The Spirit expressly says

The two roads go together

Above we have indicated two ways of idolatry, namely the way of contemplation and the way of the charismata. The first has spread through Christianity very widely, including in the Roman Catholic Church. The second originated around 1900 and since then has spread widely across Christendom in waves.

What we have seen in recent decades is that the two roads are becoming more and more intertwined. In the message about the Festival church find a local example of that. But it is a worldwide development that the 'charismatic church' is joining the 'roman church'. See here the invitation from the Pope to the Pentecostals from 2014.

It is remarkable that the Bible already speaks of this. Paul prophesies it to Timothy!

The Spirit now says expressly

Paul writes the following to Timothy in his first letter.

“But the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, and will turn to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars, who have seared their own consciences as with a branding iron. They forbid marriage and command one to abstain from food which God has created for the believers and for those who have come to know the truth, to be accepted with thanksgiving.” (1 Timothy 4:1-3).

This is one of those pieces of text that you can't immediately make concrete and apply, where you just say something like "terrible!" and then read on. But let's take a closer look at what's written here.

About Ghost and Ghosts

Paul writes as an apostle to Timothy (1:1), so with the necessary authority, but he writes in 4:1 that here comes a message that is expressly spoken by the Spirit: “the Spirit says expressly”. That's a phrase not found anywhere else in the New Testament. It must be something special that it is here. Could it be something that possibly has to do with the Spirit of God? It is very likely that the Spirit Himself takes the floor here, as it were, and wants to communicate something important. In any case, if we read a little further in this first verse, it is about 'deceiving spirits' and 'demons'; and that could sometimes mean that it is a subject about the contradiction “Spirit or spirit”. The question of whether something is a 'message from the Spirit' or 'messages from spirits'.

In later times

What the Spirit says here is "for later times"; so it is a prophecy. The expression "in later times" also only appears in this one place in the New Testament, and that also indicates something special, because most of the time the Bible speaks of "the last times" or "the last days." In any case, the message that follows is not intended for Timothy himself and his contemporaries; it is about something that will take place later. So it is a prophetic message about something important that will happen in the future[1]. Moreover, the word used here for 'times' can also be understood as 'occasions', or 'events'. In any case, 'later times' indicates future things and possibly multiple events. I believe that the Spirit here foretells very concretely what charismatic waves later came over the Christian church. The first time the church was able to resist and label this as heretical; today there is hardly any resistance and the waste has set in.

Apostasy from Faith

This is about people who belong to the church, ie Christians. They fall away from the faith. “Waste” also means 'to leave', 'to leave', but without your realizing it and in the Old Testament it is always used in the context of idolatry of the people of Israel. So here too we must think of Christians who indulge in idolatry. Being 'some' that is, it starts with a small number, not immediately, say, 3000 as on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41). When asked "Spirit or ghosts?" they give the wrong answers and because of that they fall away from the faith.

They forbid marriage

In any case, 'the charismatic apostasy' is here directly associated with the monastic idea that man comes closer to God through celibacy and asceticism; that which we have called the "spiritual or contemplative way." The Holy Spirit Himself makes it clear here that the same deceptive demons are at work in both 'ways'[2][3].

What we see happening in Christian yards today is the convergence of the charismatic world with the Roman Catholic world. Something the Spirit of God has already foretold in this letter from Paul.

Footnotes

[1] From another expression "the last days" Roger Liebi has convincingly shown ("Are we really living in the end times?") that the period it signifies begins at the end of the 19th century.and century (c. 1880), because from that time on, Jews return to the promised land, as concretely promised in Scripture. Something similar may also be the case here.

[2] We will see elsewhere that this letter contains more references to the contemplative way, so that this letter (and also the 2and) are very topical for today.

[3] Incidentally, it is remarkable that one of the important teachings within Montanism was the prohibition of (re)marriage.