Study In Jude
by Sandy Simpson

Lesson 2 – Vs. 5-10


Vs. 5-7 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Jude reminds us of the judgments of the past. Remember that Israel was God’s elect, His people. But there were those who, though they claimed to be God’s people, did not believe in God, did not trust Him. Be aware that God will judge those who do not believe, even if they claim to be His people. The basis for judgment is always a lack of belief. Even some of the angels, who were made to serve and worship God, abandoned God for their own selfish ambitions. When we pit our will against the will of God, we are going to be judged unless we repent

Is: 14:12-17 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?"
Satan said “I will” and was thrown down to the earth and he will ultimately be thrown into hell. Jude reminds us that even the angels, the chosen servants of God, can be judged for unbelief. Sodom and Gomorrah gave themselves over to sexual sin and were judged. If there had been ten righteous men in those cities God would have spared them. I wonder how many righteous men there are today? I’m afraid there are very few left. God has left us His warnings in history to remind us that if we do not repent and believe we will be judged. There are many false prophets and false teachers today who have been warned repeatedly to repent. Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, John Arnott, Randy Clark, John Kilpatrick, Steve Hill, Rodney Howard-Browne, Rick Joyner, Paul Cain, Mike Bickle, Paul Crouch, Marilyn Hickey, Morris Cerrulo, Paul Crouch, Robert Tilton, C. Peter Wagner, Ted Haggard, Cindy Jacobs and many, many others. They pretend to be the leadership of Christianity, but they are really unrepentant heretics. The Lord will judge both them and those who follow them.
Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?
Jeremiah 27:15’I have not sent them,’ declares the LORD. ’They are prophesying lies in my name. Therefore, I will banish you and you will perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy to you.’"
Revelation 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
These are examples Jude gives of those who have blazed the trails to hell. The point is that we should follow Jesus Christ and His Word and not those who are false teachers and false prophets who are really working for the enemy. Let’s look at the verses in Acts 20:28-31 again.
Acts 20:28-31 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
Paul warned the Ephesians with tears about false teachers who would arise from their own church who would “distort the truth”. They are not called “brothers” but “savage wolves”. They do not spare the flock. They kill every sheep they can. This is not something we are supposed to live with. We are supposed to separate ourselves from these killers. I shed tears over many people who allow false doctrines into the churches today because, as Paul said with tears, they will “not spare the flock”. The flock can end up dead!

Vs. 8 In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings.

How do we tell who these wolves are? They come in sheep’s clothing. In other words, they look and sound like Christians.

(1) They are dreamers. They make dreams/visions more important than Scripture, even when Paul tells us not to go beyond what is written.

1 Corinthians 4:6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.
The wolves brag about how God has spoken directly to them. They colorfully tell about some fantastic dream they had where an angel took them to heaven or hell. They do these things so that they will be considered to be “holy men of God”, which is what they incessantly and continually drum into their follower's heads. This is exactly what Paul was saying should be avoided. If Christians do not go beyond what is written, they will not end up becoming prideful. This is not to say that God does not give dreams and visions. But they are rare, and when they are truly from God every detail will check out with the written Word of God. Every part of that dream or vision will be biblically correct, come true if predictive, and be in line with the revealed character of God in the Bible. But today we see churches carrying around “prophesy notebooks” instead of Bibles. We see people putting more faith in "words of knowledge" than in the Bible. When you see people who always have another dream to tell, you can be sure they are wolves.

(2) They pollute their own bodies. Apart from the many problems today of sexual sin in the churches, one of the biggest problems of body pollution is people allowing demonic influence into their lives because of doctrinal error in the church. There are so many false anointings out there today. Benny Hinn has an anointing for every occasion. But none of these anointings are biblical. Christians are allowing themselves to be slain in the spirit by false teachers and then exhibit manifestations that are not in the Bible as blessings, but as judgment or demonization. They get drunk in the Spirit when the Bible says to be filled with the Spirit. They are spending their time inebriated when the Bible calls for sobriety.

Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Romans 13:13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
(3) They reject authority. The main way in which wolves reject authority is to reject the authority of Scripture. They use the Bible when it suits them and use new revelation the rest of the time. Their teachings are not in line with a correct interpretation of the Word of God in context. They do not accept from the Bible what it is teaching, which is exegesis. Instead they make up their doctrines then find Bible verses to support what they want to teach. That is called eisegesis. Along with that, they will not take rebuke or correction from others in the Church. They refuse to repent of their sins. They then call everyone else "heresy hunters", and other names. The final step they take is to curse their enemies to death, the very people who have tried to help them see the truth.

(4) They slander celestial beings. I have seen this so many times in almost every meeting of Third Wave wolves. They speak directly to demons, they yell at them and make fun of them, even laugh at Satan himself. They say they are binding demons. They jump up and down and claim that Satan has been bound. They fill drums full of "holy anointing oil" and spray it all over their cities. They push stakes in the ground around towns. They blow shofars from high places. They finger paint signs of the cross on church furniture.  They do these things claiming they will rid the place of demons.  But all this binding, prayer walking, and pragmatic spiritual warfare introduced into the churches by people like John Dawson of YWAM, John Wimber, Chuck Kraft and C. Peter Wagner and many others is unbiblical. The Bible teaches we are to pray for protection from the evil one. We are to pray for salvation of people from darkness. We can even cast demons out of individuals. But there is nowhere in the Bible that states we should be praying against territorial spirits, binding them, speaking to them or using occult techniques to rid our land of them. Those who make fun of celestial beings, which according to the Bible includes Satan and his fallen angels, are in grave danger. Only the Lord can rebuke Satan. We are only protected because of our relationship to Jesus Christ who gained the victory on the cross. We must put on the armor and stand against the devil and his schemes. But those who laugh and taunt Satan and demons are wolves and they will end up destroyed.

Vs. 9-10 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals--these are the very things that destroy them.

(1) Wolves speak abusively.  Wolves speak abusively of celestial beings, as we have talked about above. But I have also seen a lot of abusive language against those they disagree with instead of using apologetics to prove what they are teaching. We name names on our site as Paul named names in his time, but we do so on the basis of the facts. We present the case, including what wolves have taught and done, and compare those teachings and actions to the Bible. We carefully footnote everything so anyone can look up what has been said and done and will be able to draw their own conclusions. But wolves speak abusively. They don’t deal with the facts because they can’t. So they resort to abusive language. Jacob Prasch says about wolves, “They can’t kill the message so the try to kill the messenger.” Isn’t that always the case? There have been whole books written with this abusive kind of language by Third Wavers like Michael Brown and Steve Hill of Brownsville AG.

(2) Wolves do not understand. They refuse to understand the truth. They have no interest in understanding biblical realities. This is why very few wolves, who are leaders in what is called Christendom today, are able to come out of deception because they have no interest in teaching or living in obedience to the truth.

(3) Wolves try to understand by instinct.  Their emphasis is not on what they think but on feelings, which are inherantly subjective and relativistic. They think that it is more important to "feel" the truth instead of understand it and meditate on it. I have told the story before about the UPC man who I overheard witnessing in a restaurant. I was impressed by his boldness in witnessing until I heard what he said. He claimed, “The disciples all learned a lot from Jesus while they sat around the table, but since John laid on His breast he became the one who Jesus loved and he got more of the truth.” This is Gnosticism. Gnostics claim that the material world is entirely evil and the spiritual world is entirely good. They claim that you can get to the secret deep things of the spiritual only by leaving your mind at the door and allowing yourself to feel the truth. Because of this type of teaching, by people like Rodney Howard-Brown, Brownsville, the Toronto Blessing and many others in the Third Wave, they make people into unreasoning animals instead of lifting them up to the image of Christ. We are to come to know God with our whole person.

Luke 10:27 He answered: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’"
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Those who teach that we need to get rid of the mind are going to destruction. Feeling without knowing is destructive. There is nothing wrong with feelings but if they take over or become the primary source we use to discern truth from error, we are lost. Feelings need to be tested with the Word of God. Don’t base what you believe on feelings.


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