CLAIM: Jude writes, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation…” (Jude 4). Does God predestine us to wrath?

RESPONSE: The NASB footnote points out an alternate translation: “Those who were written about long ago.” Jude goes on to quote multiple people in the OT era, who were “written about” as being judged (vv.5-16). In this way, Jude was not referring to predestination; he was referring to the writing of the Old Testament. Green concurs when he writes, “‘This judgment Jude has in mind is what he will outline in the rest of the epistle (vv. 5-7, 10-15). His concern is to demonstrate to his readers the final outcome of the heretics’ lifestyle and teaching.”[1] Green goes on to state that these OT events could typologically predict the judgment of these false teachers.

[1] Gene L. Green, Jude and Second Peter: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), p.58.