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What Spirit Are You Drinking?

Sermonette by Ronny H. Graham

During the pagan holiday season, the world becomes intoxicated, both deadening its senses physically and spiritually to God's purpose and master plan.

What's So Bad About Babylon? (2013) (Part Three)

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)

God records in Genesis 9 that Noah became drunk, an event that led to an illicit sexual act within his family, specifically involving Ham's lineage. This incident holds symbolic importance, as Ham's descendants were instrumental in founding Babylon, a city that embodies spiritual corruption. In Revelation 17 and 18, the harlot woman, named Babylon the Great, symbolizes a seductive and evil system that intoxicates the nations with her wine. This wine represents a drugging influence that erodes spiritual powers, making individuals drowsy and blind to the reality of its destructive impact. It deadens spiritual perspective, leading to immoral judgments and shaping conduct through carnal allure. Babylon's influence, as depicted through the harlot woman, extends to corrupting governmental and business leadership, symbolized as committing fornication with her. This spiritual corruption promotes faithlessness within cultures, fostering self-centeredness and over-indulgence. The pervasive nature of this system, driven by satan, draws people through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Despite the physical destruction of the city of Babylon, its spirit survives through satan's enduring presence, continuously infecting those who yield to its temptations. God warns against this system, highlighting its opposition to His purpose and its destructive impact on mankind.

Should a Christian Play Devil's Advocate?

'Ready Answer' by Staff

Playing the role of Devil's Advocate poses real dangers for Christians. The term, originating from a sixteenth-century office within the Roman Catholic Church, referred to a canon lawyer tasked with raising doubts against a candidate for canonization. Though the modern usage often describes someone who argues against a position merely for the sake of debate, its roots tie it to advocating for Satan, the Adversary of God, His Son, and His true church. An advocate pleads, defends, supports, or promotes the interests of another, and in this context, it means supporting Satan's cause. Christians must question whether they wish to see or take his side, even in argument. Mankind has unwittingly played this role since the Garden of Eden, as seen in Genesis 3, where Satan's deception led to the fall. Satan also attempted to sway Jesus Christ through temptation, exploiting physical needs, promising authority, and testing faith, yet each effort failed due to Christ's unwavering advocacy for His Father. Satan desires for humans to underestimate him, hoping they let their guard down, making them vulnerable to his strikes. He aims to create division among God's people, causing distraction and spiritual disaster, as Jesus warns that a house divided against itself falls. As ambassadors for Christ, Christians must represent God's government through thought, speech, and action, advocating for Him by letting their light shine before others. They must remain spiritually sober and vigilant, resisting Satan, the last being for whom they should ever advocate. Instead, following Christ's instruction, they are to be God's advocates through godly examples.

What's So Bad About Babylon? (2013) (Part Two)

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)

Babylon's spiritual influence persists as a pervasive and intoxicating force, likened to wine, which drugs and lures individuals into deeper subjugation. This cultural system, symbolized as a prostitute, deadens spiritual perspective, rendering people incapable of proper judgment while shaping their conduct through an ugly fascination with its allure. It commits spiritual fornication with political and commercial leaders, leading the masses into deeper moral and spiritual decay. This influence spreads beyond personal unfaithfulness into broader societal corruption, where leaders become unfaithful to the people they serve, driven by corporate interests and personal gain. God warns of this spiritual drunkenness, urging escape from Babylon's vile cultural system, which continues to impact character and conduct across nations, drawing them away from His ways.

Laodiceanism and Being There Next Year

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh

Spiritual drunkenness, as depicted through the imagery of wine, carries profound significance in illustrating the dangers of being ensnared by the ways of Babylon. This condition results from imbibing the lifestyle and values of a world that distracts from seeking God, leading to a distorted perception of reality. A spiritually drunk mind becomes dizzy, fuzzy, and unfocused, much like a physical drunkard whose body staggers and fails to respond normally. Such a person is deluded into believing they possess greater powers than they do, rendering them helpless and dangerous to themselves and others. The wine in this metaphor represents Babylon's way of life, and the wrath that follows is the penalty for practicing sins of unfaithfulness to God. This spiritual drunkenness mirrors physical intoxication, initially offering a pleasant, energizing effect but ultimately ensnaring through its deceptive, depressing aftermath. It clouds the mind, destroys the capacity for clear thought, breaks down resistance to evil, and fosters moral stupidity. This state deprives individuals of understanding, removes inhibitions, and fills them with false confidence and bravado, leading to a disregard for modesty, restraint, and loyalty within relationships. God warns of this peril, showing that at the end-time, a demonic power seems to seize nations, destroying loyalty to Him. Just as drugs impair clarity, spiritual drunkenness from over-indulging in Babylon's ways creates an escape into worldly fantasies, attitudes, and conduct. Prosperity often plays a role in this corruption, diverting attention from God's purpose to vain and corrupting pursuits. As material wealth increases, judgment becomes radically altered, leading to a self-deceptive belief that material success indicates divine approval, further distancing one from seeking God. This spiritual state parallels the condition of Laodiceanism, where individuals, despite having saving knowledge of God, remain attached to the world, straddling the fence between two realms. They deceive themselves into thinking they have the best of both worlds, becoming morally indifferent and tolerant of their lack of spiritual drive. Settled on their lees, they adopt a leisurely, casual approach to life, hardening over time into a state of practical atheism, believing by their conduct that God is not governing or judging. This blindness to their spiritual state results in a failure to prioritize seeking God, ultimately risking exclusion from His Kingdom if they do not repent and zealously pursue a relationship with Him.

What's So Bad About Babylon? (1997)

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh

Babylon constitutes the fountainhead of instruction that, like strong drink, impairs the ability to function properly while creating the illusion of ability.

What's So Bad About Babylon? (2003) (Part 2)

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh

The entire Babylonian system has an enslaving, addicting, and inebriating quality, producing a pernicious unfaithfulness and Laodicean temperament.

Be There Next Year

'Personal' from John W. Ritenbaugh

Members of God's church usually come home from the Feast of Tabernacles with renewed strength. Yet, some fall away each year. Here's how to stay the course.

A Bed Too Short (Part 1)

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon by Charles Whitaker

Our society is too connected with the present, too enamored of technology, too surfeited on abundance to pay attention to basic laws of cause and effect.

Prophecy and the Sixth-Century Axial Period

'Personal' from John W. Ritenbaugh

Prophecy has many purposes, but it is never intended to open the future to mere curiosity. Its higher purpose is to give guidance to the heirs of salvation.

The World, the Church, and Laodiceanism

Booklet by John W. Ritenbaugh

Laodiceanism is the attitude that dominates the end time. It is a subtle form of worldliness that has infected the church, and Christ warns against it strongly.

Matthew (Part Three)

Sermon/Bible Study by John W. Ritenbaugh

Jesus resisted Satan with the knowledge of God, resisting appeals to vanity, using power selfishly resisting to lust of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life.

The March Toward Globalism (Part Four)

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)

Self-will must be extirpated from our children; God's will must take its place. Childrearing must begin at the start of a child's formative life.

Trumpets, Christ's Coming, and Works

Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh

Because the exact time of Christ's return is not known, we must always be ready, as though His return is imminent. Those not prepared will be blindsided.