Reference no: EM133633166

Assignment:

In Hebrews 4, the author draws on the OT promise of "entering God's rest" to motivate them not to "come short of it" (v. 1). How we understand the imagery of entering God's rest has a meaningful influence on our understanding of the second warning (Heb. 3:7-4:13) and the message of Hebrews.

What does the writer of Hebrews imply when he tells his audience that they have the promise of entering God's rest? The difficulties relate to two dichotomies. Firstly, the author is talking about the experience of God's OT people who did not enter his rest and to a group of his NT people who may or may not enter it. Secondly, we need to decide whether the rest in question is some temporal reward or our enteral salvation. When we put these elements together, we find a few possible scenarios:

1. For both the OT and NT saints, the rest is about temporal rewards and punishments
2. For both the OT and NT saints, the rest is about eternal rewards and punishments
3. For the OT saints, the reward was about temporal rewards and punishments, but for NT saints it is about eternal rewards and punishments.

The third option would have the author of Hebrews spiritualising the OT references to rest to apply them to NT readers.

Question

1. Discuss what the writer of Hebrews had in mind when he told his audience that they had a promise of entering God's rest (Heb. 4). The key issue is whether he had in mind temporal or eternal loss in mind for the OT and NT believers.
2. The discussion should discuss the three main interpretations, and motivate for the one most favourable.
3. State how this decision fits into the theology of apostasy.