Thoughts on Jude (kind of…)

Today’s reading: Psalms 24-26; Jude

This is honestly less my thoughts on Jude specifically, and more just something I’ve been thinking and realizing lately about how I approach the Bible.

For anybody who knows me personally, or who has read this blog at all consistently, you have probably heard or read me reference Dr. Michael Heiser. Reading his book The Unseen Realm had a big impact on how I read and interpret a lot in the Bible, and reading his book got me listening to his podcast about the Bible, The Naked Bible Podcast. Dr. Heiser died last February, and I just recently caught up in the podcast to the four tribute episodes where readers and listeners recorded messages about what Heiser’s work and ministry meant to them. These were really powerful, and encouraging episodes, hearing how his faithful work for the Lord impacted so many people. But listening to the tributes got me thinking about how Dr. Heiser’s work impacted me, and one of the biggest ways that came to mind is not being afraid to take the Bible at face value.

I came to know the Lord in a church that highly prizes knowledge of the Word and seeks to teach everyone in the church to study, understand, and teach the Bible. Like every church does, the church had stances on various doctrinal questions and issues, and taught how those stances were derived from the Bible, including how to deal with the various “problem passages” (passages in the Bible which seemingly contradict the stances the church had taken). Curiosity and questions were generally encouraged, but I did run afoul of that a couple times. They teach, for example, a “once saved, always saved,” understanding of the gospel, and as I was studying Colossians at one point, I started to question how that fit with what Paul was saying, and when I raised the question with the leader of my home church, I got rebuked for “questioning the very foundation of our faith,” and he told me he wasn’t sure I should even be teaching our home church anymore if I didn’t even believe the gospel (which I did, I was just questioning the formulation of it). Over time, as I read the Bible with that question in mind, and especially when I was trying to memorize Hebrews, I started to feel like it was undeniable that the New Testament authors believed that salvation could truly be lost, but I wasn’t going to bring it up again and assumed I must be reading it wrong. Similar things happened with other doctrinal questions, but that one was by far the most “problematic” at the time.

I vividly remember though, when I was first introduced to Michael Heiser through an interview with him that I watched on YouTube, and the algorithm showed me, the next day, a video of him answering a question about the gospel. He was asked about “once saved, always saved” theology and he laid out an argument against it, citing the Colossians passage that had first made me question it years before, as well as a handful of passages in Hebrews, plus others. Having a biblical scholar hold the same view I had come to hold secretively made it “safe” to take that position, and was an encouragement that I wasn’t crazy for thinking the Bible clearly taught something that my church disagreed with.

Then when I started listening to Heiser’s podcast, an early handful of episodes (which were pretty dry originally, the podcast gets great when it was re-started around episode 30) were on baptism. He goes through a bunch of major creedal and doctrinal statements on baptism from various denominations and other organizations, and shows, one after the other, how they fall short biblically for one reason or another.  Again, this made it safe, when the Bible seemed to be in conflict with a creedal or doctrinal position, to side with the Bible. That might seem like an obvious position to take, but until that point, my assumption was that I was clearly missing something, and that’s why I had things “wrong.”

Jude brought this up for me this morning when, at the end of his letter, he warns his readers to stay in the love of God. With all his concern and teaching about the false teachers that are leading people astray, it makes complete sense, if you could “leave” or “step out of” the love of God, that he would warn them against being led astray. It makes a focus and teaching like James’ just make a lot of clear sense if I take his words at face value rather than twisting them to fit with a previously held doctrinal statement.

So yeah, I guess this post had very little to do with Jude’s letter… But I want to encourage anybody reading this to not be afraid of the places where the Bible seems to contradict a belief you have previously held. While it may be that you are thinking about something wrong in the Word, it’s also possible that the understanding you have had up to that point has been wrong, or incomplete. I definitely wouldn’t assume that a given doctrinal or creedal statement is wrong, just because you found a passage that reads different, but when you run into something like that, don’t be afraid to dig in, do more research, keep the question in your mind as you read more of the Scriptures, and really take the time to consider what’s most biblical. Just because a pastor or author said it, doesn’t make it true.

My best advice would be to find a couple friends who love the Lord, love His Word, and aren’t afraid of tough questions or of finding out that maybe they’ve been wrong. Find people that you can bounce ideas off of without worrying about being shut down for asking, and who will challenge you and help you think through the implications of your questions and ideas that maybe you haven’t considered. But don’t be afraid of the weird stuff in the Bible, don’t be afraid of the stuff that seems to contradict your beliefs, and don’t be afraid to consider that maybe you have been wrong.