POWELLHURST MEN’S BIBLE STUDY
 THURSDAY, MAY 20TH, 07:30-08:30
  EPISTLE OF JUDE (Part 1 of 2)

See the Introductory video on YouTube in the ‘Powellhurst Men’ channel.
Download the notes and documents from currah.download/pages/jude

Preliminary
• QUESTION: Who would like to report on their study assignment for today’s study?
• QUESTION: What query or insight have you taken from the introductory video?

Verse 1
• Jude the brother of James ≠ Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot” Luke 6.16
• Servant status ‖ status of his lord. 
• QUESTION: What are three things God has done to make us Christians?

Verse 2
• QUESTION: How are mercy, peace and love related in our Christian experience?
• QUESTION: How can we make these experiences ‘multiply’? (Read on…)

Verse 3
• QUESTION: How does Jude describe ‘salvation’ in this epistle? 
• QUESTION: How does one ‘contend’ without becoming contentious?
• QUESTION: Who were the ‘saints’ to whom ‘the faith’ was delivered?

Verse 4
• ‘crept in’  ‘false brothers secretly … slipped in … so that they might bring us into slavery’ Gal. 2:4
• QUESTION: Where was their condemnation ‘designated’ (written before hand)? 2 Pet. 2:3

Dead Sea Scroll 1QS iv.9-14 describes “a multitude of plagues by the hand of all the destroying angels, everlasting damnation by the avenging wrath of he fury of God, eternal torment  and endless disgrace together with shameful extinction in the fire of the dark regions. The times of heir generations shall be spent in sorrowful mourning and in bitter misery and in calamities of darkness until they are destroyed without remnant or survivor.” Vermes (2004), p 102.

• QUESTION: How does one ‘pervert the grace of God’? (See the context)
• QUESTION: What does it mean to ‘deny Jesus Christ’? (See the context)

Verse 5
• QUESTION: Who saved the Hebrews out of Egypt? Jesus? Or the Lord? 
• ‘the LORD brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt’ Exo. 21:51

Verse 6
• Between 300 BCE and 300 CE, most Jews and Christians believed that these ‘angels’ were the ‘sons of the gods/God’ of Genesis 6.
• Their confinement in ‘under gloomy darkness until the judgment’ is described in the Book of Enoch. 
• QUESTION: Is the Book of Enoch inspired scripture? Does it belong in our Bible (canon)?

Verse 7
• Normal immorality is bad enough. A desire to bugger angels who appeared as men was even worse. Gen 19:5
• QUESTION: What makes alternate life styles such a big deal in the Bible. (See next verse).

Verse 8
• QUESTION: What was the source of those folks’ behavioural choices? (What kind of dreams?)
• EXPLAIN the progress from defilement, through rejection of authority, to blasphemy?

Verse 9
• The source of the story of Michael and the devil disputing Moses’ body has been lost. Early church leaders reported in came from a Jewish work titled The Assumption of Moses. See Wikipedia.
• QUESTION: Should we angrily rebuke demons (when they manifest)?

Verse 10
• ‘are destroyed’ = ‘are being corrupted’.
• From whence do cultists and deceivers get their religious ideas?

Verse 11
• QUESTION: What kinds of wrong did Cain (Gen. 4), Balaam (Num. 22) and Korah (Num. 16) do that was bad enough to be recorded in the Hebrew Bible? 

Verses 12 and 13
• EXPLAIN each of the metaphors applied to these deceivers.

For Part 2, next week:

• Read through verses 14 through 25 each day.
• Jot down queries and topics that you want us to discuss together.
• If you have not viewed the introductory video, the please do so.
• Read chapter 1 of The Book of Enoch, and find the verses that Jude quotes.
• View the streamed version of today’s discussion on YouTube in the Powellhurst Men channel, and bring you suggestions next time.