Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ 1 Timothy

[Viking Toad]

Does 1 Timothy 4:3 mean that Vegetarians/vegans is a sign of the end times?

[jimwalton]

No, it's not. Paul's consistent reference when he talks about eating meats is regarding food offered to idols (1 Corinthians 8-10 and Romans 14-& 15). When he brings up examples of groups forbidding people to marry and ordering other groups to abstain from meat, he's referencing the Gnostics (Col. 2.16, 21ff.) and the Judaizers (book of Galatians), two common rabble-rousers against true Christianity. Asceticism was also on the rise in Greco-Rome. Paul is saying that Christianity is none of these things, but a faith system characterized by freedom. It has nothing to do with the vegetarianism of our era.