WHAT DID PAUL MEAN?    GALATIANS 4:10-11

What did Paul mean when he said:

 

"Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." Gal 4:10-11 (KJV)

Those two sentences of Paul are used by some Christians to justify their disobedience to The Sabbath Commandment of God.  Sometimes Paul's words are  hard to understand, but he always upheld The Ten Commandments.  So with that in mind, what does "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years" mean in
context?

From the text, we can prove that Paul was warning Gentile believers to not serve sin. Before they joined themselves to the LORD, through faith in Christ, Gentiles did not know the Creator or observe The Sabbath that honors Him.  Instead, they were
children of the devil who were in bondage to demons as they worshipped the elemental spirits of creation.  (In the astrological wheel of fortune, four elements are believed to be the basic ingredients of the universe:  earth, air, fire and water.)  In Galatians Paul says:

"Formerly, when you did not know God, [See Notes: Eph 2:12] YOU WERE IN BONDAGE TO BEINGS that by nature are no gods; but now  that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly ELEMENTAL SPIRITS, whose slaves you want to be once more?"

Gal 4:8-9 (RSV)

When Paul said:  "ye observe days", it could not mean The Sabbath Day because Gentiles couldn't "turn back" to Sabbath observance.  Therefore that verse has to refer to some Gentiles in the Galatian churches who were falling away from the obedience of the faith. They were going back to their old way of life when they served
demons with their idolatry, witchcraft --and ASTROLOGY.

Astrology is the practice and system of predicting events by the position and occult influence on human affairs of the sun, moon, and planets.  Observers of times, horoscopes and fortune-telling are an abomination to God.  (See Deut 18:9-14
"observer of times") That is why Paul speaks with so much concern when he says:

 

"Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."  Gal 4:10-11 (KJV)

Certainly, observing days, months, times and years in the verse above has absolutely nothing to do with The Sabbath --or even the feast days of the Jews  because we have two historical records of Paul observing feast days ...
 

"And we [Paul] sailed away from Philippi after the **days of  unleavened bread**, and came unto them to Troas in  five days; where we abode seven days ...

For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem **the day of     Pentecost** ."  Acts 20:6, 16 (KJV)

Paul testified to both Jews and Gentiles repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.  As a faithful minister, he upheld The Ten Commandments with these words:

 

"Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but {what matters is} the KEEPING OF THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD." 1 Cor 7:19 (NAS)

Harold and Donna Kupp

*  NOTES

Eph 2:12 (KJV)
"That at that time ye [Gentiles] were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no       hope, and **without God in the world:**"

                       
ELEMENTS :  "The essential substances of the physical world <2 Pet. 3:10,12>. The apostle Paul also used the word to refer to the demonic spirits or powers behind the
physical universe ." Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary

COSMIC DEMONS  stoicheia  Excerpts  from Christian Words by Nigel Turner p.88, 90.

Secular Greek:  "In Greek physics it stands for the smallest division into which matter may be analysed, found as far back as Plato, if not before, for he mentions the primary stoicheia of which the human frame is composed (Thaetetus 201E), and the physical stoicheia (fire, water, earth, air) of the universe  (Timaeus 48B)."

Christian Greek:  "Clemen reasoned that what St. Paul intended were astral deities, the spirits dwelling in the physical elements and in the heavenly bodies ... St. Paul's
'we' may well include Jewish readers who in fact practiced astrology, even though it was forbidden them."

dk