The Truth War (10 page)

The campaign to make Christianity seem “contemporary” and sophisticated in the world's eyes is proving especially disastrous right now. As postmodern culture becomes more and more hostile to authority, clarity, and authoritative proclamations of truth, evangelicalism is blithely drifting more and more into postmodern ways of thinking about truth, imagining that this is the way to “reach” the culture. Consequently, Christians are less and less willing to fight for the truth.

HOW CHRISTIANS ARE KEPT SECURE

Something similar was apparently happening in the apostolic church. That is why the central point of Jude's brief but powerful epistle was a challenge designed to motivate Christians to become soldiers in the Truth War.

But Jude's
starting
point, interestingly enough, was to stress the security of the true believer. He addresses his epistle “To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ” (v. 1). All the urgings, warnings, and encouragements in the verses to come do not apply to anyone who is halfhearted or double-minded. He is addressing those with true faith.

Jude recognizes that all war is ugly, dangerous, distasteful, and something every sane person would prefer to avoid altogether. Warfare in the spiritual realm is no different in that respect from carnal warfare; if anything, it is even
more
menacing. If conventional warfare is (as General Sherman said) the closest thing to hell on earth, spiritual warfare is actually more horrifying still—because it is literally a hostile engagement with the forces of hell in the spiritual realm, where the enemy is never even fully visible.

Remember: our real enemies are not mere flesh and blood. This is cosmic warfare, engaging the armies of hell, which are arrayed against Christ. Their weapons consist of lies of all kinds—elaborate lies, massive philosophical lies, evil lies that appeal to humanity's fallen sinfulness, lies that inflate human pride, and lies that closely resemble the truth. Our one weapon is the simple truth of Christ as revealed in His Word.

It is a frightening scenario, especially when we fully realize our own utter frailty, our own tendency to self-deception, and our own proclivity to sin. Very little would seem to qualify us to be soldiers in the Truth War. But for one thing: we follow a Commander who has been given all authority—absolute lordship—in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). As Paul said, Christ is “far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And [God] put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church” (Ephesians 1:21–22). He is truth incarnate. And if you are a true believer, you are called, sanctified, and preserved in Him.

In the ultimate and eternal sense, no true Christian has ever been or ever will be a casualty in the Truth War. We are loved, called, blessed, made holy, and kept secure—even in the midst of escalating apostasy. Despite all the dangers posed by hellish lies and cosmic warfare, we are preserved in Christ and guaranteed to triumph in the end.

That is the starting point of Jude's epistle. That is also precisely where Jude
ends
his epistle, commending his readers to “Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (v. 24).

So this is the context in which Scripture calls us to wage war on behalf of the truth: The task is intimidating. The enemy is fearsome. The dangers are daunting. The spectacle of such a battle is appalling. And the price of involvement is total self-sacrifice—which is just what every true Christian renders to Christ at salvation (Luke 9:23–25). But we are promised that such a sacrifice will always be worthwhile, and our final triumph is likewise guaranteed—because we are “preserved in Jesus Christ.”

That is surely something to keep in mind as you think about your part in the Truth War. It is perfectly natural to feel inadequate. We
are
completely inadequate in and of ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). But Christ is perfectly sufficient, and we are united with Him by faith. There is no reason for dread or apprehension. Our triumph is certain in the end, because Christ has already won the ultimate victory on our behalf. True believers are always ultimately secure in the faith, “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). Remember Jesus' own words: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand” (John 10:27–29). And damning lies collapse under the power of the truth (2 Corinthians 10:4–5).

So if you are a believer, get into the battle. Fight for the truth. Contend earnestly for the faith. Apostasy is present in the church, and it is probably going to get worse. But we who believe in Jesus Christ have nothing to fear. We are called and loved and kept secure in Him, so we can be supremely confident, even in this era of doubt and uncertainty. Because the One who
is
truth incarnate—the One whose honor and glory are therefore on the line—is both our Commander and our Protector. And His Word is a formidable weapon.

3

CONSTRAINED INTO CONFLICT: WHY WE MUST FIGHT FOR THE FAITH

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our
common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting
you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all
delivered to the saints.

—Jude 3

S
ince the catalyst for this book is Jude's challenge to people under his pastoral care, I want you to meet him.

Jude was the younger half brother of Christ.

How do we know that? Well, first of all, Scripture says that after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary had at least four other sons. (Mark 6:3 indicates that they had daughters too—although the girls' names are not given and we don't even know how many there were.) The household in which Jesus grew up seems to have been a fairly large family by today's standards. In Matthew 13:55, Jesus' four half brothers are expressly mentioned by name.

In that context, Matthew is describing how people in Jesus' hometown of Nazareth responded to his authoritative teaching by questioning His credentials. They expressed disbelief and amazement that a teacher like Jesus could come from the family of a lowly carpenter in their own unremarkable village. In the process, they mentioned Jesus' parents and His siblings. As Matthew records the names of the four younger sons in the family, notice the last person on the list: “Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and
Judas
?” (emphasis added).

“Judas” is a simple transliteration of Jude's Greek name. In the original biblical manuscripts, it is exactly the same name used to signify Judas Iscariot. But to distinguish Jesus' brother from the traitor, the author of the epistle is always known in English as Jude. Incidentally, the only place in the English Bible where Jude's name actually appears in that familiar shortened form is the first word of the first verse of his short epistle. Even there, the name given in the Greek manuscripts is
Ioudas.

Judas
(meaning “praise YHWH”) is an Anglicized Greek variant of
Judah
, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. This was quite a common name in first-century Israel. The New Testament introduces us to at least seven different men named Judas, including two of the original twelve disciples.

There was, of course, the notorious false disciple named Iscariot. But there was also a faithful member of the Twelve named Judas. John 14:22 has parentheses with the note “not Iscariot” following his name. Acts 1:13 refers to that lesser-known disciple named Judas as “Judas the son of James.” He is normally called Lebbaeus and Thaddaeus rather than Judas (Matthew 10:3). That disciple is not the author of the epistle. (Although such a connection has sometimes erroneously been made, we shall shortly see why it is a mistake.)

Other Judases in the New Testament include an insurgent named Judas of Galilee (Acts 5:37); Judas Barsabas, a church leader who delivered news about the Jerusalem Council's ruling to believers in Antioch (Acts 15:22); and a man named Judas who lived in Damascus on Straight Street, in whose home the apostle Paul stayed immediately after his conversion (Acts 9:11).

Our Jude stands out from all the others. Aconsiderable amount of biblical evidence suggests that the “Judas” named as a younger son of Joseph and Mary in Matthew 13:55 is none other than the human author of the epistle—Jude. Although Jude himself gives scant details about his identity, what few facts he reveals correlate perfectly with what we know of the younger half brother of Christ.

BONDSERVANT OF CHRIST,
BROTHER OF JAMES

As a matter of fact, the best clues we have about Jude's true identity come from the epistle itself. What Jude
doesn't
say about himself is almost as interesting as what he
does
say.

Notice, first of all, what he
does
say. In the very opening words of the epistle, he describes himself as “Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James” (v. 1).

Who is this “James”? As we have seen, James is the lead name in both of the biblical lists of Joseph and Mary's natural sons. The apostle Paul (in Galatians 1:19) likewise mentions “James, the Lord's brother” as a key leader in the early Jerusalem church. In 1 Corinthians 9:5, Paul includes a general reference to “the brothers of the Lord” without naming any of them. There he speaks of them as distinct from the apostles, but he clearly accords them a similar importance in the work of the early church.

The James and Judas who were Jesus' half brothers are the only brothers with those names explicitly mentioned anywhere in Scripture. The father of the apostle Judas Lebbaeus Thaddaeus was a different man named James,
¹
and the similarity of the names has unfortunately caused many people—including some fine commentators—to confuse the apostle Thaddaeus with Jude, author of our epistle. But they are not the same.

By the way, the “James” mentioned in Jude 1 was no apostle, either. The only
apostle
named James (son of Salome and Zebedee, and brother of John the beloved apostle) was martyred very early by Herod, according to Acts 12:1–2. He was long dead by the time Jude wrote. So the best-known James in the church when Jude introduced himself this way is the one whom Paul calls “James, the Lord's brother” (Galatians 1:19). He is the same James who wrote the New Testament epistle bearing his name. He also appears as the main spokesman for the Jerusalem church in Acts 15:13.

Now notice what Jude
doesn't
say about himself. He nowhere claims the title of an apostle. That fact would be odd indeed if our author were truly one of the original Twelve. Moreover, Jude seems to remove all doubt about whether he was one of the apostles in verses 17–18, where he specifically distinguishes himself from the apostles, referring to them in the third person (
“they
told you” [emphasis added]).

Second, notice that Jude likewise does not explicitly identify himself as Jesus' younger brother. That might seem strange at first glance, but it is understandable given the complexities of such a relationship and the history of Jude's own journey to faith.

Remember that Jesus' own brothers did not originally believe in Him. Mark 6:1–6 describes the same events as Matthew 13:54–58. The people of Nazareth “were astonished, saying, ‘Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of
James
,
Joses
,
Judas
, and
Simon
? And are not His sisters here with us?' So they were offended at Him” (vv. 2–3, emphasis added).

The list in Mark 6:3 includes the very same names as Matthew 13:55, but Mark reverses the final two, putting Judas third and Simon last. James is first on both lists. The order suggests that James was the eldest of the four and “Judas” (as he is called in both lists) was one of the younger sons in the family of Joseph and Mary—perhaps the youngest of five boys (including Jesus, who of course was older than all His half brothers and sisters). Their ages in relationship to one another are never given, but Jude was at least four or five years behind his eldest brother. At this point in his life, he was apparently still living in his parents' home. Mark 6:3 seems to imply that the whole family was present when the village of Nazareth turned against Jesus, so Jude would have been an eyewitness to these events.

As a young man, Jude appears to have been confused by the fierce opposition to Jesus, and at first he himself was swept up in skepticism. John 7:5 says that during Jesus' earthly ministry, “even His brothers did not believe in Him.” Later, of course, Jude
did
believe. But at first, he seems to have followed the crowd in their rejection of Jesus' authority.