“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons — Paul invokes pneumatic authority (the Spirit expressly says/rhēma) to announce the reality of apostasy in the eschaton. Future false teaching originates in demonic sources (didaskalia daimoniōn), not merely human error.
Church Fathers on 1 Timothy 4:1
As those who adhere to the faith are fixed on a safe anchor, so those who fall from the faith can nowhere rest; but after many wanderings to and fro, they are borne at last into the very gulf of perdition. And this he had shown before, saying, that some had “already made shipwreck concerning the faith,” and now he says, “Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits.” This is said of the Manichæans,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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