The Epistles of John & Jude

The "general" epistles of Peter, John, and Jude have a special application to the present day when apostasy would

become prevalent in the Christian testimony. This movement away from the truth will reach its culmination after the Church has been called home to heaven, when "the man of sin" (the Antichrist) will be revealed in the Great Tribulation (2 Thessalonians 2:3). At that time, the lifeless Christian world (left behind at the Rapture) will throw off every vestige of Christianity and will follow this evil man in the worship of the Beast and its image (Daniel 12:11; Matthew 24:15; Revelation 13:11-18).

Since the mass in the Christian profession today are merely professing to have faith in Christ, and are not real believers at all, there exists a mixed multitude of real and false children of God—and much evil and corruption has resulted from it. We are duly thankful for the epistles of John which present the characteristics of life eternal in the children of God, and thus enable us to identify those who are real from those who are false. We are also indebted to God for including the epistle of Jude in the canon of Scripture. It exposures the true character of the apostasy in the Christian profession, and gives the believer solid assurance that the apostasy will not affect him, if he casts himself on Christ's high priestly care (Hebrews 7:25). He who has saved us is also able to preserve and keep us, and He will one day soon present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24).