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NOVEMBER 11
DAY 10:To whom is Hebrews 6:4–6, and particularly the phrase “once enlightened,”directed?
The phrase “once enlightened” is often taken to refer to Christians. The accompanying warn-
ing,then,is taken to indicate the danger of losing their salvation if they “fall away”and “crucify again
for themselves the Son of God.” But the immediate context has no mention of their being saved.
They are not described with any terms that apply only to believers (such as holy, born again, righ-
teous, or saints).
The interpretive problem arises from inaccurately identifying the spiritual condition of the ones
being addressed. In this case, they were unbelievers who had been exposed to God’s redemptive
truth and, perhaps, had made a profession of faith but had not exercised genuine saving faith.
Another passage (10:26) addresses the same issue.The subject here is people who come in contact
with the gospel but are spiritually unchanged by it. Apostate Christians are Christians in name only,
not genuine believers who are often incorrectly thought to lose their salvation because of their sins.
There is no possibility of these verses referring to someone losing their salvation. Many
Scripture passages make unmistakably clear that salvation is eternal (see,e.g.,John 10:27–29; Rom.
8:35,38,39;Phil.1:6;1 Pet.1:4,5).Those who want to make this passage mean that believers can lose
salvation will have to admit that it would then also make the point that one could never get it back
again.

November 11 those who plaster it with untempered mortar,
that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, and
you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy
12
wind shall tear it down. Surely, when the wall
Ezekiel 13:1–14:23
has fallen, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is
And the word of the LORD came to me, the mortar with which you plastered it?’”
13 saying, “Son of man, prophesy against
2
the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say
to those who prophesy out of their own heart,
‘Hear the word of the LORD!’ ”
3 Thus says the Lord GOD: “Woe to the fool- 13:10,11 builds a wall. False prophets had
ish prophets, who follow their own spirit and lulled the people into false security. Phony
4
have seen nothing! O Israel, your prophets “peace” promises, while sin continued on the
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are like foxes in the deserts. You have not brink of God’s judgment, was a way, so to
speak,of erecting a defective “wall”and white-
gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the washing it to make it look good. Such an
house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of unsafe “wall” was doomed to collapse (v. 11)
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the LORD. They have envisioned futility and when God would bring His storm, picturing
false divination, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD!’ the invaders’assault (v. 11).
But the LORD has not sent them; yet they hope
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that the word may be confirmed. Have you
not seen a futile vision, and have you not spo-
ken false divination? You say, ‘The LORD says,’ 13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I will
but I have not spoken.” cause a stormy wind to break forth in My
8 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Be- fury; and there shall be a flooding rain in My
cause you have spoken nonsense and envi- anger, and great hailstones in fury to consume
sioned lies, therefore I am indeed against it. So I will break down the wall you have
14
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you,” says the Lord GOD. “My hand will be plastered with untempered mortar, and bring
against the prophets who envision futility and it down to the ground, so that its foundation
who divine lies; they shall not be in the assem- will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be
bly of My people, nor be written in the record consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall
of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into know that I am the LORD.
the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I 15 “Thus will I accomplish My wrath on the
am the Lord GOD. wall and on those who have plastered it with
10 “Because, indeed, because they have untempered mortar; and I will say to you, ‘The
seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there wall is no more, nor those who plastered it,
is no peace—and one builds a wall, and they 16 that is, the prophets of Israel who prophesy
plaster it with untempered mortar— say to concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of
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