“They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods that God created to be received with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth.”
Paul starts this section by telling Timothy that false teachers will be coming. Now he will tell him what they will teach. Verses 3 through 5 go together, and I will come back to these three verses together with my next blog post. But today, I want to focus on one thing. Notice what the false teachers are doing. Paul says that these false teachers are forbidding the believers from doing something that God designed to be received with gratitude. In other words, the false teachers are demanding that the believers do something against what they know to be true.
Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” The false teachers in Paul’s day were promoting a combination of Jewish legalism with Eastern asceticism. John Barry writes in The Faithlife Study Bible, “The false teachers plaguing the Ephesian church were the forerunners of the Gnostics of the second century. Even at this relatively incipient stage, the strong dualism of the Gnostics is clear: spirit is good; matter is evil.” Gnostics viewed truth as personal, mystical knowledge not available to everyone.
So why did I say that there is nothing new under the sun? Today we have the false teaching of postmodernism invading the church. Postmodernism questions the idea of absolute truth. We hear people say, “That may be true for you, but it’s not true for me.” That is postmodernism. Alisa Childers describes it this way in her book Live Your Truth and Other Lies: “This philosophy is called postmodernism, and it has affected nearly every facet of our lives, especially how we think and process information. Postmodernism questions many of the concepts that define modernity, like democracy, the scientific age, reason, and individual liberties. It’s deeply skeptical of objective truth and suspicious of the power dynamics of those who claim to know it. In other words, according to postmodernism, if objective truth exists, no one can claim to know it absolutely.”
So how does this affect the church? And what does it have to do with Gnosticism? Let’s start with the first question. Every year, the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University releases an American Worldview Inventory. I am going to provide a link for Report # 6, which is titled “Americans Possess Contradictory and Unbiblical Views About Moral Truths.” Find report here: AWVI-2025-6-Contradictions-in-Beliefs-about-Moral-Truth_FINAL.pdf The report states that two out of three American adults currently reject or doubt the existence of moral truth. This includes Catholics and mainline Protestant churches. One half of spiritually conservative Christians admit to rejecting absolute moral truth.
Where does Gnosticism fit in? The false teaching that Paul was dealing with was a precursor to Gnosticism. Today, we have the false teaching of postmodernism. They both question truth. The Gnostics claimed it was hidden and only available to the enlightened. Postmodern thought teaches that objective truth doesn’t exist. Both distrust the plain teaching of the Bible. Both focus on subjective experience and the denial of absolute truth.
When Jesus was questioned by Pontius Pilate, this is how He responded. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). Earlier in John, He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6).
Today, postmodern thought has crept into the church. Like Pontius Pilate, they ask, “What is truth?” But Jesus clearly states that everyone who is of the truth listens to His voice. There is no such thing as one truth for me and another for you. There are not multiple roads to heaven. All religions are not the same. Jesus clearly states that no one comes to the Father but through Him. Peter puts it this way for the Jewish leaders at the beginning of Acts. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (4:12)
Truth is that which lines up with reality. Even postmodernists live their lives knowing deep down that there is objective truth. There is an article in my CSB Apologetics Study Bible by Paul Copan. It is called “Can Something Be True For You and Not For Me?” He writes, “Relativism is self-contradictory. If someone claims to be a relativist, don’t believe it. A relativist will say that your belief is true for you but his is true for him; there is no objective truth that applies to all people. The only problem is that this statement itself is an objective truth that applies to all people!”
As Christians, we believe in objective truth. Why do we believe this? Greg Koukl puts it this way. When he was asked by his daughter how we know God is true, he answered, “The reason we believe God is true is that God is the best explanation for the way things are.” The world was designed by a Creator. Humanity rebelled against God, which has caused moral evil and brokenness in the world. But God did not leave us in our brokenness. He came down as a man- Jesus Christ- to rescue us by becoming the perfect sacrifice on the cross and rising from the dead three days later. And we are eagerly awaiting restoration, when God will renew all things and complete His good purpose.
Our pastor, William Dunlap at Summit Church in Buffalo, Wyoming, gave an excellent sermon yesterday on the foundations of our faith. I had originally finished this blog post the day before, but he made such a good point that I wanted to include it here. We live in a pluralistic society today and people complain about the exclusivity of Christianity. And yes, it is exclusive. If we believe Jesus’ claims, He is the only way. Pastor William said, “There is no other faith system in the world that is more exclusive than Christianity.” But then he went on. “But at the same time, there is no other faith system in the world that is so radically inclusive.” We read in Galatians 3:28, “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Isn’t that wonderful? Paul is saying that no one is excluded! So while Jesus is the only way, He provides a way for everyone who believes. You can watch the whole sermon here: https://www.youtube.com/live/whJUA9bvL04?si=hsS9iGXZMijeanRF&t=1951
I have covered a lot today. In a future blog post, I am going to go over the core beliefs for the Christian faith. What are the historic, core, primary tenets of the Christian faith. It is important to understand what these are because so much false doctrine has crept into the church. I am not talking about secondary or tertiary issues being false doctrine-those are issues that can be argued “in house.” I am talking about beliefs that are essential for the Christian faith.
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 