THE TRUTH ABOUT GAL. 4:8-10
SHOULD CHRISTIANS OBSERVE PAGAN HOLIDAYS?
There are those, even some who are ministers, who blatantly claim that the days referred to in Gal. 4:10 are the holy days of God. They further hold the idea that this Scripture gives permission to avoid observing God's holy days. But IS THIS TRUE?
PETER'S WARNING
For all who would study the Word of God and come to be assured they KNOW whereof they speak, and want positive proof of what they believe, it is imperative to not take lightly the warning Peter gave regarding the writings of the apostle Paul. II Pet. 3:16
"As also in all his (Paul's) epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned (including many ministers) and unstable wrest (twist, distort), as they do also other Scriptures, unto their own destruction!"
For your own safety, check up on ANY article or booklet. Don't believe me! Believe what you see in your Bible and your faith will not rest on a man.
GAL. 4:10 STATED
"You observe days, and months, and times and years."
At face value does this say…Pentecost, Days of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Tabernacles, and such? Be honest! Of course it does not. Then are we to assume without proof that God's holy days are being called into question and abrogated? That would be a dangerous assumption which could put one in the category Peter spoke of - twisting Scripture unto our own destruction. We need to ask some questions and search out the answers.
WHO WERE GALATIANS?
Paul wrote to Galatians. But who were they? They were Gentile converts and had come from a background of pagan practices. Let's not be afraid to look into their background. Galatia was a region in Asia Minor where the churches of Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, Derbe and others were located. Now let's look in Acts 14:8-18 for their background. Paul was used by Christ to heal a man born in a crippled condition. See verses 8 - 10. As a result the pagan Gentiles wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas thinking the apostles were their gods, Jupiter and Mercury! They even wanted to do sacrifice to them v.11-13. Paul and Barnabas, pleading with them to not do such a thing scarcely restrained them v. 14-18.
This is precisely what Paul said to them in Gal. 4:8 as to how they were prior to conversion.
"Howbeit then, when you knew not God, you did service unto them which by nature are no gods."
They had been slaves to gods that were not even gods at all. They had been worshipping demons. It was out of this pagan superstition that Christ used Paul and Barnabas to convert them into serving the living Christ.
Now someone was trying to beguile them into returning to their former ways. Paul was alarmed! Gal. 4:9…
"But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, HOW TURN YOU AGAIN (back) to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in bondage?"
What were those ways they were turning back to? "Observing days, months, times and years." They could NOT be returning to God's festivals! As Gentiles, they had never kept them before Paul preached about them.
WAYS OF PAGAN WORSHIP
The heathen followed certain customs of observing particular days. Go to a reputable encyclopedia and you will find various festivals of the heathen. Saturnalia - today called Christmas; feast of Astarte with special cakes made to this 'queen of heaven' - today is Easter and hot cross buns; All Saints Day or Hallowe'en today; and women weeping for Tammuz - Lent, today.
WHAT ARE TIMES?
Turn to Leviticus 19:26 and Deut. 18:10, 14 and read with your own eyes that God orders His people NOT to observe times! How much more ABSOLUTE PROOF does a person need that the days Paul was forbidding were pagan and NOT God-given? To observe times was a heathen practice of divination often attached to heavenly bodies. In Greece it developed into regular seasons.
The Law of Moses absolutely forbids the observance of 'times'. The Gentiles Paul wrote to were being hoodwinked into a return to observing the Gentile days associated with 'times' - pagan times such as Easter time, and Christmas time.
These superstitious 'times' which Paul forbids, were pagan customs. These same pagan customs were practiced by so called 'Christians' in the days of the Catholic Bishop Chrysostom, who lived in the fourth century. I quote, "many were superstitiously addicted to divination…in the celebration of these 'times' (they) set up lamps in market place, and crown their doors with garlands" - as is done at Christmas time today! (From Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, pp. 1123, 1124).
DAYS CELEBRATED
Besides 'times', special days in honor of the dead were observed by the Greeks. "The rites took place on the …unlucky days accompanied by complete idleness and cessation of business." (From Rest Days, p. 79)
Several churches today celebrate pagan days in honor of the dead, such as All Soul's Day and All Saints Day (called Hallowe'en by the world). Paul forbids Christians to observe these heathen days!
The days the Gentile Galatians were returning to are the same old pagan days even now masquerading under Christian sounding names! "Many of the holy days in the religious calendar of Christendom were borrowed, as is well known, from the festivals of ancient paganism." (Rest Days, p. 306) And God THUNDERS at our peoples "LEARN NOT the way of the heathen!" Read for yourself Jer. 10:1-4.
MORE ABOUT PAGAN DAYS
There were numerous days observed as idolatrous festivals by the old heathen idolatry. These days, consecrated to deities of the state religious cults, were 'unlucky' because of the influence of the gods. These civil and religious days were "regarded as unsuitable for many purposes, both public and private: for battles, levies, sacred rites, journeys and marriages. We are told they owed their unlucky quality to the pronouncement of the Senate and pontiffs." (From Rest Days by Webster, p. 171).
Think of it, as many as a full third of the days of the old Greek and Roman calendars were marked as "unlawful for judicial and political business…and…on which the state expected the citizens to abstain, as far as possible, from their private business and labor!"
Is it any wonder Paul spoke of 'days'?
How many people today, even so called Christians, continue similar beliefs? Have you never heard of unlucky Friday the thirteenth?
Paul tried to educate these Galatians to forego this foolish and superstitious regard for heathen days.
MORE PAGAN HOLIDAYS
In Gal. 4:10 Paul also mentions "months and years" - another heathen custom!
Heathen festivals were held, during the months of the year in honor of the Greek gods, Apollo (April, October), Zeus (February, June), Aremas (April), Bacchus (January) and many others. Check it for yourself in the Encyclopedia Americana, under the article "Festival". Never did God command His people to observe months.
Certain years were also set aside biennially and quadrennially. National idolatrous feasts and the celebration of the Olympic, Ishmaian, Nemean and Pythian games occurred during these years. Each one was connected with idolatrous worship and ceremony.
When Christ and Paul were on earth, many of the present so-called 'Christian' holidays were being celebrated by the heathen. Paul and Christ never observed them and commanded the Church NOT to observe them!
KNOWING GOD
To 'know' God IS to keep His commandments, all of them including His holy days. I Jn. 2:3… "Hereby we do know that we KNOW Him, IF we keep His commandments!"
The Galatians had been converted from heathen customs to KNOW the true God, the God of Israel, to keep His commandments. To KNOW Him meant they were keeping the Law of God, had turned from sin which is the breaking of God's Law. I Jn. 3:4.
Paul didn't want these Galatians, once converted and keeping God's commandments, to go back to their previous idolatrous heathen "days, months, times, and years."
To love God, the Galatians were to keep His Word, of which the holy days of God are a vital part. (I Jn. 2:5) Also Christians are to walk EVEN AS Christ walked. (I Jn 2:6) Question: How did Christ walk? He kept the holy days and set us an example that we should follow His steps. (I Pet. 2:21). If Christ is truly living His life over within the Christian, He will keep the same days as when He was on earth. Christ does not change! (Heb. 13:8).
SEASONS
When Paul wrote to Timothy in II Tim. 4:2… "Preach the Word; be instant IN SEASON, out of SEASON…" he was not talking about summer, fall, winter, and spring. He was talking about the three seasons of God during which His holy days occur. See Ex. 13:10; Lev. 23:4; Num. 9:2, 3 and many others.
SUMMARY
From the in depth research of history and the Bible itself, it is obvious the Gentile Galatians were being admonished to NOT return to the heathen practice of observing days, months, times, and years. Gal. 4:10 has now been absolutely proved NOT to refer in any degree to the true holy days of God, which He gave as statutes to be observed by His people forever. Let us rejoice in this, God's TRUTH! "Correction (instruction) is grievous unto him that FORSAKETH the way; And he that hateth reproof SHALL DIE (Pro. 15:10).
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