Now we move on to chapter two.
Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we whould let them slip. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3 how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
This is heavy. In today’s climate of inclusiveness, this passage is often either overlooked or outright ignored. The “ecumenical” people would definitely like to see it removed from the Bible. Here’s why: the modern ecumenical movement has adopted the Hindu concept of multiple paths to God. The people who follow this thought system teach that conversion of religious people who do not follow Christ Jesus is wrong, even an act of violence in some eyes. Yet we saw in chapter one that Jesus is superior to angels and all other created beings. And we know that Jesus Himself told us that He is the only way to be saved, redeemed, atoned with God, etc. ad nausium. So the arguments that “there is truth in all religions” doesn’t float once the person is exposed to the Gospel.
The problem resides in the fact that the deceiver has joined the Church and tries to lead the elect away from the Truth of salvation. (Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”) So when these people notice that there is some truth in all religions, they come to the conclusion that lead Origin into heresy, that God is going to save all people, no matter what they do with the Gospel. Under the Originic heresy proponents taught that there was no reason for holiness, since nothing can stop God from saving us if He wants to do so. Origin is the only person in the history of the Christian Church who was excommunicated posthumously, centuries after he died.
It seemed right to the Holy Spirit and to the delegates at the Ecumenical Council which kicked him out, to remove Origin’s name from the rolls of the faithful in order to combat the libertine attitude of rampant sin. Today we have a more subtle and dangerous application of Originism. That religious people need never accept the faith of the Gospel so long as they continue to be religious. This cannot be accepted in all cases. There are resurgent pagan idols that are definitely evil in nature. Some people are religiously serving these idols. This is not anything that God will accept. Human sacrifice, sexual immorality for religious purposes, and many other practices that have been explicitly condemned by God in the scriptures are coming back into practice now that it is considered acceptable to be religious without Christ.
Frankly, I can’t understand how some people can claim to be Christian and at the same time totally disregard the words of Christ. In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul tells us that every person will be judged by what they knew and what they did with the Gospel once they heard. Here he reminds the Jewish Christians of Palestine that apostasy, turning back to the old religion once they started on the Way, is rejecting the salvation God has provided in order to do it themselves, and fail. The fact that the Law does not justify anyone, merely convicts of sin, seems to have slipped their minds. If Israel was the only nation at the time to have the revelation of God in the form of the Mosaic Law, and the religion built around the Law of Moses is inferior to the redemption offered in Christ, how much farther from salvation are Pagans and Heathens in comparison?
My conclusion to the passage is this: Christ is the only viable way to salvation, and anyone who rejects Christ in favor of some other form of religious practice is totally rejecting God. “[H]ow shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation[?]”
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