Many scholars believe that the epistle of Jude was written relatively late in the first century AD. Perhaps, all of the original apostles except John were now dead. Jude’s first intent was to write a letter about the common salvation given to Christians, but a newly developing situation had forced him to change his plans. Jude had become aware of the great need to earnestly appeal to those in the church to contend or fight for the faith, which had been delivered to them. Apostasy was fast setting in; men were turning to error and leading away disciples after themselves. The church was being divided! The New Testament book of Jude gives a short, but vivid account of what was happening in the first century church of God. But it may also contain a timely and powerful message for today’s Christian.
“Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (vv1-3). Jude was urging them to defend the original faith they had been given. Many of the people at that time had been converted by the preaching of the apostles. Some may have even heard Christ himself! They got the truth firsthand—directly from apostles who had obtained it from Christ who had faithfully delivered it from God the Father—government from the top down. There was no question about what the faith was. It had been devotedly given to them! This faith, meaning in this sense the body of beliefs, customs and practices handed down by the apostles, forms the essence of the meaning of God’s church. What is it built upon? “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Eph. 2:20). Together with the prophets, the apostolic teachings form the foundation of God’s house—Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. Any structure not built upon this foundation is false and it will not stand (1Cor. 3:10-15). The faith that must be earnestly held onto and defended is the original set of beliefs handed down by Jesus Christ and His true apostles. Basic and foundational doctrines like:
1) The government of God. When Christ comes, He will restore God’s government to the whole earth. So you can be sure the one to come in the spirit and power of Elijah would restore God’s government in his church. When Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong came among the Oregon Conference era of the Church of God (Seventh Day), the church had the right name, the law, the Sabbath and the tithing system. But they also had a government of men, with a biannual conference, voting just like they do in the world. Today, the government of God has been restored to His Church. That’s the kind of government you find in Ephesians 4 and 1Corinthians 12.
2) The Gospel of the kingdom of God has been restored after 1,900 years.
3) The purpose of God that we are to be born of God and become God. God is reproducing himself, and no other church on earth knows that or preaches it. As a counterfeit, they talk about being already born again. Christ is the firstborn of many brethren.
4) Who and what is God? The Jews think God is one person. Many people mistakenly think that God the Father is the God of the Old Testament and then Christ came as His Son. Traditional Christianity believes in a trinity, that the Holy Spirit is a person. God is neither one person or the Trinity. God is a family into which we may be born and also become God. His Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the begotten children of God. And when we are born of God we will not even be able to sin.
5) What is man? Do we have an immortal soul? Or are we just an animal? What happens at death? The dead are unconscious and they don’t know anything.
6) The human spirit in man. What makes the difference between a human mind and an animal brain is that there is a human spirit with a human brain. That spirit is not the conscious part of the man. And it needs to be united with the Spirit of God.
7) The church is only the firstfruits, and not the end of God’s plan of salvation. God isn’t trying to save the whole world yet. It starts with us, and we’re being taught and trained so that we, under Christ, will be teachers and rulers when Christ comes to rule in the Millennium, when he starts to save the rest of the world. We have the great opportunity of being made God and, in the future, to rule over others and teach then and help them be converted so they can become children of God, also. And those who are converted during the Millennium will, with us, be kings, priests and teachers for the rest of the world that will be resurrected after the end of the resurrection.
8) The church is not yet the kingdom of God, but we are the embryo that will become the kingdom of God.
9) Only those whom God the Father calls and draws to him can be converted now. No other church knows that or believes it. That’s another truth restored to the Church through Mr. Armstrong. None of us had ever heard that before, except as we got it through Mr. Armstrong. Only those God chooses and calls now can come in and become part of the firstfruits. Satan has deceived the whole world, and the church is called out of that world (Rev. 12:9).
10) The resurrection to judgment, the Great White Throne Judgment. God has a plan to save those who have not had an opportunity for salvation and who are now dead in their graves. They have not had the Holy Spirit. Their time is coming. But our time comes first, and we have to fight the devil, and they won’t. In the judgment, they’ll be found guilty and condemned to death. They’ll have their first chance to know that Christ came and paid the death penalty for them. They’ll be allowed to accept that payment, and they’ll have 100 years to prove they want to live differently than they did in their first life. They can be saved at last.
11) The Millennium. The kingdom of God will rule nations on earth, and Christ and the saints will rule and bring prosperity to the entire earth.
12) The Holy Spirit coming into us only begets us. It opens our minds so we can understand the coded book, the Bible. Eye has not seen nor ear heard the things God has in store for us, described briefly in the Bible. God does reveal them to his church by his Spirit that resides in us. Without that Spirit, we cannot understand the Bible. Spiritual knowledge comes from the Bible, but by the Holy Spirit.
13) We are only begotten now, not born again. We are heirs, not yet inheritors. The Holy Spirit begets us as children of God, but we are not yet born.
14) The identity of modern Israel. What are America’s roots, our national identity? We are Manasseh, one of the lost 10 tribes of Israel. Numerous other groups have some knowledge of this truth, but no major denomination does.
15) Prophecy can be understood only if you know that we are Israelites, and what prophecies apply to us and which do not. Others who do not know Israel’s identity can’t understand, for example, the 30th chapter of Jeremiah and scriptures like that, which show the Great Tribulation will be the time of Jacob’s trouble.
16) The annual festivals, the feast days. What other church knows about them or keeps them? Where did we hear it from? God revealed it to Mr. Armstrong.
17) The authority of the sacred calendar, preserved by the Jews (Rom. 3:1-3).
18) Second and third tithe. What other church knows these points? The second tithe is for God’s feast days. Other churches do not keep these feasts, so they have no reason to have second tithe. Third tithe is for the needy, primarily within God’s church.
Paul was often amazed at how easy it was for the false teachers to deceive the ones he had nourished in the faith. His writings are also full of warnings about false teachers trying to mislead God’s people (Gal. 1:6-10). The first century church of God was constantly being harassed by false brethren and teachers who sought to mislead them. So we see that in just a few years the New Testament church of God was facing great internal problems. It is no wonder that by the time Jude wrote his epistle (80’s AD), he had to urgently remind them to stand up for the truth, which they had received from the apostles. What about us today? How can we know the truth? This world is in a state of mass confusion and filled with numerous religions. “Christianity” is divided and subdivided many times over as is the state of the “churches” of God. Upon what can we base our faith today: “But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:10-17). To get back to the faith, to know and come to understand that faith, to fight for the faith—we must study the writings of the apostles and prophets! Sadly, there is a lack of diligence in this exercise today. Many have either forgotten, are “too busy” or have never known the original teachings. Therefore, fight for what? It is the purpose of scripture to give us insight into that original set of beliefs!
And God has not left us without a witness today (Matt. 16:18): John the Baptist was a voice crying out in the physical wilderness of the Jordan River area, preparing for the human physical Jesus' First Coming to a material temple at Jerusalem, to a physical Judah. But that was a prototype, or forerunner of a voice "lifted up" (greatly amplified by modern printing, radio and TV), crying out in the midst of today's spiritual wilderness of religious confusion, announcing the imminency of Christ's Second Coming as the spiritually GLORIFIED Christ, to his spiritual temple (the Church resurrected to spirit immortality) (Eph. 2:21-22). Jesus came, over 1,900 years ago, to announce the FUTURE kingdom of God. He's coming this time to ESTABLISH that kingdom. That end-time last warning message is now going out worldwide in amplified power.
It's going before kings, emperors, presidents, prime ministers of nations -- and to their peoples, on all continents and all nations of the earth (Mystery of the Ages by Hebert W. Armstrong)!
By 1985 the Plain Truth magazine was being produced in 7 languages with a circulation of 8.4 million. The Tomorrow’s World and Good News magazines had a monthly circulation of over 828,000. Mr. Armstrong died on January 16, 1986 and upon his death the church had 725 congregations in 57 countries and a weekly world-wide attendance of 120,000 people. Mr. Armstrong’s “World Tomorrow” aired on 382 TV stations, as well as, 36 radio outlets around the world. Mr. Armstrong was one of the furthermost theologians of the twentieth-century; although, it was ultimately God working through him—as this is God’s work.
“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude v20-21). If Jude were alive today, he would say the same thing to us as he did to our brethren in the first century! Stick with the teachings of scripture as you were taught by the apostle! Don’t follow contrary ideas! Don’t follow men (1 Cor. 3:21)! Prove all things and hold onto only that which is good (1 Thess. 5:21)—even if you’re now called a rebel for it. Yes, we all have a personal responsibility to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12)!
While Jude’s writings do not give a listing of the specific false doctrines he was combating, he does give us many categories and analogies, which fit such false teachers. As we put the scriptures together, we can understand the context of Jude’s statement! In verses 5-7 he likens these ungodly men (false teaching) to three categories: 1) The unbelieving Israelites who were destroyed in the wilderness. 2) The evil angels who reveled against God. 3) The cities of Sodom and Gomarrah, which perished because of their sexual sins. In verse 8 Jude appears to reverse the order essentially stating that they defile the flesh like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. They despise government like the angels who rebelled against God. And they speak evil of dignitaries like those Israelites in the wilderness who continually rebelled against Moses. So here we have three main characteristics of those who were trying to introduce error into God’s church: 1—Sexual sins; but as God views them, they are analogous to wrong relationships between His people and the world. I think today we are witnessing an unhealthy overuse of outside worldly scholarship to change church doctrine. Is it not significant that the false Christianity of this world has political intercourse with the nations of this world (James 4:1-4)? Yet we are clearly admonished in1 John 2:15-17—do not love the world or the things in the world and in Rev. 18:4 to come out from it. 2—Despising government; the evil angels were the first to attempt to usurp (seize, take over, grab) God’s authority. Just as satan tried to influence Eve to listen to him rather than God, so these false teachers tried to replace the authority of God. Jude states: “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (v4). They set themselves up as authorities in place of God and the teaching of Christ. This is perhaps the single most issue facing God’s church today! Mr. Armstrong continually taught “it’s all about government.” 3—they speak evil of dignitaries. The wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness is a chronicle of rebellion against Moses. In like manner, these false teachers set themselves up against the Moses of the New Testament: Jesus Christ (see Deut. 18:15, 18, 32:4)! In Acts 3:20-23 Peter verified that Christ is that Moses. It is now Jesus Christ (Head) who is leading His Spirit-begotten people into the spiritual Promised Land—His Kingdom and He is perfectly capable of doing it without fail (Jude v24-25)!
Jude also uses three vivid examples from the Old Testament (1 Cor. 10:1-12) to clarify what types of individuals were worming their way into the church: “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” First, Cain is notorious for the slaying of his brother. In like manner, such false teachers are haters of the brethren and are murderers in the sight of God. The Apostle John lived to see the apostasy at the end of the first century (1 John 3:7-15). By their false doctrine these false teachers were dividing the church. Some of the true Christians were actually put out. Many ended up following the errors! Second is Balaam; The king of Moab hired the prophet Balaam to curse Israel—he couldn’t—he did the next best thing—he taught them how to curse themselves (Num. 22-24). The false ministers were after the money (2 Peter 2:15). God’s true ministers serve because they love the people not a pension. Third: Korah was jealous of Moses and sought to undermine his leadership (Num. 16). In the same way, these false ministers sought to undermine the New Testament leader—Jesus Christ—who is the Head of His church (Eph. 1:22-23)! We are admonished brethren to hold firmly to the truth in love (Eph. 4:14-16).
“But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit” (Jude Vv17-19). It’s been over 1900 years since the writing of Jude. The apostasy has grown and overwhelmed the Church. Many of the original teachings of Christ and the apostles have been forgotten in a parade of man-made intellectualism and “new” doctrines. It is high time to return to the faith, which was truly once and for all delivered by Christ and the apostles. And the only true remedy is a sincere and willing heart together with a diligent and honest searching of the Scriptures.
It is to seven congregations, attitudes and eras—the “servants of God”—that the message of Revelation is addressed (Rev. 1:13-16, 20). Christ is pictured as standing in the midst of these seven congregations and to them Christ addressed some dire warnings! It is a God of power and might who stands in the midst of His church—risen from the dead—alive and well—Ruler over the kings of the earth! Certainly, this description should inspire faith in His leadership and serve as a warning against those who would follow false doctrine! There should not be in any of us the wickedness of heart which refuses to trust and deserts the cause of the living God! Help each other to stand firm in the faith every day, while it is still called today. Beware that none of you becomes deaf and blind to God through the delusive glamour of laziness. Be faithful and true (Heb. 3:5-13, 4:11-13). It is the two-edged sword of His written word and “old” church literature, which is still with us today. It is the only means by which we can know and be sure that we know, the faith, which was once and for all delivered to God’s people!
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