Promise and Warning in Acts 27:20-32 As Illustrative of Biblical Warnings

I have not forgotten about Tim's two questions (1 Corinthians 3:1-17 and "non-soteriological rewards") or about Nick's question (relationship between justification and final judgment). Find them here. Tim's and Nick's questions inquire about things that are not addressed in The Race Set Before Us. Alex's questions address matters that we do comment upon in the book. Though Alex's questions are more recent, they are also directly correlated with my recent blog entries. So, I will respond to his questions, as best I can. I begin with his first four question which I understand to be bound together.

1. I cannot see how Acts 27:31 is parallel to the biblical warnings in Hebrews. The crucial difference, in my mind, is the angelic assurance of Acts 27:23-24. Paul received divine assurance that none of the men on the ship would be lost. Did the author to the Hebrews receive similar assurance with regard to the recipients of his letter? I cannot think so. So though I agree that the warning in Acts 27:31 can function in tandem with the assurance that Paul received, I fail to see how this example illuminates Hebrews. Can you help me?




2. One might point to verses such as Hebrews 10:39 as evidence for the author's view of his hearers: "But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." Are we to understand this verse as making a definitive pronouncement about the spiritual state of the Hebrews? It seems to me that we must ask about the FUNCTION of these verses of assurance, like we do with the warnings. I would suggest that it is possible to read Hebrews 10:39 not as a definitive pronouncement, but rather as an encouragement to persevere. Its function, then, would be similar to a preacher who said to his congregation, "Here at First Baptist Church we are of those who have a concern for the lost and evangelize at every opportunity." Said in the context of a sermon we should understand this not necessarily as a description of what each individual member is like, but as an encouragement to be the kind of people who are actively preaching the gospel. Does this make sense? Is this a viable option?

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3. How are we to understand Hebrews 6:9-12? "Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things--things that belong to salvation. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." My reading of Hebrews 6:9 is that it is a strong concessive statement. EVEN THOUGH we have just warned you, NEVERTHELESS we feel sure that the consequences described won't happen to you. The question is, what does the author mean by "feel sure" and how is this statement functioning? Does it mean that the author absolutely knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that his hearers would be saved?




4. In Hebrews 6:10-11 the author seems to point to past evidence of God's grace at work in their lives and then immediately to encourage them to persevere in their good works IN ORDER TO "have the full assurance of hope until the end." Again, in my reading, this suggests that the author has PRESENT assurance of their spiritual state, but his FUTURE assurance of their spiritual state and ultimate destination DEPENDS on their continued obedience. I'm afraid that this puts me in the camp of those who believe that we can have genuine assurance TODAY, but that FUTURE assurance depends on persistence of belief. (I am in agreement with you Dr. Caneday?) So, in other words, if someone asked me if I would be with Christ if I died TODAY, I would say "By his mercy, absolutely yes. I have assurance of salvation." But if someone asked me if I die twenty years from now, will I be with Christ, I would say, "I cannot finally know, but I have every hope that God will complete in me what he has started."

Alex's first question refers to pages 209-212 of The Race Set Before Us. There Tom and I illustrate how biblical warnings against failure to persevere in Christ function. For the sake of clarity, here is Acts 27:20-32.

When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.

Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.' So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we must run aground on some island."

When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved." Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.

Tom and I appeal to this passage from Acts 27 in the conclusion to chapter 4 to show how this passage illustrates the relationship between God's promise of salvation and God's warnings against failure to persevere in trusting him.

Alex, I wonder if you have not attempted to push the illustration from Acts 27 farther than Tom and I have. You say, "Paul received divine assurance that none of the men on the ship would be lost. Did the author to the Hebrews receive similar assurance with regard to the recipients of his letter? I cannot think so. You are right about this, that the author of Hebrews did not receive any special revelation that everyone in the church to which he wrote his sermon would persevere in faithfulness to Christ and would finally be saved. Tom and I do not use Acts 27 in this way. The point of correspondence between the promise/threat or assurance/warning of Acts 27:20-32 is not that the New Testament writers who issue warnings to their readers also knew that their readers would remain steadfast in faith and would finally be saved. Tom and I do not believe that any of the New Testament writers received such insight about the members of the churches to which they wrote. Instead, the point of correspondence between promise/threat or assurance/warning of Acts 27:20-32 illustrates how all the New Testament writers understood the function of promise and threat or of assurance and warning. The point is that God's warnings do not subvert God's promises. God's ministers proclaim warnings to the same people to whom they proclaim assurances.

This is the point that we make on pages 203-204 when we quote Hebrews 10:19-25.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

We observe, on page 204, "Without any hint of contradiction the preacher thoroughly integrates the call for bold confidence with the intense warning that follows. The preacher's admonition to steadfast confidence before God and warning lest we perish by willful persistence in sin work together as God's means to preserve us loyal to Christ unto the end. Therfore, the preacher commingles calls for confidence and perseverance again by saying, 'Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised" (Heb 10:35-36 NRSV).

This brings me to your second question, your comments on Hebrews 10:39. Hebrews 10:36-39 reads,

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith,and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

You asked about Hebrews 10:39, "Are we to understand this verse as making a definitive pronouncement about the spiritual state of the Hebrews?" No. We should not understand verse 39 as a definitive pronouncement concerning the sure perseverance and final salvation of all to whom the preacher first wrote. We need not adopt such a reading of Hebrews 10:39 in order to recognize that the relationship between the strong admonition to assurance (Hebrews 10:19-25) and intense warning (Hebrews 10:26-30) corresponds to assurance and warning in Acts 27:20-32. The preacher need not have the insight that the apostle Paul received concerning those on board the ship in order for us to recognize the instructive significance of Acts 27 for our hearing of Hebrews 10:19-39. The significant correspondence is not in what the preacher knew about his hearers on the one hand and the apostle Paul knew about those aboard the ship on the other hand. The crucial parallel is in what they preached to their respective hearers. God's promises of deliverance are not contrary to God's warnings to be cautious lest we perish. What the two preached had to be believed. How did the hearers on the ship receive the message of God's assured promise of salvation? How did the hearers who received the preacher's sermon receive the message of God's assured promise of salvation? Was it not through proclamation of God's messenger? Did not both sets of hearers have to appropriate the promise through belief? Likewise, the people in both situations received the warnings through God's messengers. The people had to act on both the promises and the warnings in each situation. The crucial point, then, is that the warning does not suspend the promise nor does the promise nullify the warning. Instead, promise and warning function harmoniously together, for promise provides the ground upon which the warning is legitimately given. The warning serves the promise.

As for Hebrews 10:39, then, it is hardly a definitive pronouncement concerning the assured spiritual state of the preacher's first hearers. It is, however, an expression of the preacher's confidence about himself. Is it not? The "we" of 10:39 includes the preacher just as much as the "we" of 10:26 includes the preacher. By example, then, we must say that Hebrews 10:39 is an acclamation of great confidence by the preacher concerning himself, confidence that does not nullify the intense warning of Hebrews 10:26ff for himself and confidence that is not muted by the intense warning of Hebrews 10:26ff.

I trust that the above does much to answer your third question which is about Hebrews 6:9-12. As in Hebrews 10:19-39 the preacher feels absolutely no contradiction between strong assurance and intense warning in such a manner that he includes himself within both, so in Hebrews 6:4-12 the preacher feels no sense of contraction between instense warning (6:4-8) and confidence (6:9-12). Surely the preacher had no absolute knowledge or confidence concerning those he knew and whom he addressed in Hebrews 6:4-12. Undoubtedly the preacher would have readily admitted that he did not compose the words of 6:9-12 as if he had no shadow of doubt about any of those he knew who were his first hearers of his sermon. The exposition that Tom and I offer in The Race Set Before Us does not rely upon the knowledge that the preacher had concerning his hearers. The exposition that Tom and I offer relies upon the preacher's knowledge of God and the means God employs to bring to fulfillment his work of saving whom he wills. In other words, the preacher's knowledge is that God uses warnings as a significant means by which he preserves those to whom he gives assurances of his promised salvation.

Finally, I come to your fourth question. I wonder if you are over-reading Hebrews 6:10-11 so as to prompt your question. I repeat your question.

In Hebrews 6:10-11 the author seems to point to past evidence of God's grace at work in their lives and then immediately to encourage them to persevere in their good works IN ORDER TO "have the full assurance of hope until the end." Again, in my reading, this suggests that the author has PRESENT assurance of their spiritual state, but his FUTURE assurance of their spiritual state and ultimate destination DEPENDS on their continued obedience. I'm afraid that this puts me in the camp of those who believe that we can have genuine assurance TODAY, but that FUTURE assurance depends on persistence of belief. (I am in agreement with you Dr. Caneday?) So, in other words, if someone asked me if I would be with Christ if I died TODAY, I would say "By his mercy, absolutely yes. I have assurance of salvation." But if someone asked me if I die twenty years from now, will I be with Christ, I would say, "I cannot finally know, but I have every hope that God will complete in me what he has started."

No individual Christian can have for another Christian the kind of assurance an individual believer can have for oneself. Thus, it seems to me that your question should not be about the preacher's assurance concerning the spiritual state of his first hearers. The latter portion of your question reframes the question about individual assurance of salvation for one's own self.

I will offer more concerning assurance of salvation in later postings. Your question really concerns chapter 7 of The Race Set Before Us. In chapter 7 we contend that assurance is integral to belief. We chose to use this expression instead of assurance is of the essence of faith to offer something a little more fresh, though we mean the same thing. Consequently, as I view the matter of assurance, it seems to me that your statements about your own assurance do not adquately lay hold of the assurance that the gospel holds out to us. Why should your response to the question be different concerning "today" or "twenty years from now"? Biblically speaking, assurance of salvation for me is assurance that I will be saved in the Last Day. This is what Paul expresses in Romans 8:38-39--"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Assurance of salvation has no expiration date. Assurance of salvation is not like manna. It is not good for today but spoiled by the passage of time and needing to be replaced. Assurance of salvation is essentially assurance today that I will be justified before the judgment bar of God on the Last Day. (This, likely, will remind Nick of the question he asked and to which I still owe a response.)