Defiling Dreamers Are In Stark Contrast With Michael The Archangel - Jude 1 V 8-9 Series

DEFILING DREAMERS ARE IN STARK CONTRAST WITH MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL - Jude 1 v 8-9

Jude 1:8 “Yet in the same manner these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties, Jude 1:9 but Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

[A]. WHO ARE THE DEFILING DREAMERS?

Verse 8 begins with the expression, “Yet in the same manner as these men”, which means we must look to the previous verse, verse 7, to get the context. Note as well, verse 7 begins with, “In the same way as these” taking us back to verse 6. We need to understand verses 6 and 7 to see where verse 7 comes from. Verse 6 exposes pride and arrogance and rebellion. Verse 7 features gross immorality and the pursuit of what is prohibited. Then we arrive at verse 8 which sets before us men of corruption who will exhibit those traits highlighted in verses 6 and 7, and they include pride and arrogance and rebellion and gross immorality and the pursuit of what is prohibited. These are evil men being spoken of, ones who defile the flesh, reject authority and revile angelic majesties. These ungodly men were like the unbelievers in the wilderness in denying Christ and scoffing at His promises; they were like the impure angels in leaving that “foundation which is in heaven” for the base pleasures of earth; they were like the people of Sodom in seeking even these base pleasures by unnatural choices.

These men are dreamers, dreaming up schemes and wickedness in order to entertain the flesh so as to defile it. They sin against their own bodies. These men are in Christian churches, or better to say, they are in the churches of Christendom. They reject authority, that is they reject the heavenly authority, and they themselves have become their own authority. Jude has more to say about then men who are false teachers and wolves in the churches later on, but we leave those later verses for another time.

The word for dreaming in verse 8 is in connection with the wrong kind of dreaming. This hoping (self-desiring) of these false ones, opposes God's kingdom, and then they expect such personal aspirations and fantasies to be granted by Him! This shows someone who is completely out of touch with the principles of God's kingdom. Large tracks of the Pentecostal movement are founded on this dreaming, in what is called “the word of faith” where you speak prosperity and perfect health into being, among other strange behaviours. Fantasy dreamers. This is the only place in the NT where the word “dreamers” is used but there is one other reference in the bible, in the LXX translation in {{Isaiah 56 v 10 – “His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.”}} (ESV)

It says of these men that they do three things originating from their evil dreaming – They defile the flesh like the inhabitants of the cities of the plain AND they despise the dominion and authority of Almighty God, meaning they reject it by setting it aside. The one, the next phrase here (the last part of verse 8) is a more difficult one. The NASB says “revile angelic majesties” and the NIV says “heap abuse on celestial beings” and the ESV says “blaspheme the glorious ones”. The Greek word is rare, used only by Jude and Peter. It means these ungodly men murmur against, and oppose unseen powers worthy of reverence (God, the angels, heavenly beings). The word does not apply to earthly dignitaries whether church leaders or civil leaders.

[B]. THE ERROR OF ANTINOMIANISM:-

Jude has raised this teaching in verses 4, 7 and 8 so I thought we’d look at it just briefly. (I am going to quote from an answer on a site called GotQuestions.org that I thought was a good one). (start of quote) “In the NT times, a movement sprang up known as antinomianism. It comes from the Greek “against law”, and these people believe there are no moral laws that God expects Christians to obey. Antinomianism takes a biblical teaching to an unbiblical conclusion. The biblical teaching on the Law of Moses, is that Christians are not required to observe the Old Testament Law as a means of salvation. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He fulfilled the Old Testament Law. The unbiblical conclusion is that there is no moral law God expects Christians to obey.

The apostle Paul dealt with the issue of antinomianism in Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? Rom 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it.” The most frequent attack on the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, is that it encourages sin. People may wonder, “If I am saved by grace and all my sins are forgiven, why not sin all I want?” That thinking is not the result of true conversion because true conversion yields a greater desire to obey, not a lesser one. God’s desire - and our desire when we are regenerated by His Spirit - is that we strive not to sin. Out of gratitude for His grace and forgiveness, we want to please Him. God has given us His infinitely gracious gift in salvation through Jesus. Our response is to consecrate our lives to Him out of love, worship, and gratitude for what He has done for us. Antinomianism is unbiblical in that it misapplies the meaning of God’s gracious favour.” ( End of quote)