The Popular Corruption of Hebrews 3:6-4:11 Concerning the Israelites Exodus, to Advance Revivalism and Keswick Theological Heresies

Hebrews 3:6-4:11 is a very popular passage of Scripture utilized to advance the heresies of revivalism, Keswick theology, deeper life, higher life, the crucified life, et al. It is atrocious how this text of Scripture is butchered, misused and abused by Keswick theologians, heretics, the ignorant, many of which don't have a clue whether they are coming or going through the sheepfold or some other way. Many I ponder are robbers and thieves, servants of the stranger, attempting to enter the pasture through another door than the one true door of Jesus Christ. There are also those who are ignorant or unlearned, simply parroting the theology they have been taught most of their life. Our hope is they will repent and turn from the error of their way.

Of the many examples that could be selected, we chose the writing of an Australian Missionary to Papua New Guinea (whom I will not name but refer to the Missionary for two reasons: the devotion under scrutiny here was never published publicly but shared with a small group of people, and secondly, I am unsure as to his position on the matter at the present). This devotional writeup is a very, very typical teaching on Heb 3:6-4:11 to advance Keswick heresies on the back of the Hebrews experience in the wilderness sojourn. But it's 100% in error because the Hebrews in the wilderness were unconverted people, as described in the text of Scripture which reads as follows.

Heb 3:6-4:11,

“But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. [7] Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, [8] Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: [9] When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. [10] Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. [11] So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) [12] Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. [13] But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. [14] For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; [15] While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. [16] For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. [17] But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? [18] And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? [19] So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. [1] Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. [2] For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. [3] For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. [4] For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. [5] And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. [6] Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: [7] Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. [8] For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. [9] There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. [10] For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. [11] Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. [12] For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Quoted by the Hebrews writer (in part) from Ps. 95:7-11,

“For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, [8] Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: [9] When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. [10] Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: [11] Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.”

The following devotion by the Missionary (EMPHASIS original):

"If I have counted correctly, between Hebrews 3:11 & 4:11 there are (11) specific mentions of this matter of 'ENTERING into His REST'. For there to be such a wealth of instruction and warning about this particular aspect of our pilgrimage in this NT passage, I think it is well worthy of our consideration. What is it actually talking about?  We have already seen very clearly that 'These' things that took place in the wilderness, and the border country around the entrance into Canaan were our examples, they were typical of our experience as believers today. It seems according to the type that it is possible, in the antitype, to be genuinely out of Egypt, redeemed by blood, baptized in the cloud and in the sea, but to still come short of something that is most certainly the will of God for us in this dispensation, it is referred to as REST. No doubt the writer of Hebrews had one eye to those who were mere professers of faith in Christ, but were not in posession of the common salvation once delivered unto the saints. But the continual usage of 'we and us' in this passage by the writer gives us a broader application of which we should be interested in today. The wilderness experience seems to exemplify for us this cyclic tendency in us as believers to come around time and again to the entrance of opportunity into something so much more fruitful, spiritual & eternally profitable than what we presently experience, but as opportunity opens up before us we are tempted with the Israelites of old to DRAW BACK once again. The wilderness, though barren and unfruitful, was for the Israelites the easier of two choices, for it required no faith. The entrance into the land of promise on the other hand involved conflict, and the need for faith & courage in the face of much serious opposition, they chose comfort over conflict, this is the temptation we are warned against here today. 'Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief'"

The above devotion on Heb 3 and 4 by the Missionary is loaded with Keswick/second blessing theology, taking these passages and applying them to true believers, when nothing could be further from the truth, and in the process advancing serious confusion, contradictions and compromise of the truth. There are some critical errors made and will be addressed here.

1. Saved People Do Not Miss or Come Short Anything, Including Rest. The Missionary writes,

"To still come short of something that is most certainly the will of God for us in this dispensation, it is referred to as REST."

The two rests theory or entering into rest after salvation as he indicates here, is huge in Keswick/second blessing theology. But he is completely wrong. There is ONLY one rest, and it's entered by salvation. When God saves a sinner, He gives him immediate and eternal rest. He enters into God’s glorious rest, sitting already in the heavenlies. Perfect rest that is not in want. There is no lack. We don't come short of this rest, so we are not missing it, to be sought after salvation. At the very moment of conversion we enter into His one rest of salvation as stated repeatedly even in Heb 4:1-11 but also in Matt 11:28-30 and everything ever needed for the Christian life is received at that moment, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Pet 1:3). The second rest, second blessing teaching is fulfilled by a second filling of the Holy Spirit in Keswick theology, and this is what the Missionary is advancing on the back of a corrupted view of Acts 2, the Day of Pentecost.

They say we have to keep coming to Jesus every day to enter that rest, which they support on the back of Matt 11:28-30, turning salvation into an ongoing process. This is not only Biblically wrong, it is a damnable heresy (2 Pet 2:1) that corrupts the doctrine of salvation and damns souls to hell instead of teaching them what true salvation is and does.

That rest at conversion is perfect, just like Gods sabbath rest (Heb 4:3-5, 10), which never ends when He entered into it day 7 (Gen 2). 11x between Heb 3:7-4:11 is rest mentioned. In these verses, the Hebrews writer is warning his Hebrew audience about the possibility of having never been saved and thus never entered God’s rest, like their forefathers in the wilderness. Essentially all the Jews in the wilderness were unsaved, with the exception of very few, which scripture tells us in many places (e.g., Ps 78; 81; 106; 2 Cor 3:12-16; Ju 1:5; etc) and these passages in Heb 3:7-4:11 lay that out for us. In Heb 3 and 4 we note that rest is ONLY one, the rest of salvation. In Heb 3:11 and 18-19, the Hebrew writer appeals to the OT (Ps 95:7-11) to remind the Hebrews that most of their forefathers in the wilderness did not enter God’s rest of salvation: “So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. . . . And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Unbelievers (unbelief—same thing) haven’t entered His rest. In Heb 4:1 the warning is applied to the present Hebrews, that some would come “short of” “entering into his rest.” Heb 4:3 he refers to himself and others which are saved, “we which have believed do enter into rest,” which is “[God’s] rest” (Heb 3:11; 4:3, 5).

God’s sabbath rest that started after the 6th day of creation (when His “works were finished” Heb 4:3) and has never ended, was “finished from the foundation of the world” (Heb 4:3), which the penman at this point addresses in Heb 4:4-5, 10-11. He details this great and wonderful truth, how God can give us rest. The entrance “into [God’s] rest” is a beautiful picture of salvation that started on the Sabbath, the 7th day of His creation (Gen 2:1-3). Heb 4:4 and 10 declare, “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. . . . For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”

Entering salvation rest is entering God’s sabbath rest and is illustrated here as precisely that. In Heb 4:9 “rest” means cessation, a rest from work when finished and refers to God’s sabbath rest, “And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.” (Heb 4:4). Like God’s one sabbath rest has no end, our one rest of salvation has no end. God’s rest didn’t end on the seventh day but continues on eternally and it is into this eternal divine rest that the believer enters (Heb 4:1-5). This is why Moses recorded the end of each of the first 6 days (Gen 1: 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), but not of the 7th (Gen 2:1-3). God’s rest is perfect in every way. Does our rest lack anything that we didn’t receive at salvation? Nothing!

To speak of a second rest is to say God’s finished work from the foundation of the world was incomplete (Heb 4:3), and that “God did” not “rest” after all on “the seventh day from all his works” (Heb 4:4) and thus has never ceased from His own works (Heb 4:10) or entered into His eternal rest. This would then consequently mean that the believer can never “enter into his rest,” (Heb 4:10) and therefore never be saved, since salvation requires entering His rest (Heb 3:11, 18; 4:1-11; Matt 11:28-30). We note that rest dovetails with the gospel, so to change the meaning of rest from one into two will adversely affect the true gospel. And again, Gal 1:6-9 and 2 Cor 11:4 gives the grim warning to those who do this.

The OT sabbath is a picture of NT salvation rest in that both are a complete rest from works (Heb 4:4; Gen 2:2; Ex 20:11) and entrance into God’s rest (Matt 11:28-30) with complete forgiveness of all sins. The OT priestly atonement for sins was a prophetic picture of Christ’s complete and perfect atonement for our sins (Heb 9 and 10), which became a sabbath of rest unto us.

“For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.” (Lev 16:30-31)

Rest removes all sin, fear and uncertainty and is entwined with eternal security of salvation.

Keep reading here on the truth that The Bible Teaches Only One Rest, Not Two, Including in and Especially Matthew 11:28-30.

2. The Hebrews in the Wilderness Were Unsaved. To teach that the Israelites in the wilderness, who are described in Heb 3 and 4, were saved people as the Missionary does here, is also huge in Keswick theology but its extremely unscriptural, egregious and lies. A blatant lie. Repeatedly, to almost redundancy, over and over the Bible tells us that the Israelites in the wilderness were unsaved. Consider some Scripture among many: Num. 14:1-45; 16:3-50; De. 4:23-40; 5:27-29; 9:4-8, 12-13, 16-24; 29:2-4, 10-28; 30:11-20; 31:16-20, 24-29; 32:15-43; Heb. 3:7-4:11; Ps. 78:17-22, 31-42, 56-64; 81:8-13; 106:4-33, 1 Sam. 8:7-8; 2 Ki. 21:10-15; 81:8-16; Ac. 7:39-43, 51-53; I Cor. 10:1-12; 2 Cor. 3:12-4:4; Heb. 3:6-4:11; Ju. 1:5; etc.

This erroneous teaching is meant to indicate that saved people can behave, live or even believe just like lost people and that they are missing something that they haven't received yet, which in this case is the second rest, which is the second blessing of second blessing theology. But it's untrue. This was further noted in the following statement he made: "We have already seen very clearly that 'These' things that took place in the wilderness, and the border country around the entrance into Canaan were our examples, they were typical of our experience as believers today." Maybe typical of his experience but not of mine. Not since I was saved anyway. Before the new birth maybe, but not after. What he says here and in the devotion, is a lie. Its unscriptural and fully error.

The Israelites were almost all lost in the wilderness, so it is not true, as the Missionary writes, that those that came "out of Egypt, redeemed by blood, baptized in the cloud and in the sea," were saved people and that this "experience" is "typical of our experience as believers today." This is a load of baloney. It takes away the supernatural and permanent effects of salvation. It presents an entirely different experience of salvation than found in Holy Writ, as noted in such contrasts of pre-salvation and post-salvation in Eph. 2:1-5; 5:5-11; Ti 3:2-7; Matt 7:13-24; etc.

The very context even tells us that the Israelites were unsaved. As we read Heb 3:6-4:11 we note some clear distinguishing factors that reveal the unregenerate estate of the Jews in the wilderness, with a present warning to the Hebrew writers Jewish audience. The Hebrews writer is quite clear in his descriptions, many of which are repeated throughout scripture indicating the Jewish people were unsaved in the wilderness, which is the context of this entire text.

Heb. 3:6–4:11 are loaded with markers of the unregenerate estate of the Jews in the wilderness, with the added possibility of the Jewish audience to whom the Hebrews writer is writing, hence the serious warning to them. He is warning those who will not "hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” unlike Moses (v. 6) of their need to be saved, “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,” (v. 7), which is the compassionate and gracious convicting (Jn 16:7-11), pricking (Ac 2:37; 9:5-6; Heb 4:12), reproving (Pr 1:20-24) and drawing (Jn 6:44; 12:32) work of the Holy Spirit. Here is why we know they were unconverted specifically from Heb 3:6-4:11, never mind the hundreds of other passages of Scripture, with the Hebrews writer warning the nominal Jewish "believers" to not remain false professing "believers" like their fathers in the wilderness.

(a) They hadn’t heard His voice yet (I.e. they had not responded to His reproof, counsel and drawing) (Heb 3:7; see also Pr 1:20-31);

(b) They had hardened their hearts (Heb 3:8, 15; 4:7) “through the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13) something only lost Christ-rejecting people do (Ac 19:9; Rom 2:5) and specifically Jews (it’s language only ever used towards Jews because of their advantage -- Rom 3:1-3; 9:4-5) as noted in the following passages concerning the wilderness wandering (Ps 95:8; Ex 7:3; De 2:30; 10:16) and other places ( 2 Ki 17:14; 2 Ch 30:8; 36:13; Neh. 9:16-17, 29; Job 9:4; Pr 28:14; Jer. 7:26; 17:23; 19:15), whom God will not show mercy (Rom 9:18) and not one text clearly deals with saved people hardening their hearts; Moses preaches to the Israelites in the wilderness to be converted: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.” (De 10:16). And De 30:6 reveals salvation when the heart is circumcised, as do Col 2:10-15 and Rom 2:28-29 likewise, the latter revealing the true “Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God”;

(c) “They alway err [go astray] in their heart” and “did not know [Gods] ways” (Heb 3:10) very clear language of the lost, since God's people by conversion do know His way (Matt 7:21; Jn 14:6) and do not go astray in their heart, for the Lord is always leading and guiding them (Ti 2:11-14; Rom 8:14), and chastising them as needed (Heb 12:5-11; Pr 3:11-12);

(d) They were under God's wrath (Heb 3:11; 4:3) and only lost people are under the wrath of God (Lk 3:7; Jn 3:36; 1 Th 2:16; Rom. 2:4, 8; 1:18; 3:5; 9:22; Eph 2:3; 5:6; Rev 6:16-17; 11:18; 14:10-11; 19:15) while in contrast, saved people are eternally delivered from His wrath (Rom 5:9; 1 Th 1:9-10; 5:16);

(e) They had not entered God's rest (Heb 3:11; 4:1-11; see Ps 95:11; Num 32:10) while all saved people have entered into his rest eternally, “we which have believed do enter into rest” (4:3) which is rest unto our souls (Matt 11:28-30), which refers to the single act of saving faith with the entrance into the single and permanent rest;

(f) They had “evil heart[s] of unbelief” which had “depart[ed] [apostatized] from the living God” (Heb 3:12) which is the same as what Heb 3:10 says about erring in their heart, and only evil, unconverted man has evil hearts, while saved people have renewed hearts (Matt 12:35; Lk 6:45; Ezk 36:36) and only lost people are in unbelief (unbelief = unbeliever) which is mentioned seven times here (3:7, 12, 18, 19; 4:2, 6, 11) which is the dead faith (Jam 2:14-19) of lost people who are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1-3; Col 2:13) and 4:2 actually precisely tells us they did not have true faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ: “the gospel preached . . . did not profit them [those who died in the wilderness], not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” as does Heb 3:18 “to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?” Truly saved people do always trust and believe because the just live by faith (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:16-17; Gal. 3:12; Heb. 10:38-39), they always live by faith (Heb. 11) and no saved person does not. Unbelief is evil because it keeps the Jew from believing in his Messiah. That has only one meaning. To force that into a saved person without rest and in unbelief is to massively confuse and contradict salvation and scripture, really the entire Bible. God is not the author of confusion. Only the lost are in unbelief or disobedience (Rom 11:30, 32), for they are the sons of disobedience and unbelief (Eph 2:2; 5:6; Col 3:6), and they will fall because of their unbelief and disobedience (Heb 4:6, 11) These are people who knew God, had sufficient knowledge to be saved and were thinking about the truth, but suppressed it out of rebellion. Gods wrath is vindicated;

(g) The references in Heb 3 & 4 to Ps 95:7-11 prove that those that hardened their hearts and died in the wilderness typify the unconverted, as do other portions of the psalter where those people specifically in the wilderness are affirmed to have “believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation” (Ps 78:22, 32) although they lied and flattered Him with their tongues (Ps 78:36-37). The verb rendered “grieved” (qut) in Ps 95:10 could also be translated “loathed” (as in Ezk 6:9; 20:43; 36:31; Ps 119:158; 139:21; Job 8:14; 10:1); it is difficult to comprehend that Jehovah loathes, possesses deep-seated abhorrence and detestation of, His beloved saints. Those who tempt God in the Psalter, as those did who perished in the wilderness (Ps 95:9), are unconverted (Ps 78:18, 41, 56; 106:14). Similarly, the statement that those who perished “have not known [God’s] ways” (Ps 95:10) indicates that those in view are lost sinners, not saints (see Ex 18:20; 33:13; Jos 3:4; Jud 18:5; Job 21:14; 23:10-12; Ps 25:4; 67:2; 103:7; 143:8; Pr 3:6; 4:18-19; Is 42:16; 59:8; Jer. 5:4-5).

In De. 31:25-30 Moses clearly used words that describe most of them as lost, the Word of God also bearing "witness against [them]" (v. 26), "For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death? . . . For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands." (vv. 27-29). He is speaking to the Israelites as a whole. This terminology (rebels against the Lord, stiff neck, corrupt, evil, provoking God to anger) is used always in reference to unsaved people. Stephen, in preaching his martyrdom sermon to the same Jews that had rejected Jesus Christ (and we know that these Jews were definitely lost), likened them to their “fathers”—the exact ones Moses is speaking to in the days of the Exodus: "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." (Ac. 7:51).

The passage began with telling us what the evidence of true salvation is, which Moses has but most of the Israelites in the wilderness didn’t: “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” (Heb. 3:6). “IF we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” then we are part of the house of Christ, and every single true born again believer will do so.

3. Saved People Do Not Draw Back. The following statement by the Missionary is false and hugely Keswick theological heresy:

"The wilderness experience seems to exemplify for us this cyclic tendency in us as believers to come around time and again to the entrance of opportunity into something so much more fruitful, spiritual and eternally profitable than what we presently experience, but as opportunity opens up before us we are tempted with the Israelites of old to DRAW BACK once again."

Keswick theology is all about the experience, most often at the expense of sound doctrine and truth. Saved people don't draw back. Those that draw back are lost people, Heb 10:38-39 makes that painfully clear:

"Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."

The experience of majority of the Israelites was that of coming close to salvation but then turning from it. That is why they drew back. Saved people characteristically go forward, not backward. Jer 7:23-24 and 8:4-9 amongst other passages make this very clear. This is the meaning of falling away. False teachers fall away in 2 Pet 2, but they were never ever saved, made abundantly clear in that chapter, especially as it ends (they were always dogs and pigs). The contrast between the saved and lost is made in Jer 7:23-24, with the prevailing detail of going back described of the lost, albeit falsely professing, counterfeit "believer":

"But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward."

4. The Heresy of Believers Being in Unbelief. He ended the writeup with:

"The entrance into the land of promise on the other hand involved conflict, and the need for faith & courage in the face of much serious opposition, they chose comfort over conflict, this is the temptation we are warned against here today. 'Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief'"

The temptation he is referring to is "unbelief." Its a very, very populor and adored word and concept amongst Keswick promoters, but its entirely wrested from its meaning in Scripture.

No saved person in Scripture is said to be in unbelief. Unbelief is always an inference to lost people. Here is simple common sense prevailing: unbelief = unbeliever. That should be an insult to our cranium. The two words mean the exact same thing. They are synonymous. Unbelief comes from an evil heart (Heb 3:12), which is not a saved heart. It is not a sin that saved people can even commit or live in, for the just live by faith (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:16-17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38) and by the faith of Jesus, lest ones faith could be lost, which it can’t (losing salvation is a damnable heresy). Seven times in Heb 3:7-4:11 we read of the children of Israel in unbelief during their wilderness sojourn (and actually for all their history), that they were unbelievers, which is confirmed by plenty of evidence throughout the Bible (e.g. Ps 78; 106; 2 Cor 3:13-16; Ju 1:5).

All the words in the underlying Greek, the adjective "apeitheis,” the nouns "apeitheia" and “apistia,” and the verb "apeitheo,” translated as unbelief in the KJV (also translated as disobedience) refer to the unregenerate, the lost. No NT text states or implies that believers are in unbelief. The same applies to the OT. The Old Covenant was not one of works but of faith. Salvation has never changed. Abraham is the father of our faith, and if we believe like Abraham, we can also be justified (saved) like him (Gen 15:1-6; Rom 4:1-8, 18-25). Nowhere is the demand of faith treated as a novelty of the new covenant, or is a distinction drawn between the faith of the two covenants; everywhere the sense of continuity is prominent (e.g. Jn 5:24, 46; 12:38, 39, 44; 1 Pet 2:6), and the “hearing of faith” (Gal 3:2, 5; Rom 10:16-21) is conceived as essentially one in both dispensations, under both of which the law reigns that “the just shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Ga 3:11; Heb 10:38). Heb 11 speaks of this and Heb 11:6 speaks of the faith required, whether OT or NT, to be saved. Those that come to God and believe that He is, and a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him are rewarded with salvation and eternal life, which is what Heb 11:6 is teaching. All the saved live by faith (Heb 11), which is demonstrated by obedience to God's Word, as love for Him is (Jn 14:15-23; 1 Jn 2:3-5; 2 Jn 1:5-6; etc), and no saved person does not.

Continuing reading here: "Unbelief" is Only a Characteristic of Unsaved People, Not the Saved."

5. We and Us? The Missionary makes a big deal about "we and us" but that doesn't necessarily mean what he wants it to mean. When the writer of Hebrews includes himself in what he is saying (“we” or “us”) that doesn’t signify that he is necessary in the same spiritual condition as they are. The use of plural pronouns is normal language when we preach and it happens very frequently. For example, if I’m preaching on salvation, and say “if we don’t repent of our sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we will go to the eternal lake of fire,” that doesn’t imply that I haven’t done that, even though I am including myself in that grouping “we.” I include myself in that grouping because I am human and it applies to me as well my audience, though it doesn’t infer I haven’t done that. The writers of the Bible are no different. They are human and they fall under the same rules and dictates of God’s Word as all others. Judas Iscariot for example would have preached in such a fashion as well, as he was sent out to preach and heal, and yet we know that he actually fell under that condemnation, having never been born again. Baal is another one. God even gave him words and prophecies, but he was unregenerate, a prototype false believer.

Overall what the Missionary writes is foundationally Keswick/second blessing theology. I was interested in how he proposed that the second rest, or the rest after salvation, was to be entered. I wrote him at that time but he didn't respond, which I suspected already would occur, because most Keswick theologians are man-centred lords and dictators above correction and admonishment as well. Though this teaching may appear tickling to the ears and subtly close to the truth, it deceptively reflects something that is foreign to the Scriptures and corruptive of both the doctrines of salvation and sanctification. It is heresy, plain and simple.

Paul warned us of those creeping theological fables and errors into the truth:

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (2 Tim 4:3-4)

The Missionaries Keswick Theology Mirrors that of the Apostate and Demonic Major Keswick Purveyor and Founder Hannah Whittal Smith, and Other Keswick Promoters

Hannah Whitall Smith, a major developer and founder of Keswick Theology in the 1870’s, a Quaker quietist and a universalist heretic on Hebrews 3 & 4 and rest, showing how the Missionaries devotion is very similar to what Smith (and other Keswick writers) writes. This is unsurprising since the Missionary and his family read her material. Smith described “Hebrews 3 and 4” as “the rest of faith, now in this present life” (Letter to Sister, 1867, reproduced in the entry for Feb 15 of The Christian’s Secret of a Holy Life, Hannah W. Smith, ed. Dieter), and she “long[ed] unspeakably to show . . . every child of God whose feet are still wandering in the wilderness . . . the way to the promised land” by means of the Higher Life (Letter to Anna, Nov 10, 1871, reproduced in the entry for June 24 of The Christian’s Secret of a Holy Life, Hannah W. Smith, ed. Dieter). The “wilderness,” where Israel was “neither in Egypt nor in the Promised Land,” represents the “7th of Romans, the wilderness experience of the Christian. . . . It is hardly worthwhile for any one to tell those of us who have taken these two steps, that there is but one. We know better; and our own experience is far more convincing to us than a thousand theories,” that is, experience is better than the conclusions of grammatical-contextual-historical exegesis (Letter to Miss Beck, reproduced in the entry for September 6 of The Christian’s Secret of a Holy Life, Hannah W. Smith, ed. Dieter), "The two experiences in my own life have been equally marked.”

Similarly,

“American Higher Life writer, Miss Ruth Paxson, who addressed the women’s meetings at Keswick on a number of occasions, compares, as Keswick speakers have often done, the defeat and failure of . . . Christians . . . making no advance or increase at all . . . to the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. ‘The vast majority of Christians stop short in their experience of the blessings of salvation with the joy of forgiveness of past sins and with the hope of Heaven in the future. But the present is a forty-year wilderness experience full of futile wanderings, never enjoying peace and rest, never arriving in the promised land.’ This . . . is a legitimate conclusion. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews draws such an analogy. ‘Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. . . . Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief’ (Hebrews 4:1, 11)” (Steven Barabas, So Great Salvation: The History and Message of the Keswick Convention, p. 68; cf. also pp. 59-60)

This is plain heresy. Only false "believers" pretending to be something they actually aren't will be missing something in their lives. and that is everything because we receive everything at the new birth, and they don't have it. And that is why they "never enjoy peace and rest," which are both received in their fulness (as full as possible this side of heaven) at salvation (Rom 5:1; Ps 23:1-6; 119:165; Pr 3:17; Is 26:3; etc). But "There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked." (Is 46:22).

Jesus warned in John 10:1-5,

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."