What’s going on in the passages (like those in Hebrews) that speak of Christians falling away? An extended quotation because it is so helpful:
“Apostasy is a real sin in real time. It is important for us to settle in our minds at the outset what an apostate falls away from. In shorthand, he falls away from Christ; he falls from grace (Gal. 5:4). But what does this mean? In the text quoted above, he has been enlightened (an early Church expression for baptism), he has tasted the heavenly gift, he has been made a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and so on. There is a certain kind of reality to this experience that is assumed. The cut-away branch has no fruit (which is why it was cut away) — but it has had sap (which is why it had to be cut away).
“The Arminian errs by making such a person soundly converted at the beginning, only to undo it through his own choices later. In the Arminian scheme such a person was identical to one who perseveres in every respect, but then through his own bad choices, he undoes it all. This is obviously at odds with what the Scriptures teach about the sovereignty of God in our salvation.
“But the Reformed have their own set of problems here. One such problem is to assume that all such warnings are hypothetical. In other words, God warns His elect away from something that cannot happen to them — something like erecting a giant “BEWARE OF THE CLIFF” sign in the middle of Kansas. The fundamental problem with treating the passages as hypothetical is that the reality of the warning is often assumed in the warning. Demas really did fall away. Unbelieving Jews were really cut out of the olive tree and the Gentiles were warned that the same thing could happen to them. Judas fell away. These are not hypothetical warnings.
“Another Reformed exegetical problem is to err by making such a person disconnected from Christ (in every respect) from the beginning The Bible does not permit this option either. The Arminian needs to hear the Words of Christ: “Depart from me; I never knew you” — in other words, something was wrong from the start. The Reformed need to hear some other Words of Christ: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch.” The one cast out as a branch was a branch, and not some bit of tumbleweed caught in the branches. So there is such a thing as genuine covenantal connection to Christ which is not salvific at the last day. Far from helping a little bit, having had such a connection makes things far worse for them. “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (2 Pet. 2:20). The curses of the new covenant are terrible indeed. The pictures given of this in Scripture are uniform and consistent at this point.” (Pages 132-133)
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