Hello again Doves
I begin again with
JUDE 7
Jude continues to draw on 3 examples of Old Testament Apostasy.
An Epistle for Our Time.
1. Israel in Verse 5
2.The Angels that sinned Verse 6
3. Sodom and Gomorrah Verse 7
I will state again that Jude presumes your knowledge of this background.
JUDE verse 7
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah  and the cities about them in like manner, Giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are SET FORTH FOR AN EXAMPLE, suffering the vengence of eternal fire.
To whom is Jude writing ?
TO US the believers, the called and the kept. The church. Through the contraning of The Holy Spirit.
FOR OUR BENIFIT.
Warning us of the Judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah.
We could better think that this message would be to an unsaved group in this matter, but yet it is to us, the bliever.
As we move down this path lets be causious because Jude through the Holy Spirit is writing to you and I.
Jude is Holding it Up to us the church and that should get our attention.

What is it that we the believer are to learn for the record of these old cities ? Which God destroyed for their terrrible wickedness.
JUDE is prophetic of christiandom in The Last Days. We will discover in Verse 8, that they defile the flesh.
We don't think of Apostasy as fleshly lust, but in verse 10 we see they corrupt themselves with brut beasts and in verse 16 they walk after their own lusts.
Apostasy begins with intellectual doughts, but is certain to end with physical degredation.
Sodom and Gomorrah are referenced here as Apostasy and by that it implies that they Once Knew the Truth.
Sodom and Gomorrah was roughly 450 years after the flood. Shem; Noah's first son was still alive. He had about 50 years left in his life. At this time of Lot, the area in question was very fertile land. Not as we see it today.
Archeologists find through burrial excavation, that over 1 million lived there. So the population in that region was substantial.
To give you a better perspective.
When Lot left from Abraham he lifted UP his Eyes, rather than Move by Faith of what God would have for him.
He went by sight and chose the Plain of Jordan.
I will suggest you do a study for yourselves on Lot's life in Gen 13.

Lot was a believer, not an unbeliever. II Peter 2 discribes Lot as a righteous man. God goes to some length to deliver Lot from the ruin of Sodom and Gomorrah. When we study Lot we find him making the wrong choices.

We are Pilgrams passing through this life and are not admonished to dwell in the ground.
Where is our citizenship ? In Heaven.
Gen 18:1
The Lord appeared unto Abraham in the Plains of Mamre and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.

And when Abraham looked up he saw 3 men stood by him. Two were angels the First was Our Lord.
Moving down further to verse 22, these two angels moved on to Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord and ask him;
Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked ? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?
The Lord said if there be fifty as Abraham had asked, he would not destroy the city. We all should know this story as how Abraham continues to press The Lord until he reaches but TEN righteous, Will the Lord destroy the city? And the Lord said he would not destroy the city if there were TEN righteous.
Remember there are 5 cities, not just Sodom and Gomorrah.
We know that when the 2 angels arrived there was found only Lot and his family righteous. We also know that before the 2 angels could destroy the city, Lot and his family had to be taken OUT of the way !
Far enough away that no harm came to them. Save for Lot's wife who looked back.
THIS IS A WARNING TO US CHURCH TO NOT HOLD DEAR ANYTHING OF THIS WORLD, OVER THE THINGS OF GOD AND HEAVEN.
I have spoken to professed christians as to whether they knew how close the Lord's return was. I am amazed that some would say they aren't ready for Jesus to come back yet, because they have this or that to do yet.
1. The grandson to graduate
2. A daughter is getting married
3.They have a trip planned
4. The New house isn't finnished
5. The grandchildren must grow up first.
6.They plan to buy a new car this fall
7. We are planning our retirement and play golf
and on and on. Shocking !

The principle that God is laying down here is that the church, believers, righteous are taken out before He brings His wrath upon the wicked of this world.
Beloved let us not hold on to the things of this world, because we are much like Lot being surrounded by Apostasy. Let us not cling to it as did Lots wife and be destroyed because of it.

Even as the 2 angels blinded the men outside the door, so also will the Lord cause the wicked who reject the gospel of Christ to become confused and will not understand the things of the Lord in the Last days. The days after the church is removed.

The prerequesit is that the righteous must be Removed First, before the Wrath of God comes upon the wicked of this world.

The Angels represent salvation
The city/ wickedness/ Apostasy represents destruction.
The Angels literally took them by the hand and dragged them out of there. Which is how some last days christians will be saved. Literally snatched from the fire.
As was seen in the case of Lot, the people of these 5 cities were so corrupt in mind, spiritually and having no reverance for God, their Creator, so also are the wicked in the days of the sinners. They speak Apostasy against our Lord and Lust after their own pleasures.
Notice here in Gen 19:22 WE ARE SHOWN AGAIN A PRE-WRATH RAPTURE/ ESCAPE.
Gen 19 :22
HASTE THEE, ESCAPE THITHER: "FOR I CANNOT DO ANY THING (TILL) THOU BE COME THITHER."
Do you hear the urgence in the angels voice ? It will be the same when our Lord calls us up at the Rapture. At the last second, when that last soul has been purchased. We go home !

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS BRINGING TO MIND THESE TRUTHS TO COMFORT US THROUGH THE EPISTLE OF JUDE.
WE DO NOT SEE ANY OF GOD'S WRATH, NO SEALS ARE BROKEN, NO HORSEMEN ARE RIDDING AS SOME HAVE SAID. WE ARE NOT IN REVELATION 6, 9, 12 and so on, WE ARE CAUGHT UP IN REVELATION 4:1
MERCY SHOWN TO THE BELOVED, TO BE KEPT FROM WRATH.

Prepare our hearts to be with Him in that glorious momment when we here the call.

Come Lord Jesus !
KML