[steve50]

1 Timothy 4:1,2,&3... Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from the meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

Always found this passage interesting

[vmatt]

HAVE YOU RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YOU BELIEVED?

[wideawake]

Hey, steve50, if you follow the thread back to the beginning, you'd see I was pointing out that the Protestant citation of the passage against the Catholic Church is specious and fraudulent.

St. Paul is referring to sects which ban marriage and certain foods outright. The Catholic Church does neither - no Catholic is compelled to be celibate and no Catholic is compelled to avoid any foods.

St. Paul himself was a celibate and recommended it to others, so celibacy is not wrong or unScriptural - only compulsive celibacy is.

Likewise abstaining from certain meats - which St. Paul admits to be permissible and which St. Peter and St. James recommended - is likewise an acceptable disciplinary measure.

No Catholic is forbidden marriage or food of any kind, so as interesting as this Scriptural passage is, it simply does not apply to the Catholic Church. It applies to the groups (most likely Gnostics and Ebionites) whom St. Paul is warning his fellow Catholics against.