In this Think About This… let’s talk about, ‘You observe days and months and
seasons and years’? Because there are a great many who do not properly understand
the Apostle Paul’s admonition in Galatians chapter 4, and verse 10, against the
observance of days, months, seasons, and years. What was it that the Apostle Paul
was talking about? Well… let’s see and hear what God’s Spirit has to say.
So, here is what the Apostle Paul wrote under inspiration ──
“But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature
are not gods. 9) Now after you have known God, or rather are known by God,
how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire
again to be bondage? 10) You observe days and months and seasons and years.” –
Galatians 4:8-10.
What Days?
Let us notice that this chapter four begins with the Apostle Paul addressing the Jews.
In verse three, he addresses the Jews as “we” because he was a Roman citizen, but
he was also a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin. He was born into a devout Jewish family in the city of Tarsus. He received his education under
Gamaliel ── a first-century Jewish rabbi and a leader in the Jewish Sanhedrin. But then he was taught directly from our Lord Jesus Christ in Arabia for three years.
But notice in verse six, the Apostle Paul changes from the Jews to the Gentile
converts. He doesn’t use the word “we,” but rather “you.”
“But then, indeed, when you did not know God, …”
The Jews there in the first century knew God, but the Gentiles did not know God and
were serving and worshiping those by nature that were not gods. Our Lord Jesus,
speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well ── a Gentile ──
“’ You worship what you do not know; …’” – as in, worshiping those which by
nature are not gods. “ …’ we [our Lord Jesus being a Jew] know what we worship,
for salvation is of the Jews.’” – John 4:22.
So, returning again to the Book of Galatians, let’s continue ──
“ … you served those which by nature are not gods. 9) But now after you have known
God, … how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which
you desire again to be in bondage?”
So, these Gentile converts to whom the Apostle Paul was writing this epistle were
not Jews. They, before they came to know God, or rather are now known by God,
were cut off from God ── they were serving those which by nature were not gods.
In fact, the Gentiles ── the nations and peoples that were all around the land of
Judah ── were worshiping:
- Baal. A Canaanite storm and fertility god.
- Asherah. Considered the consort of Baal. A goddess of fertility and motherhood.
- Molech. A Canaanite god that is associated with human sacrifice.
- Chemosh. A Canaanite god mentioned in the Old Testament, associated with fertility and agriculture.
- Ashtoreth. A goddess worshiped in ancient Canaan, linked to fertility and agriculture.
So, it wasn’t that they were returning again to the Lord's feasts and holy days; they
had not been keeping or celebrating them before the Apostle Paul had taught them.
What Is “Times”?
Let’s turn in our Bible to Leviticus 19, and verse 26 ──
“’ You shall not eat anything with the blood. You shall not observe times * nor
practice witchcraft.’” – NET.
“’ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to
pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or a
fortuneteller, or a witch. … 14) For these nations whom you shall possess hearkened
to observers of times and to diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not
allowed you to do so.’” – Deuteronomy 18:10, 14, NET.
The Apostle Paul forbade pagan practices. To observe “times” was a pagan
practice often attached to heavenly bodies ── such as stars, planets, moons,
asteroids, comets, and even galaxies ── used to determine pagan calendars and
their religious seasons.
According to the Catholic Chrysostom (who many apparently thought John, Bishop
of Constantinople and Antisemite, was a captivating speaker, he did not understand
God’s living word, nor did he properly explain it), he wrote, “Many were
ſuperſtitiouſly addicted to the Obſervation of Times, and made Divination and
Conjectures upon them; as if they ſpent the New-Moon in Mirth and Pleaſure, the
whole Year would be proſperous and lucky to them. … they were uſed in the Celebration of theſe Times to ſet up Lamps in the Market-Place.” 1
Also, David Hutton Webster, who was a distinguished scholar who served as
Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Nebraska from 1907 to 1933, wrote, “The festivals of the dead, observed in classical antiquity, were marked
by taboos. Among the Greeks, the rites took place on the so-called αποφραδες ἡμέραι
(which means, ominous days) … accompanied by complete idleness and cessation
of business.” 2
The Apostle Paul was worried that these Gentile converts were returning to their
former pagan rituals and celebrations.
The Apostle Paul was denouncing those vain and abominable practices! The LORD
God says to us, “ … ‘take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them,
… and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve
their gods? I also will do likewise.’ 31) You shall not worship the LORD your God
in that way; …’” – Deuteronomy 12:29-31.
Also, in connection with pagan idolatry were numerous “days” observed as
penitential festivals.
“The taboos which at Rome invested the lunar phases appear to have lingered into
the historic age under yet another guise. Among the [ominous days] (dies religiosi;
which means religious days in Italian) of the Roman calendar were those following
the Kalends, Nones, and Ides. The thirty-six dies postriduani (the days after
tomorrow) were regarded as unsuitable for many purposes, both public and private.
… We are told that they owed their unlucky quality to a pronouncement of the Senate
and pontiffs, in consequence of the grave defeat of the Allia on the 18th of Quinctilis
(July).” 3
“In the old Roman calendar, out of three hundred and fifty-five days, nearly one
third (one hundred and nine) were marked as nefasti (ominous), that is, as unlawful
for judicial and political business. These days belonged wholly to the gods, while
eleven more days of the year were shared by the divine and the human inhabitants
of the city. … As the Roman passion for holidays and their attendant spectacles
increased, we find the number of days devoted to them rising from sixty-six in the
reign of Augustus to eighty-seven in that of Tiberius, and, under Marcus Aurelius, to
a hundred and thirty-five. By the middle of the fourth century, their number had
reached one hundred and seventy-five.” 4
So, no wonder that the Apostle Paul spoke of “days” to the Romans and to the
Greeks!
And truly, look at how many of the people of this present evil age continue to keep
and celebrate these pagan “ominous days”! Such as Samhain, Halloween, Yule, and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (known today as Christmas)!
Also, “Months and Years”
The Apostle Paul ── inspired by the LORD our God ── was also condemning the
pagan customs of observing “months and years”
“The Athenian calendar contained about 60 festival days during which the
administration of public affairs, and all regular business, was suspended. These
included, in Gamelion (January), the Lenaia, or wine feast in celebration of Dionysus (or Bacchus); in Anthesterion (February), the Anthesteria of Dionysus,
the Diasia of Zeus, …” 5 and so forth and so on. “Roman Festivals … Among the
most ancient were the Lupercalia to celebrate Lupercus (fertility); the Equiria
(Marital); the Palilia (a spring festival for the purification of the flocks and herds);
the Ludi Magni, and the great winter solstice festival, the Saturnalia, …” 6
The Apostle Paul was warning Gentile converts not to return to these pagan practices
of observing days, months, times, and years.
What Festivals and Sabbaths Does the LORD Hate?
Many people claim that God’s living word in the Old Testament claims
that He hates His sabbaths and festivals! This is unequivocally not true! The LORD
says, “’ I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.’” – Amos 5:21. He also tells us, “’ Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My
soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.’” – Isaiah 1:14.
Here, the LORD our God is not speaking of His ordained and divine feasts and holy
days, but rather man-appointed New Moon celebrations, and their appointed feasts
that were being observed in the kingdom of Israel.
Several chapters within God’s living word are devoted to the
condemnation of the children of Israel breaking the Sabbaths and festivals that the
LORD God had given. Be sure to read Ezekiel 20:12-26.
“’ The word of the LORD came to me, saying, … 26) ‘Her priests have violated My
law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and
unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean;
and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among
them.’” – Ezekiel 22:17, 22.
The children of Israel ── even up to this present day ── have not continued in the
observance of His Sabbaths. They refused then, and they refuse now, His judgments
and statutes! They would rather keep and celebrate pagan idolatrous festivals that all
the other nations celebrate. Our secular history shows us this!
The LORD God has preserved for us a record of just such a change in God’s law,
statutes, judgments, and ordinances ── when the kingdom of Israel was divided.
“[King] Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of THE EIGHTH MONTH,
like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. … 33) So he made
offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of THE
EIGHTH MONTH, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. …” – I
Kings 12:32, 33.
That was the beginning steps in which the kingdom of Israel began to depart from
the Lord’s Law.
Thereafter, the kingdom of Israel altered the New Moons and changed God’s Sacred
Calendar. They exchanged the LORD's Sabbaths for pagan days involved in sun
worship ── as in Sunday. The kingdom of Israel, celebrating the pagan feasts of
Baal, turned them into rest days according to the statutes of the kings ──
“For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God,
who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh
king of Egypt [with Amenhotep II and Ramses II being the most commonly
suggested candidates]; and they had feared other gods, 8) and had walked in the
statutes of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of
Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.” – 2 Kings 17:7-8.
The LORD God has never hated nor abolished the feasts of the LORD. But the
LORD our God does hate all the different days and months and seasons and years
that the nations of Israel continue to keep and celebrate! □
1) Bingham, J., Origines Ecclefiafticæ: or the Antiquities of the Christian Church, Vol IX, 1850, pg. 7.
2) Webster, H., Rest Days: A Study in Early Law and Morality, The MacMillan Co., New York, 1916, pg. 79.
3) Ibid. pp. 170, 171.
4) Ibid. pp. 304-305.
5) The Encyclopedia Americana, New York, The Encyclopedia Americana Corp., Vol. 11, 1922, pg. 154.
6) Ibid.
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