2 Timothy 4:4

Ver. 4. And so is it also in regard to the further statement concerning the errorists in question made in this verse: and they will turn away their ears (lit. their hearing) from the truth, but be turned aside to fables. We can scarcely believe, with Ellicott, that this indicates as the result “a complete turning away from every doctrine of Christian truth;” for if such were the result, there would necessarily be an abandonment of the Christian profession a going over to the ranks of unbelief. But it is rather a depravation within the professing church that the apostle appears to be speaking of, than a formal forsaking of its communion such a depravation as would disincline the minds of men to sound doctrine; consequently such a turning away from the truth as would cause this to lose its proper character, and by mixing it up with error and fable, would prevent it from effecting its proper aim upon the heart and conduct. Even the Gnostic sects, who shortly became so prominent in this line of things, did not go further than has just been stated they still retained many Christian elements in their systems; but these did not save their doctrine from being justly denounced as a corruption of the truth, and held as a whole to be essentially antichristian. In a modified sense, the same may be said of the false worship and discipline which now bears the name of Popery: it undoubtedly has many Christian elements in it; but these are so intermingled with error, that the system as a whole is a grievous departure from the truth of Christ. And how large a part fable played in accomplishing that departure, tales of lying wonders concerning reputed saints and their adversaries in this world and the next, no one acquainted with the history of the subject, and even with the present state of Catholic belief, can need to be told. The modern tendency in Protestant countries, even when turning away the ear from the truth, can scarcely be said to take this particular direction; the substitute is not fables, but rather science falsely so called science, not in its ascertained results, but in its speculative processes and rash deductions.