1 Timothy 4:1-5 | The Great Apostasy [Joseph Benson]
..the Spirit expressly states in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits & the teachings of demons, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. They will prohibit marriage & require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe & know the truth.
For every creation of God is good, & nothing is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, because it is sanctified by the word of God & prayer.
Joseph Benson Commentary (1749 –1821) | 1 Timothy 4:1
Now the Spirit — By calling the Christian Church, in the end of the preceding chapter, the pillar & support of the truth.
The apostle taught, that one of the important purposes for which that great spiritual building was reared, was to preserve the knowledge & practice of true religion in the world.
Nevertheless, knowing that in after times great corruptions, both in doctrine & practice, would at length take place in the church itself, & that the general reception of these corruptions by professed Christians would be urged as a proof of their being the truths & precepts of God, on pretence that the church is the pillar, of the truth.
The apostle, to strip these corruptions of any credit which they might derive from their being received by the multitude, & maintained by persons of the greatest note in the church, judged it necessary in this chapter to foretell the introduction of these corruptions, under the appellation of an apostacy from the faith, & to stigmatize the authors thereof as hypocrites & deceivers.
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And to give his prediction the greater authority, he informed Timothy that it was revealed to him in a peculiar & express manner.
The Spirit, says he, speaks expressly — As concerning a thing of great moment, & soon to be fulfilled.
Some have thought the meaning of the apostle to be, that the Holy Spirit had revealed what follows by Daniel, & some of the other prophets; but, says Macknight, “the things here mentioned are not in Daniel, nor anywhere else in Scripture, not even in the prophecy which the apostle himself formerly delivered concerning the man of sin. I therefore think these words were, for the greater solemnity & certainty, pronounced by the Spirit in the apostle’s hearing, after he had finished the preceding passage.”
But the apostle might mean, that the Holy Spirit had revealed this, not only to him, but also to other contemporary prophets.
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That in the latter, or after times — As the phrase εν υστεροις καιροις may be translated, because it denotes future times, without marking whether they are near or remote.
Or as Mede thinks, Daniel’s 4 monarchies are referred to, as under the Roman that the God of heaven set up the kingdom of His Son, the latter, or after times here intended, may be the last part of the duration of the Roman empire.
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Some shall depart — Or rather, shall apostatize, from the faith — The apostle had predicted the same thing before, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, see the notes.
There the character of the teachers who were to introduce the apostacy is described; but in this epistle the erroneous opinions & corrupt practices which constituted the apostacy are foretold.
And as the apostle hath introduced this prophecy immediately after his account of the mystery of godliness, is it not probable that his design in so doing was to give the faithful an opportunity of comparing this mystery of iniquity with the mystery of godliness.
That they might be more sensible of the pernicious nature of it?
It may be proper to observe, that it is not every error or heresy that is an apostacy from the faith.
It is a revolt in the principal & essential articles, as when we worship God by an image or representation, or when we worship other beings besides God, & pray unto other mediators besides the one Mediator between God & men, the man Christ Jesus.
It is the very essence of Christian worship, to worship the one true God through the one true Christ; & to worship any other God or any other Mediator, is apostacy & rebellion against God & Christ.
It is, as Paul says, [Colossians 2:19] not holding the head, but depending upon other heads; it is, as Peter expresses it, denying the Lord that bought us, & serving other lords.
And the denial of such an essential part may as properly be called apostacy, as if we were to renounce the whole Christian faith & worship.
It is renouncing them in effect, & not regarding God as God, or Christ as Christ.
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Such is the nature of apostacy from the faith, & it is implied that this apostacy should be general, & infect great numbers.
For though it be said only some shall apostatize, yet by some in this place many are understood, which is the case also in many other passages of the Scriptures, as Bishop Newton has fully proved.
Giving heed to seducing spirits — Who inspire false teachers that will persuade others to believe them by pretense of some revelation of the Holy Spirit, & thereby cause ppl to err from true faith of the gospel.
The apostle means those gross frauds by which the corrupt teachers, in the dark ages, would enforce their erroneous doctrines & superstitious practices on the ignorant multitudes, under the notion of revelations from God, or angels.
In the same sense John is to be understood, when he says, [1 John 4:1,] Believe not every spirit, every pretender, but try the spirits whether they be of God.
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And to doctrines of devils — Or rather, doctrines concerning demons.
The Word διαμονια, translated demons, was used by the Greeks to denote a kind of beings of a middle nature between God & man.
They gave the same name also to the souls of some departed men, who they thought were exalted to the state & honour of demons for their virtue.
- The former sort they called superior demons, & supposed them to have the nature & office which we ascribe to angels.
- The latter they termed inferior demons.
These were of the same character with the Romish saints.
And both sorts were worshipped as mediators.
When therefore the Spirit of God foretold, that in after times many would give heed to deceiving spirits, & to doctrines concerning demons, he foretold that, on the authority of feigned revelations:
- many in the church would receive the doctrine concerning the worship of angels & saints, &
- the praying souls out of purgatory; &
- called it the doctrine of demons, because it was in reality the same with the ancient heathenish worship of demons, as mediators between the gods & men.
Thus sin for which many are represented as being punished, [Revelation 9:20] is said to be their worshipping, τα δαιμονια, demons, that is, angels & saints; not devils, as our translators have rendered the word.