But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
It divides all people into two companies, those who shrink back to ruin and destruction and those who hold on in belief to the saving of the soul. It belongs with holding fast to confidence because it brings great reward, patiently doing God's will to receive the promise, the Coming One arriving very soon without delay, the just living by faith, and God's displeasure toward anyone who draws back. After the disappointment over Christ's expected return in 1844, drawing back toward ruin meant giving up faith and confidence, denying the Holy Spirit's power in the Advent message, and calling work done in obedience to God and under His leading merely human or satanic. Those who believe to salvation hold fast, live by faith in the sure word and in God's leading in their Second Advent experience, and please God, while those who grow impatient, cast away confidence in that leading, and give it up as of man or Satan draw back to destruction and displease God. Saving faith is not superficial or merely professed but works through love and purifies the soul, and it does not stand still or turn back but goes forward from light to greater light in advancing faith, growing knowledge, sanctification and fruits of godliness.
Meaning and Immediate Context
There are two classes, those who shrink back toward ruin and destruction and those whose trust moves toward rescue and preservation of the inner life. Those who hold fast do not abandon reliance on God but remain among the believing ones, with faith joined to salvation. This division stands together with holding onto confidence because great repayment belongs to it. Patient endurance in carrying out the divine will is needed in order to receive the promised good, since the Coming One will arrive after a very little while and will not delay. The righteous live by trust, and turning back brings divine displeasure.
That same believing to rescue of the soul means working together with God in Christ's way, yielding to divine training so as to become complete in Christ. It means pushing back temptation by strength drawn from God, sharing in the divine nature after escaping the world's corruption through lust, and diligently adding to faith virtue and knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness and charity. It means enduring as seeing the Invisible One. Alongside this stands the call to labor to enter into God's rest, to cease from one's own works, to avoid unbelief, and to heed God's living word that discerns the thoughts and intents. Keeping confidence and believing to rescue rather than shrinking back to ruin belongs with that rest and that heedful hearing.
The faithful examples set forth in Hebrews 11 are the models to hold fast and follow without turning toward ruin. Trust in Jesus as the Son of God brings this rescue of the soul. Even if only two persons had accepted Him and believed, He would still have carried through the plan of salvation, and the smallness of the number would not have made His suffering and sacrifice too great.
Test After 1844 Disappointment
After the disappointment over Christ's expected return in 1844, drawing back toward perdition meant renouncing faith and confidence and denying the Holy Spirit's power in the Advent message. It meant abandoning confidence in the Advent work believed to have been done in obedience to God and under His leading, and giving it up as merely human or satanic. Instead of drawing back, those disappointed were to preserve the light already received, hold fast to God and His Word and promises, continue searching Scripture, and patiently wait and watch for further light and the Lord's coming.
The disappointed divided into two companies. Those who hold fast live by faith in the sure word and in God's work in their Second Advent experience, believe to salvation, and please God. Those who grow impatient cast away their confidence in the way God has led them, give up that leading as the work of man or of Satan, draw back to destruction, and displease God. Before the time of expectation they had walked as if by sight in the light of unsealed prophecy and rapidly fulfilling signs that Christ's coming was at the doors, but afterward with disappointed hopes and stricken hearts they must live by faith.
Drawing back after the tenth day of the seventh month in 1844 meant rashly concluding the seventh-month movement had not been directed by God's providence, casting away confidence in that work, and lacking the faith and patience to wait and watch until the disappointment was explained by the light of the heavenly sanctuary and the three messages of Revelation 14. Already after the expected end of 1843 seemed to remove the platform of definite time, some had let go of hope and drawn back to perdition while others continued to hold to Christ's coming. The renewed seventh-month message then tested faith by requiring venturing on the truth rather than giving way to doubt or fear, even when mocked. The disappointment tested hearts: those whose faith was genuine did not shrink back but remained faithful, while those who had embraced the message from fear turned back and ridiculed the disappointed.
In the trial following 1844, patient waiting and holding fast to confidence in God's word sustained faith, and without Scripture's encouragement to wait, faith would have failed. Remaining among those who believe to salvation while waiting without setting a new date is not drawing back. It means keeping confidence with no further time proclamation between the close of the prophetic periods in 1844 and the Lord's coming, refusing impatience at apparent delay, but waiting, watching, taking heed, praying, loving Christ's appearing, preparing others, and trusting that at the appointed time He will surely come. Holding the position without wavering before 1844 would have helped preserve unity among Advent believers and advance the work entrusted to them.
Saving Faith Lived Out
Final salvation is not secured beforehand, for meeting the conditions set for it rests with each person. Saving faith is not surface profession but works by love and purifies the soul, it is proved by testing, and those who live by faith reveal it in works, while shrinking back under test falls short of the required standard. Gaining eternal life by faith and full obedience demands unceasing personal striving against the enemy, since none are carried to an incorruptible inheritance without effort; looking back brings dizziness and letting go brings destruction, and slackened diligence opens to selfishness and self-indulgence where watchfulness is neglected and earnest human effort is omitted.
The believing that saves labors together with God, submits to His training to become complete in Christ, resists temptation by strength drawn from God, shares the divine nature having escaped worldly corruption through lust, diligently adds to faith virtue and knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness and charity, and endures as seeing Him who is invisible. Not drawing back allows no standing still and no turning to ruin but moves forward from light to greater light; after trusting that sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, faith must advance to greater faith, wider experience, and growing knowledge of unfolding truth, producing sanctification and fruits of godliness, since ceasing to walk by faith brings darkness and contentment without improving what God has given causes those talents to be taken away, so safety lies only in pressing onward. Not drawing back to perdition keeps following Christ, drawing daily nourishment and sustaining power from His life in order to grow in grace, strike roots deep, remain firm and stable, and bear much fruit.
When persecution removes earthly comforts, believers do not turn back but stay faithful, strengthening one another with faith and patience and hope, with trials bringing them nearer rest and reward. Under divine proving, drawing back can end in perdition, and converts left untaught in the obligations of truth may afterward draw back, whereas faithful instruction can help save them. For one depressed in soul the verse both warns and encourages to be not faithless but believing, to trust wholly in God, and to refuse suspicion and mistrust of brethren, brooding over supposed wrongs, imagining hidden underhanded work and expected betrayal, shutting oneself within oneself, and withdrawing from those who know one best.
For those laboring for God in the cities the call is not to draw back but to go forward in faith doing their very best, taking to themselves the instruction of Hebrews 10 and 11, watching and working and praying with assurance that God hears and answers petitions and gives an experience invaluable for later work, in company with the faithful, since faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. God's people must not draw back but stand openly for faith, with love for one another as a clear sign of loyalty and with all strife and dissension ceasing. In financial crisis and heavy indebtedness, refusing to draw back continues laying up treasure in heaven by investing in building meetinghouses and starting enterprises, giving thousands of dollars of book royalties to aid the work, translate books and train young men for missionary work even while borrowing at interest to pay helpers, and refusing relief by a course that would appear unfair to publishing houses. God honors His servants who bear the message of mercy to the world.
It divides all people into two companies, those who shrink back to ruin and destruction and those who hold on in belief to the saving of the soul. It belongs with holding fast to confidence because it brings great reward, patiently doing God's will to receive the promise, the Coming One arriving very soon without delay, the just living by faith, and God's displeasure toward anyone who draws back. After the disappointment over Christ's expected return in 1844, drawing back toward ruin meant giving up faith and confidence, denying the Holy Spirit's power in the Advent message, and calling work done in obedience to God and under His leading merely human or satanic. Those who believe to salvation hold fast, live by faith in the sure word and in God's leading in their Second Advent experience, and please God, while those who grow impatient, cast away confidence in that leading, and give it up as of man or Satan draw back to destruction and displease God. Saving faith is not superficial or merely professed but works through love and purifies the soul, and it does not stand still or turn back but goes forward from light to greater light in advancing faith, growing knowledge, sanctification and fruits of godliness.
Meaning and Immediate Context
There are two classes, those who shrink back toward ruin and destruction and those whose trust moves toward rescue and preservation of the inner life. Those who hold fast do not abandon reliance on God but remain among the believing ones, with faith joined to salvation. This division stands together with holding onto confidence because great repayment belongs to it. Patient endurance in carrying out the divine will is needed in order to receive the promised good, since the Coming One will arrive after a very little while and will not delay. The righteous live by trust, and turning back brings divine displeasure.
That same believing to rescue of the soul means working together with God in Christ's way, yielding to divine training so as to become complete in Christ. It means pushing back temptation by strength drawn from God, sharing in the divine nature after escaping the world's corruption through lust, and diligently adding to faith virtue and knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness and charity. It means enduring as seeing the Invisible One. Alongside this stands the call to labor to enter into God's rest, to cease from one's own works, to avoid unbelief, and to heed God's living word that discerns the thoughts and intents. Keeping confidence and believing to rescue rather than shrinking back to ruin belongs with that rest and that heedful hearing.
The faithful examples set forth in Hebrews 11 are the models to hold fast and follow without turning toward ruin. Trust in Jesus as the Son of God brings this rescue of the soul. Even if only two persons had accepted Him and believed, He would still have carried through the plan of salvation, and the smallness of the number would not have made His suffering and sacrifice too great.
Test After 1844 Disappointment
After the disappointment over Christ's expected return in 1844, drawing back toward perdition meant renouncing faith and confidence and denying the Holy Spirit's power in the Advent message. It meant abandoning confidence in the Advent work believed to have been done in obedience to God and under His leading, and giving it up as merely human or satanic. Instead of drawing back, those disappointed were to preserve the light already received, hold fast to God and His Word and promises, continue searching Scripture, and patiently wait and watch for further light and the Lord's coming.
The disappointed divided into two companies. Those who hold fast live by faith in the sure word and in God's work in their Second Advent experience, believe to salvation, and please God. Those who grow impatient cast away their confidence in the way God has led them, give up that leading as the work of man or of Satan, draw back to destruction, and displease God. Before the time of expectation they had walked as if by sight in the light of unsealed prophecy and rapidly fulfilling signs that Christ's coming was at the doors, but afterward with disappointed hopes and stricken hearts they must live by faith.
Drawing back after the tenth day of the seventh month in 1844 meant rashly concluding the seventh-month movement had not been directed by God's providence, casting away confidence in that work, and lacking the faith and patience to wait and watch until the disappointment was explained by the light of the heavenly sanctuary and the three messages of Revelation 14. Already after the expected end of 1843 seemed to remove the platform of definite time, some had let go of hope and drawn back to perdition while others continued to hold to Christ's coming. The renewed seventh-month message then tested faith by requiring venturing on the truth rather than giving way to doubt or fear, even when mocked. The disappointment tested hearts: those whose faith was genuine did not shrink back but remained faithful, while those who had embraced the message from fear turned back and ridiculed the disappointed.
In the trial following 1844, patient waiting and holding fast to confidence in God's word sustained faith, and without Scripture's encouragement to wait, faith would have failed. Remaining among those who believe to salvation while waiting without setting a new date is not drawing back. It means keeping confidence with no further time proclamation between the close of the prophetic periods in 1844 and the Lord's coming, refusing impatience at apparent delay, but waiting, watching, taking heed, praying, loving Christ's appearing, preparing others, and trusting that at the appointed time He will surely come. Holding the position without wavering before 1844 would have helped preserve unity among Advent believers and advance the work entrusted to them.
Saving Faith Lived Out
Final salvation is not secured beforehand, for meeting the conditions set for it rests with each person. Saving faith is not surface profession but works by love and purifies the soul, it is proved by testing, and those who live by faith reveal it in works, while shrinking back under test falls short of the required standard. Gaining eternal life by faith and full obedience demands unceasing personal striving against the enemy, since none are carried to an incorruptible inheritance without effort; looking back brings dizziness and letting go brings destruction, and slackened diligence opens to selfishness and self-indulgence where watchfulness is neglected and earnest human effort is omitted.
The believing that saves labors together with God, submits to His training to become complete in Christ, resists temptation by strength drawn from God, shares the divine nature having escaped worldly corruption through lust, diligently adds to faith virtue and knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness and charity, and endures as seeing Him who is invisible. Not drawing back allows no standing still and no turning to ruin but moves forward from light to greater light; after trusting that sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, faith must advance to greater faith, wider experience, and growing knowledge of unfolding truth, producing sanctification and fruits of godliness, since ceasing to walk by faith brings darkness and contentment without improving what God has given causes those talents to be taken away, so safety lies only in pressing onward. Not drawing back to perdition keeps following Christ, drawing daily nourishment and sustaining power from His life in order to grow in grace, strike roots deep, remain firm and stable, and bear much fruit.
When persecution removes earthly comforts, believers do not turn back but stay faithful, strengthening one another with faith and patience and hope, with trials bringing them nearer rest and reward. Under divine proving, drawing back can end in perdition, and converts left untaught in the obligations of truth may afterward draw back, whereas faithful instruction can help save them. For one depressed in soul the verse both warns and encourages to be not faithless but believing, to trust wholly in God, and to refuse suspicion and mistrust of brethren, brooding over supposed wrongs, imagining hidden underhanded work and expected betrayal, shutting oneself within oneself, and withdrawing from those who know one best.
For those laboring for God in the cities the call is not to draw back but to go forward in faith doing their very best, taking to themselves the instruction of Hebrews 10 and 11, watching and working and praying with assurance that God hears and answers petitions and gives an experience invaluable for later work, in company with the faithful, since faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. God's people must not draw back but stand openly for faith, with love for one another as a clear sign of loyalty and with all strife and dissension ceasing. In financial crisis and heavy indebtedness, refusing to draw back continues laying up treasure in heaven by investing in building meetinghouses and starting enterprises, giving thousands of dollars of book royalties to aid the work, translate books and train young men for missionary work even while borrowing at interest to pay helpers, and refusing relief by a course that would appear unfair to publishing houses. God honors His servants who bear the message of mercy to the world.