Children of God

John Ritenbaugh, rehearsing our father Abraham's thought processes as he contemplated God's "I will" promises to him, concluded that Abraham realized he would be long dead before their fruition in the fullness of time. Nevertheless, he realized he needed those unspecified blessings applied to him, blessings that would apply to a descendant far greater than himself, a descendant which would be the source of the blessing—the Lord reincarnate, with whom Abraham had been communicating. Abraham realized that his descendant could not possibly be a mere human being, but the Creator Himself. Both Abraham and his descendent David reached the same conclusion, perceiving that fulfilment would be far into the future. Further, they both realized the promised seed (originally proclaimed to Eve, beginning a lineage from Seth to Abram, Isaac and Jacob) would be born into their family line. God promised Abraham that all peoples of the earth would be blessed by him, including those non-Israelite gentile peoples who would be grafted into the commonwealth of spiritual Israel though God's special calling, followed by receiving the Holy Spirit, becoming holy seed within the dynasty of Jesus Christ. No one is physically born into this family, but must be separated spiritually from the rest of the world by a special calling from God.

Martin Collins continues his analysis of Malachi's appeal to the lethargic people of Judah, an appeal emphasizing God's love, reminding them that their lack of blessings emanated from their abandonment of their Covenant with God. Malachi assures them that if they will repent, God's favor will resume, but if they continue defiling the Covenant, a day of reckoning will inevitably come. There are frightening parallels to our current society, which has publicly trashed God's Covenant in its laws and in the anti-God curriculum in the public schools and universities. The leaders, clergy, and common people, rejecting the fatherhood of God, are all responsible for the hideous curses falling on our people. All men and women, made in the similitude of God, are the offspring of God in their created natures. God the Father is specifically the Father of Christ. Jesus Christ, as the Logos, became manifest in somatic form as Melchizedek, King of Peace, High Priest of God, a Being who had existed eternally. The title "Son of God" expresses a unique relationship that Jesus Christ has with God the Father, a unity of substance with the Father. When applied to the First Fruits, the title "Son of God" describes a relationship of equality. The title "Son of God" describes Christ's role as the Revealer of God, the sole mediator of knowledge of God. God is the Father of all who believe in Christ in a special sense (removed from grim condemnation to privileged son-ship) that does not apply to unbelievers. The treachery against God's Covenant has a parallel with the men of Judah divorcing their mates and marrying pagan wives. In our marriage relationships, purity is maintained by attention and constant vigilance. Divorce is invariably attended by treachery, deceit, hypocrisy, hostility, and violence. Marriage can only be terminated on the grounds of death, sexual sin, and desertion. God created the marriage covenant for the purpose of godly seed to establish a spiritual family, emblematic of Christ's relation

Martin Collins, reiterating that human fear has its origin in sin, reminds us that Adam and Eve became fearful after eating the forbidden fruit. God did not give us the spirit of fear or bondage to sin. Faith is the antidote to fear that binds, a slave spirit, a spirit of cowardliness and timidity, the opposite characteristic from the boldness demonstrated in God's Holy Spirit, enabling reserves of love. If we have love, we will be better able to deal with suffering. God's Holy Spirit promotes a sound, balanced, and disciplined mind, characterizing Christ's mind. When God gives us His Spirit of adoption, we have privileges of being members of His family, reflecting God's love, holiness and purity. Having a proper fear of God, enabled through the power of the Holy Spirit, lessens the dread or fear of Satan the devil and his demons. Those who do not have the Holy Spirit cannot please God. We are able to build a relationship with God the Father through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; this relationship prepares us for membership in God's family.

Jesus' born-again teaching has been prone to misunderstanding since Nicodemus first heard it from Christ's own lips almost two thousand years ago. John Ritenbaugh shows that we must understand His instruction entirely from a spiritual perspective. Interpreting Jesus' symbols physically obscures necessary truths about how God sees His children and how we see ourselves.

Focusing upon Galatians 4:6, John Ritenbaugh reiterates that Jesus Christ constitutes that Spirit that had been designated to dwell within us. There is no third person in a closed trinity. Jesus Christ and God the Father are one in spirit and purpose, purposing to draw us toward that same kind of unity that currently exists between them. The word Elohim is not limited to god-beings, gender, or family. There are two God beings working in such harmony (John 10:30) that they are one family. The Father and the son are both of the God-kind (group, class, family)- creating, ruling beings. Absolute can be considered a synonym for supreme; there is no one to whom God the Father must submit. Jesus Christ did yield to the Father and had as His function revealing the Father. By Jesus' own testimony, Jesus recognized the Father as greater (or superior) than He (John 5:30; 6:38; 8:29; 12:49-50; 14:28). Paul recognized that the Father was superior to Christ in rank (I Corinthians 15:27-28). Revelation 3:12 The lesser is submitting to the greater. As fully spirit, Jesus still recognized the Father's superiority; Jesus was admitting He was not the Absolute God, even though both were equal in terms of their kind. In terms of function and responsibility, God the Father is superior (I Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 4:4-6, I Timothy 3:17); God's family has hierarchy. Jesus, subject to the Father- the Absolute God, is our Lord, Master, and Savior, and High Priest, and entirely worthy of our worship (Matthew 9:18, John 9:38).Jesus, His cousin John the Baptist, and the Apostle Paul gave substantiation to Christ's eternal pre- existence (John 1:1-2,30, 3:13, 8:58, 1 Corinthians 10:9, Hebrews 11:27)The God of the Old Testament was Jesus Christ. Jesus begotten siblings, once born into the God family as God-beings, are worthy of worship (Revelation 3:9); they are NOT the God head.

John Ritenbaugh observes that without our special calling and the gift of God's Holy Spirit, we would be about as clueless as to the purpose of our life as Solomon was throughout Ecclesiastes. Understanding is totally different from knowledge. Some people with ample knowledge are incredibly stupid when discerning the plan of God. Without God's Spirit the Bible makes no sense whatsoever. The mystery of God's plan, that special secret code, can only be discerned through special revelation powered by God's Holy Spirit. God did the choosing (often choosing the weak and base of the world); we did not. God is totally running the show; our lives must be in complete submission to His will, totally devoted to preparing for the next stage of God's purpose for our lives. The Millennium will be but a blip in the whole scheme of time propelling us as immortal beings and the very offspring of the immortal God into the vast infinitude and plenitude of the universe—all eventually under the subjection of God's family. Mankind is designed to be a builder, not a destroyer like Satan. The family will be the basic building block of the new government. Scriptural understanding will only become activated if we believe it, are committed to it, and are led by God's Holy Spirit following the pattern of our Elder Brother Jesus Christ.

To some, Barabbas is nothing more than an interesting detail in the drama of Christ's trial and condemnation. However, his presence during that crucial event contains significant implications for us and our pre-Passover self-examination.

Richard Ritenbaugh, responding to a Trinitarian's objection to the word "it" when referring to God's Spirit, systematically analyzes bogus, Neo-Platonic, philosophical underpinnings of the Trinity doctrine, including the equivocal misapplication of the etymology of hypostasis. Fundamentalist Trinitarians have continual difficulty comprehending the Bible writer's abundant use of personification, metaphor, and anthropomorphic figures of speech when describing God's Holy Spirit. Paul's reference to "grieving the Holy Spirit" can only apply to those converted individuals who have access to (or who are being sealed with) God's Holy Spirit, those who are incrementally putting on the new man. Just as our human spirit can be grieved (or metaphorically deflated by bad news), God is grieved by our disobedience or willful sinful behavior—sullying, suppressing, or stifling the Spirit that identifies us as His.

Pentecost is known for its stupendous signs, particularly the display of power in Acts 2. David Grabbe shows that Pentecost teaches us of another, more personal witness: our own display of Christ's way of life in us.

Martin Collins maintains that mainstream Christianity does not know who God the Father really is, seeing Him as a relatively ineffectual third Member of a closed Trinity, largely responsible for harnessing mankind with a harsh oppressive law that Jesus later annulled. Jesus Christ, designated as the logos, Spokesman or Word, reveals that the Father (the Creator and Sustainer of the universe) has always had supreme authority, and that He and His Father are absolutely at one in purpose. The Father is totally composed of spirit, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. His purpose or plan is to call individuals, regenerating them with His Spirit and instilling His changeless statutes into their minds, to transform them into members of His Family. We need to conform to the image of the Father Jesus revealed to us.

This world lauds warmakers, but God says that peacemakers are blessed. John Ritenbaugh explains the beatitude in Matthew 5:9.

John Ritenbaugh points out that when people do not have the fear of God, they drift away from Him. At the first Pentecost, only a fraction of Christ's total audience (about 120) were left, those who feared God, trembled at His word, and were really committed. After the Spirit of God is imparted, removing the pernicious fear of men and installing the life-sustaining fear of God, the real dramatic growth takes place- the sanctification process- a time we (with a poor and contrite spirit) use the fear of God as the prime motivator (coupled with the love of God) to move us from carnal to spiritual-from profane to holy. The fear of God keeps us from doing stupid things like sinning, enabling God's love to do its work. Knowing the terror of the Lord (as a consuming fire) should always be a part of our thinking. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. The fear of God draws us toward Him.

John Ritenbaugh affirms that the Christian's hope constitutes an incremental acquisition of God's glory; that is what the New Covenant is all about. At this point in time, Christ is the only one who has received His inheritance, becoming the first-born of many brethren (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:10), having a glorified spiritual body (Revelation 1:13-16). Our hope, as we yield to God, is to be like Him (I John 3:1-3), to become a glorified member of God's family. Christ's sacrifice enabled us to get close to God, establishing a family relationship with Him. As we participate in the New Covenant, we go through the stages of justification, sanctification, and ultimately glorification as part of Christ's body.

Who is God? What is His nature? Is God one Being? Two? Three? Is God a family? What does Elohim mean, and does it speak of one or more than one Being? Students of the Bible have searched for the answers to these questions for centuries. The answers are found in the revelation of the Bible, the only place where true knowledge of God, His plan and His ways is explained. The truth is simple—and astounding!

Charles Whitaker shows that spiritual growth mimics our physical growth to maturity. If we continue in the process, we will "grow into" our potential as God's children.

In this message, John Ritenbaugh, using the parable of Luke 11:24-28, admonishes that being cleaned up (or purged of leaven) is only the beginning of the growth process. To be made clean only prepares us for producing fruit. God's concern is for us to mature spiritually. If we stand still (resting on the laurels of our justification), the dark forces are going to pull us backwards. Uselessness invites disaster. We have to get away from the negative fixation of not doing and begin concentrating on doing. The consequences of not bearing fruit are graphically described in John 15:6. God's purpose, once we are cleaned, is to produce growth in us.

John Ritenbaugh asserts that Abraham is the only biblical character singled out as a type of God the Father. He is also the only one to receive the approbation "friend of God." As a result, we, as Abraham's offspring or seed, receive incredible material and spiritual blessings, including the Holy Scriptures, the chief means through which we learn "the deep things of God." Because of this, we have to make God central in our lives, submitting to His law, reproducing the obedient spirit of faith the father of the faithful and the friend of God demonstrated. Like him, after our calling we are obligated to cross the river separating ourselves from the world, leaving the old man or carnal self behind. Our new life is one of continual, often unsettling and unstable movement on a pilgrimage toward God's Kingdom (Hebrews 11:8-10).

John Ritenbaugh, focusing upon the spiritual bondage (slavery to sin) Jesus referred to in John 8:34, warns against habitual sin- or sinning as a "way of life"- under the power, control, or influence of sin (graphically described by Paul in Romans 7:7-24.) As long as we are slaves of sin (following the dictates of our own lustful desires), we have no free moral agency. God liberates us from sin in order that we might be free to obey Him. Jesus warns the Pharisees that because righteousness and character cannot be transferred from one person to another, they cannot trust in their pedigree (as physical descendants of Abraham). Without the implanted Spirit of God, we have absolutely no capacity to receive or appreciate spiritual truth or to hear God's Word, allowing it to convict us, making an impact on our lives. The study concludes in John 9 with an examination into the healing of the man blind from birth, occurring near the Pool of Siloam.