When concerts and other special events are held in large auditoriums or arenas, “riggers” must work hundreds of feet above the floor hanging speakers and lights. Riggers will tell you they do not mind looking down a hundred feet to the floor. What they don’t like is working in buildings that have false ceilings made of acoustical tile hung just a few feet below the ceiling on rafters and beams. It gives them a false sense of security. They feel as though they are working just a few feet above a floor; but if they stepped onto the tile, they would crash through and fall to their death many feet below. They don’t like the deceptive look. It makes it easier to make a mistake.
Satan works like that. He makes dangerous things look safe. He gives us a false sense of security. He makes it easier for us to make a mistake. Satan tries not to scare us to death, but rather to make us think we face little danger of a spiritual fall.
The Epistle of Jude warns of the dangers of false teachers, whose end is destruction. We are to be alert for them, to strengthen ourselves against spiritual deception, and to be ready to help vulnerable believers. Christian friends must not be lulled into a false sense of security and take a disastrous spiritual fall.
Walls and Anders, I & II Peter, I, II & III John, Jude, vol. 11, HNTC (Nashville, TN: B&H, 1999), 260
To help us better understand this often-overlooked epistle, we welcome Dr. Herb Bateman. Dr. Bateman has taught at Grace Seminary, Moody Bible Institute, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is currently the founder of the Cyber Center for Biblical Studies and has published a number of articles and books including one called “Interpreting the General Letters” which includes a study of our topic of conversation today.
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Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
