Paul wrote some things to the churches he started that have puzzled many since then. Someone was trying to influence his converts in the wrong way and he was trying to protect them from these troublers. Who were these troublers? What were the issues Paul was dealing with? Let’s take a look.
How turn ye again? –
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Galatians 4:8-11
Who are the “no gods” that Paul is concerned about? Some think that the “days, and months, and times, and years” that the Galatians were turning back to were the Festivals spoken of in the Old Testament. From that line of reasoning, we would have to conclude that the “no gods” would be the God of Heaven. I doubt any true Christian would wish to call God in Heaven a “no god.” Maybe more careful study is the remedy for such confusion. We know that Paul kept the Feasts of Scripture, (without the sacrifices of course) as the book of Acts reveals.
But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. Acts 18:21
And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days. Acts 20:6
At Philippi Paul tarried to keep the passover. Only Luke remained with him, the other members of the company passing on to Troas to await him there. The Philippians were the most loving and true-hearted of the apostle’s converts, and he enjoyed a peaceful and happy visit with them during the eight days of the feast. (Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 196)
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 20:16
Paul would not chastise the Galatians for keeping the Biblical Feasts when he observed them himself. But being concerned about them going back to their old pagan feasts with all their sexual orgies and idolatry makes logical sense. What else could “turn ye again” mean for those who were previously pagans and were in danger of going back to their pagan practices?
“Justin reduces the seventh day to a trademark of Jewish infidelity. To prove such a thesis he contends that the Sabbath was not observed before Moses, that God Himself did not keep it and that several persons in the Old Testament, like the priests, legitimately broke it.
“These ‘proofs’ became the standard repertory utilized in the controversy not only by the Fathers but even by Gnostic sects . . .
“The Gnostics, in fact, who, as J. Danielou points out, “were decided enemies of Judaism, were carried away by this theme [ i.e. eighth day ], since it enabled them to do away with the “Jewish Sabbath.” (Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, p. 286, para 1-3)
The Gnostics were promoting eighth-day worship, which is really first-day worship – Sunday worship instead of Sabbath worship, and Easter instead of Passover.
Who were these Gnostics? Let’s study into their history a bit further. Here is some information on the Gnostics from two websites on the internet. Please keep in mind as you read these quotes that the authors are not Christians. I am quoting them merely for their descriptions of Gnosticism.
from www.earlychristianwritings.com
“A one-sentence description of Gnosticism: a religion that differentiates the evil god of this world (who is identified with the god of the Old Testament) from a higher more abstract God revealed by Jesus Christ, a religion that regards this world as the creation of a series of evil archons/powers who wish to keep the human soul trapped in an evil physical body, a religion that preaches a hidden wisdom or knowledge only to a select group as necessary for salvation or escape from this world.
“The term “gnostic” derives from “gnosis,” which means “knowledge” in Greek. The Gnostics believed that they were privy to a secret knowledge about the divine, hence the name. (Huxley coined “agnosticism” on the basis that all knowledge must be based on reason. We cannot rationally claim to have access to knowledge that is beyond the powers of the intellect.)
“There are numerous references to the Gnostics in second century proto-orthodox literature. Most of what we know about them is from the polemic thrown at them by the early Church Fathers. They are alluded to in the Bible in the pastorals (spurious Paulines of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus), for example 1 Tm 1:4 and 1 Tm 6:20, and possibly the entirety of Jude. Ignatius of Antioch writes against them as well as Docetism, a doctrine closely related to Gnosticism that stated that Christ was pure spirit and had only a phantom body. Second Clement is a document aimed at refuting early second century Gnosticism. Marcion was the most famous of the Gnostics, and he established a “canon” of the Pauline epistles (minus the pastorals) and a “mutilated” Luke (presumably considered so because it lacked proof-texts such as Lk 22:43-44). Justin Martyr mentioned him c. 150 CE, and Irenaeus and Tertullian wrote against him extensively in the late second century (in Against Heresy and Against Marcion, respectively).
“Some scholars have theorized that Gnosticism has its roots in pre-Christian religions, instead of being merely an offshoot of Christianity.”
from www.jesusneverexisted.com/gnostic
“The Samaritan “Simon the Magus” was an early Jewish Gnostic who inspired both the mystical “Kabala” (a refinement of Pythagorean “magic” numbers) and later Christian Gnostics – Basilides, Saturninus, Carpocrates among them. Later Catholic writers demonized the poor guy. He may actually be the figure on whom the apostle Paul is based!
“Simon goes unmentioned in the Gospels but in Acts he has “bewitched” all the people of Samaria. “They all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, ‘This man is the great power of God.’ And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.” Acts 8.10,11″
This second web site is very gnostic and very opposed to Christianity. But it is interesting to see what it says about the origin of Gnosticism.
About the time of Paul’s second arrest, Peter also was apprehended and thrust into prison. He had made himself especially obnoxious to the authorities by his zeal and success in exposing the deceptions and defeating the plots of Simon Magus the sorcerer, who had followed him to Rome to oppose and hinder the work of the gospel. Nero was a believer in magic, and had patronized Simon. He was therefore greatly incensed against the apostle, and was thus prompted to order his arrest. (Ellen G. White, Spirit of Prophecy, Book 3, p. 436)
What did the Gnostics teach in addition to Sunday worship?
“The Gnostics separated matter from thought. They concluded that matter was evil, and formulated the idea that the possession of knowledge was the only requirement for salvation. This is why they did not want to attribute humanity to Jesus Christ because to them, material things were evil. Docetism resulted, which taught that the body of Christ was something that only appeared material, but in reality it was only spiritual. Such a belief led to an immoral life, for since the spirit was separated from the physical body, they ignored their responsibility for the actions done in the body. This is the reason why Paul stressed that “. . . in him [Jesus Christ, as He appeared on earth], dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (v. 9). Jesus was truly God in the flesh (John 1:14). As a result of the philosophical concept of the evil of the body, the Gnostics ignored or diminished the significance of the historic facts of the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as not being real but simply apparent. To them, all the secrets of God were in the mind, or appearing in an immaterial identity. The result was a complete denial of sexual and other bodily appetites (i.e., one being virtual asceticism and the other a practice of unrestrained indulgence of the body [vv. 20-23]).” (footnote on Colossians 2 in The Complete Word Study New Testament, Spiros Zodhiates, editor)
These strange philosophical ideas about evil matter and spiritual knowledge, and Jesus not having a physical body are what John addresses in 1 John and 2 John where he warns of the dangers of antichrist.
“Many early Christians migrated to Rome in the wake of the Jewish war. Among them was Valentinus, Marcion, a wealthy ship owner from Pontus, and Cerdo, who established a school in which the new theology was taught. The gnostic leaders openly proclaimed that all things Jewish should be discarded. They declared that the God of the Old Testament was an inferior god, the deity of the lower, material world.
“Having jettisoned “Jewish practices”, familiarity with the Greek “mystery religions” led the Gnostics to copy their style. Within an inner circle of adepts a secret “higher Wisdom” was passed orally from Master to Initiate. Their claim to authority rested on earlier holy men, apostles and sages, who, it was said, had entrusted arcane knowledge to their favourite disciples, the founders of the gnostic sects.
“The cults, as competitive clubs, vied with each other for acolytes, with some groups committed to asceticism and the denial of all “pleasures of the flesh” and others to indulgence, in which sex, revelry and all manner of dissolute behaviour were encouraged. Their common goal was to find “the Christ within.” (from www.jesusneverexisted.com/gnostic)
What do these paragraphs tell us that the Gnostics believed? A strange mixture indeed.
1. Jesus was not truly a flesh-and-blood human
2. all things Jewish should be discarded
3. the God of the Old Testament was inferior to the God revealed by Jesus
(see also the first paragraph in the quote from www.earlychristianwritings.com above)
4. true religion was a secret only for the initiated
5. asceticism
6. denial of all pleasure
7. indulgence in sex and revelry
8. finding the christ within
Some comments on the above points:
1. If Jesus was not truly real and human, then everything He “supposedly” did was not real – no real suffering, no real blood shed, no real death, no real resurrection, no real atonement. Everything about Him would be merely an illusion and we would have no salvation in Him.
2. This idea is still echoed today by Christian churches in many ways such as: “The law of God was nailed to the cross.” “The Law of Moses (which is really the Law of God) was nailed to the cross.”
But what did Jesus say?
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5:17-18
Then He goes on to say what law will not pass till heaven and earth pass away.
Matthew 5:21 murder (Exodus 20:13)
Matthew 5:27 adultery (Exodus 20:14)
Matthew 5:31 divorce (Deuteronomy 24:1)
Matthew 5:33 oaths (Leviticus 19:12)
Matthew 5:38 eye for eye, tooth for tooth (Leviticus 24:20)
Mathew 5: 43 love your neighbor, hate your enemy (Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 23:6)
Jesus said He did not come to destroy these Laws. Instead He expanded on the spirit of the Law behind the letter. To say that the letter was eliminated but we keep the spirit of the Law would be like saying, “I love my wife, so I will keep the spirit of not committing adultery. But the letter was nailed to the cross, so I can find a prostitute and have sex with her, and as long as I pretend in my mind that it’s my wife, I don’t violate the spirit of the law.” If we violate the letter of the Law, we have already violated the spirit. And if the eye for an eye principle was used in our courts today, how few law suits would come to court! The damages would often be too small to even pay the lawyer’s fees.
In these verses, Jesus refers to two of the Ten Commandments and four items from the “Law of Moses.” So according to our Lord, none of these laws were destroyed by his death, not one jot or tittle. The only thing nailed to the cross was that which was the remedy for the breaking of the Law – the sacrifices, sanctuary, and priestly offices and ministrations. Prior to the cross, these were all done by faith in the Messiah who was to come. If there was no faith, there was no atonement. The Gospel was by faith then as it is now.
So, were all things Jewish discarded? Absolutely not! That is a Gnostic teaching.
3. Is the God of the Old Testament different from and inferior to the God that Jesus revealed? What does scripture say?
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Malachi 3:6
God does not change! Jesus and the Father were one. The God of the Old Testament is the same as in the New. But how often we hear these sentiments echoed from Christians today: God is so harsh in the OT; Jesus is so nice in the NT. Actually, the NT speaks of judgment just as much as the OT and the OT describes God’s patience and mercy just as vividly as the NT.
4. Religion of secrets?
Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. John 18:20
5. and 6. Asceticism and denying all pleasure
They refused marriage and would do things to mortify the body. They ate very little food of only the plainest type. This is what Paul refers to in Colossians 2.
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, . . . (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. Colossians 2:18, 21-23
The Essenes–
Another group, similar to the Gnostics, were the Essenes (or Essens as Josephus refers to them in the following paragraphs).
“These Essens reject pleasures as an evil, but esteem continence, and the conquest over our passions, to be virtue. They neglect wedlock, but choose out other persons children, while they are pliable, and fit for learning, and esteem them to be of their kindred, and form them according to their own manners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and the succession of mankind thereby continued; but they guard against the lascivious behaviour of women, and are persuaded that none of them preserve their fidelity to one man.
“. . . while they go, after a pure manner, into the dining-room, as into a certain holy temple, and quietly set themselves down; upon which the baker lays them loaves in order; the cook also brings a single plate of one sort of food, and sets it before every one of them;
“. . . and that he will neither conceal any thing from those of his own sect, nor discover any of their doctrines to others, no, not though anyone should compel him so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover, he swears to communicate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than as he received them himself; that he will abstain from robbery, and will equally preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names of the angels * [or messengers]. These are the oaths by which they secure their proselytes to themselves.
“[* This mention of the “names of angels,” so particularly preserved by the Essens, (if it means more than those “messengers” which were employed to bring, them the peculiar books of their Sect,) looks like a prelude to that “worshipping of angels,” blamed by St. Paul, as superstitious and unlawful, in some such sort of people as these Essens were, Colossians 2:8; as is the prayer to or towards the sun for his rising every morning, mentioned before, sect. 5, very like those not much later observances made mention of in the preaching of Peter, Authent. Rec. Part II. p. 669, and regarding a kind of worship of angels, of the month, and of the moon, and not celebrating the new moons, or other festivals, unless the moon appeared. Which, indeed, seems to me the earliest mention of any regard to the phases in fixing the Jewish calendar, of which the Talmud and later Rabbins talk so much, and upon so very little ancient foundation.] (A footnote added by the publisher of this volume.)
“But for those that are caught in any heinous sins, they cast them out of their society; and he who is thus separated from them does often die after a miserable manner; for as he is bound by the oath he hath taken, and by the customs he hath been engaged in, he is not at liberty to partake of that food that he meets with elsewhere, but is forced to eat grass, and to famish his body with hunger, till he perish; for which reason they receive many of them again when they are at their last gasp, out of compassion to them, as thinking the miseries they have endured till they came to the very brink of death to be a sufficient punishment for the sins they had been guilty of.” (The Life of Flavius Josephus-Antiquities of the Jews, Volume One, p. 673-675)
These excerpts from Josephus serve to illustrate some of the beliefs and teachings of the Essenes – the worship of angels, self-abasement, sun and moon worship, dietary restrictions, refusal to marry, etc. They were not even allowed to eat food that had not been blessed by the Essene leadership, so they would starve outside the group.
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Colossians 2:16, 17
This is referring to the Gnostic regulations of these Festivals, various aspects of eating, drinking, and timing. They could hardly have a feast on the diet specified by the Essenes. God had not prescribed fasting on His Festivals. They were to be a celebration commemorating joyful events in the history of the Jewish nation and in the progression of His Plan of Salvation – deliverance from sin and death, the gift of the Law and the Spirit, anticipation of the eternal kingdom. But there was an agenda behind the feasting / fasting issue.
“Since Easter-Sunday, . . . differentiate(d) the Christian Passover from that of the Jews, it is possible that the weekly Sabbath fast arose contemporaneously as an extension of the annual paschal Sabbath fast.” (Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, pp. 190, 191)
One can see that fasting was made an issue during Sabbath and Festival times. Dr. Bacchiocchi goes on to show how this fasting was the catalyst used by the Roman Church, which adopted many of these pagan-gnostic rites, to change from God’s worship days to man’s worship days. This is a major emphasis in his book with many pages dedicated to a clearer understanding of this issue.
One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. Romans 14:5, 6
This is referring back to the man-made days for fasting which the Jews and the Gnostics had in abundance.
Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? Zechariah 7:5
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace. Zechariah 8:19
Notice that these fast days were not the Feast days given by God. The Jews commemorated various events in the history of Jerusalem by setting aside fast days in the 4th, 5th, 7th, and 10th months. The days God had specified were not left to personal discretion, nor had He told them to fast on any of His Feast days except the Day of Atonement. The Jews had multiplied their fast days by the time of Christ. Paul does not condemn these man-made fast days but merely says that fasting on a certain day or feasting on that day really doesn’t matter as long as you keep the Lord foremost in your mind. It should be to God’s glory whichever way you choose to spend the day.
“Even the strictest Jewish sects objected to fasting on the Sabbath.” (Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday, p. 187)
7. Sensual pleasures: While there was a cloak of piety, there was hidden corruption of all kinds as can be observed in the lives of the descendents of this sect – the Catholic Priests.
8. Finding the christ within: What we see in the New Age Movement, Spiritual Formation, etc. is nothing new. It’s the same old “man is god” idea that has been around for thousands of years.
From the above evidence and many more historical documents, it seems that the significant problem that Paul was addressing in many places in his letters to the various churches was the infiltration of this dangerous mix of Jewish-Gnostic-Christian beliefs. Paul was accused by the Jews of teaching against their ways but he refuted their claims. (Acts 21:20-28; 23:1-5; 24:5-21; 25:8; 28:17, 18) He was not trying to turn his converts from the eternal things God had given His people but from the things others were attempting to introduce to them (Gnostic, Essene, and Jewish rabbinical rites and regulations) and from returning to their former pagan ways.