Jude 3-4 commands believers to contend for the faith delivered once for all to the saints and to keep it unchanged through the years, because ungodly men have crept into the church and turned grace into a license to sin. Most in the greater churches of God received this faith through Mr. Armstrong, yet it is now being added to and watered down. Additions include the new moons and sacred names doctrines, while erosion appears in casual church dress, Sabbath travel and recreation, "Church in the Park," dating and marrying outside the faith, and loose teaching on divorce and remarriage. Such compromise starts small, as with dress, since a little leaven leavens the whole lump (I Corinthians 5:6). God's holiness, shown at Sinai in Exodus 19 and at the burning bush in Exodus 3:5, requires reverence, and God is to be worshiped His way rather than ours. Ancient Israel is the warning. Through generations of adding to and subtracting from what God gave through Moses, and tolerating high places, they slid into sacrificing their children and then captivity. Believers today have more than Israel had: Christ's sacrifice, the Holy Spirit, the miracle of calling, and the Bible. God's laws protect rather than burden, and He wants to give His little flock the Kingdom. Believers are therefore to keep the faith once delivered and endure tribulation (Acts 14:22; II Peter 1:10-11), rather than demand smooth things (Isaiah 30:10).

The faith once delivered is the Word of God, the whole Bible from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 and every word in between. Jude 3 commands God's people to contend earnestly for it. Keeping it and enduring to the end are the two things critical to salvation in these unstable end-time days, as Matthew 24:13 says: "he who endures to the end shall be saved." Christ warns in the Olivet prophecy that deceivers will come, love will grow cold, and even the elect could be deceived. False ideas already circulate in the churches of God, such as the claims that the government's taxes replace third tithe, that God's name must be a sacred name, that the new moons must be kept, and that Christ was created. The answer to every such notion is to go to the Bible. God has many names, each revealing part of His character. The new moons require an altar and temple that do not exist. Genesis 1:26, John 1:1, John 10:30, and Christ's miracles show that He is God. Believers must examine themselves to see whether they are in the faith (II Corinthians 13:5) and refuse to be distracted by the world's turmoil. Those who know the way and then turn from it are worse off (II Peter 2:21). Keeping the faith takes endurance like that of Frank and Betty Flanagan, who stayed committed to God's laws through severe suffering. God is faithful and, like a parent steadying a child learning to ride a bike, will pick up, encourage, and guide those who keep on keeping on, and the reward will be unbelievable.

The condition of the church, scattered through worldliness, Laodiceanism, and sin, has caused faith to deteriorate to the point that people question "the faith once delivered" on virtually every point. This erosion is evidenced by unrest, confusion, continual splitting, and a waning of devotion to Christ, as self-interest has replaced first love. Had faith remained strong, the scattering would have come through honorable external persecution rather than internal decay. This crisis calls for crying out to God to increase faith, though faith is not magic; it comes by hearing God's Word, must be received and submitted to, and requires guarding what has already been built lest the foundation be lost. Faith is the foundation underlying hope and love, giving vision, assurance, reason, and purpose. The kind of faith God requires involves persistence and endurance over a long course, ignoring the persuasions of Satan and the world, and requires thoughtful evaluation and the setting of the will. Lamentations illustrates the church, portrayed as one person, persistently crying out to God amid scattering and the early stages of repentance, even when God appears silent, since He tests seriousness and delays until conditions are right for His intervention. Satan works methodically and subtly ("wiles") to destroy faith through deception rather than direct confrontation, since unbelief and disobedience are essentially synonymous, as shown in Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve's loss of faith led immediately to sin. Satan's first tactic was suggesting God's Word cannot be trusted, and this pattern continues through false prophets, false ministers, and deceptive teachings in every sphere of life, including science, academia, and politics. Believers must hold to "that which you heard from the beginning," the faith once delivered, which is the same faith Christ Himself holds; abiding in this original message keeps one in union with the Father and the Son, whereas departure from it, even while remaining within the body, constitutes going out from the truth doctrinally. Several specific deceptions targeting faith are catalogued: portraying God as weak (through images like a lifeless crucifix or a passive Christ, contrary to the powerful Creator and warrior-like Yeshua of the Old Testament); portraying God as distant or disinterested, ignoring that delay and testing are part of His deliberate pattern, as seen with Abraham, Eden, and Hezekiah; and portraying God as so merciful that sin carries no real consequence, when in fact "without shedding of blood there is no remission," and mercy applies only after the penalty is paid through Christ's sacrifice. Additionally, sin—whether one's own or another's—destroys faith by deceitfully promising fulfillment it cannot sustain, as illustrated by the psalmist nearly stumbling over envy of the wicked. Finally, Satan encourages believers to think they deserve more and better, urging premature judgment rather than patient trust. Overcoming these subtle deceptions requires returning to the faith once delivered, maintaining a correct, biblically-based image of God, understanding His patterns of testing and delay, and refusing to let sin or misjudgment erode confidence. This restored, active faith is meant to produce Christlike conduct—kindness, forgiveness, and unity—since salvation by grace through faith is meant to be lived out, not merely professed.