Jude
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.
Paul Sanyangore is the lead pastor at Victory World International Ministries in Zimbabwe. He claims to have God’s actual phone number. He has taken out a phone in the middle of services before and called God to ask Him how he should heal a particular person in the congregation. Sanyangore responded to criticisms of these antics thusly:
I have a direct channel, actually I have His number and I can call Him when need arises. It is possible to talk to God; why would you doubt that I got a call from Him? I actually have a direct line which I can call Him on and get instructions on how to proceed. I got this when I was praying and I heard a voice telling me to call direct.
Church, I am begging you to be deeply grounded in the gospel and to be aware of false teachings and teachers.
Two weeks ago at a church in Florida a drag queen who goes by the name “Penny Cost” was brought before the church to address the children during the children’s sermon. After some playful banter with the kids, the priest explained that the drag queen was actually fulfilling positively, Paul’s words from Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The drag queen was, he argued, the embodiment of what Paul was calling Christians to be.
Church, I am begging you to be deeply grounded in the gospel and to be aware of false teachings and teachers.
A pastor named Denis Kinto lines up his church members during a worship service and beats his mostly female congregants with a stick in order, he says, to cast demons out of them.
Church, I am begging you to be deeply grounded in the gospel and to be aware of false teachings and teachers.
A Lutheran minister named Andrea Roske-Metcalfe preaches in a chapel service in March of this year that Jesus was wrong to say to the Syrophoencian woman that it is not right to take what is for the children and give it to dogs, that Jesus “screwed up” in saying this, that we would have applauded the woman had she slapped Jesus in the face for saying this, and that, in this case, the Syrophoenician woman redeemed Jesus by showing Him how wrong He was to say this.[1]
Church, I am begging you to be deeply grounded in the gospel and to be aware of false teachings and teachers.
In Jude 8-11, Jude continues his consideration of the false teachers. We will approach his considerations as cautions to the church.
Beware the mystical fog that obscures the divine commandments.
You will notice, if you look at false teachers carefully, that they are quite adept at creating a mystical fog through the alleged visionary experiences, dreams, and an idiosyncratic usage of language that tends more to obscure than to reveal. Of the false teachers bedeviling the church to which Jude writes, Jude says:
8a-c Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh…
There are two aspects here:
- They rely on their dreams.
- Their dreams appear to give warrant to immoral behavior of the flesh.
Douglas Moo writes of the word “dreams”:
…most commentators agree that Jude is referring to visionary experiences. The verb he uses here (enypniazomai) often refers to the visions that prophets receive, as it does in its only other New Testament occurrence: “Your old men will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17, quoting Joel 2:28). The same verb is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to refer to the visions that false prophets claimed to receive (e.g., Deut. 13:2, 4, 6). Apparently, then, the false teachers based their immoral behavior on revelatory visions that they claimed to have received.[2]
I am not one who thinks that God never communicates through dreams. I am, however, one who argues that any alleged word from God must be verified by scripture. I am also of the view that those who claim to have received divine words through dreams to an inordinate extent are in danger of being deceived. Yes, God may communicate how God wants, but God’s normative pattern for communicating is through His word. The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). Dreams did occur and might occur still, yet the mystical experience itself must be placed beneath the clear words of scripture.
Beware the teacher that loves his or her dream more than they love scripture! Beware the one who claims to have God’s phone numbers! Beware the obfuscation and fog of the mystics! I am not even one who sees “mysticism” as inherently bad. There is a Christian mystical tradition out of which good has come. But that tradition itself and its fruits must be judged by sacred scripture!
The dreamer, the visionary, the one who seems to have trouble with simple declarative statements from scripture should be approached and listened to cautiously. Especially if the upshot of their dreaming appears to be carnality, the defilement of the flesh! This is often the case, is it not? The one who downplays scripture and plays up the ecstatic experience is oftentimes the one who plays fast and loose with holiness. Beware the sensual dreamer! Beware the one who traffics inordinately in the esoteric, the odd, the unclear. Beware the one who loves the strange theory more than he or she loves the sermon on the mount!
Beware the teacher that appears to have no authority but his or her own.
And beware the one whose authority is his or her own. Jude writes:
8a-d Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority…
Inevitably the false teacher rejects godly authority. He or she must in order to put forth their aberrant teachings without disruption. Notice that the early church submitted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. The false teaching will have none of this! They want to teach their own teaching as if they have an apostles’ authority themselves!
You will remember that in Matthew 7 the people marveled at the authority of Jesus.
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
We need to understand the distinction between the inherent authority of the Son and the derivative authority of the minister. Jesus’ authority comes by virtue of His being the second person of the Trinity. It is not derivative. Jesus can say, “Thus saith the Lord!” and be speaking of Himself in full authority. Not so, the minister. God’s ministers speak with God’s authority only when they speak God’s truth and so their authority must be seen as derivative, as not really their own. The minister has no inherent authority. Were I to stand up and proclaim, “Thus saith the Wyman!” I very much hope I would be laughed out of the room! No, the job of the preacher is to point the people to the God who has all authority, not to presume to have an authority unto himself.
An American “prophetess” with a following looks into the television camera and says the following:
You need to send a thousand dollars. If you can’t send a thousand, send five hundred. If all you have is a nickel, wrap it in tissue and put it in an envelope. If all you have is your clothes, send them.” / “If all you have is $79.36, I double-dare you to empty your bank account. Close your account.” / “You’ve got three days to get that into your mailbox. I’m not afraid to say this. I am walking in my authority. If you don’t postmark it by the tenth, we will not accept it. God says you have three days to get your thousand-dollar seed in the mail.” / “The Lord told me to give you these socks. In your time of prayer, you are to wear them, and you will walk in authority. Be careful what you say, because what you say will come to pass.
Did you catch that statement buried there in the middle: “I am walking in my authority.” There it is! The warning sirens should be going off!
There are two dangers with Christians and authority: one danger is the danger of giving a minister too much authority and of not being able to challenge the false minister. The other is of not being able to ever follow and to see oneself as an authority unto oneself.
For ministers, we must see ourselves as ministers alongside the people of God. The seeming disappearance of the priesthood of the believer is a great and frightening tragedy in the church! And the minister must understand that his authority goes only so far as he speaks the word of God, which means of course that his authority is not really even his after all!
Beware the person who claims to be of God but who can never follow. Beware the Christian whose arrogance is unchecked and immeasurable. Beware the Christian who claims an authority that he or she does not and cannot have!
Beware the one who blasphemes the sacred.
And beware the one who blasphemes the sacred. We move now to a fascinating passage of scripture indeed! Let us hear, first, our text:
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.
The final attribute of these false teachers is that they “blaspheme the glorious ones.” This would appear to be a reference to angels. In what sense were these teachers blaspheming angels? Some argue that the example that Jude gives in verse 9 suggests that they are actually blaspheming fallen or evil angels. Consider:
9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.
Here, Jude appears to Jewish tradition and the idea that, after Moses died, Michael conflicted with the devil over the question of burial, the devil arguing that Moses should not be buried and Michael arguing that he should be. The interesting fact that Jude appeals to extra biblical tradition need not concern us here. The more interesting point is that immediately after referring to the blaspheming of angels Jude points out that Michael, in his confrontation with the fallen angel, the devil, did not presume to rebuke him on his own authority but rather said, “The Lord rebuke you.” This could mean, then, that the false teachers were doing what Michael had refused to do: rebuking fallen angels or demons on the basis of their own alleged authority as opposed to speaking an authoritative word from God over them. That is an interesting idea.
Others point to the biblical teaching that the law was mediated through angels. For instance, in Hebrews 2 we read:
2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable…
And in Acts 7, speaking of Moses, Stephen says:
38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.
Green, appealing to Chaine, observes:
Judaism saw the angels as mediators of the Mosaic Law (Acts 7:38, 53; Heb. 2:2; Jubilees 1:27–29) who watched over its observance. It is hardly surprising that libertines should speak slightingly of guardians of the Law.[3]
This is certainly a viable interpretive option and would fit with the general tone of immorality surrounding these false teachers and their false teachings. By calling for violations of God’s commandments, these teachers were blaspheming the angels through whom the law was mediated.
Of course, there are numerous ways to blaspheme angels and we might not be surprised that this is happening today in American Christianity. For instance, a rising star in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has publicly argued, in her interpretation of Psalm 23, that the “goodness and mercy” that follow us in Psalm 23 may be referring to lesbian angels who pursue women flirtatiously.[4] This is as blasphemous as it is strange, which is saying something!
We might blaspheme the angels as well by making too much of them. Some years back there was an angel craze that was reflected on television in bookstores and also in Christian bookstores. Angel trinkets, angel kitsch, and the like continue to fascinate people. But let us consider that angels do not come to draw attention to themselves but rather to God! Do not blaspheme the angels by elevating them above their station.
Of course, all of this talk of blaspheming the glorious ones is just another way of saying that these false teachers had lost a sense of the sacred, had forgotten how to tremble before a holy God. Beware the teacher who forgets to tremble before the sacred! Jude writes of them:
11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.
These three examples are chilling: Cain, Balaam, and Korah.
Cain killed his brother.
In Numbers 31:16, we read of Balaam that “on Balaam’s advice” the people of Israel were led into sinful unions with pagan peoples thereby corrupting the people of God.
Numbers 16 tells us how Korah led a rebellion against Moses and invited the judgment of God.
So one killed his brother. The other led his brothers into error with ungodly advice. And the other incited his brothers to outright rebellion against God.
Here we see the fruit of the false teacher. If left unchecked, false teaching will wreak havoc in the church! It will bring death, sin, and rebellion!
At this point, we need to be reminded of good news. All of these examples of strange and aberrant teachings in the church of the living God may lead us to despair, may lead us to think that the church is irreparably fallen. But we may thank God that this is not so, that this will not be so! May I remind us of the words of Jesus from Matthew 16?
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
No, the church still stands! Parts of her have become unfaithful, have been deceived, it is true. But the church still stands!And it will continue to stand. And, indeed, it will have victory! For Christ is building His church. He has not abandoned her. He has not left her. He is building her and empowering her. He has equipped the church to spot and deal with false teachings. His bride has not been left to her own devices. The Spirit of the living God indwells the church.
Church, do not lose heart! The gates of hell shall not prevail against you!
[1] https://protestia.com/2022/10/12/blast-from-the-past-prophet-has-gods-literal-phone-number-and-takes-phone-call-from-heaven-during-service/; https://protestia.com/2022/10/11/is-do-not-conform-to-this-world-is-a-pro-drag-queen-verse/; https://www.truth-discernment.com/juanita-bynum; https://protestia.com/2022/09/05/video-pastor-arrested-after-being-caught-beating-whipping-his-congregants-in-church/; https://protestia.com/2022/05/24/pastrix-says-jesus-called-syrophoenician-woman-a-b-jesus-screwed-up-she-redeems-him/
[2] Moo, Douglas J. 2 Peter, Jude (The NIV Application Commentary Book 18). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.
[3] Green, E. Michael. 2 Peter and Jude (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries) (pp. 195-196). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
[4] https://protestia.com/2022/07/29/woke-pastor-says-there-are-lesbian-angels-who-consensually-flirt-with-queer-christian-women/