The Book of Hebrews: "Does It Teach That We Cannot Lose Our Salvation?"

The Book of Hebrews:

"Does It Teach That We Cannot Lose Our Salvation?"

A Reformed Arminian Exegetical and Theological Study

Ronald V. Obidos

Pastor-Apologist | Former Adventists Philippines

I. Introduction: The Stakes of the Argument

Few theological debates generate more pastoral anxiety and doctrinal intensity than the question of whether a genuine believer can lose their salvation. For centuries, Reformed and Arminian theologians have clashed over this issue, each appealing to the same canonical texts yet arriving at strikingly different conclusions. Among the New Testament documents, no book is more frequently cited in this debate than the Epistle to the Hebrews. Its stark and sobering warning passages, particularly in chapters 6 and 10, have been interpreted variously as cautionary hypotheticals directed at unbelievers, as genuine warnings to genuine believers, as descriptions of apostates who were never truly saved, or as evidence that saving faith can be finally and fatally abandoned.

This essay engages these interpretive battlegrounds from a Reformed Arminian perspective, the theological tradition that affirms both the genuine sovereignty of God in salvation and the genuine freedom of the human will to respond to grace and, tragically, to resist it. The Reformed Arminian position, following Jacob Arminius and his theological descendants, maintains that salvation is entirely by grace through faith, that believers are genuinely regenerate, and that apostasy is a real, not merely theoretical, possibility for those who have truly tasted the powers of the age to come. This position stands in contrast to both five-point Calvinism, which denies the possibility of apostasy among the elect, and antinomian or easy-believism positions, which deny that apostasy carries any decisive consequences.

The particular historical context of the Epistle to the Hebrews sharpens the question considerably. The letter was addressed to a community of Jewish Christians who, under the crushing pressures of Roman imperial hostility and synagogue exclusion, were being tempted to abandon their confession of Jesus as the Great High Priest and return to the Mosaic covenant institutions of the old order. They were considering, in other words, a deliberate, public, covenantal abandonment of Christ, not a momentary lapse or a season of spiritual dryness, but a wholesale defection from the Christian community and its exclusive claims. In this context, the warning passages of Hebrews take on their full gravity and their precise rhetorical function.

This essay proceeds in five movements. First, it provides the historical and rhetorical context of the Epistle. Second, it offers a careful exegetical analysis of the warning passage in Hebrews 6:1–12. Third, it examines the warning passage in Hebrews 10:26–31. Fourth, it reflects theologically on what these passages imply for the first audience of Jewish Christians on the verge of apostasy. Fifth and finally, it draws broader theological implications for the doctrine of perseverance and assurance from a Reformed Arminian standpoint.

II. The Historical and Rhetorical Context of Hebrews

Any responsible exegesis of Hebrews must be anchored in its historical and rhetorical Sitz im Leben. The recipients were Jewish Christians, Hellenistic Jews who had embraced Jesus as the Messiah but were now wavering under external pressure. The precise dating is disputed, but the most plausible window is between 60 and 70 A.D., before the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 A.D. The fact that the author writes of the Levitical priestly system in the present tense (Heb. 8:4–5; 10:1–2) strongly suggests the Temple cultus was still operative, placing the letter within the period of mounting eschatological tension in Judea and the Diaspora.

The author's rhetorical strategy is sophisticated. Writing in what many scholars identify as the most polished Greek in the New Testament, the author employs a sustained typological argument from the Old Testament, demonstrating the superiority (Greek: kreittōn, “better”) of Jesus to every institution of the Mosaic covenant angels (ch. 1–2), Moses (ch. 3–4), the Levitical priesthood (ch. 5–7), the sacrificial system (ch. 8–10), and the old covenant itself (ch. 8–10). This is not abstract theology; it is urgent pastoral rhetoric aimed at preventing a catastrophic covenantal defection.

The rhetorical genre of the letter has been identified by some scholars as a logos paraklesis, a word of exhortation (Heb. 13:22), which combines logos (reasoned theological argument) with paraklesis (urgent pastoral appeal). The warning passages are integral to this rhetorical structure. They are not digressions or parenthetical curiosities; they are the rhetorical heart of the letter’s appeal.

“The epistle to the Hebrews is best understood as a homily or sermon that was written to be read aloud to a congregation of Jewish Christians who were in danger of abandoning their faith in Christ and reverting to Judaism.” F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (New International Commentary on the New Testament, 1990), p. xxix

III. Hebrews 6:1–12: Exegetical Analysis

A. The Text

Hebrews 6:4–6 (ESV) "For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt."

B. The Question of Identity: Unbelievers or Genuine Believers?

The most contested exegetical question in Hebrews 6 is the identity of those described in verses 4–6. Five participial phrases characterize these individuals:

(1) They have “once been enlightened” (φωτισθέντας, phōtisthéntas);

(2) They have “tasted the heavenly gift” (γευσαμένους τῆς δωρεᾶς τῆς εὐουρανίου);

(3) They have “shared in the Holy Spirit” (μέτοχους γενηθέντας Πνεύματος ἁγίου);

(4) They have “tasted the goodness of the word of God” and

(5) They have experienced “the powers of the age to come.”

These descriptors are not trifles. Each one carries significant theological weight.

1. “Once Enlightened” (φωτισθέντας)

In the early church, the term “enlightenment” (φωτισμός) was a technical term for baptism and conversion. Clement of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, and other patristic writers used the word explicitly in this context. In Hebrews itself, 10:32 uses the same verbal root (φωτισθέντες) to describe the readers’ initial conversion and suffering for Christ. The parallel is highly significant: the same vocabulary used unambiguously of genuine Christians in 10:32 is used in 6:4, which strongly argues that the individuals in view in chapter 6 are genuine converts, not merely religious inquirers.

2. “Tasted the Heavenly Gift.”

The verb “tasted” (γεύωμαι, geuo) cannot be reduced to a superficial or merely external experience. The same author uses it of Christ’s own tasting of death (“he might taste death for everyone,” 2:9), which was clearly a full and real experience, not a superficial contact. The “heavenly gift” is almost certainly a reference to salvation in Christ, encompassing justification, the gift of the Spirit, and eschatological life. To argue that “tasting” implies only surface-level encounter is to introduce a foreign lexical distinction that the text does not support.

3. “Shared in the Holy Spirit” (μέτοχους Πνεύματος ἁγίου)

The word metochos (“sharer,” “partner”) appears elsewhere in Hebrews in plainly positive and genuine senses. In 3:14, the author writes, “For we have come to share in Christ (μέτοχοι τοῦ Χριστοῦ), if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” Sharing in the Holy Spirit is the very hallmark of genuine Christian experience (Rom. 8:9: “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ”). To argue that “sharing in the Holy Spirit” can describe someone who is genuinely not regenerate strains the text beyond what the language allows.

“The description of these apostates in Heb. 6:4-6 is a description of genuine Christians who have experienced the saving gifts of God. The language is too strong, and too carefully constructed, to refer to anything less than true conversion.” I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God: A Study of Perseverance and Falling Away (Bethany Fellowship, 1975), p. 145

4. “Tasted the Goodness of the Word of God” and the Powers of the Age to Come

The tasting of God’s word parallels the experience described in the Psalms of the soul who has encountered the living God (Ps. 34:8: “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!”). The experience of “the powers of the age to come” is eschatological language for the Spirit-empowered life of the new covenant believer who has already entered, proleptically, into the age of fulfillment. In Hebrews’ realized eschatology, Jewish Christians have already come to “the heavenly Jerusalem” (12:22–24). These individuals have genuinely participated in the new covenant realities of the messianic age.

C. The Calvinistic Interpretation and Its Difficulties

Calvinist interpreters, including John Owen and Wayne Grudem, have proposed that the persons described in Hebrews 6:4–6 are not genuine believers but only professors who received certain external gifts and influences of the Spirit without genuine regeneration. Owen argued that the “tasting” is a common grace experience, and that “sharing in the Holy Spirit” refers not to indwelling but to Spirit-mediated gifts such as tongues or miracles.

This interpretation, however, faces several serious exegetical difficulties. First, as shown above, the verbal and substantive parallels within Hebrews itself consistently use the same language of genuine believers. Second, Owen’s distinction between “common grace” and “saving grace” is a theological abstraction not explicitly present in the Hebrews text itself. Third, the author’s purpose is pastoral warning, and a warning that is technically inapplicable to genuine believers since only non-genuine professors can fall would be rhetorically hollow. Fourth, the parallel passage in 10:26–29, which speaks of those who have been “sanctified by the blood of the covenant,” makes the genuine Christian identity of those in view even more explicit.

“It seems very difficult, if not impossible, to understand the people described in 6:4-6 as anything less than true Christians. The author has applied to them every hallmark of genuine Christian experience.” Grant R. Osborne, “Exegetical Notes on Calvinist Texts,” in Grace Unlimited, ed. Clark Pinnock (Bethany House, 1975), p. 176 

D. The “Impossible” (ἀδύνατον): What Cannot Be Done?

The word adynaton (“impossible”) has been at the center of much debate. Calvinist interpreters sometimes argue that the impossibility is not the impossibility of falling, but the impossibility of restoration once fallen, and that this impossibility itself proves the scenario is hypothetical (since, they argue, God would restore any true believer). But this argument is circular: it assumes what it needs to prove.

The grammatical structure of the passage is a conditional sentence with a real, not hypothetical, situation in view. The author is not constructing an elaborate thought experiment. He is warning his congregation, in the sharpest possible terms, that apostasy, a real option they are dangerously near to choosing, brings with it the terrible consequence of irreversibility under human initiative. The impossibility is pastoral and practical: having publicly repudiated Christ, the apostate has burned their bridges. They have, in covenantal terms, “crucified again” the Son of God and “put him to open shame.” There is no return covenant ceremony available within the economy of the Mosaic system to which they are attempting to return.

E. Verses 9–12: The Author’s Pastoral Confidence

Critically, the author does not leave his congregation in despair. Verses 9–12 reveal his pastoral heart and hermeneutical intent:

Hebrews 6:9 (ESV) "Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation."

The phrase “things that belong to salvation” (τὰ κρείσσονα καὶ ἐχόμενα σωτηρίας) is not the author saying that his readers are not genuine believers. Rather, he is expressing confident hope that the warning has done its pastoral work, that they will hold fast. The warning is real. The confidence is real. Both function together in the Reformed Arminian economy of grace: God uses means, including solemn warnings, to preserve His people. But the warnings are genuine, not hypothetical.

IV. Hebrews 10:26–31: Exegetical Analysis

A. The Text

Hebrews 10:26–29 (ESV) "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?"

B. The Identity of Those in View

1. “We”: Authorial Identification with the Readers

The author’s use of the first-person plural (“if we go on sinning”) is significant. He includes himself in the warning. This is not the language of describing outsiders or nominal professors; it is the pastoral “we” of a Christian leader addressing a Christian congregation about a genuine threat to their own standing before God. Throughout Hebrews, the author uses the first-person plural to address genuine believers: “We who have believed enter that rest” (4:3); “We have an altar” (13:10); “We are receiving a kingdom” (12:28).

2. “Knowledge of the Truth” (ἐπίγνωσις ἀληθείας)

The phrase epihnōsis alētheias is a technical Pauline and Deutero-Pauline phrase for genuine conversion and saving knowledge of the gospel (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1). It is not a phrase used of those who merely hear the gospel externally. It denotes an inward, experiential apprehension of saving truth, which is the condition of genuine believers.

3. “Sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant.”

This is perhaps the most decisive phrase in the entire passage for the question of identity. The individual who has “trampled underfoot the Son of God” is described as one “by whom he was sanctified,” and the “he” in the Greek most naturally refers to the apostate himself, not to someone else. The “blood of the covenant” is unambiguously the atoning blood of Christ (cf. 9:15–20; 12:24; Matt. 26:28). This person was genuinely sanctified, set apart by the blood of the new covenant.

Calvinist interpreters have attempted to read “sanctified” here in a non-saving, merely covenantal sense (as Israel was corporately set apart), but this reading is strained. The author of Hebrews consistently uses “sanctified” (ἁγιάζω) in soteriological contexts (2:11; 10:10, 14; 13:12). The phrase “the blood of the covenant” in the context of Hebrews’ sustained argument about the new covenant’s efficacy cannot plausibly be reduced to a mere external, non-saving association with the covenant community.

“The one said to be sanctified in 10:29 is the one who apostatizes. The sanctification is by Christ's blood, the same blood said in 10:14 to be the means of perfecting those who are being sanctified. The most natural reading is that this is a genuine believer.” Scot McKnight, “The Warning Passages of Hebrews: A Formal Analysis and Theological Conclusions,” Trinity Journal 13 (1992): 32

4. “Outraged the Spirit of Grace.”

The final descriptor “outraged” or “insulted” the Spirit of grace evokes the Synoptic language of the unforgivable sin (Matt. 12:31–32). The one who deliberately and finally apostatizes from Christ, returning to a system that crucified Him and implicitly endorses that verdict, commits a kind of spiritual treason against the very Spirit whose witness is Christ.

C. The Judgment: Worse Than Mosaic Death Penalty

The argument the author employs is a classic Jewish qal wahomer (“light to heavy”) argument, a standard rabbinic hermeneutical move: if a transgressor of Moses’ law died without mercy on two or three witnesses, how much worse punishment awaits the one who tramples Christ? The logic only works if the offense is genuinely greater, and the offense can only be genuinely greater if the covenant being violated is genuinely greater. The apostate is not a stranger to this covenant; he was once genuinely within it.

“The judgment of 10:26-31 falls on those who have been genuinely incorporated into the new covenant community through faith and the blood of Christ, and who have then deliberately chosen to renounce that covenant. This is apostasy from within, not unbelief from without.” Thomas R. Schreiner and Ardel Caneday, The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance (IVP Academic, 2001), p. 198

V. The First Audience: Jewish Christians and the Threat of Covenantal Apostasy

A. The Historical Setting

To read Hebrews apart from its historical setting is to risk severe misinterpretation. The first audience was Jewish Christians living in the years immediately preceding the Jewish War and the destruction of Jerusalem (66–70 A.D.). For these believers, the pull back to Judaism was not merely sentimental; it was existential. Synagogue exclusion meant social death. Roman imperial pressure meant political vulnerability. The Jerusalem Temple, with its centuries of covenantal memory, was still standing and still conducting its daily sacrifices. Against the invisible, celestial High Priesthood of Christ, the visible, tangible, ancestral priesthood of the Aaronic order must have seemed enormously compelling.

The temptation they faced was not simply private apostasy, a quiet abandonment of personal faith, but a public covenantal repudiation of Jesus as the Messiah. In the social world of first-century Judaism, to “return to Judaism” was to publicly declare that Jesus was not the Christ, that his blood was not the blood of the new covenant, and that the Temple sacrifices were still efficacious. This is precisely what the author means by “crucifying the Son of God again” (6:6) and “trampling underfoot the Son of God” (10:29).

B. The Theological Implication: Loss of Salvation, Not Preservation Through Apostasy

The Reformed Arminian reading of these warning passages takes them with full seriousness. Those who apostatize in the manner described in Hebrews 6 and 10 are not remaining saved by grace despite their apostasy. They are, in covenantal terms, cutting themselves off from the branch through which divine life flows.

The New Testament’s consistent teaching is that saving faith is a persevering faith. Faith that does not persevere is faith that was not, ultimately, genuine saving faith. This is the Calvinist position. But the Reformed Arminian demurs: Hebrews does not say the apostates of chapters 6 and 10 were never genuine believers. It says they genuinely were believers, and that their apostasy is a genuine tragedy, a genuine spiritual catastrophe, a genuine forfeiture of salvation. The warnings are not decorative; they are causally efficacious means by which God preserves His people, and, tragically, if finally disregarded, they describe a real outcome.

The pastoral logic of the letter makes no sense under the hypothesis that apostasy is impossible for genuine believers. Why issue such grave and elaborate warnings if the recipients are guaranteed to hold fast regardless? The warnings themselves are part of God’s means of preserving faith. They presuppose both the genuineness of the believers addressed and the genuine possibility of their defection.

“The Arminian tradition has always insisted that the warnings of Scripture are genuine and that they address genuine possibilities. This does not mean God cannot preserve His people; it means He does so through the very warnings He gives them, not in spite of them.” Roger Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities (IVP Academic, 2006), p. 181

C. The Eschatological Dimension: The Land Typology of Hebrews 3–4

Hebrews’ warning passages are interpretively linked to the typological narrative of the wilderness generation in chapters 3–4. The author quotes Psalm 95 at length (“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion”) and applies it to his congregation. The typological parallel is precise: just as the Exodus generation, who had experienced the mighty acts of God in Egypt, the Red Sea, and the wilderness, could nonetheless “fail to enter” God’s rest through unbelief and hardness of heart, so the new covenant community can, through comparable hardness, fail to enter the eschatological rest of God in Christ.

The wilderness generation were genuine covenant member of Israel; they had been redeemed from Egypt and had eaten the manna of God’s provision. Yet they perished in the wilderness because of unbelief. This is the paradigm the author applies to his congregation. The Reformed Arminian reads this typology as genuine: real covenant members, genuinely delivered, genuinely sustained by God’s grace, who nonetheless forfeited their inheritance through deliberate, sustained, final unbelief.

“The typology of the wilderness generation, as deployed in Heb. 3-4, is designed to warn genuine believers that apostasy understood as final, deliberate defection from the covenant forfeits the covenant blessings, including salvation.” William Lane, Hebrews 1-8 (Word Biblical Commentary, 1991), p. 73

D. The Possibility of Repentance: Not Universally Closed

It is essential to distinguish between the specific, eschatological apostasy described in Hebrews 6 and 10 and ordinary sin, backsliding, or even extended seasons of doubt and spiritual failure. The author is describing a deliberate, final, public covenantal repudiation of Christ, a decision to return to the Mosaic system as a soteriological system, not a Christian who struggles with sin or goes through a period of spiritual crisis. The ordinary ministry of repentance, the confessional practice of 1 John 1:9, and the intercessory high priesthood of Christ (Heb. 7:25) remain fully operative for believers who stumble and fall. What is “impossible” in Hebrews 6 is not repentance per se, but the restoration of an apostate through a re-application of the very Mosaic system they have chosen to return to: there is no sacrifice there for this sin.

VI. Additional Theological Arguments and Implications

A. The High Priestly Intercession and Conditional Perseverance

Hebrews 7:25 is one of the most glorious promises in the entire letter: “Consequently, he can save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” The Reformed Arminian insists that this promise is gloriously effective. Christ’s intercession is the ground of the believer’s perseverance. But the critical phrase is “those who draw near to God through him.” The intercession is effective for those who continue to draw near. The apostate of Hebrews 6 and 10 has chosen to draw near to God through a different mediatorial system through the Aaronic priesthood and the Temple sacrifices. This is not drawing near through Christ; it is explicitly and publicly rejecting Christ as mediator.

B. The New Covenant Structure: Covenant Breaking Remains Possible

New Covenant Theology, to which this author subscribes, emphasizes that the new covenant is a better covenant, established on better promises (Heb. 8:6). But “better” does not mean “covenantally unbreakable.” Hebrews 8:9 quotes Jeremiah 31 precisely to contrast the old covenant, which Israel “broke,” with the new covenant, in which God writes the law on the heart. The contrast is about the locus of covenant mediation, not about the absolute impossibility of covenant breaking under any circumstances. The new covenant apostasy described in Hebrews is worse than Mosaic covenant breaking (Heb. 10:28–29) precisely because the covenant that is broken is immeasurably greater. The possibility of breaking it, tragically, remains even if doing so is a far more catastrophic act.

C. Assurance and Warning: Not Contradictory but Complementary

A common objection to the Reformed Arminian reading is that genuine believers cannot have assurance if apostasy is genuinely possible. This objection fundamentally misunderstands the Arminian doctrine of assurance. Assurance is not grounded in the metaphysical impossibility of apostasy; it is grounded in the faithfulness of God, the finished work of Christ, the intercession of the Holy Spirit, the internal witness of regeneration, and the abiding fruit of genuine faith. The believer who is genuinely trusting Christ, genuinely walking in the Spirit, and genuinely persevering in the community of faith has every reason for settled assurance. The warning passages address those who are considering deliberate, final, covenantal repudiation, not those who are walking in faith and experiencing ordinary spiritual vicissitudes.

“Assurance and warning are not contradictory in the New Testament; they are two sides of the same pastoral coin. The warnings do not undermine assurance for those who heed them; rather, heeding them is one of the means by which assurance is maintained.” Jerry Walls and Joseph Dongell, Why I Am Not a Calvinist (IVP, 2004), p. 86

D. Comparison with Other New Testament Warning Passages

Hebrews does not stand alone in issuing these warnings. The Johannine tradition warns of “sin unto death” (1 John 5:16–17) and of the possibility of losing the “things we have worked for” (2 John 8). The Pauline corpus warns of being “cut off” (Rom. 11:22), of disqualification (1 Cor. 9:27), of falling from grace (Gal. 5:4), and of making a shipwreck of faith (1 Tim. 1:19–20). The Petrine epistles warn of false teachers who, having “escaped the pollutions of the world,” again become entangled and overpowered (2 Pet. 2:20–22). And the Apocalypse warns that names may be blotted from the book of life (Rev. 3:5) though it also promises that overcomers need not fear this. The consistent pattern across the New Testament is that the warnings are genuine, are addressed to genuine believers, and describe genuine possibilities that God, through His means of grace, works mightily to prevent, but which He does not prevent by obliterating human covenantal responsibility.

VII. Conclusion: Grace That Warns, Grace That Sustains

The Epistle to the Hebrews does not teach that genuine believers cannot lose their salvation. Read exegetically, and in its historical context, it teaches with terrifying seriousness that genuine believers, those who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have been sanctified by the blood of the covenant, can, through deliberate and final covenantal apostasy, forfeit the salvation that was genuinely theirs. The warning passages are not decorative hypotheticals aimed at pseudo-believers; they are urgent pastoral appeals to genuine converts who are dangerously near to the precipice of spiritual self-destruction.

The Reformed Arminian reading honors both the genuine humanity of the recipients and the genuine sovereignty of divine grace. God is sovereign over salvation; He is also sovereign over the means by which salvation is maintained. The warnings of Hebrews are themselves a grace means by which the Shepherd gathers and holds His flock. The congregation that heeds these warnings, clings to the Great High Priest, and draws near to God through Him alone will know the joy of full assurance. The congregation that despises these warnings and reaches back for the shadows of the old order does so to its own eternal peril.

The pastoral implication for the church today is both sobering and liberating. Sobering: because saving faith is not a momentary transaction but a persevering relationship, and those who decisively and finally turn away from Christ do not remain saved by a grace they have repudiated. Liberating: because the God who warns is the same God who “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24). The grace that warns is the same grace that sustains. And in Christ Jesus our Great High Priest who lives always to make intercession for us, who offered Himself once-for-all, and who has entered the true holy of holies with His own blood, we have every ground for the “full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22) that the author himself longed to see in his congregation.

“The warnings in Hebrews are not the last word; Jesus is. The warnings point us away from ourselves and the systems we are tempted to trust, and toward the one Mediator, the one sacrifice, the one High Priest in whom alone there is full and final salvation.” Adapted from Thomas C. Oden, Classic Christianity (HarperCollins, 1992), p. 614

Works Cited

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Schreiner, Thomas R., and Ardel B. Caneday. The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance. IVP Academic, 2001.

Walls, Jerry L., and Joseph R. Dongell. Why I Am Not a Calvinist. InterVarsity Press, 2004.

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Gleason, Randall C. “A Note on επιγνώσκω in Heb 10:26.” Grace Theological Journal 10.1 (1989): 39–51.

Grudem, Wayne. “A Reassessment of the Alleged Cases of Apostasy in Hebrews.” Themelios 18.1 (1992): 6–12.

McKnight, Scot. “The Warning Passages of Hebrews: A Formal Analysis and Theological Conclusions.” Trinity Journal 13.1 (1992): 21–59.

Osborne, Grant R. “Exegetical Notes on Calvinist Texts.” In Grace Unlimited. Edited by Clark H. Pinnock. Bethany House, 1975. 167–193.

Peterson, David. “The Situation of the ‘Hebrews’ (5:11–6:12).” Reformed Theological Review 35.1 (1976): 14‐21.

Rees, T. “Apostasy.” In The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Vol. 1. Eerdmans, 1979. 196–197.

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Additional Reference Works

Bauer, Walter, Frederick W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, eds. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Kittel, Gerhard, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. 10 vols. Eerdmans, 1964–1976.

Mounce, William D. Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Zondervan, 2006.

Silva, Moisés, ed. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis. 5 vols. Zondervan, 2014.