (15:8). Jesus’ statement that “every branch in Me that
does not bear fruit He takes away” (15:2) is dealing with those who are professing
disciples, “in Christ” by profession, but who end up being false
professors. They were never New Covenant members because it is “my disciples,”
according to Jesus, who actually bear fruit, possess the forgiveness of sins,
and show evidence of a new heart.
Thus,
John 15 is dealing with the proof of true conversion in professing disciples,
not the definition of the New Covenant and whether it includes covenant
breakers . . . (ibid., 102-3)
On “disciples,” do compare and contrast
the comments about John 15 with the following:
There
are many practical implications to this belief in credobaptism, the baptism of
disciples alone. First, the New Testament church is called repeatedly “the
disciples” (Acts 6:1-7, 9:26; 11:26). This means that the local church must
be composed of baptized disciples alone who give evidence of regeneration by
their repentance and faith in Christ before their baptism. That is why Peter
commanded people to “repent and be baptized” at Pentecost. There is no room in
the New Testament for a church made of believers and their seed as members
without a profession of faith before a disciple’s baptism. (Ibid., 195)
