Jude 1:15, commentary and pictures

Enoch, the seventh from Adam and the first prophet among men, foretold in vision that the Lord will come with ten thousands of His holy saints to execute judgment upon all. That coming will convince and convict all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds and their hard speeches against Him, for which every person must render an account. This is the future great day of Christ's second advent in glory, when before the assembled universe every person is rewarded according to works unto eternal life or eternal punishment. Enoch proclaimed this warning to the corrupt pre-flood world at great cost, while himself walking with God in obedience to His law as a pattern proving man can keep it and as an example of those who will be translated at Christ's coming. The ungodliness he confronted in Noah's day will be repeated with growing intensity until the end, so his Advent message of judgment must now be earnestly proclaimed to call men back from transgression of the law and to prepare to meet God.

Enoch's Prophecy and Wording

Jude preserves the prophecy of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who foretold the Lord's coming and the final judgment of the ungodly. He was the first prophet among mankind, and he directed minds forward to the great day of God when Christ will come the second time to judge every man's work. What he foresaw was the Lord's coming and the end of the world with its eternal decisions and rewards, when God renders to every man according to his work.

That prophecy was revealed to him in vision, showing him the great events connected with Christ's return and the end of the world. It is not found in the writings of the Old Testament, but Jude mentions the work of Enoch and thereby preserves what Enoch foretold by prophecy concerning the second coming of Christ to this world and His work at that time in denunciation and judgment.

The meaning is that the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, His many holy ones and holy host, to execute judgment upon all people and to judge everyone. The message of that second coming was committed to Enoch, who warned that the Lord will come with His holy ones to judge everyone and expose the ungodly. That coming is to convince and convict all the ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners spoke against Him. It is an exposing and convicting that discloses ungodliness in deed and its defiant, hostile speech against God.

People are accountable to God for hard words spoken against Christ, including words spoken against His saints, as an offense for which an account must be rendered. The Lord's coming described here to execute judgment and expose the ungodly for their deeds and words against Him is a different event from the Lord's coming to His temple.

Final Universal Judgment Day

The judgment foretold is not fixed at the moment of death but belongs to the future great day and to the second advent of Christ. Jesus will soon come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, coming with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all. At that coming the ungodly will be exposed and convicted for their ungodly deeds and for their defiant words against God.

He will appear in glory greater than the glory that shone from the face of Moses after communing with God. He comes with His Father's glory and with the angelic host, which those who could not look upon Moses' shining face cannot endure. This is the final judgment in which God renders to every person according to his work, with eternal decisions and rewards. The sentence is eternal punishment or eternal reward, eternal punishment or eternal life.

It will take place before the assembled universe, vindicating God's government and revealing the value of eternal life. When the Lord comes with His saints to execute judgment, every ungodly person will be convinced of the full record of ungodly deeds. Each will see and acknowledge that condemnation is just.

At that coming the wicked are judged for rebellion against God and for contempt for Christ's atonement. They are separated from the Lord and from the righteous, exposed for evil deeds and hostile words, then consumed with fire and destroyed. Enoch's prophecy points to this judgment at Christ's second coming, when the rebellious are destroyed while the righteous are raised and crowned with glory and honor and receive everlasting life.

Ungodliness Exposed and Judged

The ungodliness to be judged is sin as transgression of the law of God, with that law trampled by the disloyal, broken in rebellion against God, and despised in contempt for the atonement. It is breaking His commandments and disregarding what He requires, even trampling underfoot His blood when Christ comes in glory to execute judgment. The coming judgment falls upon all the ungodly for these ungodly deeds of transgression.

It marks the dividing line between the obedient and the disobedient. The obedient, like Enoch and Noah, keep the law of God and are found righteous when tested by it, having received moral power to obey. The disobedient walk in the imagination of their own hearts, corrupt their ways, disregard all His requirements, separate themselves from Him, and love sin, rejecting the call to turn and obey faithfully.

The ungodly so judged are murmurers and complainers walking after their own lusts, speaking great swelling words and admiring persons for advantage, and their ungodly acts and hard words spoken against Him are brought to account. This forms part of Jude's warning about corrupt people and their conduct. That account of ungodliness speaks to conditions also met in the present day, and the judgment reaching all is especially a warning against ungodly people who mislead believers, including false teachers and mockers in the last days.

The prophecy thus stands as a guard for believers against the seductive influences of false teachers in the last days. Those men have a form of godliness but are not safe leaders. They arise actively zealous with all kinds of theories to divert minds from the very truth that defines the safe position, while Satan works with power upon religionists to make a pretense of being righteous without placing themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Enoch's Warning and Example

Enoch proclaimed the coming judgment as a God-given warning to the ungodly inhabitants of the pre-flood world, at cost and pain to himself. He went out from a pure place of retirement to the corrupt world and to the people of the cities, and his testimony was direct and unreserved. He brought back with him those who received the warning.

As a public teacher of truth in his age he both taught the truth and lived it, speaking as moved by the Holy Spirit as a light amid moral darkness. He reproved the wicked for rebellion and wickedness and sought to turn the ungodly from evil, teaching people to fear and worship God. His labor was to keep alive on earth the knowledge of the true God and to stay the tide of moral evil, and he warned of Christ's coming when the wicked would be judged and consumed. That warning moved some hearers to turn from wickedness and to worship God and serve Him more faithfully.

Of those who received the warning and were brought back, some endured as overcomers until death before the flood while others returned to sin because they could not endure righteousness. Enoch walked with God in obedience to God's law, the same law Satan had refused to obey, Adam had transgressed, and Abel had obeyed even unto death. Christ walked with him, giving him moral power to obey and opening before him the future history of the earth and the scene of the second coming.

The God who walked with him was Jesus Christ, the light of the world then as now, and Enoch stood as a representative of Christ. As a representative and pattern man he was chosen to denounce the wickedness of the world and to demonstrate to the universe that Satan's charge that man cannot keep God's law is false, showing that though man has sinned he can so relate himself to God as to have the mind and Spirit of God and keep all the law of God. His life was a specimen of Christian consistency, not to be praised or exalted in itself but showing what every son and daughter of Adam may do, and his life of obedience and holiness bore witness to the truth as an example of those who will be caught up to meet Christ.

During his life he walked with God, and God took him to heaven without seeing death. His preaching of the judgment message together with his translation was a convincing argument to all in his time, which Methuselah and Noah could use with power to show that the righteous would be translated. His translation represents the living faithful who will be taken to heaven at Christ's second coming, while the flood's destruction represents the fate of those who persist in transgression.

Through his warning God revealed that He would not always bear with humanity nor have His Spirit always strive with guilty men, but would destroy the sinful race by a flood, giving one hundred and twenty years of probation to repent. That message warned that if men did not cease to pollute the world and its rich treasures with sin, God would blot them from His creation. That light was not heeded, for men resisted conviction, lost discernment, and strengthened their desire to follow ungodliness. Even many worshipers of God were beguiled into sin by constant allurements, lost their peculiar holy character and moral power, so that the preaching of Noah and his fellow laborers impressed hearts less and less.

History Repeated Until End

Enoch's prophecy describes the condition existing in the days of Noah, when the world was full of wickedness, and presents a state of things which has been and will be repeated, with history repeating the ungodliness he confronted. In those days men were given one hundred and twenty years of probation to repent, yet they resisted conviction, lost discernment, and strengthened their desire to follow ungodliness. The same state of wickedness will exist prior to the second appearing of Christ.

That warning describes a condition that will grow more intense until the end of time, as people pursue self-glory and rebellion against God's law. It portrays the world before that coming as marked by ungodliness, with wickedness prevailing before the end. Enoch preached righteousness, calling people to turn from breaking God's law and obey faithfully, but they rejected his testimony because they loved sin.

The flood's destruction represents the fate of those who persist in transgression after such rejection. The disobedient who walk in the imagination of their own hearts, corrupt their ways, disregard all His requirements, separate themselves from Him, and provoke Him will be destroyed as the antediluvians were destroyed by the flood.

Proclaiming the Warning Today

The prophecy is an Advent message about the second coming, directing minds forward to the great day of God when Christ will come the second time to judge every man's work. It declares the Lord coming with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince the ungodly of their ungodly deeds and their hard speeches spoken against Him, meaning Jesus will soon come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory to a judgment that is the end with its eternal decisions and rewards where God renders to every man according to his work. That coming is the great event that is the consummation of all things earthly. The truth of this coming judgment is to be earnestly proclaimed now, needed in every church and kept distinctly and clearly before the people to make them think solemnly of duty and of the preparation essential for that event and to urge constant preparation for Christ's second coming.

Enoch proclaimed this coming judgment as a warning, with the Lord coming with His holy ones to judge everyone and expose the ungodly for their deeds and defiant words, proclaiming Christ's coming and the execution of judgment on the unrighteous. His message anticipates the warning God's servants will give in the last days, when most people will meet it with unbelief and mockery. The warning applies to the great wickedness of the last days, for the Lord is coming to judge those who do not obey the gospel, and those who know the truth are to warn the people still in darkness.

His prophecy remains relevant to the church in the last days, warning of judgment and calling believers to heed the light and lessons given through Scripture. Revealed to him in vision, it remains in force for the last generation, whose members can take courage from the examples and teachings of earlier generations.

Because sin is the transgression of the law and the law is being trampled by the disloyal, judgment is coming upon all the ungodly for their ungodly deeds of transgression of the commandments of God. Christians must therefore earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints by bringing men back from transgression, proclaiming the gospel of Christ with earnestness and zeal as light shining upon commandment-breakers to arouse men and women to prepare to meet God, raising the standard of that truth and magnifying the law and making it honorable. Words of God in denunciation and judgments like these should be spoken forth by holy lips alone.

God's people must get away from surroundings that are as Sodom for wickedness into a place altogether different, and like Enoch come from retirement to warn the people of the cities.