Jude - The Twisted Fate of Twisted Faith - Part 1

Like Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

In November of 1978, in a jungle clearing of Guyana, more than nine hundred people committed suicide by drinking cyanide-treated punch. Those too young to act on their own, were given the punch by their parents. The Jonestown massacre sends a shudder through all Christians—and well it should—because Jim Jones, who prescribed this "White Night" of death, at one time claimed to be among us.

Jim Jones grew up in the forties in a rural town in southern Indiana. He practiced and preached among Methodists (his family's church) and Pentecostals. In 1964 he was ordained in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, a denomination of over 1.3 million members. On the civil front, in 1961 Jim Jones was named director of the Indianapolis Civil Right's Commission. As late as 1977, he received the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award.

Yet in spite of these credentials, Jim Jones left numerous clues throughout his life that his teachings and way of life were not quite Christian. Eventually, he led nine hundred of his followers to an apostate faith and eventual suicide. It's enough to cause Christians to take a hard critical look at the life and faith of their leaders—and themselves. The book of Jude shows us how.

Authorship and Date. The Epistle of Jude, the last of the "general" epistles or letters, is declared to have been written by "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James." The soundest historical and internal evidence supports the truthfulness of the text.

Matthew 13:55 (NKJV) 5 Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?


Mark 6:3 (NKJV) 3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?" And they were offended at Him.

Both these references name Judas (Jude) and James s brothers of Jesus.

That James is identified so simply in this epistle is evidence that he was Jesus' brother. Apart from being the author of this letter, Jude had no special reputation or authority in the early church. Though the date of composition cannot be fixed with certainty, it would not be inaccurate to assign it to the latter half of the first century.

Purpose. Apparently a general letter to Christians of the first century, the Epistle of Jude warns against the incipient heresy of Gnosticism, a philosophy that distinguished sharply between matter, as being inherently evil, and spirit, as being good. Such a system of thought had serious implications for Christian life and doctrine. It challenged the Biblical doctrine of creation. And it gave rise to the idea that Christ's body was not real, for if Christ had had a real body, it would have been evil. Gnosticism prompted two quite different results: on the one hand the belief that one is not under obligation to obey the moral law, and on the other a form of abuse of the body to promote spirituality. Both are opposed by Scripture. It may be inferred from the epistle that the readers were guilty, in varying degrees, of rebellion against authority, irreverence, presumptuous speech, and possibly a bunch of partiers. Jude rebukes false teachers who deceive unstable believers and corrupt the Lord's table. -
The Wycliffe Bible Commentary.

The letter falls easily into four sections:

1. Identification, salutation, and purpose. 1-4.
2. Admonitions against false teachers. 5-16.
3. Exhortations to Christians. 17-23. 
4. Benediction. 24, 25.

How do you think that people get tricked into perverted versions of the Christian faith?

Jude 1:1-2 (NKJV) 1 Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: 2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

What do Jude 1-2 tell you about the writer of this letter and the people he wrote to?

Jude identifies himself as the brother of James who was the brother of Jesus which would have made Jude a brother of Jesus. He also identifies himself as a bondservant of Christ. He uses the same term that Paul uses, bond-servant.

In Philippians 1:1 Paul refers to himself as a bond-servant of Jesus Christ. The transliteration of the Greek word for “bond-servant” is doulos. A doulos was a man who chose to serve his master for a lifetime.

Philippians 1:1 (NKJV) Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

The picture of a bond-servant is in the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 15:12-18 (NKJV) 12 "If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13 And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed; 14 you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the LORD has blessed you with, you shall give to him. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today.16 And if it happens that he says to you, 'I will not go away from you,' because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you, 17 then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.18 It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you; for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. Then the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.

There were three reasons why one might choose to remain a servant to his master forever.

1. He loves you and 
2. He loves your household, 
3. You take good care of him

The people that he was writing to were believers. We don't know where they were but we do know that he was writing to believers.

Jude 1:3-4 (NKJV) 3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

What can you know of the circumstances of the people receiving this letter and of Jude's purpose in writing to them (Jude 3-4)?

The occasion for the letter was the infiltration of ungodly people into the fellowship of the church.

Jude loves his ‘dear friends’, because he and they all share in God’s salvation and their common faith. Christians have the responsibility to keep this faith without change don’t take things away don’t add things. So we have to defend or contend for the gospel. The Greek word for ‘defend’ means that it will be a great struggle. Christians must be ready at any time to meet a sudden test of their trust in Jesus.

He wanted them to remember that their common salvation was final and compete;

Hebrews 6:4 (NKJV)  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,

Hebrews 10:2 (NKJV)  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

1 Peter 3:18 (NKJV)  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

These people that Jude was writing about, and which we must look out for, are open to four charges:

1. They entered secretly (under false pretenses, wolves in sheep's clothing, con-men and women); 
2. They were previously appointed to condemnation; 
3. They are ungodly, i.e., irreverent; 
4. They deny Christ as Master and Lord. 

To deny is positively to disbelieve what Christ testified about himself.The Gnostic heresies that Jude was confronting and that we confront sometimes today  denied that Jesus had a real human body. They said that he could not be hungry or need to drink. He did not feel pain. They said that Jesus was not one with God. They claimed to have special knowledge of the way to God. They were superior to ordinary Christians, who could not have this same knowledge. (Gnostics believed that matter, whether it be the physical universe or the human body, is evil. God is is far removed from his creation. He did not create the material universe because it was instead created by an evil or lesser god.   He is too perfect and pure to have much to do with the evilness of the material universe.

The Gnostics saw all things in terms of two contrasting principles. On the one side was good, which was associated with the spiritual and the immaterial. On the other side was evil, which was associated with the material universe. 

God Himself was perfectly good, spiritual, and totally disassociated from the material. He would not pollute Himself by any such contact! The material universe was an accident or, at worst, the error of the last of a long series of supernatural beings—intermediaries—ranked between God and matter. To God, the pure Spirit, the world was alien and despicable. God become man? God take on human flesh? Never! Christ must be a lower intermediary or an "appearance"—a shadow of God cast on a screen. But God in human flesh? to the Gnostics that was Unthinkable!)

What harm can these people do to the church and to believers?

Remember from our study of Timothy; The danger of false teaching is that it ruins the people who listen; it shames the people who teach; it increases ungodliness; and it spreads like gangrene. It leads many Christians astray and causes them to become disillusioned with the church. False teaching causes confusion, disagreements, and disorder rather than love. 

Paul described this false teaching as another gospel not from God but from Satan.

2 Corinthians 11:4 (HCSB) For if a person comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you had not received, or a different gospel, which you had not accepted, you put up with it splendidly!

Galatians 1:11-12 (HCSB)11 Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on human thought.12 For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation from Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:12-15 (HCSB)12 But I will continue to do what I am doing, in order to deny the opportunity of those who want an opportunity to be regarded just as our equals in what they boast about.13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.14 And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.15 So it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their destiny will be according to their works.

Galatians 1:6-9 (HCSB)6 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ ⌊and are turning⌋ to a different gospel—7 not that there is another ⌊gospel⌋, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah.8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!9 As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

Why would it be hard to resist their influence?

Snake Oil Salesman

1. It has a kernel of truth - We walk by faith and not by sight - Give and it will be given unto un pressed down shaken together and running over - whatever we ask in prayer we can have - I can do all things through Christ.  All those things are true in the context that they were written. Taken of context however is when we get in trouble. 
2. It has a strong appeal - Those things that I mentioned don't require any change in the person. Just do it and you'll have what I have. That's a big draw to many churches with huge congregations and lots of flash but not much substance.
3. It has the appearance of sanctity:

Jude 1:5-11 (NKJV) 5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

Note references to characters of Jewish history and literature. What appears to be Jude's purpose in pointing out these characters and events?
Jude's argument is that a man's profession of faith does not establish him as righteous before God. He lists several examples

Verse 5 The possibility of lapsing is illustrated by the example of disbelieving Israelites who were saved out of Egypt but subsequently destroyed.

Verse 6 The fall of the rebellious angels, who erred from their calling by exalting themselves. Jude's language here may reflect the influence of the book of Enoch, which contains an elaborated description of the disobedient angels.

Verse 7 Lastly, Jude cites the history of Sodom and Gomorrah to enforce his moral. Throughout Scripture these cities are symbolic of divine judgment executed by fire. So their fate is a foretaste of the fate of professing believers who do not persevere in righteousness.

Verse 8 The false teachers then and those now are irreverent and reject authority. Jude is talking about the fact that they reject the authority of the leadership of the church. His example of this rejection is in verse 9.

 Jude amplifies his plea for reverence by citing the apocryphal story of Michael and the devil, taken from the Assumption of Moses. The Assumption of Moses and the book of Enoch are not included in the canon of the bible consequently they are not considered to be inspired however that doesn't' mean that there is not truth in them and certainly they can be a source of history.  The point is that Jude said that Michael showed restraint even in his relations with the devil, whereas the false teachers exhibit no reverence for any authority.

Verse 10 says that these false teachers, in addition to resisting authority don't even have the insight to recognize spiritual things in fact they deny that they exist. That they only consider the natural only what they can see and touch and dependence on knowledge gained from only natural senses leads to sure destruction.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (NLT) ¹⁴  But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

Verse 11 gives some historical examples of what can and will happen to these folk:

Cain is typical of unrighteousness,

Genesis 4:6-8 (NKJV) 6 So the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it." 8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

Balaam of the spirit of deceit and covetousness.  Read the story on Numbers 22-24.

You know the story of how he accepted money to curse the nation of Israel but ended up blessing them.

Korah (or Core) of the rebellion of malcontents against duly constituted authority.  Read the story in Numbers 16

Korah attempted a coup d'etat against Moses and Aaron and ended up causing the death of all the co-conspirators and after that another 14,700 because of them following somebody rebelling against men who were operating under the authority of Jehovah.

These kinds of sin undermine the spiritual health of the whole church and destroy those who practice them.

Jude 1:12-13 (NKJV) 12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Jude used five metaphors in Jude 12-13. ( spots/rocks, clouds, trees, waves, stars) How does each illustrate the danger of teachers who have perverted the gospel?

1. Spots the Greek word is spilas which is a ledge or reef of rock in the sea

Rocks are dangerous. They can sink ships. These men’s selfish behaviour was a great danger to the love-meals that the Christians shared to support each other. These men thought only of themselves. They felt no responsibility in love for other people.

2. Clouds without water - that promise rain, but produce none, are useless (of no value). These men do nothing to help other Christians to grow in their trust of Jesus.

3. Trees without fruit - Trees that produce no fruit, even in autumn, are as good as dead. The farmer burns them (Matthew 7:19). These men are without roots, without true life in Jesus Christ. So, these men are ‘twice dead’.

Matthew 7:19 (NKJV) Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

4. Raging waves - the sea. It could be wild and dangerous. The wicked are like the sea that never rests. Its waves never stop rolling, carrying dirt and mud (Isaiah 57:20). In a similar manner, these men never stop their wicked actions. They are like the dirty rubbish that the waves leave on the shore after a storm.

Isaiah 57:20 (NKJV)  But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

5. Wandering stars - Jude may again be referring to the book of Enoch.. Enoch identifies these wandering stars as fallen (bad) angels. The bad angels did not obey God and they lost their home in heaven. God has prepared a prison for them in deepest darkness. The false teachers who do not obey God will suffer the same fate.

Jude 1:14-15 (NKJV) 14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

We need to talk about these verses because they are apparently quotes from a writing that is not in the canon. The book of Enoch.

A problem arises in these verses because of the quotations from Enoch. Jude says: Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied (rsv). The difficulty is that Jude apparently ascribes this prophecy to the Enoch of Gen 5.

Genesis 5:6 (NKJV) 6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh.

Enoch is the seventh name in the first family line;

1 Chronicles 1:1-4 (NKJV) 1 Adam, Seth, Enosh, 2 Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, 3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, 4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Since there is no Biblical account of any prophecy of Enoch, some claim that Jude either regarded apocryphal Enoch as canonical, or else was guilty of obvious error. However, a solution to the problem rests in the fact that this alleged prophecy is a citation not from a single passage in Enoch, but from several, and it is probable that Jude also quoted the line "the seventh generation from Adam" from Enoch 60:8. Thus Jude did not intend to refer to the Enoch of Gen 5, but referred entirely, even in the introductory line, to words found in the apocryphal Enoch. While the prophecy has no canonical status, its predictions are paralleled and supported by numerous Biblical passages including Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus' description of the final judgement.

Part 2 next week.

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