¹ Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: ² May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. ³ Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all time handed down to the saints. ⁴ For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into indecent behaviour and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. ⁵ Now I want to remind you, though you know everything once and for all, that JHWE, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day, ⁷ just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire (Jude1:1-7).

Jude aka “Judas, not Iscariot”, typical of New Testament Apostolic writers describes the believers he is addressing as those whom God has called and chosen to become associated with His Son, Jesus Christ (v1). It follows then that Christians are not those who through knowledge (of the gospel), wisdom or personal virtue have  chosen Christ to be their Saviour, but ultimately are  those whom God  in accordance with His sovereign will has chosen for Christ (cf. Jn6:44 & 15:16). Those with wisdom should discern that this indisputable biblical truth would make God out to be a Monster if it were the case that individuals are either saved or damned. As I am in the process of testifying, such is categorically not the case – most people are in neither category. The previous post on 2&3John hopefully provides elucidation, whilst The Little Book of Providence sets out how such tripartite soteriology is derivable from Scripture as a whole.

In these opening verses, Jude is warning that even humans being who have been chosen  to be amongst the assembly of God’s people, indeed even the angels of heaven cannot rely on their favoured estate to God’s righteous judgements. In terms of the Old Testament, Jude reminds us that “after saving a people out of the land of Egypt (God) subsequently destroyed those who did not remain faithful” (v5b). And in terms of His angels, those “who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (v6).

This pertains to Gen6:1-2, which many Christians scarcely comprehend or chose to disregard, yet it is crucial to understanding God’s rationale for the worldwide flood and the ethnic cleansing of the Canaanite territories that became the promised land^NOTE#1. It is explained in some detail in the Book of Enoch to which Jude will shortly make reference (next post), and I have commented on the matter in this earlier blog.

NOTE#1 God had insisted that all men, women and children of the giant-infested territories be destroyed in His peoples’ battles with the Canaanites (e.g. Deut3:6). The Old Testament certainly makes reference to such hybrids but unlike the Book of Enoch does not clearly explain their origins. Even relying on canonical Scripture it should be evident the matter is directly linked to the angelic-human sexual relationships referred to in Gen6:1-2 which Jude references in verse 7.

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