The Vestibule: Book of Jude

It is one of the tiniest and most overlooked books in the New Testament. After the four gospels the Book of Acts introduces the Church Age, or the “acts of the Apostles.” In contrast, the Epistle of Jude writes about the “acts of the apostates” in the latter days of the Age of Grace, a sort of vestibule that leads directly to the Book of Revelation. It is the only book written entirely to the “great apostasy.”

Apostasy is translated from the Greek word apostasia which means to “defect, depart or abandon what one has professed.”

In the third verse Jude writes that he set out to write of our common salvation, but “it was needful for me to write unto you…” Your modern translations might say “necessary” or “necessity” but it is such a classic failure of the English language to capture the intensity of the Greek word “anagke” (Strongs G#318) which underscores the Divine compulsion that came over him, that he was pressured to write this letter.  How strong is this Greek word? Compare to Acts 17:3 or 1^st Corinthians 9:16. (Refer 2^nd Peter 1:21)

Why should we want to study the Book of Jude? Because it is written for us today. In effect, it provides the last instructions for the Church Age.

“…That ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 1:3)

The word for “contend” means “to agonize upon” or “contend strenuously in defense of.”  It was generally used in Greek military jargon to denote aggressive action.

Contained within these 25 verses are added insights to events that occurred in the Old Testament that the writer assumes we know: the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, the rebellion of Korah. There are allusions to the unbelieving generation of Israelites that died in the Wilderness, the fallen angels of Genesis 6 that left their first estate, and likened theirs to the sins of Sodom & Gomorrah, and the dispute between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses mentioned nowhere else in the Bible.  All of these are leveraged in a “lookback” to the Old Testament as a form of instruction to the latter days Church.

“Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” (1^st Corinthians 10:11)

Jude’s epistle even provides us with the first Second Coming of Jesus Christ prophecy of Enoch given prior to the Flood and from outside the canon of Scripture.

There is a remarkable parallel between the Books of James and Jude. First, we know they are brothers, and half-brothers of Jesus Christ, but neither of them were Apostles. In fact, John 7:5 tells us none of Jesus’ brothers believed in Him until after the Resurrection. Yet James would eventually become the leader of the Jerusalem church. And whereas James’ epistle deals with good works as evidence of saving faith, Jude’s letter deals with evil works as evidence of apostasy. Do you see this in the Church today?

Why are we to “contend for the faith?” Because there are tares among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30), false brethren have stolen into the church (Galatians 2:4-5), and the saints are in peril (2^nd Corinthians 11:26), all due to the “doctrines of demons. (1^st Timothy 4:1)” This all began in Jude’s day but Paul and Peter (2^nd Peter 2:1; 3:3-4) add to his warning that these attributes will be all the more amplified in the last days.

As a mention, there is a beautiful and unique structural outline to the Book of Jude that is symmetrical in nature. It begins and ends with the assurance for a Christian believer as an example. The center of this structural outline are the three apostates from the past. So, how do we identify the false teachers, the agents of apostasy?

At times there is noted a seeming pun on words in the Bible employed by the Holy Spirit’s authorship. As an example, Joshua is God’s appointed to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land and his name is the root name for Yeshua or Jesus. Coincidence? Think not. Interestingly, the title and first word of this epistle is “Jude” which in the Greek translates as “Judas,” which is synonymous with the very acts of betrayal and apostasy….precisely what he is writing about.

Jude lists 18 separate characteristics for those who will lead the Church astray that I would encourage you to discover on your own. Whether it is the Prosperity Gospel or Word Faith movement, self-anointed prophets and apostles, the perversion or degradation of the Word, or the humanism which has been allowed to creep into the Church, all can be identified within these 18 attributes.

However, and to pivot, the intriguing order and direct actions of 10 persons, entities or groups are named by Jude, besides the false, corrupt teachers that play a role in the battle for the truth of the gospel beginning with the Exodus generation. Specifically, verses 9-10 share an insight that is not found in the Old Testament in that Jude recounts that the archangel Michael (#4) and Satan argued over the disposition of the body of Moses. Our recollection from Deuteronomy 34:5-6 is that Moses died near Mt. Nebo, specifically Beth-peor, and that God buried him there. Why would God bury him, why would Satan want his body, and why is Michael dispatched to oppose him?

It is interesting to note that in John 1:20-21, at the time of Christ the Jews were looking for either Messiah, Elijah or “The Prophet” (Moses)(-Deut. 18:15,18). We also know that it was Moses and Elijah who later attended to Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration. A distinction about these two men comes to mind: they both had successors to their ministry, Moses to Joshua, and Elijah to Elisha. But Moses died. And both Enoch and Elijah were raptured or taken up to heaven without dying.

Where this leads is to identify who the Two Witnesses are in the Book of Revelation.   We know one will assuredly be Elijah but who will the other be, Moses or Enoch?  Revelation 11 cites attributes (bringing fire from heaven, shutting heaven from rain, turning water to blood, calling down of plagues)…all attributes demonstrated through Elijah and Moses.  So, what about (#8) Enoch???

Enoch was a Gentile.

And Jude quotes him, it is the oldest prophecy uttered by a prophet, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (verses 14-15)

There are four facts emphasized in these verses:

1) We know the Lord’s coming is sure;

2) We know who will accompany the Lord;  (the “Beloved” (verse 3))

3) We know the purpose of His coming;

4) We know the result of the Lord’s coming.

Not only did Enoch prophesy about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ but he was also given foreknowledge of the Flood. How do we know that?

Because Enoch named his son “Methuselah.”  In the Hebrew “Muth” means “death” and “Shalach” means “to bring.”  Combined it translates “his death shall bring.”

Apparently, Enoch received the prophecy of the Great Flood, and was told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld. The year that Methuselah died, the flood came.

According to Church tradition and Jewish rabbinical writings, Methuselah died seven days prior to the Flood. He outlived his son Lamech by five years and the Bible records Methuselah was the oldest living person who lived, and his life exemplifies that “God is long suffering, that none should perish.” (2^nd Peter 3:9)

Enoch, of course, never died: he was “translated”….or raptured.  What is interesting is that in Jude’s account he is the eighth person/group listed among ten and we are reminded that there were eight who entered Noah’s ark before the Judgment of the Flood. In that regard, does Enoch as a Gentile symbolize or act as a type of the Church?

In these days of pandemic, so much of the world shut down or in quarantine, there is do doubt these are part of the “labor pains” that our Lord told His disciples would foreshadow His return. Even the locust swarms in Africa and the Middle East are now 20X larger than what they were just two months ago and a great famine threatens later this year.

There is a growing call for a revival and many of us are praying fervently that God would bring fire from heaven, a movement of the Holy Spirit to bring about the harvest of millions of souls from all the nations. We cannot return simply to “business as usual.”

The Church should be like Enoch fully knowing what is coming on the horizon, yet we should bear His witness and “walk with God” uprightly just as he did before the day of “translation” comes.

Within this window of time let us be reminded of Jude’s concluding exhortations to us today,

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And on some have compassion, making a distinction;  but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. (Jude 20-23)