The Apostle Jude wrote one short letter to God’s church in which he graphically calls out the false prophets Satan has planted within her. Mincing no words in his characterization of the preachers of various perverted gospels, he ends his epistle with two statements that are routinely overlooked because they do not fit the church’s narrative. These rejected statements are found in verses 21 and 24. In verse 21 Jude admonished the saints to “Keep yourselves in the love of God in order to retain the mercy of Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Note that in order to receive eternal life one has to stay in God’s love, which can only be accomplished by obeying His commandments (Mat. 19:17), which are His Words–the Holy Bible. That Christ equates His commandments with His Words is proved in John 14:15,23 where He says that if we love Him we will keep His “Commandments”–His “Words.” Note that He was talking to His hand-picked disciples, and that He used the words “if” and “you.” This proves that even they could sin their way out of God’s love by disobeying Him, thereby forfeiting salvation. Ironically, one of them did just that. The “commandments” Jesus often referred to are summarized in the Ten Commandment Law. This is the same Law the church claims was “nailed to the cross.” Note that in John 14:15 and 23 Jesus used the word “keep” relative to His Law, which indicates that one who is obeying the Law and therefore staying in God’s love can, by disobeying (not keeping) His Law, remove himself from His love. First John 2:6 tells us that transgressing (breaking/not keeping) that Law is sin which, as God said in Isaiah 59:2, separates us from Him. God is love (1 Jn. 4:16), therefore when we sin we separate ourselves from Him–His love (Is. 59:2). Note that one must obey the Law in order to maintain Christ’s mercy and thereby inherit eternal life. Note also that we must choose to do so.

Now let us turn to verse 24 where we are told that God is “able” to keep us from “falling” (from Christ’s grace) by empowering us to resist Satan’s call to sin, thereby enabling us to remain “faultless” due to having “walked as Jesus walked” while on earth as a man (1 Jn. 2:6). Only those who obey Him (His Law/commandments/Word) “to the end” will receive salvation (Mat. 10:20). One can spend years searching through the annals of church sermons and will not find these Truths mentioned because they, along with many other passages of Scripture, destroy the church’s guaranteed salvation doctrine.

As I promised in the first posting, I will now address the identity of the Apostles Jude and James in relation to Jesus of Nazareth (Jude 1). We find in Scripture ample proof that Jesus had several half-siblings whose names are mentioned in Matthew 13:55,56. Among those mentioned are James and Judas (Jude). In Galatians 1:19 James is called the brother of Jesus. In Matthew 1:25 Jesus is called Mary’s “firstborn.” This negates the Catholic’s claim that His mother Mary had no more children and that she remained a virgin until her supposed ascension into heaven while still alive. Psalm 69:8,9 predicts that Mary would have other children. In I John 7:3-10 and Acts 1:14 we are told that Jesus’s “brethren” did not believing in Him until after His resurrection. Those who did not believe in Him before His death were his biological brethren. His spiritual brethren did believe on Him before His death as we learn from studying John 14:15,23. L.J.