Jude Chapter 1:

Jude Chapter 1:

3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

This is one of the most sobering passages of scripture in the new testament writings, and the purpose of it could not be more clear. There are two simplistic and very powerful points being made here, both of which are of the greatest significance. One of these points is that believers in Christ must be diligent to preserve the original faith, because there are those who have distorted it to deny both Christ and God the Father. Just to be clear as to how that denial is perpetrated, John the apostle clarifies it for us: "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time... Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also" (I Jn. 2:18,22,23). So it is evident that the denial of Jesus of Nazareth being the Christ and the Son of God, is exactly what Jude spoke of that was being taught by ungodly men, whom John called antichrists.

"The faith that was once delivered to the saints" is the faith that was clearly outlined by the apostle Paul to the believers in Corinth: "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:" (I Cor. 15:1-4). And that leads into the second point that was made by Jude, which is to say we can only be ultimately saved IF we maintain the core elements of the faith, as were stipulated by Paul's writing to the saints in Corinth. That particular point of Jude's writing was established by his examples of those who were NOT saved because of their departure from their first estate and faith, and because of their disobedience. To believe that we can be saved even if we depart from our first faith and obedience is absolute heresy, and it's contrary to everything in the Bible.

Jude gives us a few stellar examples of the damnation of those who left their original faith, but the Bible is replete with others. It may seem to some that leaving the core principals of the faith of who Jesus is and what he has done, is not really very feasible; but if that were the case then Jude and the other writers of the new testament books would not have cautioned against it. Continuance in disobedience can and will change a person's view of the truth about who Jesus really is, and what he has accomplished for us. That is exactly why the apostle Paul warned the Corinthians with yet another admonition "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (II Cor. 11:3,4). This reality also is what another vastly misunderstood scripture is about: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). Make no mistake my friend, that 'other Jesus' is the Jesus who is not the Christ, did not die for our sins or raise from the dead, and is not the Son of God. We need to watch out for that same antichrist doctrine in these last days, and shun it completely. The failure to do so is lethal, as Jude confirmed to us emphatically.