Jude and the deceivers, the prototype

 

Jude

On Heresy

 

Introduction 

This little book is about another little book, the one-chapter New Testament book of Jude. It’s only 25 verses, but those verses are packed with truths that are relevant to our day and time. By that I mean, the “certain people” of Jude 4 that got Jude’s attention and prompted him to change his mind about his letter’s topic, are active in the visible church now. Jude’s deceivers were the prototype of our current batch of deceivers. There really is nothing new under the sun.

This will not be an exhaustive study of Jude but will focus on the people Jude said have crept into the church. *BTW, the word heretic originally meant “to make a choice.” Since that time, it has come to mean “one who promotes lies and deceptions under the pretense of orthodoxy.” So, it deals with those who have made the choice to promote error rather than truth.

And in this work, I will name names. Paul did not hold back in naming those who opposed the gospel in his day. ¹⁹ holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,

 ²⁰ among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

 (1 Tim. 1:19-2:1 ESV)

 ¹⁴ Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

 ¹⁵ Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

 (2 Tim. 4:14-15 ESV). There are many deceivers today who strongly oppose the gospel of Christ. There are those who are doing great harm to the gospel and they merit being called out by name. We must expose them. 

Chapter one: The Great Inundation 

The visible church has been inundated by thousands of false teachers and false prophets and false apostles and false pastors and false evangelists who are evil, despicable men and women. There’s no way to sugar coat what they do, and who would want too anyway? They are teaching things contrary to the word of God. They are, in fact, preaching a different gospel and a different Jesus. And according to the word of God, they are accursed (Gal. 1:6-9). Regardless of the huge displays they carry with them and set up on their platforms proclaiming, “Jesus Is Lord,” and mouth the words, they do not believe it. As the apostle Paul put it, “their god is their belly.” Phil. 3:19. Their god is filthy lucre, ill-gotten gain. They are pretenders to the throne.

The more outstanding of these deceivers belong to the Word Faith cult and the cult of the New Apostolic Reformation. The better-known cults such as Islam (and Islam is a Christian cult, believe it or not. One of their own scholars has said so in a book entitled The Belief Net Islam), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the cult of the Roman Catholic Church and the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses have their billions of followers, but they are out-there-in-your-face kind of cults, not as subtle as the cults of the Word Faith and NAR are. These people have crept in unnoticed, unnoticed due to their façade of Christianity.

Jude’s letter warned the church of the 1^st century and now it warns the church of the 21^st century. The only difference between Jude’s day and ours is the deceivers in our day reach billions with their heresies via the internet. One commentator said, “America’s greatest export is heresy.” They have plied their wares in the poorest of the third world nations with no shame. The sad part of that is that the vulnerable and ignorant in those third world countries believe that what they are hearing is true Christianity. I cannot even begin to imagine the audacity it takes to rob Third World citizens of the little money they possess. May God bless our disciples-of-Christ missionaries and curse the deceivers.

 Deceivers Galore

 Most of these deceivers claim to be apostles and prophets, when in fact they are servants of the devil, passing themselves off as ministers of righteousness.  Second Corinthians 11: 12-15. Which brings up one of the great heresies perpetuated by these deceivers and that is there are still apostles and prophets today just like the ones we read about in the New Testament. That, my beloved, is a lie. Sure, missionaries could be called apostles because they are sent out to spread the gospel (the word apostle means “sent out one”), but no one does, and for good reason. No one that I am aware of refers to their missionaries as apostles. There are likely exceptions out there somewhere but that is not the norm. We simply refer to these sent out ones as missionaries, not apostles. So, why don’t we read the passage I just referred to,

 2 Cor. 11:12-15. ¹² And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do.

 ¹³ For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

 ¹⁴ And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

 ¹⁵ So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

 (2 Cor. 11:12-15 ESV)

Paul, on the other hand, was a true apostle in keeping with the original 12 (11 after Judas committed suicide, but 12 again after Matthias replaced him. See Acts 1). And the apostle Paul had the God-given credentials to prove it.

 Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, (Rom. 1:1 ESV)

 

1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, (1 Cor. 1:1 ESV)

 

2 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,  (2 Cor. 1:1 ESV)

Not one of the men and women who have called themselves to be apostles is a God-called apostle. Not one! I stand with the apostle Paul, what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. I am undermining the work of the false apostles in our day.

·                  May I give you a partial list of men and women who claim to be apostles and prophets today? Good. Here it is: Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Bill Johnson, Kris Valloton, Che Ahn, Rick Joyner, Dr. Michael Brown, Todd Bentley, the late Dr. C. Peter Wagner, who came up with the NAR idea, the cult of the New Apostolic Reformation back in 1996 when he said God revealed it to him, even the abomination known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a quorum of twelve apostles, Kathyrn Krick, Gino Jennings, and I’ll end with Greg Locke. There are more. So, you can see what we are up against and why Jude found it necessary to address these creeps.