Epistles Part 4

Epistles

E 04 Jude 5-7 Part 3
November 27, 2016
Part 4

Epistle of Jude-

Greeting

Judgment on False Teachers

Benediction

Jude 1.5 …while you have continued knowing all these things from the beginning (of your faith), [perfect tense]

The perfect tense is a complex expression that references the occurrence of a past event and views the accomplished outcome of that event from the perspective of its abiding results presently affecting the party (or parties) involved.

that after the Lord had once saved a people out of the land of Egypt,

[entities 1] that the Lord (Yahweh) a people ( a people; a nation; a crowd).

This reference in Scripture is always to the Jews, or to the Jews as the church, or the people of God; but to non-Jews the descriptive term that was always used later when referring to a crowd of Christians was .

subsequent to that time the people who after not believing, He had destroyed,

[witnesses 1] at a subsequent time (event) the people who afterwards (after having been saved out of Egypt) were (still) not believing, He had destroyed ().

In the single sentence of verses 5-7 Jude, we discover a establishes a pattern. This pattern is one having been established by God throughout redemptive history; where some are believing; and once they are saved, they remain saved; and some are ones will not believe God [entities] and are condemned as [witnesses] to God’s sovereign justice applied in history.

Since those who were destroyed were among the great number of individuals who had originally been physically saved out of Egypt, it is clear that Jude is focusing on the Exodus event as a salvation of common grace, including believers and unbelievers, yet prototypical of true redemptive salvation.

The reader is expected to distinguish the contrast between those who were once-for-all-time saved in a redemptive sense and those who refused to believe, no matter what God might do in their favor, even to the extent of performing great miracles of gigantic proportion in order to sustain them.

This is how Jude makes the distinction and the reminder to his readers and to himself of the power of once-for-all-time saving faith.

[entities 2] also (denoting continuation of the same idea) the angels, namely the ones who had not keep guard over [or maintained their] own , allotted office of dominion authority of their own home; could either point to the sphere of their appointed rule, or to the glorious state into which they had been created.

also the angels, namely the ones who had not maintained their guard over their allotted place of authority, but to the contrary, they had abandoned their own (heavenly) home,

If our text refers to the former, that would indicate that they had abandoned their responsibilities and their home, their place of habitation.

If referring to the latter, that would stress the fact that they had abandoned their God-given heavenly-type bodies in order to become incarnate, like man.

We must always remember that angels are creatures created by God into a state different from that of humanity, residing in what we often call “heavenly bodies;” whatever they are, these bodies are suitable to the conditions of the heavenly place where they normally live.

Since angels were created as “eternal” beings, there has never been a reason for them to be able to reproduce after their own kind.

There is no reason to try and decide one or the other; that either the angels did not stay within the sphere of their own previous , heavenly office of rule from heaven, or that the angels did not stay within their own dwelling place belonging to each, as referring to their previous bodies.

The fact is, they had abandoned everything… …heaven, their work, their relationship with God, their glorious bodies, eternal life…

Essentially these angels ran away from their posts and duties in heaven and left their glorified bodies in order to take on earthly bodies and earthly habitation so that they might go after the beautiful daughters of men and experience the pleasures of having sexual intercourse
with them.

According to the writings of Enoch taken together with the words of Jude, pertaining to the intent of the runaway Watcher angels, the events were sufficiently complex enough to demand a double-meaning interpretation of Furthermore, we might also keep in mind that, without the presupposed knowledge of the facts having been passed on by Enoch to Moses, and to Jude, and to Jude’s readers, this description is not as obviously a reference to the “runaway Watcher angels,” spoken of in the Book of Genesis and in the Book of Enoch, extensively. this verse.

The reader’s knowledge of the doctrine of the fall of these angels is tacitly presupposed by Jude; and so a broader knowledge of Enoch is therefore assumed to exist as well.

Why would 200 angels in heaven want to incarnate and give up all they had been given in order to become men?

Because they became convinced of a lie.

Here is an interesting contrast...

NKJ 2 Corinthians 5:1-2
1 For we know ( ) that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,…

also the angels, namely the ones who had not maintained their guard over their allotted place of authority, but to the contrary, they had abandoned their own (heavenly) home,

There are exactly two aorist participles used as temporal (reveling a time sequence) verbs in this clause.

The simplest way to relate the time sequence of events is by offering an even more comprehensively detailed translation…

also the angels, namely the ones who had not maintained their guard over their allotted place of authority, but to the contrary, they had abandoned their own (heavenly) home,

“also the runaway angels, those who after they had abandoned their guard over their assigned places of delegated authority within God’s heaven, not only conspired to leave their heavenly posts; but after that, they even abandoned their own bodies that had been given to them by God in order to accomplish their desired purpose…”

Thinking about this remarkable two-phased shift prompts us to ask these two questions.

(1) If it was the angel’s desired purpose to do these things, how did that fit into the overarching picture of God’s purpose?

(2) Why wasn’t God immediately prompted to destroy the runaway angels the moment He lost them from heaven because of the shear enormity of the sin of their rebellion?

The answer to these questions comes next, from Jude.

for the purpose to enter into judgment in that Great Day, in an eternal imprisonment under darkness, He perpetually keeps them in custody,

[witness 2] for the purpose of [the purpose clause is signaled by the preposition at the beginning of the clause, and is understood to be God’s purpose that is referenced rather than the purposes of the runaways.

While this fact is not obvious in English, it is abundantly clear in the Greek; upon leaving heaven and their glory bodies, the angels immediately entered into a state of irrevocable judgment and punishment; while being mostly delayed, it is carried out in part, then delayed still until the great day of the final judgment yet to come.

We learn from Enoch and Jude that the punishment of the runaway angels was planned by God to be parceled out in stages; first, their petition for mercy, forgiveness for their transgressions, and their desire to reinstated in relationship with God was denied.

Then God made them watch their giant sons totally extinguish themselves by killing one another; all this happening prior to the Great Flood.

Then, they were cast into a jagged rock-bottom pit and covered with great stones, there to remain in a prison of darkness until the final Day of Judgment, somehow retaining the knowledge that the final form of the eternal punishment that awaits them is a perpetual burning in
a lake of fire.

Has this thought yet occurred to you?

Since the runaway angels had already abandoned their heavenly bodies, and since they had been denied restoration; then, their present spiritual state within that dark prison beneath the ground is no different than that of any ordinary unbelieving man- waiting for the Resurrection and the Day of Final Judgment?

Perhaps this event in history also is a reminder that God has made no provision whatsoever to redeem angels; whether fallen or runaway!

Perhaps now you can also see how blasphemous it is for anyone to even suggest that Jesus left heaven and committed any form of sexual sin at any time in His dealings with mankind during the time of His incarnation.

While it might seem abundantly clear that it is not likely that the angels would have purposefully set themselves up for a great judgment; ironically, that is exactly what they managed to accomplish in their own behalf through their disobedience and blasphemously rebellious actions.

And until that Day, He perpetually keeps them under guard while in custody, in an extended imprisonment in total darkness.

Many will be surprised on the Day of Judgment when they discover that it was just as the Word of God says; only the righteousness of Christ is able to save you.All men are sinners and no one can save himself. God is just, so He must punish sin; but He is also merciful, moreover gracious, and offers His Son as the perfect sacrifice in order to purchase a place for you in heaven, which He offers to you as the free gift of eternal life.

Jesus is God Incarnate

In order to pay the debt of our sins, He came from Heaven, having been sent by the Father, where He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father even unto the shameful death upon the cross in order to pay the debt of your sins.This gift must be received by faith, believing that Jesus’ perfect life and Cross Work was His complete and necessary Atonement for your sins, in your behalf.Faith is a gift that comes by the Power of God the Holy Spirit working in a person’s innermost being. The Holy Spirit has the authority and power to quicken your dead spirit, to make it come to life. If you have not done so before this moment, ask Jesus to forgive you your sins, tell Him you’ve stop trying to be your own savior, and ask Him to come into your life right now, and to give you eternal life. Then, in faith believing, thank Him for the gift that He is giving you, the one He paid for in full in your place, in Jesus’ name,AMEN