"Just as has been said before, 'Today . . . hear His voice'" (Heb 4:7) such that "we have had good news preached to us, just as they also" (:2) because they "had good news preached to them" (:6). Therefore ignorance isn't an excuse. "The word they heard did not profit them" (:2) "because of disobedience" (:6). They ignored the advice to "'not harden your hearts'" (:7) and "unbelief" (3:19) interfered "because it was not united by faith in those who heard" (4:2). "There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God" (:9) and "it remains for some to enter it" (:6). "We who have believed enter that rest" (:3) "for the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest" (:10-11). "Since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus" (10:19) "let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith" (:22). "We through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness" (Gal 5:5). But there is the other side of the coin. "The Lord said to Moses, 'Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book'" (Ex 32:33). No one "who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God" (Eph 5:5).
The author of Hebrews addresses them as "beloved" (6:9) and "holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling" (3:1). He recognizes they "have become dull of hearing" (5:11) and warns accordingly "do not drift away" (2:1). He is not concerned about unbelievers because they would not need to "hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end" (3:6). They have been "enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift" (6:4) and also of "the good word of God and the powers of the age to come" (:5). But he warns again for those who have "fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance" (:6). He is concerned about "better things" (:9) for them and to "press on to maturity" (:1). It is your "confidence, which has a great reward" (10:35) that "when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised" (:36). "He is able also to save forever those who draw near" (7:25) and "has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (10:14). To many this means eternal security as with the Calvinists who believe in eternal salvation. "'Everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day'" (Jn 6:40). "'I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand'" (10:28). Is this an automatic passport to heaven no matter what happens? Or is it possible to completely, irreconcilably "drift away"? (Heb 2:1). One qualification is to "be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (6:12). "We are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul" (10:39). Don't be like Esau who "even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance" (12:17).