Raising Our Conception of the Resurrection
by Richard T. RitenbaughThe day after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:10-11) is the day of the Wavesheaf offering, which typifies the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. ...
22-Apr-11
An Acceptable Gift
by David C. GrabbeThrough His sinless life and vicarious death, Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled all of the instructions in the Old Covenant regarding sacrifices and offerings. ...
15-Apr-11
Why Passover and Not Easter?
by Richard T. RitenbaughWhile most professing Christians consider the Passover to be a Jewish festival, it should also be a sacred observance for all Christians. The apostle Paul writes to the predominantly Gentile church in Corinth ...
08-Apr-11
Repentance: The Genuine Article (Part Six)
by Richard T. RitenbaughJohn the Baptist is the first of God’s messengers to address repentance in the New Testament. In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven ...
01-Apr-11
Repentance: The Genuine Article (Part Five)
by Richard T. RitenbaughWe can learn a great deal from the sore trial of Job, particularly what God did to bring him to the point of repentance. Notice Job 40:1-4, where we begin to see a marked change in the man: Moreover the LORD answered ...
25-Mar-11
Repentance: The Genuine Article (Part Four)
by Richard T. RitenbaughWe would be well-advised to consider the New Testament Greek word for "repentance," metanoia. It conveys the imagery of a person having an afterthought, which can help us understand why the writers of the New Testament ...
18-Mar-11
Repentance: The Genuine Article (Part Three)
by Richard T. RitenbaughLast time, while discussing the Hebrew word naham, frequently translated as “repentance” in the Old Testament, we saw that sorrow for sin may be nothing more than self-pity. A person may be sorry ...
11-Mar-11
Repentance: The Genuine Article (Part Two)
by Richard T. RitenbaughWhile people can make positive changes in their lives, true repentance—the kind that counts toward salvation—only occurs after God has invited a person into a relationship with Him. Human beings are full of sin ...
04-Mar-11
Repentance: The Genuine Article (Part One)
by Richard T. RitenbaughIn the American presidential campaign of 2008, eventual winner Barack Obama ran on a platitudinous platform of hope and change. His supposedly soaring rhetoric captured the support of more than half of the voters ...
25-Feb-11
Middle East Democracy?
by Richard T. RitenbaughMany voices across the political and media spectrums have hailed the recent protests and changes in governments across the Middle East as welcome democratic advances into a largely totalitarian region of the world. ...
18-Feb-11
A Just Weight Is His Delight
by David C. GrabbeIn earlier times, food and other goods were measured out by weight using a balance. A standard weight (typically made of stone) was placed on one side, and the material being measured was put on the other. When the balance was level, both buyer and seller knew that the amount had been measured correctly. ...
11-Feb-11
The Unique Greatness of Our God (Part Six)
by Richard T. RitenbaughThe Bible takes a rather dim view of man, from Jesus calling us evil (Matthew 7:11) to God counting all of the nations as “the small dust on the scales” (Isaiah 40:15). ...
04-Feb-11
The Unique Greatness of Our God (Part Five)
by Richard T. RitenbaughIn these essays, we have tried to grasp a measure of how wonderful God is, and while some of the things we have seen are awe-inspiring to consider, we realize that they are inadequate attempts to describe an infinite God. ...
28-Jan-11
The Unique Greatness of Our God (Part Four)
by Richard T. RitenbaughThe Bible tells us that, far from being the unconcerned and inattentive Creator that the Deists envisioned, God is a micro-manager of His universe. Jesus, who knows the Father best, says of Him: "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will" (Matthew 10:29). ...
21-Jan-11
The Unique Greatness of Our God (Part Three)
by Richard T. RitenbaughA description of God’s greatness similar to Isaiah 40:26 is found in Psalm 147:4-5: “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. ...
14-Jan-11
The Unique Greatness of Our God (Part Two)
by Richard T. RitenbaughWhat the apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 2:6-11 tells us plainly that the human mind cannot truly grasp the greatness of God: ...
07-Jan-11
The Unique Greatness of Our God (Part One)
by Richard T. RitenbaughThe fifth commandment in Exodus 20:12 reads, “Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you. ...
31-Dec-10
Where Is Your Heart?
by Richard T. RitenbaughWhen speaking with a new client, career counselors, after getting all the pertinent information on job history and the like, will often ask their clients, “Now, what do you really want to do? Where is your heart?” ...
24-Dec-10
Will the Church of God Be Thrown Down? (Part Two)
by David C. GrabbeThe predominant focus of Matthew 24:2 is on the physical Temple and its environs. Jesus Christ's words that "not one stone shall be left here upon another" has already had one physical fulfillment in the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in AD 70. ...
17-Dec-10
Will the Church of God Be Thrown Down? (Part One)
by David C. GrabbeJust a few days before Jesus observed His last Passover with His disciples, He gave them two chapters full of prophecy, parables, and other instructions in what has come to be known as the Olivet Prophecy ....
10-Dec-10
Diligence in Practice
by Mike FordOutliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell examines how some people have become successful. Using case studies, the author shows how family and friends played significant roles ...
03-Dec-10
The Poetry of the Bible
by StaffIn his book, Figures of Speech in the Bible, E.W. Bullinger describes a staggering 217 different figures of speech in God's Word, each used multiple times. A figure of speech is the stylistic use of language ...
26-Nov-10
Wisdom for the Young (Part Five)
by Richard T. RitenbaughHow does a young person seek God? Some people, having grown up in certain evangelical circles, have an overly sentimental opinion of how an individual should come to God. ...
12-Nov-10
Wisdom for the Young (Part Four)
by Richard T. RitenbaughProverbs 15:21 makes an interesting comment on the subject of foolishness: “Folly is joy to him who is destitute of discernment, but a man of understanding walks uprightly.” ...
05-Nov-10
Wisdom for the Young (Part Three)
by Richard T. RitenbaughEcclesiastes 2 records what Solomon experienced when he was a young man in the prime of his wealth and power. ...
29-Oct-10
Wisdom for the Young (Part Two)
by Richard T. RitenbaughPart of the problem that confronts young people today is that they—and frankly, all of society—have a devilish misconception of what is fun. ...
22-Oct-10
Wisdom for the Young (Part One)
by Richard T. RitenbaughFor the past sixty years, America has been dominated by one particular generation of its citizens, the many millions born just after World War II, also known as the “Baby Boomers. ...
15-Oct-10
Evil Is Real (Part Six)
by Richard T. RitenbaughFrom I Peter 2:19-24, we could make a convincing theological argument that Christian suffering is our fight against evil because we receive the slings and arrows of others and experience the most inner turmoil in the midst of our fight against evil. ...
08-Oct-10
Evil Is Real (Part Five)
by Richard T. RitenbaughLuke 4 contains Satan’s temptation of Christ, and it is instructive to see what Jesus did in the face of evil. ...
17-Sep-10
Evil Is Real (Part Four)
by Richard T. RitenbaughVanquish the sins at their point of origin, and our deeds will be clean before God. ...
10-Sep-10
Evil Is Real (Part Three)
by Richard T. RitenbaughWhen we are first born, our nature is essentially neutral, not having been affected one way or the other by outside influences. ...
03-Sep-10
Evil Is Real (Part Two)
by Richard T. RitenbaughIt is amazing to realize how blunt God is in His Word; as the saying goes He is not afraid to call a spade a spade. ...
27-Aug-10
Evil Is Real (Part One)
by Richard T. RitenbaughBack on March 8, 1983, at an Orlando, Florida, meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals, the President of the United States at the time, Ronald Reagan, gave a speech amid an ongoing Congressional debate over a proposed “nuclear freeze,” a policy advocated by the Soviet Union. ...
20-Aug-10
The High Places (Part Six)
by David C. GrabbeAs God promised in Leviticus 26:30, the pagan high places of Israel and Judah were destroyed long ago. Their gods have essentially passed into history ...
13-Aug-10
The High Places (Part Five)
by David C. GrabbeBefore continuing with Judah’s next king, Jotham, it is worthwhile to consider another aspect of the previous three kings. ...
06-Aug-10
The High Places (Part Four)
by David C. GrabbeUzziah (also called Azariah) is the third successive king of Judah who failed to remove the high places from the land. ...
30-Jul-10
The High Places (Part Three)
by David C. GrabbeKing Jehoash (or Joash) of the southern kingdom of Judah did what was right in God’s sight, but only while Jehoiada the priest was alive. ...
23-Jul-10
The High Places (Part Two)
by David C. GrabbeThe high places—and more specifically, the idolatrous worship they came to represent—were a critical issue in the histories of Israel and Judah. ...
16-Jul-10
The High Places (Part One)
by David C. GrabbeIn the record of the kings of Israel and Judah, God typically inspired the writer to summarize in a sentence or two what He thought of the particular leader, such as “He walked in all the sins of his father,” or “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did his father David.” ...
09-Jul-10
Learning from Clichés
by StaffWhether we were born yesterday, born with a silver spoon in our mouth, or born and raised a stick in the mud, we hear and most likely use clichés a million times a day. ...
02-Jul-10
Beating the Rat Race (Part Six)
by Richard T. RitenbaughOnly when we are still can we truly concentrate on knowing God. When our lives are upside-down, confusion and chaos reign ...
25-Jun-10
Beating the Rat Race (Part Five)
by Richard T. RitenbaughAnother command to be still appears in a somewhat unexpected place in Scripture, in Ruth 3. ...
18-Jun-10
Beating the Rat Race (Part Four)
by Richard T. RitenbaughNumbers 9 contains another incident in which the command to be still plays a noteworthy part. ...
11-Jun-10
Beating the Rat Race (Part Three)
by Richard T. RitenbaughI Samuel 12 is instructive on the subject of finding a still, quiet place in a hectic world. ...
04-Jun-10
Beating the Rat Race (Part Two)
by Richard T. RitenbaughOur society runs at a frantic pace. ...
28-May-10
Beating the Rat Race (Part One)
by Richard T. Ritenbaugh“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4). ...
21-May-10
Pentecost and the Wave Offerings (Part Two)
by David C. GrabbeRight now, our lives are symbolically within the period of counting the seven Sabbaths, the seven weeks, or the “seven sevens” to the harvest of firstfruits (Leviticus 23:15-16). ...
14-May-10
Pentecost and the Wave Offerings (Part One)
by David C. GrabbeIn Daniel 7, God foretells of a blasphemous end-time king who will, as it says in the King James Version, “wear out the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:25). ...
07-May-10
United With Whom?
by David C. GrabbeAt times the paradox is painful, but it is nevertheless true. True Christians "receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon [us]" (Acts 1:8), yet even with that divine power there is much that we would like to do but cannot. ...
30-Apr-10
Death Is Not the End (Part Seven)
by Richard T. RitenbaughIt is wonderful to know that human life is not without purpose or an end in itself. ...
23-Apr-10
A Government Like the Nations
by David C. GrabbeIn ancient Israel’s saga of rebellion against her Creator, one incident stands out due to its brazenness. ...
16-Apr-10
Death Is Not the End (Part Six)
by Richard T. RitenbaughIn Part Five, we learned about the general resurrection, when tens of billions of people will rise from their graves to live as physical human beings under judgment, when they will have the opportunity for salvation. ...