Jude 1:12-13, Part 1

[Hidden In Him]

Expect Tares Among The Wheat In The End-Times, Part 1

     Prophecies regarding the Gnostics are actually all over scripture. For instance, they are the ones being talked about when Jesus taught the Parable of the Wheat and Tares. Tares looked very similar to wheat when you were looking at matters merely from the outside, but they produced an entirely different kind of seed on the inside. Instead of leading to good health, the "fruit" born by tares would produce delirium, blindness and even death if consumed in sufficient quantities. Likewise, the Gnostics professed to be followers of "Christ" on the outside, but the teachings they were producing were, spiritually-speaking, potentially lethal.
     Sowing tares in an enemy's field was a genuine practice during New Testament times. The Romans even passed a law against it. In the spiritual, Satan is God's enemy sowing these tares, and those serving him will be "bound into bundles and burned" when Judgment Day comes:

     He set before [the disciples] another parable, saying, "The kingdom of God is likened unto a man having sown good seed in his field. But after the workmen went to sleep, his enemy came and sowed tares in the midst of the wheat and went away. And when the blade sprouted and produced fruit, then appeared the tares also. And the housemaster's servants, having come to him, said, "Sir, was it not good seed you were sowing in your field? From where, then, have the tares come?" But he said to them, "An enemy did this." And the servants said to him, "Then do you want us to go forth and gather them up?" But he said, "No, lest in gathering the tares you should uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "Gather first the tares and bind them into bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat together into my barn." (Matthew 13:24-30)

     Thus, this parable served as a warning of how the Devil would sow "evil seed" amongst the congregations of God after the Lord ascended to Heaven. In contrast, the Parable of the Sower that the true word of God was the good seed which would grow to 30, 60 and 100 fold within believers if they let it:

     And He was teaching them many things in parables, and saying to them in His teaching, "Listen. Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it came to pass that, in sowing, some [seed] fell near the path, and the birds came and devoured it. And some fell on stony ground where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun arose it was scorched, and because it did not have much root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it did not yield [any] fruit. And some fell into good ground, and in growing up and increasing it was yielding fruit; one was producing up to thirty, one up to sixty, and one up to an hundred fold."
     And He said unto them, "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear." (Mark 4:2-9)

     What "fruit" was a true believer supposed to be producing? Thirty, sixty or one hundred fold of what exactly? The growth of the seed. And what was the seed in this parable? The word of God (See Mark 4:14-20). Thus, Jesus' point here was that true believers needed to allow the word of God to grow within them and take deep roots so that they would not faint during times of persecution. So, too, were they to turn away from focusing upon the anxieties and desires of this life to concentrate on growing in God's word, until eventually revelation within them increased to thirty, sixty or a hundred fold. When this happened, the knowledge of His word would so abound within them that it would spill over into others, thereby spreading into new soil to begin the process anew.

                                             

     The question, however, was how was the word growing within them during New Testament times, and the answer is through the gifts of the Holy Spirit being continually made manifest among them. This is clear from passages like 1 Corinthians 14:26-31, where Paul encouraged them to continue growing in the revelation from God: 

     What is it, then, brothers? Whenever you may come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone with a tongue speaks, [let it be] by two or the most three, and in succession, and let one interpret. And if there is no interpreter, let him be silent in the church, but let him speak to himself and God. And let prophets speak two or three, and let the others discern. And if anything should be revealed to another sitting by, let the first one be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be exhorted. (1 Corinthians 14:26-31)

     Jude advises his readers to engage in these same things towards the end of the letter, when he tells them:

     These [heretics], distinguishing themselves, are soulish, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, edifying yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the Love of God, welcoming the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (Jude 1:19-21)

    Edifying themselves through manifestation of the spiritual gifts is the same thing Paul was talking about when he said "Whenever you may come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edification." The problem with the heretics is that they did not have the Spirit of God within them, so they were incapable of operating in any genuine spiritual gifts during meetings, and even worse, defiantly resistant to any judgments being pronounced against them through the gifts as well. This is the meaning behind the metaphors Jude is about to begin using, starting with the fact that they were fearlessly shepherding themselves rather than fearing the judgments that might be pronounced during services.


Blemished Sheep, Fearlessly Shepherding Themselves

     Because they were deliberately entering Christian meetings to seduce the weak into sin, such men had plenty reason to fear God. Yet Satan was already deluding them into thinking they had nothing to fear from the Old Testament God or His followers, so even when potential judgments were pronounced against them by the Spirit during services, they had a tendency to ignore them and laugh them off.
     This is what Jude was alluding to in the first of a series of analogies he would now use against them:

     These are blemishes in the midst of your Agapes, fearlessly shepherding themselves [while] feasting together among you; waterless clouds, being carried away by winds; unfruitful autumn trees having died twice over, having been uprooted; wild waves of the sea, frothing up their reproaches; wayward stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude 1:12-13)

     Having rebelled against God, these heretics were no longer submitted to His Lordship. This was first of all evident in how they, as "blemished sheep" (i.e. sinners) were not submitting to the direct commands of the Great Shepherd Himself being uttered among them through spiritual gifts. The Spirit of God Himself was passing judgments in the now during New Testament times, as is evident from passages like 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, where the apostle Paul described how the excommunication of one especially sinful man was to be carried out:

     Sexual immorality is commonly being reported among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, such as for one to have sex with [his] father's wife. And here you are having become inflated with pride, and rather did not mourn because the one having done this deed might [soon] be removed from your midst! For, indeed, I being absent in the body but present in the spirit have already judged regarding the one having done this thing as being present: In the name of the Lord Jesus, when you have been gathered together in the power of the Lord Jesus, and with my spirit, you are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved on the Day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5)

     In some instances, however, Gnostic teachers appear to have even been laughing off the judgments of God being pronounced against them, and not taking it seriously. Such was the case with Jezebel and her family at the church at Thyatira, whom Jesus Christ Himself stated that He had warned repeatedly to repent, and yet she had ignored those warnings: 

     And to the angel of the church at Thyatira write: "These things saith the Son of God… I know your works, and love, and service, and faith, and your endurance, and that your last works are more than [your] first. But I have against you that you suffer the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and misleads My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her time that she might repent of her sexual immorality, but she does not want to repent of it. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great affliction if they will not repent of their works. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the reins and hearts, and will give to each of you according to your works. (Revelation 2:18-23)

    "I gave her time that she might repent of her sexual immorality, but she does not want to repent of it" suggest two things: That, through divine utterance, Jesus Himself had already made it abundantly clear to Jezebel that she needed to repent, and secondly that she had openly ignored His command and refused to. Now the Lord was giving her a final warning that her judgment was approaching unless she repented and obeyed.
     But Jezebel was here only following the example that had been set for her by Simon himself, the founder of the heresies she was teaching, because he himself had also had judgments pronounced against him by the apostle Peter, yet had not heeded those warnings to his own eventual destruction.

     But Simon, having seen that the Holy Spirit was given by the laying on of the apostles’ hands, offered them riches, saying, “Give me this authority as well, so that on whomsoever I may lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your riches come to ruin with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be obtained by riches. There is no part nor share for you in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this your wickedness, and ask the Lord God if [this] thought of your heart may truly be forgiven you. For I perceive that you are subject to the poison of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." And having answered, Simon said, “You pray to the Lord on my behalf, so that nothing which you have spoken may come upon me.” (Acts 8:18–24)

     As covered in other studies, tradition states that Simon's end was indeed a violent one, when judgement finally came upon him for defying, through displays of Satanic power, the Spirit of God that was operating in the apostle Peter many years later while in Rome.


Waterless Clouds, Carried Away By Winds

     What did Jude mean by describing them as "waterless clouds, carried away by winds"? All of his analogies now turned to describing how these heretics could be readily identified amongst the churches of God: By what was and was not coming out of their mouths. As already stated, they were supposed to be participating in the edification of the church by manifesting the spiritual gifts, but instead they were operating in false gifts, an illustration Jude is taking here from Proverbs 25:14:

     As when there are clouds and wind without rain, so is a man who boasts of false gifts." (Proverbs 25:14)
 
     Whereas the early church was growing in divine revelation through the use of the true gifts, particularly prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues, the Gnostics were operating in false ones. This is prophesied about them long in advance of its manifestation by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself:

     Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but within they are rapacious wolves. By their fruits you shall know them... Not everyone who says unto Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but the one doing the will of My Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many works of power?" And then I will confess to them, "I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness." (Matthew 7:15-16, 21-23)

     It is no coincidence that later church Fathers recorded the Gnostics as operating in fraudulent manifestations of "prophecy" and "exorcism." These were merely false gifts masquerading as the real thing:

     The mystic priests belonging to this sect both lead profligate lives and practise magical arts, each one to the extent of his ability. They use exorcisms and incantations. Love-potions, too, and charms, as well as those beings who are called "Paredri" (familiars) and "Oniropompi" (dream-senders), and whatever other curious arts can be had recourse to, are eagerly pressed into their service... [they are] called Simonians, and from them "Gnosis" (i.e "knowledge") falsely so called, received its beginning, as one may learn even from their own writings. (Irenaeus, Ante-Nicene Fathers, V.1, P.348)

     This is why Peter described them as "fountains without water, and clouds being driven by a storm" (2 Peter 2:17). They were being "driven" by demonic spirits to speak and act as directed, but were passing overhead without offering congregations anything of any real value. So, too, did Jezebel make herself out to walk in a true prophetic gift. But the Lord identified her as merely "someone who called herself a prophetess." Her "gift" was in reality a worthless one. She was little more than a waterless cloud being carried by the winds of deception, who boasted of a spiritual gift she didn't actually possess.

 
Unfruitful Autumn Trees, Having Been Uprooted

     Because water was very scarce, farmers in Israel often became discouraged at seeing clouds pass above their fields without leaving any rain. For the same reasons, fruit growers were often discouraged to see "fruitless autumn trees" in their orchards. Both analogies, of course, were being used to express how the Gnostics were producing nothing of any real value, despite claiming to operate in genuine spiritual gifts.
     The analogy was taken from Psalms 1, which reads as follows:

     Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way with sinners, nor sat in the seat of infectious men. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law will he meditate day and night. And he shall be as a tree planted by streams of waters, which shall yield its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not fall away. And in whatsoever he shall do he shall prosper.
     But no so [with] the ungodly - not so, but rather like the down which the wind scatters off the face of the earth, so shall the ungodly one not rise in judgment, nor sinners amongst the counsel of the just. For the Lord recognizes the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalm 1:1-6, LXX)   

     In a prophecy related directly to this one, Jesus stood up during the Feast of Tabernacles and declared to everyone:

     If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. As the scripture has said, "The one believing in Me, out of his belly shall flow streams of living water." But this He said concerning the Spirit, which those who believed upon Him were about to receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39) 

     The righteous were meditating upon "the law of the Lord," i.e. the word of God, day and night, and like trees planted by streams of waters they were receiving ample "watering of the word" through the Holy Spirit. This what was causing them to bear fruit in their season, i.e. wise counsel and accurate interpretations of the word of God at the proper time. But the wisdom of the ungodly was like "down," the light, feathery material that blew through the air from weeds like dandelions and thistles. This sort of "fruit" was worthless, and would go unrecognized "amongst the counsel of the just," i.e. among those within whom the Spirit of God dwelt.
     Thus, the Gnostics were like unfruitful autumn trees, not bearing fruit in the season when they should have been doing so, when everyone else was. The season for bearing revelation through the gifts of the Spirit was New Testament times, and it began on the day of Pentecost. Through the gift of tongues, the Holy Spirit Himself began declaring to people of every nation that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. Believers manifested these gifts in abundance throughout the New Testament era, and in this way the mysteries of God were continuing to be revealed to all
     So how had these heretics been "uprooted"? Paul wrote the following to the Colossians:

     In [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge... though I am indeed absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the Spirit, rejoicing and beholding your order, and the firmness of your faith in Christ Jesus. As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having become rooted and built up in Him and becoming confirmed in the faith, even as you were taught, and abounding in it with thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:3-7)

    The Colossians had wisely become "rooted in Him," i.e. deeply rooted in the word of God (see Mark 4:14, 16-17). But this passage makes it apparent that they were to be more than simply rooted in Christ below ground. They were to become "built up," i.e. edified above ground as well, through the gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation. That the spiritual gifts were in mind here is evident from Paul's statement that he was "beholding their order," a reference to the orderly manner in which speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, divine revelations, and other utterances were all being conducted (See 1 Corinthians 14:39-40, 26-30). As every one spoke in turn, each could be heard distinctly that all might receive spiritual edification. This was because the purpose of spiritual gifts was that believers be "edified and confirmed in the faith." By one speaking in tongues and another giving the divinely-revealed interpretation, both were being confirmed as those through whom the Spirit of God was speaking. Likewise, the one who prophesied and the one who received revelation concerning it were confirming each other as vessels of the Holy Spirit. Naturally this brought thanksgivings when they were "abounding in it" and great edification was taking place.
     But as for the Gnostics, Jude referred to them as "dead twice over, having been uprooted." Dead both above ground and beneath, their sin was more than simply not bearing fruit by means of the spiritual gifts. They had been totally uprooted from the streams of living water altogether and toppled spiritually. As if blown over by a tempest, they had now been ripped from very foundations of the true Christian faith completely, and now were beyond hope of ever producing anything good for God. They were now good only to be "cast into the fire" at the Lord's return.


The Manifestation Of False Gifts In The End-Times

     The prophecy of the tares and the wheat will again be fulfilled during the end-times. Many will arise in the earth practicing false gifts, and those who are deceived by this means will be led to their spiritual destruction. As I have stated already in this set of studies, satanists are the modern equivalents of the Gnostics during Jude's day, and they are still using many of the same tactics. Not only do they infiltrate Christian church "unawares," i.e. disguised as true believers, but they also manifest false gifts among charismatic congregations as if they were the true gifts.
     The following testimony was given by a former Satanist high priestess, as recorded in the book He Came To Set The Captives Free:

     First of all the satanist must make a "profession of faith"... If the particular church is a charismatic church which places great emphasis on the gift of speaking in tongues, the satanist will speak in tongues. This is no problem, demons can speak in tongues very easily. When I was indwelt by Mann-Cann I was able to address any of the foreign dignitaries in their own language fluently... It is the custom in charismatic churches for many people to speak and pray in tongues at the same time without interpretation during their services and prayer meetings. Satanists take great advantage of this. During the time I served Satan, I spoke in tongues regularly in all the meetings and prayer meetings, so did the other satanists I was working with. No one interpreted. We were cursing the church, the pastor, the members, and God. And no one knew. (Brown, He Came To Set The Captives Free, P.235-236)

     Will imposters, manifesting false gifts through the power of demons, arise as we progress deeper into the end-times? The scripture suggests clearly that they will, and that their power to deceive will increase to the place of even threatening to deceive the very elect of God:

     And many false prophets will arise and mislead many.... Then if anyone says to you, "Behold, the Christ is here, or there," do not believe it. For there will arise false Christ's and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead if possible even the chosen. Lo, I have foretold you. If therefore they say to you, "Behold, He is in the wilderness," do not go forth, or "Behold, He is in the private rooms," do not believe it. For as the lightning comes forth from the east and appears as far as the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. (Matthew 24:11, 23-27)

     Nevertheless, the command of God will be not to forbid operating in true spiritual gifts. This would constitute "extinguishing the Spirit," and a total defeat of the end-time church. Rather, the commandment is simply to test the spirits to make sure they are of God, just as Paul once told the Thessalonians:

     Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Do not quench the Spirit, nor despise prophesying, but test all things. Hold fast to the good. (1 Thessalonians 5:17-21)

     So regardless of what the enemy will be doing during the end-times, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ will be commanded to continue walking in the gifts, and thereby bringing forth thirty, sixty and one hundred fold of revelation from the word of God, both written and uttered. The rest of what Jude says in this letter will only strengthen this argument even more. Part 2 will cover the rest of the metaphors he uses in this regard.