The Ungodly and Ungodliness – Jude 14-18
It has been pointed out that 2 Peter
has a lot of parallels with Jude and that these parallels are there because
Peter prophecies about the future infiltration of false teachers, in Jude it is
present tense; he is writing because now they are there. Jude writes sometime
after Peter. It has been debated by a number of scholars as to which epistle
was written first, and we will see why Jude is the second of the two
epistles.
First we have to address an issue that
comes up in vv. 14, 15, one of the issues that becomes a stumbling block for
some people who are really over-thinkers. It is a really simple issue, and that
is that Jude, like Paul and others in the Scripture, quote from a non-biblical
source a statement that is in that non-biblical source that is true as an
affirmation of the principle or the point that he is making. He is not
validating everything else that is in that source or approving them.
When we come to our study in Jude this
is a warning of something that is taking place within this congregation. But it
is not just some Christians who are teaching aberrant doctrine or have gotten
off track a little bit, these are actually unbelievers who have infiltrated the
congregation. They are not regenerate, they are unbelievers, and they are
teaching false doctrine. Not all false teachers are necessarily unbelievers,
but these are.
There is a citation that is going to
come in here from Enoch. It is not validating the entire book of Enoch, it is
simply affirming one statement that is made there. You canÕt jump to a
conclusion that that means everything in the book of Enoch must be inspired or
prophetic because it is not.
There are some books that didnÕt make
it into the canon of Scripture and there are people who come long today and say
we should have included those. Well, on what basis? There are 39 books of the
Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament that were accepted by both the
Jews of the Old Testament and the Christians of the New Testament as divinely
inspired books of Scripture. The Old Testament process of canonicity is
different from the New Testament books process of canonicity, but there is one
thing that is similar. That is that in both the Old Testament era and the New
Testament era there were a group of divinely empowered prophets and apostles
and prophets who were the final human arbiters of canonicity, of divine
inspiration. There were criteria for whether or not a work was even considered
to be possibly divinely inspired.
Among the 39 books in our English Old
Testament (the Jewish collection is a little bit different because some of our
books are separated as I & II Samuel and are just combined as one book in
the Hebrew canon, things of that nature) and the 27 New Testament books there
were a few that had a little more difficult time getting recognized into the
canon. But there were no other books that had any significant or serious claim
to be within the canon. In the Old Testament the book that had the most
difficult time being accepted, but eventually was accepted, is the book of
Esther. The reason was because Esther does mention the name of God anywhere.
There is another set of books that are
included in some Christian Bibles and are part of the Old Testament in those
Bibles. The term for those books is the Apocrypha. Depending on whether you
were part of the Syrian Orthodox church, the Coptic church or a couple of other
smaller groups the number of books included within the Apocrypha differed.
These were additional books from the Old Testament period but they were never
accepted by any Jewish authority to be on the same level as the 39 books we
have. Also, the Jews had basically formulated and fixed their canon long before
the first century. What we often hear from some scholars today is that it is
formed when the rabbis come together after the collapse of the province of
Judea and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD
70; and that there was a meeting around AD
90 where they affirmed a canon of the Old Testament. The reality is that this
canon had for all practical purposes been resolved for at least 150 years
before Christ. Nothing else was ever considered to be added to those 39 books.
In fact, when Jesus talked about the Old Testament He referred to the same
basic collection of the Law, the prophets and the writings. He refers to the
breadth of history in the Old Testament from the murder of Abel to the murder
of Zechariah, and in 2 Chronicles the last prophet to be murdered by the people
to be Zechariah. So ÒAbel to ZechariahÓ shows that for Jesus the canon that He
had was the same canon that was affirmed in AD
90, not chosen.
The process of canonicity in both the
Old and New Testament periods is pretty much a recognition of what the body of
believers uses and recognizes to be from the Word of God, and there is almost a
universal unanimity of acceptance of these books. There are some that are
eventually included in the canon in both periods where it takes a little longer
because of some doubt, but there are really no other serious contenders.
As part of his support for his basic
thesis that ungodly men will be brought to judgment/condemnation Jude
references Enoch. Jude 1:14 NASB Ò{It was} also about these men
{that} Enoch, {in} the seventh {generation} from Adam, prophesied, saying,
ÔBehold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, [15] to execute
judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds
which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which
ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.ÕÓ
As scholars have studied this they have
recognized that there is no reference to the book of Enoch in any book of the
Old Testament. Jesus never refers to it or alludes to it. There is nothing of
any of the other books of Scripture that alludes to Enoch. Enoch was written,
we know, sometime prior to 110 BC and it was a book that was known to many Jews in the first
century.
The quote that Jude has here is not
precisely identical to Enoch 1:9. One of the first differences is that Jude
says, Òbehold, the Lord comes,Ó whereas the Enoch 1:9 says, ÒBehold, he comes.Ó
This is a typical substitution that is found in many writers of the New
Testament when they quote from the Old Testament. Then in Jude 15 we have Òto
execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly,Ó which is a little
different in at least one version of Enoch 1:9 (there are different versions of
Enoch that have floated around). One version that is considered to be the most
accurate through textual criticism states Òand to destroy all the ungodly and
to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness.Ó Those are the
differences, but most of it is pretty much saying the exact same thing.
All Jude is doing here is quoting from
a verse in the book of Enoch that is stating the correct thing. And by virtue
of the fact that God the Holy Spirit deems it viable to quote from this verse
indicates that this statement is a true statement and it is elevated to the
level of Scripture by virtue of its inclusion in the book of Jude.
There are similar statements made in
other passages of Scripture. For example, at the beginning where it talks about
the Lord coming with His holy ones. This is also used of angels and it is
stated in passages such as Matthew 24:30 and 2 Thessalonians 1:10—the
fact that He is coming to judge everyone, both the alive and the dead, are
statements made in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 as well as other passages.
As we look at this particular quote it
is used simply as an affirmation of what he has already said. Some emphasize
the fact that Enoch prophesied and how this must mean that the book of Enoch
must be validated as prophecy. But there are both believers and unbelievers who
prophesy in the Bible. For example, in John 11:51 we are told that Caiaphas
prophesied regarding the fate of Jesus by saying it was better for one man to
die in the place of the nation. He doesnÕt understand what he is saying but
even an unbeliever is making a prophetic statement that is true, and so that
was included by John in the Gospel. That doesnÕt mean doesnÕt mean that
Caiaphas was a believer or that what he was saying was necessarily inspired by
God the Holy Spirit, but it was an accurate statement and prediction of what
would come to pass.
Zacharias, the father of John the
Baptist, also prophesied as the Holy Spirit empowered him, women prophesied in
the early church as well; and so this word has some different nuances. There
were numerous prophecies given by prophets that did not become canonical
Scripture and were not even included in Scripture. There was much information
given through the prophets under divine inspiration to Israel in the Old
Testament as well as through the apostles in the New Testament but was not
deemed important enough to be included in Scripture. As well we have a couple
of examples of unbelievers making statements related to prophecy. So this does
not necessarily validate or affirm the entire book of Enoch.
When Jude says that Enoch was the
seventh from Adam this would be an inclusive list. The first generation is
Adam, the second his son Seth, then his son Enosh, then his son Kenan, then his
son Mahalalel, then his son Jared, and then his son Enoch. This identified this
Enoch with the pre-flood figure, and remember that Enoch was the one who did
not die. He was the father of Methuselah who lived to be 989 years of age.
Enoch was translated directly into heaven.
The main point of this quote has to do
with judgment: that the Lord will come in the future with ten thousand or
myriads of His saints (holy ones), which could refer to angels, it can include
both angels and resurrected church age believers. It does not exclude
believers, it simply refers to holy ones and could include both angels and
humans as well. Their purpose is to bring judgment upon mankind, upon the human
race. This is future judgment anticipated by Old Testament Hebrew prophets such
as Zechariah. It is predicted in Zechariah 14:5 that when the Lord will come
all the holy ones will come with Him. Jesus reaffirmed this in Matthew 16:27;
25: 31, as well as other passages; which means that these angels as well as
resurrected church age believers will be in attendance with Jesus when He comes
to destroy the armies of the Antichrist and to throw the Antichrist and the
false prophet into the lake of fire when He comes to defeat the forces of the
devil in the campaign of Armageddon.
The key word that we see here is the
word Òungodly.Ó There are four times that the English uses the word. Putting
the ly ending on it makes it appear to be an adverb. However it is a noun. It is
used as an adjective toward the end: Òungodly sinners.Ó They are all basically
the same words. The root is sebeia,
which indicates something to do with oneÕs relationship to God, conformity to
God, worship of God. eusebeia has
to do with the spiritual life; it is sometimes translated ÒgodlinessÓ or
Ògodlikeness,Ó indicating one who conforms to the characteristics of God. Then
when it is used in a negative sense the eu
prefix (something positive) is substituted with an a prefix, indicating negation—ungodly.
What exactly does it mean that they are
ungodly? There are some verses that ÒungodlyÓ could refer to a believer and
other places where it is very clear that it is always an unbeliever. What we
will see is that technically an ungodly person or Òthe ungodlyÓ as a category
is a term that describes unbelievers. Believers can manifest ungodliness. In
other words, they can act like the unbeliever and manifest the characteristics
of an ungodly person. But an ungodly person is a strict category for unbelievers,
as we will see.
Romans 1:18 NASB ÒFor
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.Ó The human
beings being spoken of here are the ones who have rejected GodÕs revelation of
Himself. They deny the existence of God and are in rebellion against Him. So
these are unbelievers. They are not just rejecting the gospel but prior to
rejecting the gospel they are rejecting even the existence and the authority of
God.
Romans 11:26 NASB Òand so
all Israel will be saved ÉÓ This is referring to the physical deliverance of at
least one third of the Jews during the future battle of Armageddon.
Just as a side note: There are certain
calumnies, certain slanderous things that are said about dispensationalists by
some other Christians which has leaked into the Jewish community. So this gets
distorted and people say dispensationalists are really anti-Semitic because
they believe that at the battle of Armageddon Jesus will kill two thirds of the
Jews. But that is really a distortion. The percentage comes from an Old
Testament prophet, Zechariah. So it is simply affirming what Zechariah says
about the decimation that occurs among the Jewish people at the day of the
Lord. But Jesus comes so that one hundred per cent arenÕt killed. He comes to
rescue Israel at that time and so one third survive.
But take that and compare it to the
numbers in Revelation which talk about the different judgments that come upon
the entirety of the human race. There is one quarter of the human race killed
during the first series of judgments, the seal judgments. During the second
series of judgments, the trumpet judgments, a third of those remaining are
killed. Add that together and it comes to between one half and two thirds of
the entire human race killed during the Tribulation period. So the percentage
of Jews killed during the Tribulation period is roughly the same as the rest of
humanity, so nobody is picking on the Jews in some sort of special hostile, anti-Semitic
manner. We are just saying that God brings judgment on the entire earth during
the Tribulation and these judgments are so severe that two thirds of mankind
are going to die.
But Jesus will come and rescue those
who remain. ÒÉ just as it is written, ÔTHE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE
UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.ÕÓ
The Greek word used here for ÒremoveÓ is apostrepho
(not epistrepho, which is a word
for turning, like repent) which means to turn away or remove something. So
ungodliness at that point is removed from Israel. They are purified, and this
is the same picture as in the Old Testament of the nation being purified before
they go into the future kingdom.
2 Timothy 2:16 NASB ÒBut
avoid worldly {and} empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness.Ó
This is a mandate given to Christians and it is saying not to act in an ungodly
manner. In other words, living like unbelievers. This isnÕt a statement that
Christians are ungodly but that they can perform ungodly acts or ungodliness.
We get a little more clarity when we
look at the noun form. In Romans 4:5 NASB ÒBut to the one who does
not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited
as righteousness.Ó The ungodly are those who need justification. So therefore
the ungodly are unjustified and they require justification. Ungodly here refers
to unbelievers who are in need of justification, so ungodly as a noun refers in
this verse to unbelievers.
Romans 5:6 NASB ÒFor while
we were still helpless [unbelievers], at the right time Christ died for the
ungodly.Ó This is another use of the adjective, and adjective used for the
classification of people—unsaved people.
1 Peter 4:18 NASB ÒAND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED,
WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?Ó Here again ungodly and sinner are used as synonyms for
unbelievers.
2 Peter 2:5, 6 NASB Òand did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a
preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the
world of the ungodly; and {if} He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to
destruction by reducing {them} to ashes, having made them an example to those
who would live ungodly {lives} thereafter.Ó (Notice the New Testament in 2
Peter recognizes the universality of the flood at the time of Noah. It was not
a local flood) Noah and the other seven are godly; they are believers.
Everybody else is an unbeliever, so here ÒungodlyÓ is clearly a synonym for
unbelievers. In verse 6 here there is a shift in the term. Now it is not a
category of people who are ungodly, it is talking about a people who would live
like ungodly people. Sodom and Gomorrah were made up of almost all unbelievers.
The only righteous people/believers were Lot and his wife and two daughters.
It is interesting that LotÕs two
daughters were married but the sons-in-law were unbelievers and didnÕt want to
get out of Sodom and Gomorrah. The only ones rescued were Lot and his wife and
two daughters. Then as they are leaving town his wife looks back.
The admonition of Peter is that the
destruction of those unbelievers is an example to those who would later live
like them. That could include believers, so there is a difference between
ÒungodlyÓ as a category of believers and those who would live like them.
2 Peter 3:7 NASB ÒBut by His
word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the
day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.Ó ÒDestructionÓ [sometimes
translation perdition] is apollumi,
the same term that is used in John 3:16 to refer to those who perish. So this
is a word related to the future eternal judgment of the ungodly men. Once
again, this passage is a clear category for unbelievers.
Further description of these ungodly
false teachers: Jude 1:16 NASB ÒThese are grumblers, finding fault,
following after their {own} lusts; they speak arrogantly ÉÓ The word
ÒfollowingÓ is the Greek word poreuomai
which means to travel about, to walk about. It emphasizes the course of their
life. The terms for grumble and complain are words refer to the expression of
discontent, murmuring, grumbling, griping. They are expressing their
dissatisfaction with God. This is just another aspect to their blasphemy. They
are completely giving in to their lust patterns—approbation lust, sex
lust, power lust, all of the different lust patterns that motivate man
proceeding from his sin nature. It results in sins of the
tongue—grumbling, complaining—but also arrogant boastfulness. They
are always puffing themselves up and making themselves sound as if they are the
final arbiter of the will of God and speaking for God. ÒÉflattering people for
the sake of {gaining an} advantage.Ó They lie and deceive in order to get
people on their side.
This is the same thing Peter warned
about in 2 Peter 2:18 as he warned about the coming of these future false
teachers: NASB ÒFor speaking out arrogant {words} of vanity
[emptiness] they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely
escape from the ones who live in error.Ó They are appealing to people. Their
teaching is licentious, it appeals to the lust of their flesh. They donÕt have
to see any life change in terms of obedience to God but they just continue to
live like unbelievers.
Jude 1:17 NASB ÒBut
you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the
apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.Ó Now he is referring to the fact that there
was a warning made by several apostles. We know of one who makes this same,
identical prediction but Jude is referring to the fact that there is at least
more than one apostle who warned that there would come a time when
mockers—expressing a dissatisfaction and ridicule of a position. [18]
Òthat they were saying to you, ÔIn the last time there will be mockers, following
after their own ungodly lusts.ÕÓ
Who are these mockers? 2 Peter 3:1 NASB ÒThis is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, [2] that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior {spoken} by your apostles. [3] Know this first [above all in priority] of all, that in the last days mockers will come with {their} mocking, following after their own lusts.Ó This is a trend all through the church age, not just at the end of the church age. Throughout the church age there will be those who come rejecting biblical authority and they are motivated by their own lusts. That is the same basic thing being said here as Jude says.
What do they say? 2 Peter 3:4 NASB Òand saying,
ÔWhere is the promise of His coming? For {ever} since the fathers fell asleep,
all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.ÕÓ This is a
prediction. What he is saying is that all things continue at the same rate. In
evolution there is a doctrine called uniformitarianism which is an assumption
underlying historical geology, the idea that we can interpret the fossils and
we can interpret the strata of the earth in a way to give us a time line, and
that all rates of the deposition of soil have occurred at the same rate
throughout all of the ages of the earth. It is a uniform decay pattern so that
we can look at what the decay rate is today and extrapolate back, and therefore
we get millions or billions of years for our ages. So Peter predicts this
doctrine from the scoffers.
2 Peter 3:5 NASB ÒFor when they maintain this, it escapes their notice [they willingly reject it] that by the word of God {the} heavens existed long ago and {the} earth was formed out of water and by water.Ó This is a reference to Genesis 1:2 where the darkness covered the face of the deep, which is a term for the seas that covered the face of the earth. This is talking about the condition of the earth in the first period from the creation in Genesis chapter one to the flood. Because [6] Òthrough [by this water that was there prior to the flood] which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.Ó That is talking about the world-wide flood.
Then he goes to the heavens and the earth that now are, i.e. since the time of the flood. 2 Peter 3:7 NASB ÒBut by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.Ó So verse 6 is not talking about some kind of a destruction in Genesis 1:2, it is talking about the world-wide flood because God judges the earth twice: once by flood and second by fire. It is destroyed by water at the Noahic flood and it is destroyed by fire in the future judgment.
So when Jude comes along and says that
there will be mockers in the last days who would walk according to their own
ungodly lusts he is affirming the same thing, connecting what he is saying back
to what Peter says in 2 Peter chapter three.