Deliverance from False Prophets
(Jude 1:3–16)

1But there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also there will be false teachers, who, indeed, will stealthily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction: 2and many will follow their lascivious doings; by reason of whom the way of the truth will be defamed; 3and, in covetousness, will they, with feigned words, make merchandise of you; for whom the judgment from of old lingers not, and their destruction slumbers not.

4For, if God spared not angels that sinned, but, hurling them down to Hell, delivered them up to pits of darkness, kept for judgment; 5and spared not the old world; but preserved Noah, an eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing a flood upon a world of ungodly people; 6and, turning to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, condemned them by an overthrow, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly;

7and delivered righteous Lot, distressed by the conduct of those who were impious in lasciviousness, 8(for this righteous man, dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, was torturing his righteous soul from day to day with their lawless deeds): 9the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous enduring punishment unto the day of judgment;

10but especially those who walk after the flesh in a desire for pollution, and despise dominion; daring, self-willed, they tremble not, when railing at dignities; 11whereas angels, though greater in might and power, bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord. 12But these, as irrational creatures, born naturally for capture and destruction, railing in matters of which they are ignorant, shall in their destruction be also destroyed, 13suffering evil as wages of unrighteousness; accounting revelry in the daytime a pleasure; spots and blemishes; reveling in their deceivings, while feasting with you; 14having eyes full of lustfulness, and that cannot cease from sin; enticing unstable souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children of a curse; 15leaving the right way, they were led astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, 16but had a rebuke for his own transgression; a dumb beast-of-burden, speaking in man's voice, forbade the prophet's madness.

17These are fountains without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved. 18For, uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice, in desires of the flesh, by their lasciviousness, those just escaping from those who live in error; 19promising them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what one is overcome by this he has become enslaved. 20For if, after having escaped the defilements of the world in a full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but, having again become entangled with these, they are overcome, the last state has become worse with them than the first. 21For it were better for them not to have fully known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A dog having returned to his own vomit"; and "A sow that was washed, to her wallowing in mire."