28. Hey Jude (No, Not The Beatles Song)

[While reading through several of my favorite sites this week, I came across this article by Jack Kelley who frequently contributes to Rapture Ready, a leading (if not the leading) pre-Tribulation Rapture web site whose creators and contributors and most of their readers – yes, this view does have its critics – Jesus Christ will return for His followers on Earth before (or concurrent with? From my own reading of the Bible, that's not entirely clear) the end of the world and its renewal by God His Father. “Jude, Gateway to Revelation … Conclusion” is the second-to-last book of the New Testament and clocks in at twenty-five verses. Bluntly, I didn't know a lot about it and figured some of my readers would not either, so please permit me to share. Have a blessed day, David]    

Intending to write a letter to the Church on the subject of salvation, Jude was prompted instead to write about the false teachers who were already infecting the Church with their lies. He was just getting nicely wound up as we finished our first installment. Let’s rejoin him now as he releases the full force of his torrent against them. And as we saw last time, he wasn’t just writing about his times, he was also writing about ours.

These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude:12-13)

The phrase “love feast” refers to the early church’s practice of eating together and sharing communion at their weekly gathering. It was an adaptation of the Passover meal Jesus celebrated with His disciples. Jude said the false teachers didn’t belong there because unlike shepherds who understood their responsibility to “feed” their flock (provide sound teaching), these people are only interested in feeding themselves (filling their own stomachs).

Clouds without rain fail to fulfill their promise of bringing relief from the drought. They get our hopes up but don’t bring us comfort. Trees that don’t bear fruit are uprooted. Jude called them twice dead because by bearing no fruit they produce no offspring and by being uprooted their own life is ended. The wild waves of the sea come from odd directions. Today, sailors call them rogue waves. They can knock a boat off course or even cause it to capsize. Wandering stars are unreliable and cannot be used for navigation. Anyone following them is in danger of becoming lost.

These four analogies are all accurate descriptions of false teachers and show that they are not just wrong, they’re dangerous. And they’re most dangerous to those who are least able to defend themselves. Like wolves, they feed off the weak and the stragglers. Jude said the darkest blackness has been reserved for them forever, indicating they’re not saved. John confirmed this when he wrote the following about them;

They went out from us but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (1 John 2:19)

False teachers who deny the deity of Jesus or the sufficiency of His sacrifice, who teach what they know to be false because it profits them, and who rebel against the authority of Scripture are not just mistaken. They know in their hearts they’re wrong, and John said by their words and deeds they’re proving that they never belonged to us.

Paul said, “such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” (2 Cor. 11:13-15)

When you’re masquerading you’re pretending to be someone you know you’re not. Just like Satan knows he’s not an angel of light, his servants know they’re not servants of righteousness. These men are not merely deluded, they are consciously deceptive.

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. (Jude: 14-16)

Some commentators use this passage to support their view that the book of Enoch belongs in the Bible. But Jude was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and would have known that the book of Enoch a) was not written by Enoch, and b) has a number of historical and theological errors. Jude was very specific in identifying Enoch as belonging to the seventh generation after Adam. The Book of Enoch wasn’t written until several thousand years later.

Jude:14 is similar to 1 Enoch 1:9. But even if Jude was quoting it, that wouldn’t indicate a blanket endorsement of the book. Jude could have had confirmation from the Holy Spirit that the original Enoch actually said what Jude had written. That would explain why Jude attributed the statement to Enoch rather than the book by that name. The important thing to remember here is that the Lord will come to judge the false teachers for the way they’ve twisted and distorted the truth of His word.

But you don’t have to depend on Jude’s quote from Enoch to verify the judgments that await the godless false teachers. Peter said the same thing.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping (2 Peter 2:1-3).

In Old Testament times there were false prophets pretending to speak for the Lord. Now we have false teachers who twist His word into something it was never meant to be. What they teach denies the fact that the Lord died for all our sins and just by receiving His free gift we can live in eternity with Him. Instead they use their influence to introduce destructive heresies that lead their followers astray. Peter added his voice to Jude and John saying,

These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. (2 Peter 2:17)

And Jesus will seal the fate of these pretenders saying, “I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers.” (Matt. 7:23)

For the full article, please click here: http://www.raptureready.com/featured/kelley/jack318.html