What Jesus' Brother Jude Wanted Us to Know | Verse 8, Part 1 | Deceivers Have Big Dreams
"Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones." | Jude 8
Considering 2 Peter as we continue studying Jude will continue to prove both helpful and necessary. The parallel passage corresponding to Jude 8 is 2 Peter 2:9–10:
“The unrighteous . . . indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones.”
Peter, in verse 10, places a special emphasis on the unrighteousness that is especially condemnable, namely the indulgence in the lust of defiling passions and the despising of authority.
Jude, having also set forth the example of, and destruction of, unbelieving Jews, rebellious angels, and sensual Sodomites, comes back around to the “certain people”, those “ungodly people”, he introduced earlier in verse 4. Here, in verse 8, he again refers to “these people”. In fact, all throughout Jude’s short letter will be a continual reference to “these people”.
“These people blaspheme,” v. 10; “These are hidden reefs,” v. 12; “about these that Enoch . . . prophesied,” v. 14; “These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires,” v. 16; “It is these who cause divisions,” v. 19.
Our verse in question today—verse 8—gives three characteristics of the false teachers Jude has in mind, but the first consideration is given to the spring from which these corruptions flow, namely their dreams: “In like manner these people also, relying on their dreams . . . “
What is in view here?
The Greek word for ‘dreams’, here, occurs in the New Testament only two times. The word is enupniazomai, which means to dream divinely suggested dreams, or, metaphorically, to be beguiled with sensual images and carried away to an impious course of conduct.
The other use of the word is seen in Acts 2:17 where Peter quotes the prophet Joel who had prophesied that God would pour His Spirit out on all flesh and the old men would dream dreams. This would be a positive use of the word.
In the negative sense, dreams could come from false prophets, something Jeremiah explicitly warned Israel about: “Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord” (27:8–9).
Deuteronomy gives a similar warning: “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams” (13:1–3).
Jude is making an obvious connection between the false teachers of his day to the very false prophets of Moses’ and Jeremiah’s day.
The denominator is the same. They rely on their own subjective impulses, intuition, thoughts, and dreams. They do not teach sound doctrine.
What may seem troubling is in the possibility of a false prophet giving a sign or wonder that actually does come to pass as Deuteronomy suggests. We must not forget, for instance, that the Antichrist himself will replicate powerful signs on par with Elijah’s calling fire down from Heaven: “[The second beast] performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the [first] beast it deceives those who dwell on earth” (Rev 13:13–14).
If this does not automatically make a case for the necessity of, and sufficiency of, Scripture, then I’m not sure what will. This is precisely why God has been preserving His inerrant Word throughout the centuries—so we will know who the true and the false prophets are, namely those who do or do not line up to the Word that has already been written down.
Still today, all faithful teachers sound the same. They proclaim the same truth out of the same inerrant Word from the same God that spoke through Moses and Jeremiah. They contrast sharply with those who have visions and dreams about how their ministry should look in their own foolish minds. They have a type of pseudo-spirituality, false ideologies, and bad theology, which all stems from a lack of love for the truth, which is how one is saved (2 Thess 2:10).
Consider modern best-selling authors like Sarah Young who has convinced millions into thinking they are legitimately hearing from Jesus Himself through her listening techniques—a practice from occultic eastern mysticism—by writing them down in her book Jesus Calling: “I began to wonder if I . . . could receive messages during my times of communing with God. I had been writing in prayer journals for years, but that was one-way communication: I did all the talking. I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more. Increasingly, I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day” (emphasis mine).
She continues: “I decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever I believe He was saying. I felt awkward the first time I tried this, but I received a message . . . I responded by writing in my prayer journal” (emphasis mine).
No matter that the Apostle Paul said “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16–17), or that the Apostle John gave the explicit warning against any adding to God’s divine revelation in Revelation 22:18.
Sarah Young, by definition, is a false teacher. See Tim Challies for a helpful and more drawn out critique: 10 Serious Problems with Jesus Calling
Steven Furtick is another example of a modern teacher who claims to be the visionary worth following and serving. One infographic from Elevation Church had this to say:
1. We serve a Lead Pastor who seeks and hears from God
3. We serve a Lead Pastor we can trust
7. We serve a Lead Pastor who pours into us spiritually and professionally
16. We serve a Lead Pastor who goes first
A coloring book in the Elevation Church kids’ ministry had a picture of Furtick preaching on a stage with the following statement for the children to read: “Elevation church is built on the vision God gave Pastor Steven. We will protect our unity in supporting his vision.”
Of course they ‘substantiated’ this with Romans 13:1: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”
This, of course, is boldly twisted right out of context as Paul was actually speaking about secular governments. For the qualifications necessary for those who are to be an overseer of God’s church, one can find them in Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus and find that Steven Furtick does not line up.
When his vision assumes the church should be filled with unbelievers; that “God broke the law for love” (i.e. sinned); that his wife and other women can preach in the pulpit; then he is teaching what is contrary to Scripture, even heresy in some cases, thus rendering himself a false teacher.
Many more examples could be given, but the denominator will always be the same: a low view, and/or denial, of Scripture. We must not surround ourselves with visionaries and dreamers who claim to hear from Heaven. We have already heard from Heaven and that testimony (e.g. testament) has been provided to us in the entirety of the Bible—the faith that has been delivered to us once and for all.
“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing” | 1 Timothy 6:3–4
Friends, we must be a people of the Word of God and have nothing to do with anyone who suggests that they "hear from God" themselves. Jude is urgently warning us:
They're dreaming.
In Christ Alone,
Ben
