Ritualistic religion and “basic principles of the world”

Ritualistic religion and worldly religious philosophies were numerous in New Testament times. As the Christian church grew, these beliefs and practices started to infiltrate the church and misguide the believers. So, the apostle Paul wrote the churches to address this problem. What were these ideas, and do they exist today?

Human religious traditions and practices

Soon after it was formed, the Colossian church was being led into doctrinal error by shallow religious philosophies. In his letter to Colossian believers, Paul exhorted them to not allow these errors to influence their faith. The believers were instead to focus their faith solely on Christ:

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.  For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. (Colossians 2:8-10)

Since Jesus Christ is the full revelation of the nature of God in human form, believers were to understand that they were complete and had every spiritual blessing in Christ. These great truths were absent in the religious practices and philosophies confronting the Colossian church.

Basic principles of the world

To describe these philosophies, Paul used the term “elemental spiritual forces of this world.” This can also be translated “basic principles of the world.” What did he mean by this?

The Greek word is stoicheia, which was the word used to describe the basic schoolwork done by Roman children, what we would call the ABCs.

Some theologians interpret this as basic principles of right and wrong: moral laws as revealed by conscience for the Gentiles and the Mosaic law for Jews.

But “elemental spiritual forces of this world” more likely represent the spiritual forces behind the childish, superficial, and worldly religious philosophies that were prevalent in the ancient world. This interpretation more closely fits the context of Paul’s discussion where he uses the phrase. These philosophies were based on a misguided understanding of the universe and of spiritual truth. During Paul’s time, for Gentiles it would mean beliefs based on the pagan religions of that time. These would lead to a reliance on human traditions and rituals and the practice of asceticism. For the Jews these elemental spiritual forces led to a misapplication of the Mosaic Law and a total reliance on ceremonies and rituals. Following these shallow and fruitless religious ceremonies and practices was similar to how children might recite their ABC’s out of rote imitation and repetition, without understanding what they were reciting.

For either Jew or Gentile, these were principles that undergirded the misguided and shallow religious practices commonly found in the unbelieving world. Some translations render this term as “elemental spirits,” suggesting the pagan belief in the four basic forces thought to have governed the universe: earth, air, fire, and water. The fact that Paul calls these worldly religious philosophies “spiritual forces” implies that they were inspired and empowered by demonic spirits.

The beginnings of Gnosticism

Paul described these elemental spiritual forces as “hollow and deceptive philosophies” which inspired meaningless rituals and asceticism. These ideas captivated some of the Colossians, leading them to perform all sorts of ritualistic ceremonies and to abstain from specific foods and drinks thought to be “unspiritual.”

These beliefs and practices were the beginnings of what was later to be termed Gnosticism. Gnostics generally claimed to have a superior knowledge or “gnosis.” Gnosticism eventually grew into a number of elaborate belief systems that saw physical existence as unspiritual. This eventually led to denying Christ’s humanity: the belief that if Christ was truly spiritual, he could not have had a physical human body.

In short, the Colossians were being led away from a pure devotion to Christ into worldly and deceptive religious philosophies based on human traditions and practices. Some of these practices were developed from a twisting of the Mosaic law:

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.  (Colossians 2:16-17)

Annual festivals and Sabbath days were prescribed in the Mosaic law. They were good if understood correctly as symbolic of deeper spiritual truths and foreshadowing the salvation and blessings God would provide through Christ. But false teachers in the early church misused these passages by overemphasizing them to where they became an end in themselves. So, they lost their intended meaning, and a mostly ritualistic religion was the result. To correct this, Paul reminded the Colossians that Christ was the final revelation of God’s truth to the people, not the Mosaic Law or any religious philosophy of the world. In Christ dwells all of the wisdom of God.

Ritualism

Ritualism is when a religion is based on mainly rituals and ceremonies. Ritualists relate to God in a mechanical and not a personal way, believing that their specific actions can make God (or spiritual powers) move on their behalf. So, performing a ritual correctly guarantees a positive result. The focus is on specific actions and correct rites and words, and less on meaning. It’s the ritual or ceremony itself that has value and spiritual power, and not any meaning behind it.

Many adherents to ritualistic religion do so out of habit and desire to conform to the prevailing culture, especially in more developed countries. But in animistic cultures, people practice the rituals and ceremonies with complete sincerity and devotion. They believe these rituals connect them to the spirits and spiritual powers which are critical to their survival and well-being.

First-century Jewish magic and mysticism

Many Jews of first-century Judea practiced a form of religious magic. Their practices were markedly superstitious in nature, believing that specific actions, rituals, or objects would bring success, good luck, or God’s blessings. This included performing incantations to invoke divine power and complex rituals to ward off evil spirits, heal diseases, or bring success in life. People wore amulets inscribed with religious symbols and words to ward off evil and bring protection. Some rituals involved casting spells on enemies. Others involved immersion in water to cleanse the body of sin. ¹

First-century Jewish incantations frequently borrowed from Old Testament passages. The content of these prayers may have been scriptural, but the method of prayer was not. These rituals included mechanically reciting scriptures, chanting, and repetitious prayers often based on the Psalms. Prayers invoked not only the name of God, but also various angels, who they believed had supernatural powers.

Jewish mystics claimed to have superior knowledge of the spiritual world, which in their belief system included various levels of angelic beings and celestial powers. This knowledge gave them a high status and supposedly elevated them over the common people.

The apostle Paul was undoubtedly familiar with these practices and beliefs. His admonitions in Colossians were in part to counter the Jewish magicians and mystics:

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.  (Colossians 2:18)

Ritualistic religion in the Galatian church

False teachers were also deceiving the early Galatian church. They were teaching that these gentile believers needed to keep circumcision and the ceremonial laws of Moses for God to accept them. So, Paul felt compelled to address this false teaching, using similar words.

So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces [basic principles] of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. (Galatians 4:3-5)

Paul declared here that before the good news of Christ came to us, we were subject to the “basic principles of the world.” But afterward, we were no longer under their influence. Paul’s point was that Christ’s sacrificial death provided the basis for a new relationship with God. Believers are forgiven through faith in Christ, and they now have full rights as sons and daughters of God. The law can no longer condemn them and as God’s children they are heirs and no longer slaves to sin.

Resorting back to worldly religion

Later in Galatians Paul writes:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces [principles]? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.  (Galatians 4:8-11)

The Galatians had previously worshipped pagan gods which deceived and misguided them. Some of their religions were based on the gods or spirits of earth, air, fire, and water. Paul calls these beliefs “weak and miserable principles.”

Paul was at his wit’s end with the Galatians. They had abandoned these pagan religions with their worthless ceremonies just to return to a similar meaningless ritualistic religion. But this time their rituals were based on a false Judaism.

Again, they were practicing religion like children reciting their ABC’s. Paul was clearly trying to make the Galatian believers feel foolish for adhering to “childish” religious practices. They were rejecting their high status as children of God and heirs with Christ in exchange for the worthless rituals of the world.

Ritualism today

What are the “basic principles of the world” today? They are shallow and meaningless religious beliefs and practices based only on ceremony and ritual. Ritualism can infect any religion and even be incorporated into its teachings and practices. The focus is then on outward rituals and ceremonies and not the substance and basis of the faith.

Some Christians prefer a more liturgical worship service. This isn’t wrong in itself as it can reflect their reverence and devotion to the Lord. But Jesus gave his followers only two symbolic “rituals” to observe: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Over the centuries, some Christian churches have expanded on these two considerably, adding a number of other rituals and observances to their worship. Individually, these may not necessarily be bad. But as the number of rituals and ceremonies increase, the more ritualism can become a problem in the Christian church.

Our Lord specifically prohibited mechanically repeating prayers over and over:

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  (Matthew 6:7-8).

Obviously, long prayers don’t impress God. Praying longer or louder doesn’t make him respond any better. He knows what we really need and he doesn’t need more words from us to hear our prayers.

Ritualism around the world

Ritualism is still common in many religions today. There are too many examples of ritualistic religion to cover here, but here are just a few:

• Burning incense and offering sacrifices of money and food to statues of Buddha to receive favors and ensure success in life and a peaceful happy existence.
• African shamanism: relying on shamans to connect to the spirit world for healing and solving life problems by means of ceremonies and trances.
• Rituals performed by some Native Americans that use specific herbs and incantations to cleanse the soul and heal the body.
• Caribbean voodoo: using rituals and magic to influence any of a number of spirits to help one’s relatives or friends, as well as bring evil and bad luck to one’s enemies.
• Prayers and offerings of food, incense, and flowers to the various Hindu gods to gain favor, success, and blessing.
• Repetitious prayers, gifts, and offerings made to shrine images and statues of various saints and the Virgin Mary, practiced by some Roman Catholics, especially in Latin America.

Our response

The path to God’s blessing, forgiveness, and life is not through ritual and ceremony. It is through faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Only he can cleanse us from our sins.

Ritualistic religion and worldly religious philosophies bring spiritual bondage to those who rely on them. And they don’t bring one closer to God.

Popular worldly religious philosophies cannot provide a true knowledge of God. Only Christ can provide us with that, as he is God revealed in the flesh and the only true image of God.

The Holy Bible is the only reliable guide for spiritual truth and not worldly philosophy or popular religion. The main focus of the Bible is the revelation of God through Jesus Christ. Understand that in Christ is found all of God’s spiritual wisdom.

So, seek to have a personal relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ. You will find God, and with him, also find his blessings, knowledge, and wisdom. You will not be disappointed.

¹ Shimon Gibson, The Mysterious Mount Zion Mug, Biblical Archaeology Review, Summer 2025

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