Garrett on O.T. Israel in Hebrews 3 and 4

I very much enjoyed reading Brother Garrett's recent post on the Israelites that fell in the wilderness, and I wish him well in his debate with the Campbellite he has coming up.

Brother Garrett stated:

"Hardshells think, like some other Calvinist minorities, that those who died in the wilderness are examples of disobedient children of God, and that their loss of the promised land does not represent a loss of final salvation, but a mere loss of temporal blessing.  Jason Brown, a self-styled Hardshell "apologist,"  wrote:  "...the fact that there were born again people that "died in the 40 year wilderness exile".  (see here)"

This is not exactly correct. Primitive Baptists do not assert that all that fell in the wilderness were necessarily born again, nor do they have to prove that. No one could prove that anyway. All they have to do is point to Moses, who also fell in the wilderness. Does Brother Garrett believe Moses was unregenerate because he died in the wilderness in disobedience to God for smiting the rock? It seems clear that Moses destroys Brother Garrett's absolute rule that all that died in the wilderness were false professors.

Moses is sufficient, therefore, to establish that believers can die in disobedience, not enjoying the fullness of gospel rest.

Now, one of the principal errors of Brother Garrett's depiction of the Primitive Baptist view is that they are committed to taking the position that all that died in the wilderness were born again, and that the logical implications of the command to 'labour' to enter into gospel rest only implies a "higher" call in gospel conversion.

A failure to enter gospel rest certainly means that gospel blessings will not be obtained, but it could also indicate that one fails to enter because they have no inheritance. "Work out your calling and election" is not a "higher" call and election of "discipleship", manifestly. There is no logical basis to believe that you were among those for whom Christ died unless one presses into the kingdom of God; nor do ministers who irrationally provide such a basis by the mere fact of Sunday presence at the church do honor to the cause of Christ. They undermine the very blessing provided by pressing into the kingdom of God by saying that any other evidence than the public confession that Jesus is Lord and baptism is sufficient to be confident of eternal life.

Primitive Baptists are not committed to see all, nearly all, or even a majority of the faithless generation of Jews to have been of true Israel. The fact that there was at least one regenerate man, Moses, who died in the wilderness, does not imply that the unbelief of the whole generation was not generally indicative of eternal damnation. It also does not imply that the call to claim your inheritance in the gospel is not a simultaneous assertion that those that fail to do so are generally eternally damned, showing they have no inheritance to claim. This is the evident principle taught in both Mark 16:16 or 2 Thess. 1:7-9.

The fact is, that the lesson in Hebrews 3 and 4 is against unbelief. This unbelief is not excluded from the regenerate clearly, as in Moses, but does generally manifest the non-elect.