Jude 7,8 - Sodom and Gomorrah

1:7

This is a very important verse in today’s climate. Now, in the West, society’s view is that homosexuality is good and to be celebrated, as is transgenderism, and to even mildly question the validity of this view is to invite oneself to be labelled as a bigot. Along with this there are those who seek to claim that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was not because of homosexuality, but because of her arrogance and lack of concern for the poor, based on Ezekiel 16:49. This verse in Jude clearly shows that such revisionist views are wrong. Sexual sin was one of the causes of the judgement. However, there is a useful lesson to be learnt. Sin rarely comes alone. One sin will usually bring several others with it. A sexually immoral society will have plenty of other sins as well. Likewise a decadent uncaring society will quickly accumulate plenty of other sins.

“They serve as an example ...”. The attitude of many, including some in the church, is to see the clear examples of judgement in the Old Testament as at best an embarrassment, and at worse as an excuse to reject God. The consistent attitude of the New Testament, including Jesus Himself, is very different. These incidents of judgement are seen as real, and as a warning for us, demonstrating that judgement and the subsequent punishment are very real. We should adopt the same approach.

1:8

The false teachers put great weight on dreams. On the “evidence” of this they polluted their own bodies, meaning they used their dreams as an excuse for immoral behaviour. They rejected authority and heaped abuse on celestial beings. Today there are people, usually in charismatic circles, who will claim that God has revealed certain things to them in dreams. Now we need to be careful here. The Bible contains many instances of God speaking to people in dreams and visions, and there is no reason in Scripture to believe that He has stopped doing so. So God may well speak to someone, or even to you and I, through a dream. However, if we believe a dream is from God we measure what we think He is saying against the Bible. Likewise, if some preacher or prophet says that God has spoken to them in a dream that is absolutely no reason whatsoever to give any extra credence to what they say. We are to test all things, and we are to test what the preacher says against what the Bible says.