KEEPING THE SABBATH:
FAITH OR SUPERSTITION?
Dr. Daniel Botkin

One definition of superstition is "a belief or practice resulting from a false concept of causation" (Webster's). Superstitious people believe that practicing certain habits or possessing certain objects can cause good luck or bad luck. The superstitious pagans of Bible times believed that certain days of the week were lucky or unlucky for certain activities. The Hebrews also had some beliefs about the days of the week. They believed that Sunday through Friday were good days to work, and Saturday, the 7th day of the week, was a day to cease working and assemble for worship. This belief, unlike the pagan beliefs, was not a superstition, though. Keeping the Sabbath was and is an act of faith, because it was and is based on a trust in the one true God who gave the Sabbath to be a sign between Himself and His people throughout their generations forever. (Ex. 31:1 2ff) Keeping the Sabbath can cause good things to happen and prevent bad things from happening. Breaking the Sabbath can cause bad things to happen and prevent good things from happening. This is not superstition. This is what the Bible teaches when it promises good things ("blessings") for keeping the Sabbath and bad things ("curses") for breaking it.

We may not always see how the blessings or curses are the result of our having kept or broken the Sabbath, but that does not matter to the spiritual man. The spiritual man knows that there is an unseen spiritual dimension to life. Unlike the natural man, who believes only what his five senses tell him, the spiritual man knows that his actions in the physical realm affect the unseen angelic and demonic powers that are at work in the spiritual realm. Keeping or not keeping the Sabbath will cause things to happen, and it is not necessary to understand how or why. If the Bible teaches it, then the spiritual man accepts it as truth, because he trusts the Word of his Heavenly Father.

The rabbis teach that everything in the visible, physical world has a spiritual counterpart in the invisible, spiritual realm. In other words, things that we see in the earthly creation are reflections or shadows of heavenly realities which we cannot see with our physical eyes. (I have been told that Christian writer C.S. Lewis also believed this, and that is why the story of his earthly life is called "Shadowlands.") Some Christians may think this idea is a bit far-fetched, but the New Testament teaches in Hebrews 8-10 that the earthly Tabernacle with its priesthood and worship was a "shadow," patterned after a Tabernacle that exists in the heavenly realm, with its priesthood and worship. God gave Moses this warning when he was about to make the Tabernacle: "See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount" (Heb. 8:5).

God has a pattern for worship, and since the first week of Creation, that pattern has included the 7th day of the week as the Sabbath. Some Christians argue that the Sabbath is only a "shadow," an outward symbol of the inward rest unto the soul that Jesus promised. The fact that the Sabbath is, indeed, a shadow of the Messiah should not motivate us to throw away the Sabbath. On the contrary, it should motivate us to step into that shadow by keeping the Sabbath. The shadow has a solid reality behind it in the spiritual realm. When we step into that shadow, our soul steps into the spiritual reality which is casting the shadow. As the Bride says of the Bridegroom in the Song of Solomon, "I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste" (2:3).

When it comes to keeping the Sabbath, God's people just don't get it. In Deuteronomy 29 Moses warned God's people that if they disobeyed the commandments, they would go into exile. The people disobeyed and went into exile in the Babylonian Captivity. The Sabbath was not the only command they had disobeyed, but the Sabbath was specifically mentioned by the Prophets as one of the major reasons for the Babylonian Captivity. Isaiah had pleaded with them to keep the Sabbath. (See chapters 56 & 58.) Jeremiah told them Jerusalem would be spared if they would quit breaking the Sabbath, but fall if they continued breaking it. (Jer. 17:1 9ff) After they went into exile, Ezekiel was told to "cause them to know the abominations of their fathers" (Ezk. 20:3; 22:2; 23:36). One of the abominations that Ezekiel discussed at length was their refusal to keep the Sabbath, which, he reminded them, had been given to be a sign between God and His people.

"Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned My holy things," God said through His prophet. "They have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." (Ezk. 22:26. See also Ezk. 20:10-22; 22:8; 23:38.)

After the seventy years in Babylon ended and the people returned to the Promised Land, they still did not grasp the importance of the Sabbath. Nehemiah had to take strong measures to make the people in Jerusalem stop breaking the Sabbath. (See Neh. 13:15-22.)

Satan works hard to convince God's people that the Sabbath is not important, and he is quite successful. Why does Satan want God's people to think the Sabbath is not important? Because he knows how important it really is. Satan knows that keeping or breaking the Sabbath affects what takes place in the spiritual realm.

Art Cox, an elder in our congregation, has an interesting idea about how our observing Torah affects the spiritual realm: In whatever particular way the Torah blesses us, in that exact way it curses the powers of darkness. In other words, it does the exact opposite to the demons of what it does for us. When we enjoy rest on the Sabbath, it deprives the demonic powers of rest and causes them to have to work harder. When we start each lunar month out with a New Moon celebration and look forward with eagerness to the blessings we will enjoy in the coming month, it causes them to look forward with dread to the misery they will experience in the coming month. When we joyfully celebrate the annual Feasts that remind us of God's great redemptive acts in the past and the future, it causes them to fearfully remember these acts of God and thus robs them of courage. When we strengthen our physical health with a kosher diet, it robs them of their spiritual food and weakens them. It's an interesting theory. I think it's more than a theory, though. I think it's a Divine revelation.

Satan knows that keeping the Sabbath is not a mere superstition that makes no difference in the lives of God's people. Satan knows that keeping the Sabbath will bring curses to the powers of darkness and blessings to the people of God.

Of course God can and does bless His people every day. However, there are some specific blessings which can be received only by stepping into the shadow of God's specifically appointed times. This truth is hinted at in Ezekiel's vision: "Thus saith the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened" (Ezk. 46:1).

In the spiritual realm there is a gate that we can enter only on Sabbath or New Moon. Are you trying to keep the Sabbath by going to church on Sundays? Sorry, but it won't work. In the spiritual realm the Sabbath gate is closed that day. The church doors may be opened for Sabbath services on Sunday, but the shadow into which you are stepping is not the shadow of the Messiah. The Sunday Sabbath is a counterfeit, substitute sabbath, and it is therefore a shadow being cast by a different entity, an entity that is determined to prevent God's people from stepping into the 7th-day Sabbath, the true shadow of the true Messiah.

Why is it that Sunday-keeping Christians cannot see the truth about the Sabbath? It is partly due to the fact that when they step into the shadow of the counterfeit sabbath, they absorb something of the entity that casts the shadow. Am I saying these people are lost? No, I am only saying that they have absorbed some deception by stepping into the shadow of the false sabbath, just as 7th-day Sabbath-keepers can absorb some truth by stepping into the true shadow.

Is the observance of the 7th day as the Sabbath really that important? The natural man would say no, because he cannot discern with his five senses why it would make any difference. The spiritual man cannot discern why with his five senses either, but unlike the natural man, he does not demand that God explain why it is important. The spiritual man knows that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). The spiritual man knows that the Sabbath is most assuredly one of "the things of the Spirit of God" because God instituted it; therefore the spiritual man does not expect to discern the Sabbath with his natural senses. He discerns its importance by his spirit.

The story of Naaman illustrates the thinking of the natural man. Naaman, a Syrian, came to Elisha to be healed of his leprosy. Elisha sent a message to Naaman: Dip seven times in the Jordan River and the leprosy will depart. Naaman was angry.

"Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" he fumed. "May I not wash in them and be clean?"

Elisha's instructions did not make sense to Naaman, so he went away in a rage. However, his friends con vinced him to follow the prophet's instructions. Naaman dipped seven times in the Jordan and received the blessing: his leprosy departed.

If Naaman had dipped in some river other than the one specified by God's prophet, he would not have received the blessing. Christians who try to keep the Sabbath on some day other than the one day specified by the Word of God will not receive the blessings that result from keeping the Sabbath. Furthermore, it was the seventh dip, not the first dip, that brought the blessing and healing that Naaman needed. In like manner, it is keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day, not on the first day of the week, that will bring the blessing and healing that the Church needs.

Naaman and his friends had no idea how or why the seventh dip in one particular river would make a difference. But they had faith in the word of God's prophet -- a lot more faith than many Christians who refuse to step into the Sabbath have.

"But Daniel," some might object, "for most of its history the Christian Church has not kept the 7th-day Sabbath, and look at all the good it has done! Hasn't God blessed and used the Church, even though it hasn't kept the Sabbath?"

Of course. God blesses and uses people in spite of their flaws, especially when their flaws are due to a lack of knowledge and not a result of willful rebellion. God has definitely blessed and used the Church. However, let me close with this thought:

If God has given all this glory to a Church that has not kept the Sabbath, how much more glory will He give to the Church when she does start keeping the Sabbath? The answer to this question can be found in Isaiah chapters 56 & 58:

"Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer."

"Then shalt thou delight thyself in Yahweh; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Yahweh hath spoken it."

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