Jude 1:5-8

TEACHING ON APOSTASY FROM OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY

Jude 1:5-8

Text

5.

Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

6.

And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

7.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

8.

Yet in like manner these also in their dreamings defile the flesh, and set at nought dominion, and rail at dignities.

Queries

18.

Why is Jude asking them to remember something?

19

Does Jude mean they knew everything that God knows?

20.

All of what things did they know?

21.

Does this once for all refer to the same thing as the expression in Jude 1:2?

22.

Two great facts about the Israelites are mentioned in Jude 1:5. What are both?

23.

How could both of these facts have a possible bearing on the case Jude is proving?

24.

God knew before that most of these Israelites would not believe. Why did He wait until -afterwards-' to destroy them?

25.

How was the unbelief of the Israelites demonstrated?

26.

To what angels is Jude referring in Jude 1:6?

27.

How could the angel's proper habitation have any relationship to the Christian's proper habitation today?

28.

Who is the chief angel among those described in Jude 1:6?

29.

Has the great day of Jude 1:6 come yet? To what does it refer?

30.

Will there be people who will join these angels in this condemnation? (See Matthew 25:41).

31.

What was the proper habitation for the angels?

32.

Everlasting bonds suggest the angels are bound to a certain place, or away from a certain place. To what place, or from what place, could these angels have been bound?

33.

If they are bound to this earth, how could this be said to be under darkness?

34.

Does Jude 1:7 suggest that the angels have committed fornication also? (Read carefully several times).

35.

In what way could the rebellion of Satan against God be termed going after strange flesh? (Note the expression like manner).

36.

Does Jude 1:7 say, or even indicate, that angels have committed fornication with people?

37.

To what must eternal fire refer?

38.

Just how these men defile the flesh, set at nought dominion, and rail at dignities is clearly set forth in Jude 1:8. How were they doing these things?

39.

The word dominion refers to authority. Can you think of more than one kind of authority that might possibly be included by the word?

40.

Dignities means literally glories, or glorious ones. Could these dignities be the evil angels? Is it likely?

Paraphrases

A. 5.

Now I wish you would recall these things, to follow what you remember from previous revelation, which was given once for all, how that Jesus delivered a people from the oppression in Egypt, and then destroyed these same people because they refused to believe.

6.

And also the angels who stayed not within the realm of their own jurisdiction, but encroached upon God, He has eternally bound them from heaven away from the light of God even until that great day of destruction.

7.

Like such cities as Sodom and Gomorrah, who with the same kind of action surrendered themselves to the sin of fornication and other lewd lusting, had their fate in eternal fire recorded for our benefit.

8.

In the same way the apostate teaching of these men lead to lusting and fornication, and encroaching upon the rights of God.

B.*5.

My answer to them is: remember this factwhich you know alreadythat the Lord saved a whole nation of people out of the land of Egypt, and then killed every one of them who did not trust and obey Him.

6.

And I remind you of those angels who were once pure and holy, but willingly turned to a life of sin. Now God has them chained up in prisons of darkness, waiting for the judgment day.

7.

And don-'t forget the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, all full of lust of every kind including lust of men for other men. Those cities were destroyed by fire and continue to be a warning to us that there is a hell in which sinners are punished.

8.

Yet these false teachers go on living their evil immoral lives, degrading their bodies and laughing at those in authority over them, even scoffing at the glorious onesthose mighty powers of awful evil who left their first estate.

Summary

Like those examples in the Old Testament, these men have done things to reserve for them a place in hell.

Comment

The purpose of the scripture is not only to instruct us concerning the will of God, but to stir up in our memory lest we forget. Peter says the purpose of both his epistles was to stir up their minds through their remembrance, (2 Peter 3:1). Paul instructs Timothy to put them in remembrance, (2 Timothy 2:14). So it is not strange that Jude would have us draw lessons from the scriptures imbedded in our own memories.

Here Jude makes use of the vast storehouse of evidence that every man should have: his memory. Without memory there can be no growth, neither spiritual nor scholastic. Without memory the conscience would be dead and man's will would have no purpose. A good memory we should strive for, build up, and treasure.
Memories of trite and unimportant data are of little use, except for the possibility of memory training itself. But memory that builds our treasury of evidence concerning things spiritual brings us many benefits. Jude here asks his readers to remember important events and lessons from the Old Testament. These events will furnish evidence as to the natural result of these apostate teachings, and as to the end of the apostates themselves. If we know the scriptures, we know all things once for all delivered by God for us. By this knowledge we are enabled to discern the spirits, whether they be good or bad. This is Jude's purpose in these verses.
Manuscripts are divided as to whether it was Jesus or the Lord that delivered the people from Egypt. The evidence is about equally divided with the advantage being to the reading of Jesus. Many commentators object to reading Jesus here. They claim that Jesus could have had nothing to do with Old Testament events or that Jesus is not mentioned in connection with Jewish history; or, as Plummer states, Jesus is nowhere else in the scripture stated to be the author of anything which took place before the Incarnation.

It is not difficult to conceive that Jesus had to do with the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. Jesus had to do even with the creation of the universe. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. (John 1:3) Jesus has to do with keeping all things in existence, upholding all things by the word of his power. (Hebrews 1:3) So it seems that he that descended out of heaven (John 3:13) was busy about the Father's business before His putting on flesh.

The purpose of the illustration concerning deliverance from Egypt and the eventual destruction of those delivered is to call the lessons to our remembrance. God will not forever tolerate a continual murmuring against His dominion. The Israelites believed not the words of the Lord, and because of their unbelief that which they should have known became the unknown to them. They trembled in the face of the giants and wept when water was not in sighteven before they were thirsty! With evidence of God's care manifest continually, they still chose to disbelieve He would continue, and insulted Him by doubting His word. They were destroyed.

Another Old Testament apostasy used for an example is the fallen angels-'. They kept not their first estate (More correctly; kept not their own dignity). The results of their apostasy show the seriousness. Such a terrible apostasy with such serious results would certainly be referred to in other scriptures, and that it is. The parallel with the passage in 2 Peter is not to be discounted. For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;leaves no doubt as to the reference. The original fall of the devil and his angels is a prime example of apostasy. What then is the everlasting bonds under darkness? one may ask. These everlasting bonds must be the prohibition of these fallen angels from the presence of God. Like Satan himself, they roam this earth seeking to devour God's elect; but they are shut off from the light of God's presence forever. In this fashion they await the final judgment and condemnation where they shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)

There are some who prefer to interpret this passage to mean another period of angels being tested and falling. Although a second testing and falling is not a scriptural doctrine, such an interpretation is given to the account of giants in Genesis 6:1 ff. The expression sons of God in Genesis 6:2 is a reference to angels, it is claimed. Thus the angels saw that women on earth they were pretty, and decided to cohabitate with them. The resultant children of these unholy alliances were giants.

There are a number of problems that make such an interpretation unlikely. For one, the expression sons of God does not have to mean angels. The expression is used of angels in the Old Testament. The expression used in Genesis 6, however, most obviously refers to that which is being described in the context of Genesis 5. Here we find the descendants of Seth described as a righteous people. Of these people were such as Enoch, who walked with God. (Genesis 5:22) The most natural and proper interpretation would be that the sons of God in Genesis 6:2 refer to the righteous descendants of Seth described in chapter five.

Again it is not necessary to invent some physical abnormality nor some unholy alliance with the demon world in order to explain giants. There are many mysteries in this world that the Bible does not explain. The scripture does not attempt to make any explanation of the source of colored pigmentations in the skins of different peoples. Why one people would be brown, another yellow, another white, and another black was not considered by the Spirit a subject worthy of explanation. Likewise, why there should be a nation of pigmies and another of giants differing from the sizes of most peoples is not considered to be knowledge essential to our spiritual welfare.
But why is the word giants used in Genesis 6:2 as a result of these marriages? one may ask. The word in Genesis 6:4 is more properly Nephilim or mighty men. Although the word can mean giants, it also can mean bullies, rough-necks or robbers. These are not the giants that the spies saw in Canaan, for the flood destroyed these men in Genesis 6. Genesis 6:4 calls these Nephilim, mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. From Genesis 6:5 forward we see that these men were renown because of their wickedness, so it seems proper that they were men mighty in wickedness and evil also.

The most natural interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 is that the descendants of Seth (sons of God) married the daughters of men (beautiful women from the line of Cain) with the result that their children became wicked and evil like their mothers; until finally there was only one righteous family left; Noah and his sons. The passage in chapter 6 is evidently given to explain why only one righteous family remained from Seth's line.

The most likely source for the doctrine of angels marrying women is the book of Enoch. The book of Enoch is an obviously uninspired book, containing contradictions within itself and clear contradictions with the scriptures. This apocryphal book dates back to the second century, and some would claim the book actually pre-dates Jude. There is one passage similar in both books, and much similarity of content. It is not clear, however, that Jude quoted Enoch, or that Enoch quoted Jude. Jude in his reference to Enoch is referring to the Old Testament descendant of Adam, for he so states. It is possible that the book of Enoch was not in existence or was not known by Jude at the time he wrote. If so, then it might be claimed that the book of Enoch was a partial quote of the inspired writing of Jude. Many modern scholars today, however, tend to give a late date to Jude and claim that Jude quoted from Enoch.

The book of Enoch has this to say regarding Genesis 6 :

And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: Come, let us choose wives from among the children of men and beget us children. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon. and all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants, turned against them and devoured mankind. they have gone to the daughters of men upon the earth, and have slept with the women, and have defiled themselves, and revealed to them all kinds of sins. And the women have borne giants. Bind Azazel (the leader of those angels) hand and foot and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light. And on the day of the great judgment he shall be cast into the fire (Book of Enoch 6 and 7:1, 9:9 and chap. 10. Extract from commentary on Jude by Wolff, pp 70)

Sodom and Gomorrah is a third Old Testament example of apostasy. This apostasy is probably chosen to point out the sensual nature of the false teaching of the Gnostics as well as the certain destruction to follow. Sodom and Gomorrah in rejecting God became the famous Old Testament example of the devolution of sin described in Romans 1:28-32. The sinfulness and vileness of giving over to sensuous desires is nowhere more obvious.

The ultimate end (of the Gnostic teaching that it doesn-'t make any difference what one does since the flesh is sinful anyway) is the same as the end of Sodom and Gomorrah. In like manner says Jude, these philosophers will defile the flesh. Rotten doctrine in public school will make rotten lives in public school children. So the Gnostic doctrine was rotten, and it could make the lives of the Christians who followed it also rotten.
The Gnostic doctrine would also cause Christians to scoff at the authority and dominion of Jehovah, even as the fallen angels had done. And who today would deny that any modern teaching that tends to make Christ less than Lord and to make Jehovah less than the ever existent Creator would not likewise lead Christians to set at nought dominion and rail at glories? Every Christian should be horrified because of this possible result of false teaching.