Future perfect tense

Hebrews 6 is one of the most controversial passages in all of the Bible. The reason is verses 4-6 are used as a basic proof text for people who want to teach you can lose your salvation.

The passage reads, [4] For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
[5] And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
[6] If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Jordan says, “You understand, folks, that if you could lose your salvation, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, even in Israel’s program. If you’re saved, what are you saved from? Well, if you lose it then you weren’t saved from anything!

“In Israel’s program, salvation is looked at as a future issue; something that comes to Israel at the Second Coming of Christ.

“Hebrews 9:28 says, ‘So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.’ What’s He going to appear the second time without sin for? ‘Unto salvation.’ There’s a future salvation provided for Israel at the Second Advent. Now, Romans 5:11 says, ‘we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.’

“Israel’s has to wait ’til Christ comes back for her atonement. You and I have it right now. We have it as a present possession. They have it as a prospect in the future. And the reason for all that has to do with the nature of what God’s doing with Israel as a nation.

“What God is doing with the nation Israel is restoring His authority over Planet Earth through an earthly kingdom that He gives to a nation of people who are to be the government of that kingdom.

"Now, if all that’s true, and it is, then you can understand immediately that if this thing has to do with a kingdom, and it has to do with a nation that functions in the government of the kingdom, and it’s a literal, physical, visible, earthly Davidic kind of a thing and so forth, then there are some literal, physical, earthly things that have to happen in order to bring that kingdom into existence.

“For example, the nation who’s going to form the government of the kingdom, has to exist. You don’t just snap your fingers and create it.

“You know, people have to be born, they have to grow up, and they have to come to faith in Christ and so on and so forth. The program has to be brought about, and if you begin to think about and understand that, then you begin to understand something about why all of this enduring and the pressing toward the end, and enduring to the end, and the whole thing is about inheriting the promises God gave them for when Christ comes back and sets up His kingdom.

“The whole issue in Hebrews is, ‘Look, Christ is going to come back and the kingdom’s going to be established. and the people in Israel who endure all the way over there to it, and have faith and patience to inherit the promises, are going to get them, and the ones who fall by the wayside aren’t going to get it.'

“With Hebrews 6, people take that concept and apply it to you and me today, and what happens is you get all balled up, see? The passage is a warning to Israel in the tribulation period when they are in their ‘low-am-I’ state. That’s Hosea 1:9: ‘Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.’ That’s when they’re in this cut off condition in apostasy.

“God is taking them who are not His people and forming them back into His people, but there’s a mixed multitude in their midst, and this mixed multitude is, when He addresses them--it’s the same illustration we saw back in chapters 3-4 about Israel in the wilderness with the mixed multitude in their midst.

“In verse 4 he’s warning them. He says in verse 1-2 ‘we have to go to perfection.’ The message is, ‘Look, we can’t just stand in what we had; we have to go on into the blessings Christ has provided for us through His Melchisedekian priesthood. We have to move on into the provisions He’s made for us in the new covenant.’

“He warns them in verses 4-5 about not doing that. The issue is that, ‘Guys, this is THE opportunity and there aren’t any others. You let this slip by and it’s just 'Katie bar the door'—it’s over with and there isn’t anything else left to do.’ ”