1 Timothy 4:1-3
NOW THE Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
The “latter times” had already begun in St. Paul’s day, because he refers to “those who believe and know the truth” (present tense). There were Gnostic heretics trying to infiltrate the Church, and some were dumb enough to follow them, hence “depart from the faith”.
Galatians 1
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel –
7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.
9 As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.
Is St. Paul talking about the same group of people? Does St. John make any mention of them?
1 John 4
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
3 and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.
2 John 1
5 And now I beg you, lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.
6 And this is love, that we follow his commandments; this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow love.
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.
8 Look to yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full reward.
9 Any one who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the doctrine has both the Father and the Son.
There is a list of heresies that plagued the Church during the Apostolic Era. You can read about them here:
newadvent.org/cathen/05412c.htm
You will notice that these heretics: forbade marriage, and fasted apart from the teachings of Christ. St. John and St. Paul must have been writing about them. They also believed Christ was not fully human, and held to a false dichotomy between spirit and matter. (hmm…, where have I seen that before?) Thus, a denial that the Messiah has come in the Flesh.
St. Ignatius, who was a student of St. John the Apostle, and ordained by St. Peter, also writes about these same groups who teach such strange doctrines. Notice in this quote he makes a unity between love in action and partaking of the Eucharist, and notice how he uses the word “flesh”.
The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans
“6:6 But mark ye those who hold strange doctrine touching the grace of Jesus Christ which came to us, how that they are contrary to the mind of God.6:7 They (who hold strange doctrines) have no care for love, none for the widow, none for the orphan, none for the afflicted, none for the prisoner, none for the hungry or thirsty. 6:8 THEY (who hold strange doctrines) ABSTAIN FROM EUCHARIST AND PRAYER,6:9 BECAUSE THEY (who hold strange doctrines) ALLOW NOT THAT THE EUCHARIST IS THE FLESH OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, WHICH FLESH SUFFERED FOR OUR SINS, AND WHICH THE FATHER OF HIS GOODNESS RAISED UP."
No one is saying this is inspired, but it definitely is historical.
Oh, that was written in 90 A.D., when the whole of the NT hadn’t finished being written.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
So far I have established who is doing the “forbidding… and fasting”. They were not celibate for the sake of the kingdom, they were celibate because they thought marriage, being so fleshly, was evil. The Gnostics weren’t fasting according to the teachings of Christ the way Catholics fast, they “obstained from certain foods” because they believed certain foods were evil.
Matrimony is a sacrament that reflects the Trinity: (father, mother, child(ren) and how Jesus loves His Bride. It is ongoing. Celibacy has already been discussed. It is not “forbidding of marriage”. Lots of guys quit the seminary and get married. On a theological level, marriage is a higher calling than celibacy.
It’s interesting to note that the Cathari (who thought that suicide was a sure way to heaven and abortion was ok) and Manicheans were both Gnostic. Yet some Baptist sects identify them as their spiritual forefathers and the true underground church allegedly persecuted by the Catholic Church.
They are also among many evangelicals who claim St. Paul was condemning Catholicism, and not Judeo-Christians, Judeo-Gnostics, Nicolaites, Docetae, Cerinthians, Ebionites, Nazarenes, followed, in the next two centuries, by a variety of Syrian and Alexandrian Gnostics, by Ophites, Marcionites, Encratites, Montanists, Manichæans, and others. All the early Eastern sects fed on the fanciful speculations so dear to the Eastern mind, but, lacking the support of temporal power, they disappeared under the anathemas of the guardians of the depositum fidei, (Deposit of Faith) .
It has been demonstrated in this thread that the claim that St. Paul was condemning Catholic practices is **absurd bible twisting and historical revisionism at it’s worst. **
May God have mercy on “teachers” who bear false witness.
