THE NEW TESTAMENT
BIBLE STORY
The Epistle from Jude - False Christianity
The Epistle from Jude The following introduction is taken from the NKJV Personal Study Bible, published by Thomas Nelson, 1990, 1995. This small epistle is a much-neglected gem in the Christian Scripture. The content of Jude is powerful, and the imperative to steadfast commitment is as compelling as any in the New Testament. The problem addressed in the letter is still with us, and we need to hear again these solutions. AUTHOR The Jude (Judas) named in v. 1 is most probably the half brother of Jesus (see Matt.13:55). James, also mentioned in v.1, is another half brother of Jesus, James the just, spiritual leader of the Jerusalem church (see Acts 15:13 and Introduction to James: Author and Date). There is no historical or literary evidence which compels us to reject the authenticity of this epistle. DATE Jude was written during the last half of the first century, as indicated by the content of the letter. False itinerant prophets had been accepted into the congregation (v.8), and there was evidently an openness to their teachings.... Also in Jude, as in other New Testament books, we find a first-century emphasis on the imminent return of the resurrected Lord in judgment (v.14, 15). This doctrine did not receive the same emphasis in most second-century Christian writings. We may then with good reason assert that Jude is more a reflection of the apostolic faith of the late first century than it is of the middle or late second century. Although the epistle could have been written as early as A.D.50, it was probably composed and circulated a bit later. Exactly when Jude is dated depends to some extent on the literary dependency of 2 Peter. Many Bible scholars note the marked similarity between Jude 4-19 and 2 Peter 2:1-3:3. Because the wording is so similar, most scholars believe that Peter borrowed from Jude, or Jude used Peter's s words, or both used ideas from a common source no longer extant. (How about it was simply the Holy Spirit guiding both of them - Keith Hunt). Because of this projected literary relationship between the two, Jude was probably written by the sixth or seventh decade of the first century, contemporary with the writing of 2 Peter. CONTENT AND PURPOSE Jude wrote this letter to a group of Christians who were dear to him and who were being led astray by false teachers. He writes to urge them to fight for the truth (v 3). These false teachers had even rejected the authority of Christ (v.4). God would judge them just as He judged those who were rebellious of old (vv.5-7, 14,15). Jude describes their pride, self- centeredness, and their sexual immorality. They were out to get what they could for themselves by any means (vv.8-13,16). Jude concludes with instructions on how to deal with these teachers (vv.17-23) and a hymn of praise to the God who is able to keep them from falling (vv.24,25). OUTLINE (I). Introduction (1,2) A. Address and author (1) B. Salutation (2) (2). Occasion and theme (3,4) A. The appeal (3) B. Background for the appeal (4) (3). The doom of the ungodly (5-16) A. Three Old Testament examples (5-7) B. Condemnation of false teachers (8-13) C. The prophecy of Enoch (14-16) (4). Exhortation to the godly (17-23) A. Warning from the apostles (17,18) B. Spiritual division (19) C. True spirituality (20,23) (5). Doxology (24,25) .................. As we read let us remember that it could well have been 60- 80 A.D. when Jude wrote this letter. He was a servant or bond slave to Jesus and the brother of James which many believe was one of the main leaders in Jerusalem (see Paul's remarks in Galatians 1:15-19; 2:6-10). Jude addresses his letter to "them that are sanctified (set apart) by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called." You will again notice there is no addressing or mention of the Holy Spirit being also a third individual as like the Father and Son. Enough said on that. The reader can study my studies on the Holy spirit and the "Trinity" doctrine for the truth of the matter on that subject. He desires mercy, peace, and love, for them, to be multiplied. THE TRUE FAITH BEING DESTROYED! Remember what you read above? Many, if not most, scholars agree that Jude was probably written between 50 to 80 A.D. LOOK AT VERSES 3-5! They are SHOCKING verses! Before 80 A.D. THE TRUTH, THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED, was BEING CHANGED AND PERVERTED, TWISTED AND CORRUPTED! As Jude was writing about the COMMON SALVATION, the easy to understand, simplicity that is in Christ, as Paul once called it. Jude had to STOP and REALIZE he could NOT write like that, because the FAITH ONCE DELIVERED had been CORRUPTED! He fully realized he had to write to his readers that they EARNESTLY CONTEND, STRIVE for, with MIGHT AND DETERMINATION they needed to get back or hold on to the FAITH ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS! Certain men had CREPT IN, kinda un-noticed, not openly seen at first (remember how Paul wrote that Satan can come as an angel of light), but finally their true colors came through, all too clear to be seen. But their damage was powerful, it turned many away from the true faith once delivered to them. These men - some of them, were from the very Eldership of the Church of God (read Acts 20 once more - get the picture set in your mind and never forget this truth). They were classified by Jude as "UNgodly men" and they TURNED upside down the "grace" of God - they turned it into a LICENSE to sin. "Oh, this commandment of God does not apply any more." Or "This law is changed in the New Testament of grace." Something along those lines would have been their reasoning and teaching. Their theology in a grace of lasciviousness was in fact DENYING both the Lord God, the Most Holy One, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, brethren, I did not come and put this in your Bible last night while you were sleeping. It has been there from the first century, before the first century A.D. had finished! The true Gospel was being TWISTED AND CORRUPTED into a license to sin before the fist century came to a close. I ask you, HOW MUCH MORE IS IT CORRUPTED TODAY? Do you really believe the tens of millions that call themselves "Christian" are all following the faith once delivered to the saints? That is not the way human nature works. Do you really think it is only the FEW that are following a deceptive Christianity while the masses are in the true light? That is NOT what Jesus taught nor did He look down to the end-times and predict the masses would be in the light while the few would be deceived. It was THE OTHER WAY AROUND! Jesus said that people coming in His name, even saying Jesus was the Christ, would be the many, and they would deceive the MANY, so much so, that IF it was possible even the very "elect" would be deceived. Yes, Jesus did say that, you will find it in Matthew 24. Jude reminds his readers that God saved Israel out of Egypt, only to destroy them that did not have the faith, the belief, that was the right belief. You should get the connection here. You can know the faith once delivered, the true ways of the Lord, and be in a "saved" condition, BUT if you leave that true way, reject the true faith once delivered, then you can be in an "unsaved" condition, and be heading for final destruction. God can do the right thing for you, call you, give you all that is good, just as He did for the angels that He created. But free agency is never taken away from you, as it is not taken away from angels. There was a time in the past, when some angels under the leadership of a great covering angel REBELLED against God, and decided to turn to SIN. They rose up towards heaven and tried to unseat the Almighty One. They left this earth that had been given to them to care for, and fought against God and the righteous angels. There was a "star war" that is hard for the human mind to comprehend. The end result of that war you can see in the moon of this earth and planets like Mars. It was Spirit Beings fighting in a "spirit" war with power we can not imagine, and throwing around comets etc. like marbles. Satan was cast down to earth again, and with him came his hench-men. All this is fully explained in studies on this Website. God cast them back out of heaven, and set limits on them, to reserve them in types of chains, spiritual ones that only God has, until their judgment of the great day (verses 3-6). Sodom and Gomorrah and nearby cities, are an example to us. Those people went whoring after false ideas, false and corrupt ways to live, strange fleshly practices, living not according to God's standards and commandments. They were destroyed in "eternal fire." They were finally punished for unrighteousness. You will note it was "eternal fire" - yet that fire is not still blazing away. It was "eternal" in its end result. It destroyed the people and the cities. They are not there today. This is not a verse to prove the "immortal soul" theology. The immortal soul and destruction of the wicked in the fires of hell, are all covered in various studies on this Website. These false ministers are defiled with their "dreaming" teachings. They teach things that get "You must be dreaming" phrase thrown at them, by people like myself. They are, with their teachings actually ignoring God, ignoring the truth that is before them in the Bible. They will not be corrected. They will not stop leading people into erroneous Christianity and false theology. Hence in their work they are in effect speaking evil of the dignities of the Father, and the Son, and the holy righteous angels. They do not "shiver in their boots" - they have no "fear" of God before themselves. Yet Michael the archangel when he was contending with the Devil about the literal body of Moses (what was going on at the death of Moses we are not given), did not dare bring an railing accusation, but said to the Devil, "The Lord rebuke you." Here was an EVIL one, but Michael had respect, for God had created that being. The point of truth is that these false minister should be shaking in their boots to not have respect towards God, but they do not! Somehow they have twisted their mind to think the wrong theology does not matter. They are teaching, "It's okay, we'll all get to heaven, but on different roads." Just stop and think about all the crazy and out and out sin ways to live that many "churches" teach. You have homosexuals getting married in churches, you have ordained "ministers" that are homosexuals or lesbians who then teach it is fine to be a practicing homosexual or lesbian in God's sight. That is just ONE thing I mention. I will not apologize for coming back to the FOURTH commandment of the BIG TEN. Many "ministers" KNOW the truth on that one, but will NOT teach it! Then you have the WRONG yearly Festivals that popular Christianity teaches. Easter was replacing Passover in the first half of the second century. It's in the "church history" books. Christ-mass was not observed in the "Christian" church until the 4th century. The immortal soul teaching came into the Roman church and hence into Protestantism. The burning forever in hell fire was a powerful teaching to scare people "into" the "church of Christendom" - both the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches used it for advantage of church growth, and on and on we could go, with false teachings that are for the most part STILL in the popular Christian churches.The minsters of that Christianity do not shake in their boots before God. If they do NOT REPENT they are heading for destruction. That is what Jude is saying in verses 7-9. Jude goes on to say that such teachers speak evil of things they know nothing about. It's like the prophets of old said, the days have come when evil is called good and good is called evil. These teachers only know what is natural, what they have grown up being taught at home, in their schools, or at their theological colleges. Yet, let me add, somewhere along the way in their theological studies they have met the truth on many subjects but they refuse to accept it, which makes the matter even that much more serious and so they corrupt themselves in an even greater way, and those who come in contact with them are also corrupted, as branded with a hot iron (verse 10). Jude gets at the base foundation of it all in verse 11. The false teachers are looking after themselves, they like the fame of leading the mass (pun intended for Roman Catholic priests) population of people who are "into Christianity." They like the money, the salary, the adoration, the acceptance they get for being in the main stream of Christianity. So some of them are talented "writers" of books which have a much wider market in popular main-stream Christianity. And so it goes, with whatever makes you "popular" with the large audience of people. It's frank and plain words that God inspired Jude to use about false teachers of false theology. I can but record them as the KJV gives it: "These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever" (verses 12-13). The true Church of God, the very body of Christ, was getting cancer from within. The truths of God were being corrupted, right while those false teachers were feasting with the children of God. On the surface most of the false teachers and false prophets looked friendly and looked to be "nice guys" just like good ol' Santa Claus looks friendly and loving and so nice to people. Satan (who has deceives the whole world - Revelation 12:9) knows how to cover all angles, from the outward right in your face evil, to the smooth soft chocolate dipped ice-cream-cone. But the Almighty God knows the heart and inner most being of it all - dress it up how you like, you are reading the facts of it all. The last phrase of verse 11 is interesting "wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." Now, stars can represent "angels" (Rev.1:20). Satan and the demons were created "good angels," until wickedness was their down-fall. Is this last part of verse 11 telling us about the final fate and punishment of Satan and his gang of demons? Maybe it is. Maybe when there is no more human flesh and blood, when the new heavens and new earth shall be, that Satan and the demons will be banished to outer darkness of the universe forever. I can think of no more a terrible punishment for them than that fate. They would have nothing but themselves to deceive, and they are already in deep deception and evil. They would have nothing to influence and posses, not even any pigs (remember how the demons Jesus was casting out of a person, wanted to at least have some pigs they could enter), indeed what a punishment that would be for them. Way back in the time of Enoch, the seventh from Adam (in a writing that we do not have preserved for us today), it was told that eventually God would come with 10 thousand of His saints (or "holy ones" - so it could mean angels, or it could mean saints, maybe it is both) and execute judgment upon the wicked or ungodly, and all the words they have spoken gainst Him who is perfect righteousness (verses 14-15). This is probably the picture of Jesus coming in power and glory, with holy angels, resurrecting the dead saints, who meet Him in the clouds of earth, and continue down to the Mount of Olives at Jerusalem, when the wicked, and specifically in the context, the wicked of the false Christian religion, will be punished with destruction. The WOMAN WHORE of MYSTERY BABYLON RELIGION in the book of Revelation, will meet her doom. Once more God fires both barrels, concerning the false Christian teachers: "These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaking great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage" (verse 16). You may like to read this verse in a modern translation. It is a kind of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." The "spiritual politicking" that goes on behind closed doors of "Christianity" would shock most people if it was all known openly. And the true body of Christ's believers are not immune to that swelling vanity of ego and "I'll pat your back if you'll pat mine" syndrome. All done so personal gain in this life can be satisfied and the "status quo" preserved. So it already was in place in the Church of God, and the people that were calling themselves under the name of "Christian." As early as 30 to 50 years after the death of Christ on the cross, the true way of the Lord was being corrupted. Jude tells his readers that they should not be dumbfounded at this happening, for it was predicted by the apostles of the Lord Jesus. They, the apostles, had already said that in the last days, the last time (note again here that "last time" is thought of as the days Jude was writing this letter - it has to be even worse by the time another 2,000 years has gone by), people would come who as far as the truths of God was concerned, they were mockers of it, and they would walk after their own desires to satisfy their own interests for the physical life (verses 17-18). Jude said those false teachers were even then, beginning to separate themselves from the true body of Christ. It was starting to take place. It took a another century or so to really DIVIDE and CONQUER. Polycarp and later Polycrates (from Asia Minor - Polycarp stating he was personally taught the Passover observance of Jesus' death by the apostle John) in the second century tried to debate the question of the Passover/Easter with the Bishop of Rome, to no avail as for the truth, Easter was adopted by the church of Rome, and so began the slide into A BREAKAWAY FALSE CHRISTIAN RELIGION! (verse 19). Jude was confident that they were building up their faith, the most holy faith as he put it, and praying in the holy Spirit. He tells them to keep themselves in the LOVE of God, and we have seen in the letters of the apostle John, what LOVE IS. In so doing they are to then look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life (verses 21-22). The LOVE of God and the MERCY of God are indeed connected, intertwined, they go together. It is law AND grace, not law OR grace, as many false teachers will tell you. Those who try to tell you it is law OR grace, or that under the New Testament age it is GRACE not law, do NOT KNOW what they are talking about. Eternal salvation has ALWAYS been law AND grace. From the very beginning it has been law and grace and FAITH in the sacrifice of God, the death of His Son on the cross, to forgive sins. Those BEFORE Christ came in human flesh and blood, looked FORWARD to that crucial sacrifice, those AFTER He died on the stake look BACK to that atoning sacrifice. It's ALWAYS been that ANYONE, past, present, future, are saved BY GRACE through FAITH. But the law of God, which IS the LOVE of God has never been abolished. It cannot possibly be abolished. The real truth of the matter, as how anyone is saved, is found in my study called "Saved by Grace" on this Website. Jude tells his readers a VERY IMPORTANT practice of life as Christian people deal with each other, and as Christian leaders teach and guide others in the truths and righteousness of God. Some people have to have an abundance of COMPASSION given to them, a great deal of patience extended to them. Their up- bringing, past ways of living in this world, their emotional state, their twisted minds coming from backgrounds that are so horrific as having to live through, must be handled with care, patience, sympathy, and compassion. People who as children, were abused by parents or relatives in one way or another, children born and growing up with alcoholic parents, children and adults who were or are, into drugs, now trying to clean up their lives. People who were sexually abused as youngsters, and all the other kinds of terrible backgrounds that people are coming from, NEED SPECIAL COMPASSION. We as mature Christians trying to lead and help those people, must make a difference at times in HOW we help and guide them into true Christianity. Then on the other hand, there will be at times, people coming into Christianity, or all ready there for a number of years, who have no background as mentioned above. They come from steady and we might say "clean backgrounds" - they are emotionally stable, have a sharp mind, were well brought up, and well educated. And they are just doing things they should not, not because of great weakness of the flesh, but just because they want to, they get themselves into the wrong attitude for one reason or another. So Jude instructs that sometimes some people like that have to be handled with a firm hand, as Jude put it "with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." It's a delicate balancing act, to be the guide and teacher of other Christians. It is not always just black and white in dealing with people as you try to lead them into mature Christianity. Some you deal this way with, others you handle that way, and still others another way. It real is true what the apostle James said in his letter, "Not many [of you] should become teachers [self-constituted censors and reprovers of others], my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation] (James 3:1 Amplified Bible). We have come to near the very end of the New Testament books. What wonderful books they are. What magnificent teachings they give us. Just think if the whole world, all nations and peoples on earth were LIVING by the New Testament, what a GLORIOUS and HAPPY world we would be living in. There would be PEACE, JOY, GOODNESS, FRIENDLINESS, CO-OPERATION, LOVE, KINDNESS, PATIENCE, and everything that is RIGHTEOUSNESS, would be filling this earth. If the world was living the New Testament, they would be living the TEN COMMANDMENTS, every single one of them. The day WILL COME when that will be a REALITY! We continue to pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." With the book of REVELATION yet to investigate and read and expound to you, I know that it would seem the world will not WILLINGLY TURN to God and His way of His commandments. So, sad to say, the world must go through a time at the end of this age, that will be so horrific there will never have been a time like it in the entire history of mankind, nor will there be such a time again. Yet, beyond it all there will come a new age, for a one thousand years under Jesus the Christ, and then for all eternity under the Father. That is for the next pages in this New Testament Bible Story. I leave you with the last words from Jude. "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Yes indeed, it is possible to fall away from the grace of God, you are not once saved always saved. You must walk the walk till the end, you must endure to the end as Jesus put it, then you will inherit eternal life. At the end of the road you will be presented before His glorious presence FAULTLESS. See my study called "The Truth about Judgment Day." That day will be EXCEEDINGLY JOYFUL! "To the only wise God our Savior, be GLORY and MAJESTY, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen ................... Written October 2007 |
No comments:
Post a Comment