Epistles Part 5

Epistles

E 05 Jude 5-7 Part 4
December 4, 2016
Part 5

Epistle of Jude-

Greeting

Judgment on False Teachers

Benediction

Jude 1:5-7
5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

[entities 3] in the same manner also, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them (characterized by) the same nature as these (masculine) [referring to the runaway angels (masculine gender, not referring to the cities which are feminine in gender), seeking after the seductive fruit perpetrated by the lies of sensuality], had been given over to fornication and a going way after flesh of an unnatural [perverted, against the course of nature] kind,

after giving themselves over to indulge in excessive sexual immorality and determined to go after flesh of an unnatural kind (against the course of nature),

The comparison is between the runaway angels and the homosexual inhabitants of the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding area.

The ideas is that, after [temporal idea] having completely yielded their members (mental determination precedes the action) to going after unnatural flesh, in a manner similar to that of the runaways; the inhabitants of these cities and the surrounding territory, they too became examples (witnesses) of God’s judgment upon those who refuse to believe the truth of God.

This may surprise you.

1 Corinthians 6. 9-10 tells us specifically:
“Do you not know (, always in the perfect tense) that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived;”

Then a sequential list follows describing specific characteristics of those who, if persistent in doing these things, will be proved to be disqualified from entering the Kingdom of God, by their own determination.

neither…nor…

(and not) ones who practice sexual immorality

ones who practice idolatry

a person who commits adultery, specifically referring to males, but also including females in generic contexts (adulterer, adulteress)

neither…nor… tree ksu, lon

The Greek as well as a number of other languages have entirely distinct terms for the active and passive roles in homosexual intercourse.

as metonymy (the substitution of the name of an attribute for that of the thing meant), refers to the male instrument of unnatural lust, i.e. especially of men and boys who allow themselves to be misused homosexually

In our time we still have the perversion of homosexuality as well as a morbid extension of it called transgendered men and women. Have we “developed” in our culture to the point where we are able to make men into women and women into men?

Not according to Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and former psychiatrist-in- chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital (26 yrs), who has studied transgendered people for 40 years.

He, along with his fellow doctors, has stated the scientific fact that “transgendered men do not become women, nor do transgendered women become men.” Dr McHugh and other brave professionals are like the boy who pointed to the truth, that the king was really without clothes, no matter what others were saying. Dr. McHugh, also explained that the permissive sexual culture in the United States today has confused “desire” with “love,” and that homosexuality is a false or “erroneous desire,” and it is a scientific fact that “there is no gay gene.”

It is also a scientific fact that “transgendered men do not become women, nor do transgendered women become men.” All such people, he explained, “become feminized men or masculinized women, counterfeits or impersonators of the sex with which they ‘identify.’”He is even brave enough to state that the false assumption, that “the distress caused by the feeling that one’s sexual nature is misaligned with one’s biological sex (gender dysphoria) and can only be relieved by sex- change surgery,” can actually be treated with therapy and medication.

Gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder (GID) is the dysphoria (distress) a person experiences as a result of the sex and gender they were assigned at birth.

Here is what has been going on in this arena for many years.

Back before the 1970s, the doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital pioneered sex-change-surgery, yet over the subsequent years of study they have also concluded that “the practice brought no important benefits.”

Dr. McHugh says, “As a result, we stopped offering that form of treatment in the 1970s.”

In the meantime, the notion that one’s sex is fluid has flooded our culture (no pun intended).

It is reflected everywhere in the media, the theater, the classroom, and many medical clinics, to the extent that the basic assumption of it has become an object to be cherished and protected by our governmental authority as a civil right, in the name of political progressivism.

Homosexuality, and its accompanying distortion of transgendering have “progressed” in our culture from being a crime to having become a “civil right.”

Dr. McHugh recently stressed that, “What is needed now is public clamor for coherent science–biological and therapeutic science —examining the real effects of these efforts to ‘support’ transgendering.”

He has also added the caveat, “But gird up your loins if you would confront this matter, hell hath no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral principle.”

The operative word here is “masquerading” and the problem has mainly to do with “runaway assumptions.”

To begin with, we discover the assumption that “one’s gender is only in the mind regardless of anatomical reality. ”This has led some transgendered people to push for social acceptance and confirmation of their own subjective “personal truth.”As a result, some states —California , New Jersey, and Massachusetts—have passed laws barring psychiatrists, even with parental permission, from striving to restore natural gender feelings to a transgender minor,” says Dr. McHugh.

The pro-transgender advocates do not want to know, says Dr. McHugh, that studies show between 70% and 80% of children who express transgender feelings “spontaneously lose those feelings” over time.

Also, for those who had sexual reassignment surgery, most said they were “satisfied” with the operation, “but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn’t have the surgery.”

In fact, a new study has shown that among people who had reassignment surgery, the suicide rate is 20 times higher than the suicide rate among that of their comparable peers.

Families are presently encouraged to find “gender counselors” who encourage children in their sexual misassumptions.

In a particular article by Dr. McHugh, he quoted, “As part of our dedication to protecting America’s youth, this administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors,” said Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to President Obama.”

Conversion therapy is psychological treatment or spiritual counseling designed to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual.

Apparently, the dysphoria (distress) continues and the process involving surgery is merely a part of the masquerade, and never truly brings the expected result.

Then again, isn’t that just what lies and liars regularly do?

Aren’t lies and false teaching like clouds without water, carried about by the winds of cultural sensuality; they are late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, destined to be pulled up by the roots?

They promise “better results than God can deliver,” yet they never seem to actually give satisfactory results!

According once again to Dr. McHugh, “In seeking to satisfy the patient by performing sex-reassignment surgery, it produces a still troubled patient and makes for an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs.” […other kinds of dysphoria]

He says that, “Transgenderism is a ‘mental disorder’ that merits treatment,” and that “sex change is ‘biologically impossible,’” and that “people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder.”

So, claiming and encouraging that surgical intervention is a civil-rights matter, is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.

I think efforts have also been successful in eliminating the diagnoses of gender dysphoria as a form of mental illness from the most recent DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, American Psychiatric Association). (needs further checking)

“The issue of the homosexual is not separate,” says Dr. McHugh. “Its all part and parcel of the pandemonium that the permissive movement has brought. We have just licensed all kinds of behavior.”

Dr. McHugh said, “it really is amazing – I mean, 50 years ago homosexual behavior was a crime, and now we’re talking about same-sex marriage. Anyone who wants to stick with the tradition is accused of being a biblical literalist or a homophobic racist, because, in part, of the
more fundamental change in our society towards permissiveness, that is, easy divorce, cohabitation and concubinage, abortion, pornography…and euthanasia.”

When reporter Lydia Evans asked about how the environment of a church, or religious-minded community, could affect people’s behavior, Dr. McHugh said, “This is the point. You've got to get the churches– not just the Anglican churches, but the Roman Catholics and the Presbyterians.”

“They've got to start talking again about their foundational opinions,” he said. “There's an idea of there being different kinds of laws in our world: the natural law, the law of desire -- but there is scriptural law that comes out of the Old Testament. And they've got to get all of this straight.”

Moving on…

in the same manner also, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them (characterized by) the same nature as these (angels), had been given over to fornication and a going way after flesh of an unnatural kind, after giving themselves over to indulge in excessive sexual immorality and determined to go after flesh of an unnatural kind (against the course of nature), are presently serving in behalf of those who think like them, as an example to be exposed to public view as those who (also) are undergoing a judicial sentence of eternal fire.

[witness 3] after [temporal idea] having completely yielded their members to going after unnatural flesh, the place where the cities once stood, and is now desolate and smoke still rises (brimstone smoldering from it), is presently serving (at the time of Jude’s writing) in behalf
of those who think like them [middle voice], as an example to be exposed to public view while undergoing a punishment of eternal fire (of the “fire and brimstone” kind).

Since this short letter has so many terrible examples from the Old Testament that are constantly referring to the Last Day of Judgment, it also speaks of deliverance from this with regard to believers.

This long sentence consisting of three verses (Jude vss 5-7), supports the idea to the believers at the recipient congregation, that fighting to protect the truth of God in which they believe and their comprehension that their salvation constrains them to come against the lying
intruders, and to seek to maintain their Christ-given blamelessness and undefiled state before God; not becoming soft in their thinking and therefore liable to fall into the trap of believing the lies regarding the promotion of false hope, that sensuality within their fellowship would bring a far greater freedom and happiness than living a disciplined life in obedience to the truth of the Word of God.

These three sets of comparisons actually offer a threefold form of “witness” to the truth of the Word of God.

NKJ Deuteronomy 17:6
“Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.”

NKJ Deuteronomy 19:15
“One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.”

NKJ 1 John 5:7
“For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”

NKJ 1 John 5:8
“And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.”

Three Historical Witnesses

[entities1] [witness 1]

rebellious of Israel parceled punishment sword, plague, swallowing pit, consuming fire

[entities 2] [witness 2]

rebellious of angels parceled punishment reserved for eternal fire

[entities 3] [witness 3]

rebellious inhabitants of cities consumed by fire, smoking, empty ruins

All three witnesses in Jude agree word for word; three warning examples, three contrasting comparisons of membership of the saved people with the membership of the condemned, putting the one teaching in three short parabolic sayings and illustrations in this manner is very powerful and impressive device used by Jude.

A final word for us.

NKJ 1 John 2:18-21
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

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