Commentary on Jude

Introduction

The letter of Jude was written as a warning to the saints of the corruption of the faith by Gnostic and Antinomian influences that Paul had warned against in Galatians and Colossians (cf. Heresy in the Apostolic Church No. 089)). Also it began to move in Rome and in the Antinomian systems there especially from the Binitarian worship of Attis that had penetrated the church and was to undermine it from the Second and Third centuries.  By the Fourth century continuing into the Fifth,  the priests of the god Attis were complaining that the Christians in Rome has stolen all their doctrines, which they indeed had done (cf. Origin of Christmas and Easter (No. 235); Binitarian and Trinitarian Misrepresentation of the Early Theology of the Godhead (No. 127B)).

The people were to be immoral (vv. 4,7,16), covetous men (vv. 11, 16) who reject authority (vv. 8, 11). They were to be grumblers, malcontents and loud mouthed boasters (v. 16).  He describes the period of the Last Days described by the apostles as worldly people devoid of the spirit (v. 19). The text concerns these divisions of the Church in the Last Days and concerns the final conflicts in the church that was to see the work of the Last Days destroyed and specifically concerns the Missions of The Law from the patriarchs to Moses and the prophets. We will review this aspect further.  He says the doom of the apostate heretics is certain and they are compared with the disobedient Israelites and the immoral apostates of Sodom and Gomorrah and the fallen angels we see in vv. 5-7, where they scorn the angelic authorities also. It is certain that they will experience God’s judgment and in fact it is His wrath that they will feel first hand (cf. Jas.3:1).

The text urges the Church to “contend for the faith once delivered to the saints” (v. 3). It establishes that there is a “faith once delivered to the saints” that contains a body law that is

undermined by these later heretics misusing the Grace of God against the Law introducing immorality.  From the distance of almost 2000 years we can see that it is indeed Antinomianism and the Sun and Mystery Cults and heresy that has destroyed the faith and is at its worst in these Last Days.

Author

The text was written by Jude ben Josef brother of the Christ. He says in v. 1 he was the servant of the Christ, which he was also.  He says he is the brother of James, also brother of the Christ.  He is not the apostle Judas mentioned in Lk. 6:16; Jn. 14:22; Acts 1:13, who is said to be the son of James.

Christ actually had four brothers named in the Bible text and a number of sisters, seemingly perhaps at least four.  The four brothers were listed as James (Yakobos) Joseph (Yoseph), Simon and Judas (Yude or Jude). His sisters are not named but are referred to as “All being with them” (in Nazareth) (Mat. 13:55; Mk. 6:3 and 1Cor. 9:5). The Judas named last is the Jude or Judah referred to here. Jude is referred to by Eusebius (Eccl. Hist.III. 20) where he refers to the account by Hegesippus who stated that Judas’ grandsons, as the Family of the Lord (Desposyni) were placed before Domitian (r. 81-96 CE,).  Domitian dismissed the matter due to the simplicity of their lifestyles. The Family of Christ were virtually exterminated on the orders of Sylvester, the bishop of Rome, following the conference at Rome in 318 CE ordered by Constantine. They demanded that the Laws of God be restored and the bishoprics originally held by the Desposyni (the Family of Christ) be restored to them (cf. The Virgin Mariam and the Family of Jesus Christ (No. 232); and Unitarian/Trinitarian Wars (No. 268)).

The attacks on Jude and the other NT texts are prompted to hide these despicable acts and the later Mariolatry which will be wiped out in the final conflicts referred to by Jude.

Structure

The opening from vv. 1-3 opens with an identification of the writer and an appeal to the Called of God. The reference is without doubt a reference to Paul’s text in Romans 8:29-30 showing the chosen or elect of the call of God being given to Christ and kept for his return for the First Resurrection (No. 143A) and Predestination (No. 296).

The blessing of v. 2 is not so much that Mercy, Peace and Love be applied to them but that they use it at the Resurrection when they will be given participation in the Millennium and Judgment (1Cor. 6:3) (cf. The Second Resurrection of the Dead and the Great White Throne Judgment (No. 143B) and Judgment of the Demons (No. 080)).

Verse 3 outlines the purpose of the letter urging the brethren to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints which is to come under increasing attack over the period as we see up to the Last Days. Verse 4 identifies the enemy which are those in our very midst.

Verse 5 takes us back to the beginning of Israel which was the inheritance of Messiah (Deut. 32:8).  Christ was the being who gave the Law of God and the Plan of Salvation (No. 001A) to Israel under Moses (Acts 7:30-43; 1Cor. 10:4). Thus the Law of God given to Moses and Israel is the subject of the attack. Those who did not believe in what they were told were destroyed as will be those in the Last Days of the eras of the Church and those who undermine the Church through Antinomianism.

So also the text extends to include the demons that are to be placed in Tartaros until they are released at the end of the Millennium and then placed under Judgment with their spirits forming the Lake of Fire.

Note also here in v. 9 he refers to the disputation between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses where Michael dare not pronounce a reviling judgment on Satan but appealed to the Lord to rebuke him.  He then goes on to compare these corrupt people who abandon the laws of God and are immoral men who revile what they do not understand and do what they do as animals and are destroyed by their conduct.  So also Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain were destroyed by fire from heaven, so will they be destroyed. From v. 11ff. we see that the antinomianism of Cain from the beginning saw the beginning of death and was carried along to the error of Balaam which was to encourage Israel to sin by breach of the law and to thus divorce Israel from God as also did Korah’s rebellion, which saw them killed for their rebellion under the Law of God (L1). Their sins blemish also the Feast of the Passover from the Lord’s Supper onwards where they blemish and fail to keep the Passover as it is required to be kept out of their gates for the entire eight days. Those who teach thus will be destroyed (cf. also Deut. 16:5-8).

In verse 14 he then goes back to Enoch who witnessed against the Demons and that is not by accident as he then takes the structure on to the Last Days and the confinement of the Fallen Host by the Heavenly Host with the Messiah at the First Resurrection.

This is the aim of the message which takes The Transfiguration (No. 096E) of Mark ch. 9 on and explains the position and relevance of Enoch who will take his place with Elijah in the Last Days as the Witnesses of Rev. 11:3ff. Note the story explains the end and the punishment of the antinomian heretics for their immorality. This text is a very important and relevant warning to the generations of the churches ahead. At the First Resurrection Moses and the patriarchs, prophets and saints will be resurrected and will restore the entire system for the Millennium. No Antinomian will be allowed to live into the Millennium.

Jude 1-25

¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

²May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

³Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

⁴For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully informed, that he who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

⁶And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day;

⁷just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

 ⁸Yet in like manner these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones.

⁹But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

¹⁰But these men revile whatever they do not understand, and by those things that they know by instinct as irrational animals do, they are destroyed.

¹¹Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error, and perish in Korah’s rebellion.

¹²These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;

¹³wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever.

¹⁴It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads,

¹⁵to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

¹⁶These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage.

¹⁷But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;

¹⁸they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” ¹⁹It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

²⁰But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;

²¹keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.  ²² And convince some, who doubt;

²³save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

 ²⁴Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing,

²⁵to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.  (RSV)

From verse 20 he turns to the elect to build up the church and themselves through the Holy Spirit saving those who are weak in the faith preparing them for the Resurrection, saving them from the Second Death in the Lake of Fire. This last sequence and the Doxology point to God who is our saviour and to Jesus Christ our Lord. It is a completely Unitarian message to guide the church against the idolatrous error of Baal worship under Attis, Adonis and Osirus and Ashtoreth or Easter of the Mother Goddess cult. The text is often falsely misconstrued by some Trinitarians to support their heresy when its real purpose is to expose and reject it.