HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2010 / APRIL MAY JUNE / ELEMENTAL SPIRITS AND THE CURSE OF THE LAW DISARMED

April May June 2010
VOLUME 11, ISSUE 2

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A R T I C L E S

MARTIN L. CAREY

 

Twenty years after Jesus' death and resurrection, His good news was now spreading rapidly to the Gentiles. Paul, Silas, and Timothy had travelled north and were passing through the cities in the region of Anatolia (Acts 14). As these Gentile nations heard that salvation through Christ was given to them, "they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord" (Acts 13:48). The mission group's progress came to a halt when Paul could travel no more, struck down by a "bodily illness." His entourage had to depend on the kindness of the people of Galatia, who could have driven the little party away. But they took in the group and cared for Paul (Gal. 4:14). While they lingered there, Paul preached the Gospel to them. On hearing the good news, the Galatians rejoiced in Christ and Him crucified, received the Holy Spirit, and abandoned all other gods.

Galatia was named after the Gauls, a cluster of Celtic tribes who had migrated from Western Europe into Anatolia, now the nation of Turkey, about 270 BC. During their first two centuries in Anatolia, they battled fiercely with the Greeks and Romans; then after a series of defeats by Roman forces, they began to settle down as less belligerent citizens of Rome.1 By the time Paul arrived nearly a century later, the Galatians had partially blended in with the local cultures. Their religion had become a syncretism of Gaulish, Greek, Roman, Phoenician, and Phrygian customs. Paul's new-found friends were part of this melting pot, and in the cultural ferment, the numbers of their gods had multiplied into the thousands. Athens alone had an estimated 30,000 gods, more gods than men.2 These many cultures had their various gods that promised blessings, but were only able to provoke fear and servitude.

Not long after he departed from them, however, Paul was perplexed to hear that some Jewish Christians from Jerusalem were troubling the new converts by preaching righteousness through Moses' law. Paul's protective anguish over them bursts out in his letter. As though seizing them, he demands, "Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" The Galatians had started off well receiving forgiveness of sins through Christ and the gift of the Spirit. False teachers then came in and persuaded them that to become perfect, they must become Jews through serving Moses' law. Paul asked them how they could so quickly depart from the Gospel when Christ was crucified publicly before their eyes. Now that Christ had come, they were no longer under a temporary guardian, the Law. The Galatians were choosing to return to bondage again and live under a regime that was only designed for governing slaves.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not 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 worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain (Gal. 4:8-11).

 

Serving the "No gods"

The Galatians had worshiped idols, or "no gods," as Paul calls them. Through Moses, God had warned Israel not to follow the idols that were not gods at all. "They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods…" (Deut. 32:16, 17). Paul told the Corinthians to "flee idolatry" because they had been attending idolatrous Greek feasts where images of the gods were present and homage was paid to them with food and drink. He explained to them that although idols have "no real existence" (I Cor. 8:4), they are used by demons to enslave humans. Idol worship becomes demon worship:

What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons (1 Cor. 10:20, 21).

The worshipping of idols and their accompanying demons is not confined to pagan temples, but is the universal human condition. Our worship springs from what we are. Before we belong to Christ, we passionately serve that realm.

You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Eph. 2:1, 2).

We follow that prince when we live in the desires of "our flesh." Jeremiah gave this gloomy report:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jer.17:9).

Today, popular philosophies tempt us to believe that deep down, we are innately good; we are the victims of our environments and corrupt institutions. If only others would allow us, we could be good. We could find for ourselves what is right and wrong, if only others wouldn't interfere. With that kind of talk we hide from ourselves. Corruption begins when we are infants (Ps. 51:5), for we are "by nature children of wrath." Our internal pit of deception is so deep we cannot see to the bottom of it. Our "passions of the flesh" demand that we erect little shrines to serve them. In this way we serve the "not gods."

 

Different Religions, Same Spirits

We would expect Paul to warn the Galatians against returning to their former idols. At first glance, Galatians 4:8 appears to speak only of the enslavement of paganism. Then in verse 11, Paul expresses dismay that although they are known by God, they are now observing Sinai's laws, "days and months and seasons and years." The Galatians were not returning to pagan practices, they were now zealous for Moses' law. Paul was dismayed because their pursuit of righteousness through the Law would be a return to the kind of slavery they had under paganism. They were about to fall under the "weak and worthless elementary principles of the world."

It seems odd of Paul to link pagan slavery with the holy Law of God given at Sinai. After all, the same God who gave circumcision and sabbaths to Israel had clearly forbidden the worship of idols. The Galatians knew this, but here they were again, in danger of idolatry and enslavement to the same powers. The Colossians were also observing Mosaic laws, while blending them with Greek religion. Paul warned both churches about the "elementary spirits of the world:"

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elementary spirits of the world, and not according to Christ (Col. 2:8).

These Gentile Christians thought they could acquire more blessings by adding their obedience to faith in Christ:

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—"Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" (Col. 2:20-23).

They wanted to overcome sin and become ready for Heaven, so what harm could there be in practices that felt so clean and moral, like eating better food and keeping sacred days? Paul's rebuke might seem harsh. Unsatisfied with faith, they had wanted the blessings promised to Israel—different blessings. They already had the Holy Spirit as their seal and guarantee of Abraham's promised inheritance (Eph. 1:13, 14). Their coveting of different blessings was not obedience, but disobedience to the truth (Gal. 5:7). Abraham's blessings only come through the obedience of faith, not through Hebrew DNA or regulations. In trying to add to Jesus' sacrifice through achievement, they were showing disbelief in His promises.

Paul instructed Timothy, the young pastor at Ephesus, about "doctrines of demons." These were teachings that required abstinence from marriage and certain foods. Paul was openly departing from the Mosaic laws regarding clean and unclean food, and declaring that "everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected…(1 Tim. 4:4)." Here again, Paul clearly associated ascetic practices with the doctrines of demons, and with a lack of faith and gratitude. In binding themselves to the Law, they were serving the elemental spirits, and in danger of being severed from Christ (Gal. 5:4).

Pagan religions and righteousness by Law might have appeared very different on the outside, but the spirits they served were the same. They had replaced the idols of stone and metal with laws about food and holy days.

 

Harsh Treatment of the Body

Asceticism is the practice of rigorous self-denial and abstinence to achieve higher spiritual states.3 False teachers were trying to impose asceticism on the believers. Paul called this asceticism "self-made religion," that gave its worshippers false wisdom and false humility (Col. 2:23). Strict physical discipline and subjugation of the body were exemplified in some of the religious practices of the Anatolian cults. Prevalent at that time was the cult of Cybele, (Agdistis to the Greeks) the Great Goddess Mother who had temples in nearby Phrygia. In her temple cities her priests kept civic order, enforcing regulations over births, deaths, and property. These priests of Cybele were known as sacred slaves, who gathered for ritual ecstasies where they wielded sacred shears, castrating themselves. Thereafter, they wore women's clothing to show off their devotion for the goddess.4

Paul very likely had the sacred slaves in mind when he challenged the Galatian Christians' circumcising themselves for spirituality. He referred to the "weak and worthless" elemental spirits of the world that would rob them of their prized freedom in Christ. Emasculated men parading about in women's clothing was an apt comparison to self-circumcised men pretending to be righteous Jews. Their self-denial seemed pious but it had rendered them weak and worthless. Abstaining from foods and practicing bodily discipline may strengthen cardiovascular health but these are useless against the desires of the flesh. In Galatians 5:12, Paul recommends some poetic justice for these recruiters for sacred slavery: "I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!"

 

The Stoicheia

Serving pagan gods or Moses' Law alike can place us in bondage to the "not gods." To understand how two very different religious systems can both enslave, let's look at Paul's phrase, "elementary principles (or "spirits") of the world." In Greek, the stoicheia of the world have a very colorful history. Paul used the word stoicheia (pronounced Stoy-khee-ah) to expose the idolatrous bondage common to religions.

Paul alludes to three meanings of stoicheia. First of all, it refers to the rudiments of any system. They are the simplest elements in a series, such as the alphabet.5 In spoken language, the irreducible elements are phonemes. The individual letters and sounds of language contain no meaning in themselves. Used alone they are mere fragments, and must be combined to create meaningful words. The writer of Hebrews tells the Jewish Christians, who were still keeping the "letter" of the Law, to leave the milk of stoicheia for the solid food of mature things. Paul contrasted the old covenant of "the letter" with the new covenant of the Spirit, "for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6).

Secondly, for the Greeks, the stoicheia referred to the four primary elements that make up the physical world.6 In the New Testament, the stoicheia are temporal, physical things of the senses. In 2 Peter 3, we learn that the present cosmos will end when the stoicheia melt with intense heat (vss. 10 and 12). The elements were powerfully manifested to Elijah after he fled from Jezebel to Sinai. There, God "was not in" those grand demonstrations of wind, earth, and fire (2 Ki. 19).

Thirdly, the stoicheia referred to certain higher powers who ruled as the "forces" of nature. Greco-Roman culture believed that supernatural beings ruled in the heavenly bodies. Jewish literature also imagined layers of angels as guardians over the seven heavens, through which the worthy might ascend in mystical experiences. The Jewish apocryphal books, such as Enoch and the Book of Jubilees, spoke of angelic orders. Lower angels controlled natural phenomena, while higher angels were gatekeepers who menaced those who would approach the throne of God.7 Pagan and Jewish ideas were combined into a system where powerful spirits in the earth and stars controlled this life and beyond.

Astrology, the belief that celestial bodies influence human affairs, was strong in all the cultures of that era. Its ancient practitioners feared the powerful beings who resided in the zodiac and controlled fate.8 "Disaster" (literally, unfavorable star) always threatened. Births and deaths, crops, prosperity, success in battle, were controlled by these elemental powers. Men gave homage to the powers of nature by observing the zodiac, along with days and times. Jews and Greeks thought the Christians were impious because they regarded all days alike (Rom. 14). So when Christ swept aside all such keeping of days, times, and new moons as Paul states in Colosians 2:16, he was not only establishing a radical freedom from religion, but nature itself.

Many of the Gentile Christians had sought superior lifestyles and worship through ascetic practices and by observing "days and months and seasons and years." The motions of the sun and moon became critical elements regulating their worship. When natural cycles are an independent, "binding element" in worship, we are in danger of turning from the living God.9 Devotion to the created order is the essence of religion.

 

Elemental Spirits in Adventism

The Seventh Day is the one doctrine Adventists feel most passionate about. Throughout their history, core Adventist doctrines have been subject to question or change: Christ's identity, the reliability of Scripture, even 1844. But to seriously question or change the Sabbath is to sever one's self from the Adventist tree. Before Christ returns, the Sabbath will be the decisive test of faith, so one must be ready. What begins the journey to heaven is faith in Christ, but to pass the time of trouble, one must keep holy every seventh rotation of the earth.

God's special privileges and blessings are attached to Sabbath-keeping behaviors. Adventist literature abounds with stories of those who sacrificed for the Sabbath and were rewarded with supernatural blessings. Christians with ordinary faith in Christ are not given such blessings. In fact, Christians attending church services on Sunday can bring eternal curses upon themselves. The Sabbath is the Adventist's sign, inducting him into God's kingdom, setting him apart, and at last ensuring his salvation. Ellen White called it "the separating wall between the true Israel of God and unbelievers." 10 When the weekly Sabbath is made the center of worship and the ultimate test of faith, a created thing stands guarding the gates of heaven, separating us from Christ. Paul knew that when Christians bind themselves to the celestial cycles and holy days, they will become tests of faith, and diminish Christ's Lordship.

Food: Much of Ellen White's works address what goes into the stomach. She taught that eating certain foods will intensify "the flesh," and damage one's spiritual life:

When the animal part of the human agent is strengthened by meat-eating, the intellectual powers diminish proportionately. A religious life can be more successfully gained and maintained if meat is discarded, for this diet stimulates into intense activities lustful propensities, and enfeebles the moral and spiritual nature. "The flesh warreth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh." 11

For Mrs. White, flesh referred to the physical body as the locus of sinful passions, human or animal. But for Paul, "flesh" is not your steak dinner where "intense lustful propensities" are hiding. It is our propensity to rebel against God:

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot (Rom. 8:7).

Unlike Mrs. White, he draws a clear distinction between our spiritual lives and food:

Food will not commend us to God. We are not worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do (1 Cor. 8:8).

Jesus separated the heart from the stomach:

Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? (Thus he declared all foods clean) (Mar. 7:18, 19).

The Adventist health message is characterized by a fear of physical contamination, which is equated with sin. For the religious health reformer, simple rituals like the grocery store can be a spiritual drama where evil lurks on every aisle. Even home baked bread, still warm from the oven, can bring anxiety about live yeast contamination.12 The thousands of health warnings in Ellen White impose far more than basic, good health principles that Christians should practice as stewards of their bodies. Nor are they from the pages of Scripture:

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17).

The Adventists' concerns with Sabbath and food are one with their fears of condemnation and judgment, of stern angels recording every deed, and evil angels harassing them at every step. Christ's supreme sacrifice and the promised Spirit's power are not enough to quell these fears. There are many variations to the themes of Sabbath and food, but these are the elemental spirits of Adventist culture.

 

What the Law Could Not Do

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished (Matt. 5:17, 18).

When our Lord sat down on that mountain and addressed Israel, they were hearing the Law as no man had ever spoken it. Here sat the embodiment of all God's will, in life and voice. What a contrast with Sinai, when the Eternal Word hid himself in a "blazing fire and darkness" and thundered the Law down on terrified Israel! Now, somewhere on a hill in Galilee, the King sits openly in the sunlight to command His subjects. This time, instead of declaring the letter, he transforms the Law into the realm of spirit.13 Instead of hearing a larger list of regulations, they now heard the spirit of adoption as sons. There is now just one law—to believe in Him and love our brother (1 Jn. 3:23).

The letter of the Law, as given by Moses, governed the outward actions of man. Now, Jesus is showing that the real intent of the Law goes inward to the spirit of man. The rudiments of the Law were not destroyed, but instead became the bases, the "elements" of the new law written on the heart (Jer. 31:33). The 613 commands were transformed into righteousness on a much higher plain, to the infinite level of God's perfection. When law becomes spirit, it is no longer a set of written codes to dictate specific outward behaviors. Now that the King has come, His sons are no longer under the rudimentary laws of the letter, made for children and slaves.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus did not lower the standards to make righteousness easier,14 as a kind of Sinai-Lite. Whereas a man could boast he had never murdered or committed adultery, Jesus now exposed his ordinary thoughts and desires as murderous and lustful. Each minute of his life, a man breathes out sin against God. The real purpose of the Law was more clearly revealed, to make sin appear "exceedingly sinful."

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death (Rom. 7:5).

The letters written in stone can only kill us (2 Cor. 3:6), but not through any fault in the Law. Since the Law has no power to change our hearts, it condemns us to death. Because of our corrupt natures, we ruin everything we touch. We take the perfect Law into our own hands and fashion it into an instrument of evil and death, to be used for our own selfish ends. Instead of loving God and our neighbor, we use the Law to establish our own moral achievements. Under the letter, our natural love is superficial and false. We want our obedience to be measureable so we can compare with others. God must keep score so He can reward us accordingly.15 That is how the Law becomes an idol of our vanity, so the elemental spirits can enslave us. We are alive to them, but dead to God. The only solution for us is death.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God (Rom. 7:4).

When we die with Christ, we are raised with new spiritual life. It is a clean, supernatural life from out of this world. We died to our rebellious natures, to our religions, and to the elemental spirits of the world. And, we have also died to the Law. The law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2). Because, vs. 3,

God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh…

Jesus became sin for us, and was condemned for our rebellion and deceit. Every sinful thing we ever thought or did or will do is forgiven and cancelled forever. That is the power of His sacrifice for us.

Vs. 4: …in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Jesus came to fulfill the Law as our Substitute, and His righteousness is counted as ours. The single righteous requirement of the Law is fulfilled in us when we have new life through faith in His sacrifice. All 613 commandments are now condensed into one commandment (Jn. 15:10-12; 1 Jn. 3:23). All the letters of the Law and Prophets have come to life in One Word, who dwells among us (Jn. 1:14; Heb. 1:1, 2). We are able to love because His life is in us. We will not love perfectly, but our love will be true. When we have His love in us, we fulfill every jot and tittle of the Law.

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Rom. 13:8, 9).

 

Lights and Shadows

When Jesus said "It is finished" and bowed His head, He took all our guilt and punishment and killed it. He defeated every accusation and power that would threaten our peace. He "cancelled the record of debt that stood against us" (Col. 2:14). Now, there is no law that can condemn, and no power that can harass those who call upon His name. Christ has conquered! He shamed and disarmed all those other authorities we might have served (Col. 2:15). We have one Authority who commands our steps, our King Jesus, so there is "no guilt in life, no fear in death."16

Christ has fulfilled every law, so there are no letters to kill us, only the Spirit to give us life. We have no more need of those shadows of Him, for "when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away" (1 Cor. 13:10). He is our Sacrifice, our High Priest, and our Sabbath. Now in His presence, our worship is no longer governed by any celestial motions or calendars, or any created thing that would interrupt our fellowship with Him. In Him, our rest and worship never cease. And at last in His city, clear as crystal, there will be no more shadows cast by sun or moon, for God and the Lamb are its continuous light (Rev. 21:5). The Sun of Righteousness has risen, and will never set. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord! †

 

Endnotes

1. Lightfoot, J.B. St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, p. 15. http://www.archive.org/stream/stpaulsepistleto00ligh#page/15/mode/1up
2. Barnes, Albert. Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, http://www.studylight.org/com/bnn/view.cgi?book=ac&chapter=017
3. Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/asceticism
4. New World Encyclopedia. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Cybele
5. W.E. Vine, Vine's Expository Dictionary, Thomas Nelson, 1997, p. 352.
6. The Reformation Study Bible, Note on Gal. 4:3, Ligonier Ministries, 2005.
7. Jewish Encyclopedia, Angelology. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1521&letter=A
8. Arnold, Clinton E. The Colossian Syncretism - The Interface between Christianity and Folk Belief at Colossae, cited in Dewaay, Bob, The Colossian Heresy Part I, Critical Issues Commentary, 2002. http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue69.pdf
9. Bruce, F.F. The Colossian Heresy, Bibliotheca Sacra 141, Jan. 1984. http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/NTeSources/NTArticles/BSac-NT/Bruce-ColossianHeresyPt3-BS.pdf
10. White, Ellen G. Early Writings, p. 33.
11. White, Ellen G. Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods, p. 37.8. http://egwdatabase.whiteestate.org/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates$fn=default.htm$vid=default
12. White, Ellen G. Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 316.
13. Maclaren, Alexander. The New Form of the Old Law, Christian Classics Ethereal Library. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/maclaren/ezek_matt1.iii.xxv.html
14. Ibid.
15. IVP New Testament Commentaries—Galatians 5. Freedom to Love, InterVarsity Press. http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Gal/Freedom-Love
16. Getty, Julian, and Townend, Stuart. In Christ Alone, Thankyou Music. http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/n/newsboys/in_christ_alone.html

 

 

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Martin Carey grew up as an Adventist in many different places, including Washington D.C., Missouri, and Guam, USA. During daylight hours he works as a psychologist for a high school in San Bernardino, CA. He is also a licensed family therapist. He is married to Sharon and has two sons, Matthew, 8, and Nick, 22. He continues to search for clear, dark skies with 7 different telescopes up to 20". The study of intelligent design takes up his remaining energy. You may contact him at martincarey@sbcglobal.net.