Galatians 4:9-10
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“But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days, and months, and times, and years.”
Many have asserted that this passage condemns the keeping of the Holy Days and the Sabbath? Is this what it means?
Protestants teach that the Galatians were returning to these practices. This is impossible! I repeat: The Galatians were Gentiles and had never kept any of God’s Sabbaths—annual or weekly—or had even heard of the true God before their calling. Grasp this. They could not return to what they had never known!
Also, read Leviticus 19:26, Isaiah 1:13-14 and Deuteronomy 18:9-10 to see that God strongly condemned keeping various “days” and “times”! These were humanly-devised “sabbaths” and “holy days,” actually like today’s many familiar holidays—and this very word derives from “holy days.” Leviticus 23:1-44 reveals that God wants HIS Sabbaths kept! At the same time, He consistently condemned the wrong days and man-made “sabbaths” of the above-referenced verses.
Nowhere did God ever command the observance of any months. Colossians 2:8 and 20-22 explain that the “weak and beggarly elements” (referenced there) are philosophical forms of will-worship and self-denial, devised by men and commonly found in certain parts of the world. The word “rudiments” (Col. 2:8) is the same word translated “elements” in Galatians.
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