Question:  Dear Greg,

            At my place of work I had a conversation with a fellow worker who happens to be Catholic.  Somehow the conversation got around to the Catholic Church’s forbidding its priests to marry and I brought up 1 Timothy 4:1-3.  I told him I would ask you about this scripture and that I would share it with him.

            My Bible refers to “later times” which I wonder if it could apply to our present time or a later time during Paul’s life?  I also wonder if one can apply this warning of Paul to the present Catholic Church or if this is a misapplication of these verses and taking them out of context.

            David

Answer:  Dear David,

            Most Protestants agree with what seems to be the clear message of Paul: that enforced celibacy is a doctrine of demons.  The “later times” mentioned in 1 Timothy 4:1 should be understood in the context of the book, all of Paul’s writings and the New Testament in general.  There is no indication that “later times” could specifically and expressly only mean the early 21^st century and no era or time before that.  In fact, it most certainly means all times after the end of the New Testament era—after the deaths of the original apostles.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht