In Jude we read of evil men crept in unawares, men who pollute the Church and corrupt its life and message. How do they do this?
Jude tells us they promote the 'way of Cain' who killed out of malice, pride, and a desire for standing before men and God. They also fall into the 'error of Balaam' who manipulated the word and corrupted the office of prophet. He hired out his services as he sought financial gain. And Jude also refers to the 'gainsaying of Core' who opposed Moses and sought to usurp his authority. His aspirations and actions served to subvert to the divine oracle.
As the Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of the New Testament, I have long argued that the errors found in the apostolic period are left deliberately in broad and nebulous terms. While we want at times so desperately to know the specifics, our curiosity is not satisfied. Instead we are given the big picture when it comes to certain errors and as such they remain universal and are applicable to the Church throughout the age. The same errors reappear in different guises and forms but in substance they are the same.
Jude helps us to understand how these apostates work within the Church. Sometimes we seem to think that error will be obvious - teachers directly teaching the Church to sin and give service to the enemy. Some New Testament passages seem to suggest as much - I'm thinking specifically of the errors addressed to the Seven Churches in Revelation. But even with those examples I think the nature of the errors is often misunderstood falling prey to hyper-literalist readings that miss the point.
In the Book of Revelation we see these apostates in alliance with the Beast powers and reading Jude we are also drawn toward Peter who warns (in 2 Peter 2) that the false prophets of the Church Age will behave in a way that the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. With covetousness and feigned words they shall make merchandise of the Church, and they are then compared to the angels who did not maintain their proper estate.
They speak evil of dignities. This takes us to Daniel 7 and the boasting of the Little Horn that emerges from the Fourth and most terrible Beast. He speaks great words against the Most High, thinking to change times and laws - in other words asserting a god-like mastery over creation.
They despise government Peter tells us. How often have I heard sermons decrying those on the Left who are critical of Right-wing administrations. These verses apply when people are critical of Reagan, the Bushes, or Trump but the criticism of Clinton, Obama, and Biden is right and proper.
This isn't exactly what Peter is getting at - though it does apply in one sense. The Little Horn of Daniel is boasting against the angelic powers which are so poignantly represented in the contest between the Sar/Prince of Persia and the Archangel Gabriel.
There is a spiritual and angelic or properly elohimic aspect to the contests between nations and rulers, and men are (it would seem) all to often pawns in this process or engaged in battles that have dimensions unknown to them.
And yet others embrace the spiritual nature of their aspirations and conquests - claiming the mandate or sanction of heaven, casting their conquests in sacral terms. As such, when they denounce and seek to subdue other nations, they are (whether fully realizing it or not) waging war on the 'gods' or elohim of those nations. They are taking on the angels we might say.
Their dreams of casting down nations is tantamount to declaring war on or proclaiming the downfall of elohim rulers - an out of order aspiration, a boasting akin to the Little Horn in Daniel 7.
Now some older commentators of will point to the Little Horn emerging in Daniel 7 as finding fulfilment in the likes of Julius Caesar. On a broader level it could apply to various figures like Antiochus Epiphanes or Alexander. This is true enough and the Beast powers certainly persecute or 'wear out' the saints.
But Revelation expands this imagery and pulls from Zechariah's depiction of apostates in the episode of the two witnesses in chapter 11. And most notoriously in chapter 17, we see the imagery of Mystery Babylon, the Whore riding the draconic Beast.
Many Protestants have interpreted Daniel 7 as referring to the Papacy - another blaspheming political power emerging from the matrix of the Roman Beast. And this is also true enough but we needn't restrict ourselves to a narrow 'papal' interpretation. It's not just about popes but the False Church in general. And yet these passages regarding Cain, Balaam, Korah, and the Little Horn also reveal this apostasy is tied to aspirations of political power, wealth, and standing or a kind of glory. This is why the Papacy is the obvious choice - and yet that spirit lives on in other quarters of the Church and within different polities.
The Judaizers in the first century fit this description as did the leaders of the Constantinian-era Church - finding its culmination in the papacy. The papacy is still with us but has reinvented itself in light of modernity. It still wields tremendous power but in a different (and largely economic) form. But the passage still finds direct relevance in the Dominionist project launched by the progeny of the Magisterial Reformation - the post-war Evangelical movement and some of the more robust expressions of Confessionalism. And increasingly these interests overlap with the proponents of Catholic Integralism. While different in form, these groups have fallen into the same category of errors as the aforementioned groups. Is the Little Horn like a Caesar? Yes. Is it like a Pope? Yes. The form is different today to be sure but the overall vision and aspiration is similar. It's simply cast in the forms and categories of a different historical epoch - in this case a post-Enlightenment, post-war, and post-Reformation milieu.
In light of this larger paradigm, I was asked not long ago if my critiques of government are not out of line - beyond the bounds as I potentially flirt with speaking evil of dignities. It's a valid question and one that certainly drives one to pause and consider.
I would be guilty if my commentary or indictments were political in nature - in that I hoped to motivate readers to act and thwart or cast down these powers. That is not my goal and I believe I've always made this clear. My intent has always been in keeping with a kind of 'State of the World' report as seen in Zechariah 1 or in the exposes' of the prophets and yet with a significant qualification - there are no Prophets today. I do not have access to the Divine Council to hear the words and proclamations issuing from the Holy Throne. My commentary is human and thus necessarily limited and flawed.
What then is my intention? To expose and counter the moral and theological claims made by states and in particular Christians who seek to ally the Church with these powers and either appropriate their power and manipulate it somehow. The False Church weaves mists and spells of confusion, spreading myths and lies about both friend and foe in order to accomplish these ends. They are therefore no different than the agents of the world who most certainly do the same.
I am in no way calling on Christians to take up the sword, the lawsuit, or to engage in political action. On the contrary my hope is by exposing the corrupt and deceitful nature of the world system and the machinations of those who run it and aspire to do so that Christians will recoil and return to New Testament obedience taking up the cross and the calling to be pilgrims and strangers on the Earth. My hope is for Christians to get out of politics and Wall Street.
If the goals are not political but to expose the evil of the world, to call God's people to reject it, to expose and shine light on the deeds of darkness, then yes it's appropriate. The motives are not political and therefore represent no challenge to the Beast powers apart from the challenge of the gospel itself and the proclamation we make when we gather as the Church in their midst proclaiming Christ's death until He come. It's a call to divest not invest, a call to come out, not appropriate or seek union with.
The Dominionists aspire to sacralize the nations - attempting to transform Babylon into Zion but always failing and producing instead a counterfeit Zion or to use my oft-used illustration, crowning Babel with a cross.
We dare not express such hopes and expectations or pursue such projects. When such conquests and transformations are sought in Christian terms it is at best an expression of over-realized eschatology. Only with the completion of the Parousia will we see the Kingdom glories of the New Heaven and New Earth. Until then we are called to bear witness, suffer, and die to the glory of Christ - following His example as much as we are able. We wage spiritual war but not with carnal weapons.
The New Testament also deals with other errors that smack of today's Modernist or Liberal Theology as well as many of the errors seen in Rome and the other false churches and Christian movements. But we need to understand that some of the darkest portraits painted by Jude, Peter, and John of heresy and heretics in their day - is alive and well and with us today. It wears different garb and hides behind a different mask but the same spirit of Balaam and Cain - resulting in a spiritual Sodom is with us still.
Daniel 7 and Revelation 11 are clear - the Beast powers will prevail in this age. The moment of rejoicing is when the same Beast powers turn against the False Church and destroy it. But in human/temporal terms this probably is not entirely pleasant either and so only a heavenly/eschatological perspective will allow the Christian to see through the fog and rejoice in the light - even as we suffer alongside the apostates at the hand of the Beast powers.
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