How should Hebrews 6:4-6 be looked at?

So what is the letter to the Hebrews chapter 6 verse 4 about anyway?

(ESV) English standard version.

 ⁴ “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, ⁵ and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶ 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”

This is obviously about apostasy and the issue of loss of faith but what does this really say. Calvinists often say if ones loses faith then they never had it in the first place and true faith cannot be lost. This here makes it pretty clear that some people “tasted the heavenly gift and Holy Spirit”, but fell away! It does seem explicit here that true believers do lose their faith for real and they were indeed true believers and did explicitly fell away for sure. I cannot read anything else into this as far as true faith cannot be lost. I agree that salvation is never lost on works (bad deeds or failure to do good) but this passage makes it explicit that salvation is lost when faith does die and people do lose their faith. (Corinthians 15:3)

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures”

Christ died for all our sins past, present and future. All those saved are saved from all sin period. What about when faith is lost? Can it be regained? This passage uses heavy language with “it is impossible” for those fallen away to be restored for you cannot crucify Jesus Christ twice. So what does this truly mean? So what does the Greek say?  Ἀδύνατον pronounced adynaton and it means without strength or power “a” meaning “non” and “dynatos” meaning power or strength. Here below are all the thing that the word dynatos can mean.

1. able, powerful, mighty, strong
   1. mighty in wealth and influence
   2. strong in soul
      1. to bear calamities and trials with fortitude and patience
      2. strong in Christian virtue
2. to be able (to do something)
   1. mighty, excelling in something
   2. having power for something.

What if we looked at the combination of a and dynatos “adynaton” not as meaning impossible but as “very low likelihood”, look below at this dictionary injuction.

Adynaton : This is the neuter singular form of the exact same adjective. It was commonly used as a noun in Greek to mean “an impossibility” or “an impracticality”

So this can also mean an impracticality but not always totally impossible. Here below is a quote from waywordradio.org

“The word adynaton, which refers to a jocular phrase that emphasizes the idea of impossibility, was adopted into English from Greek, where adynaton means “impossible,” a combination of a- meaning “not” and dynatos, which means “possible.” This Greek word derives from a root that means “to have power,” the source also of the English word dynamic. One Hungarian adynaton translates as “when it’s snowing red.” A Russian version translates as “when a crayfish whistles on top of a mountain.” In Serbian and Croatian, the same idea is expressed by a phrase rendered in English as “when grapes grow on willow.” The Roman poet Virgil expressed the idea of something doubly improbable with the idea of “when golden apples grow on oak trees.” This is part of a complete episode.“

What I read above sounds like sarcastic hyperbole and of course I am not a Greek expert by any stretch but it seems in a Biblical context that adynaton does not mean absolute total impossibility like when Paul says that Jesus did not die for satan but a long shot. That is what adynatos or adynaton means I think is more “lacking power”. So this speaks of a great improbability but not an outright impossibility. I think what this verse is saying is that if you did not like God the first time around why would you like him the second time making apostate return unlikely. So there a difference between a loss of faith in the faith in deep trauma or pain and a hard hearted rejection of a correct perception of God and Christ but still rejecting God with a hard heart and full perception. The key here is use of “tasted the heavenly gift” .

One thing of great note is that Derek Prince the greatest pentecostal theorists of the 20th century. He stated that those who have been involved in witchcraft and the occult will have serious problems coming into the Holy Spirit. So it a lot of cases that apostasy is the result of to much occult exposure before the point of salvation. These types of apostates did not fully taste heaven. So there can be hope but it would seem true that if one fully knew God and rejected God why would they ever think to return. If God was misunderstood and someone later on had a eureka moment then return could seem possible. Sadly the Christian Church never teaches repentance of of occult involvement anymore, which was standard pentecostal practice in the 1950’s and 60’s but not so much today, and forget it the Baptists never taught that stuff at all. This here maybe your answer. I do not believe that Hebrew chapter 6 is about a closed door on fallen Christians but wisdom on the likelihood of they wanting to ever come back. If they tasted the Holy Spirit and did not like it why would they return, right. If they did not like Jesus the first then could they like him the second time. It is a stern warning on the dangerous situation one puts oneself in by triffling with the Holy Ghost! In a unlikely but possible case of a true sincere return of a fallen Christian I see nothing that would stop that.

Now you have seen my explanation let us look at some others perspectives.

1. The Warning to Unbelievers (The “False Professor” View)

“This interpretation suggests the passage describes people who were closely associated with the church, understood Christian teachings (“enlightened”), and experienced the Holy Spirit’s influence, but never truly exercised saving faith. Their “falling away” means they completely abandoned the light they had. Therefore, because they definitively reject the only Savior, further repentance is impossible”

This seems to suggest those who were never saved to were close or experienced to pull of God and his favor but rejected it but were never really saved at all. I’m not sure I agree with point of view because to me Hebrew 6 Implies a true believer.

2. The Argument for the Impossible (The “Hypothetical” View)

“Many theologians argue the writer is presenting a hypothetical scenario to prove a point: If a true believer could lose their salvation, it would be impossible to be “re-saved”. Since Jesus died for sins once and for all, He cannot be crucified a second time. This view argues the very idea is impossible, serving as a reminder that salvation is entirely secure in Christ”

So this persepective is more saying that being that Christ cannot die twice that one cannot lose salvation.

“Others, as noted in discussions on platforms like the Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange, suggest this passage is addressing Jewish Christians who were “backsliding” or tempted to revert to the old Jewish sacrificial system to earn righteousness. The “impossibility” is that a person cannot mature in Christ if they keep relying on foundational, elementary repentance to cover their habitual regressions”

This look is different but interesting I never looked at it that way. It is worth presenting though.

My final thought is that the key is “tasted the heavenlyn gift” and those who hard heartedly rejected God with full knowledge have a real long shot on return. The door is not closed to those who lost faith due to a tragic decision in an extreme moment of weakness and emotional disturbance.