Why Do Many Try to Chop Hebrews Chapter 3 Out of the Bible?

Hebrews 3:1-2: “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.”

There are people who try to argue that those addressed in verse 12 of this chapter are not the same as those addressed in verse 1. Consider if the verses in between give any reasonable basis for this claim.

The new birth of these Hebrews and their good beginning in the Christian race were not in question. In regard to the things which are said in Hebrews chapter 3 and the Book of Hebrews as a whole, warning people about falling away from a dead faith and invalid profession of Christ would be foolish.

Hebrews 3:3-6: “For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 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.”

Anyone who speaks as if following Jesus opposes heeding Moses is wrong. Those who see Moses as a rival to Jesus in any way do not heed Moses and are not reliable guides in following Jesus. Moses served Jesus. Moses even foreshadowed Him and testified of Him in many ways.

Note that to hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of hope in Christ firm until the end is an “if” rather than a guarantee. The Christian race is not fixed. Those who teach that a real Christian cannot fall away from Christ imply that it is a fixed race.

The writer of Hebrews addresses the Hebrew Christians as having already obtained a real rejoicing of hope in Jesus. They had already been called “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling” in verse 1. This chapter’s counsel would be bad if it were given to people who were not really born-again. It is very misleading to warn people to hold onto and maintain something which they never really obtained to begin with.

Hebrews 3:7-11: “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)”

The preceding verses are entirely parentheses besides the “wherefore” at the beginning of verse 7. The words in the parentheses give a quotation from Psalm 95 which is a warning not to harden your heart to God’s voice like the disobedient Israelites in the Book of Numbers whom the Lord swore in His wrath would not enter the Promised Land of Canaan. Their failure happened in spite of the realities that they were actually delivered out of Egypt and were really on track to enter Canaan. They refused to believe the Lord by acting upon what He told them to do. The final straw was when they rebelled against the commandment of the Lord to go into the land after the spies who had been sent there returned with their report about it. That is how they failed to hold fast their confidence and rejoicing of hope in the Lord firm unto the end.

The Bible actually tells Christians to look to Israel as the proof that they do not have unconditional eternal security. The warnings to Israel about their lack of unconditional security are echoed throughout the Book of Hebrews and applied to Christians there. Some say “you can’t exactly compare the Israelites who came out of Egypt failing to reach the Promised Land to a real Christian falling away and failing to inherit salvation.” Oh yes you can. The writer of Hebrews is doing so right here. The same direct comparison is also made in 1 Corinthians 10:1-12.

The provocation spoken of in the coming verses is obviously still a reference to Israel provoking the Lord by disobedience in Numbers chapter 14 and the generation which was guilty in this perishing in the wilderness as a result.

Hebrews 3:12: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”

The Christian brethren who are partakers of the heavenly in Christ Jesus are still being addressed. The writer’s attention has not turned to another group of people since verse 1. He doesn’t need to use the word “holy” again to refer to these brethren. It is implied in verse 12 that they are holy due to how He had recently addressed them as such in verse 1. You cannot find anything in verses 2 to 11 to demonstrate that those addressed in verse 12 are not those addressed in verse 1. That some would even try to say that a different group is being addressed in verse 12 illustrates how desperate many are to deny what Hebrews chapter 3 is communicating.

Hebrews 3:13-15: “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”

A true confidence and rejoicing of hope in Christ must involve being in subjection to His authority in order to not be an enemy to His coming kingdom. The exhortation to the Hebrews not to harden their hearts to God’s voice like the Israelites who fell in the wilderness aligns with this understanding. Those who have a real rejoicing and hope in Christ are warned to exhort each daily out of fear that any of these should be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and thereby cease to be a partaker of Christ. Similar things are said throughout the Book of Hebrews on the basis of principles already established in the Old Testament.

Hebrews 3:16: “For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.”

Joshua and Caleb did not provoke the Lord in Numbers chapter 14 like the other Israelites did. Therefore they did indeed inherit the Promised Land. The congregation of Israel regarded them as the bad guys and wanted to stone them (see Numbers 14:6-10). All the Israelites from 20 years old and upward at that time, besides Joshua and Caleb, died in the wilderness (see Numbers 14:26-30).

Hebrews 3:17-19: “But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 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.”

The wicked Israelites might have pointed at Joshua and Caleb who were believing the Lord like they should have and said “They sin too!”- just as Christians who are being disobedient to the Lord frequently accuse faithful Christians of being no different than they are. The Lord’s grief with those who sinned is referring to His grief with those who provoke Him through being disobedient. They harden themselves through the deceitfulness of sin as a consequence.

The Israelites’ unbelief in Numbers chapter 14 cannot be separated from their disobedience in sinning by not acting in accordance with what the Lord commanded them. Faith in the true God that is living cannot be separated from obedience to what He commands. In Hebrews chapter 3 these things are taught and applied to Christians under the New Covenant established by the blood of Christ in defining an adequate, effective response to His grace.

It is no wonder that many practically chop Hebrews chapter 3 out of the Bible by working to explain away what it teaches, by accepting a pathetic explanation concerning what it teaches, or by avoiding it altogether.