Identifying Any Stealthy Opposition Series

Message

Jude 5-16

Identifying Any Stealthy Opposition

We are going to start this message with a brief look at “divine inspiration”

This is the term we use to describe how the divine Scripture is written by human authors.

Two Bible passages are very important in this regard.

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21)

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)

The Bible is God’s word … 100%. However that word is written by men upon whom God-breathes to produce the end product.

It is not just dictation. Dictation does not allow the character of the writer to come through. In the Scriptures we do see the character of the different authors. Paul writes differently to Peter. John is different again. Amos and Daniel don’t read the same. God doesn’t just over-write their character – but the words they write are what God wants.

We also need to recognise that divine inspiration is not just men writing whatever they want and it becomes Scripture. There are a number of books that look very “bible like” which are not in the Bible.

One example is that a Catholic Old Testament has seven more books than the Jewish Bible and the Protestant Old Testament books like Tobit, Judith, and 1 & 2 Maccabees.

Another example is seen in Colossians 4:16 where Paul writes “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.”

Paul’s letter would have looked very “bible-like” but the song doesn’t say “Galatians, Ephesians, Laodiceans, Philippians, Colossians.”

As the biblical author writes his book, and he records different events, and he uses different sources. As all that takes place

- if God wants those words in the Scriptures they will be included.

- if God doesn’t want those words included, then they will not be included.

That is Divine Inspiration

Why is this significant? Well the book of Jude makes extensive references to other sources. In fact verse 5-16 … these 12 verses … have by far the highest number of different references to other sources than any other 12 verses in Scripture. And many of those references are not from the Old Testament.

Open your Bible to Jude and we will go verse by verse from verse 5.

Verse 5

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

That is a sweeping summary of the Exodus event and the 40 years of wandering in the secret in Numbers.

Verse 6

And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

This could be a reference to the 1/3rd of the angelic hosts who followed Satan – except these fallen angels at the moment have a lot of freedom to tempt and do Satan’s bidding. They will do this till the return of Jesus.

However, when Jude was writing, there was at least eight different Jewish literature sources that spoke about the “abandoning” by the angels

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

Genesis 6:1-2

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 us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.'

1 Enoch 6.1-2

So, the Jewish belief at the time was that the “abandoning” took place when the sons of God – who are angels – had an unnatural union with the daughters of man. This further explained how the giants … the Nephilim … came to exist.

Verse 7

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.

You can read about this is Genesis 18-19

Jude us relying here on a very contemporary example.

The author Philo who lived at the same time as the apostle Paul recorded about the area of Sodom and Gomorrah that “even to this day are seen … ashes, and sulphur, and smoke, and dusky flame which still is sent up from the ground as of a fire smouldering beneath”.