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| A Bondmaid and a Freewoman |
Subject: The New Covenant Allows Freedom |
Summary: David Grabbe, focusing on the allegory of the Bond and Free Women in Galatians 4:21, explains the misunderstanding of some antinomian Protestants in their claim that Paul wanted to do away with the law or works. Paul never denigrates law or works but... |
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| A Little Leaven |
Subject: Much Can Be Produced From Little |
Summary: Citing a passage in Ann Rule’s book, Green River, Running Red, (a book in which the author examines the twisted motivation of the Green River Killer), John Ritenbaugh underscores the principle that disastrous consequences emerge f... |
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| Baptized in the Sea |
Subject: Israel's Baptism and Ours |
Summary: Because Israel experienced a type of baptism in passing through the Red Sea on the last day of Unleavened Bread about 3,500 years ago (Exodus 14:29; I Corinthians 10:1-4), Richard Ritenbaugh rehearses basic scriptures on baptism. The etymology of bap... |
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| Days of Truth |
Subject: Leavening and False Doctrine |
Summary: David Grabbe explores the symbol or metaphor of leaven as it applies to false doctrine or false teaching which have the proclivity of placing us in abject bondage. The called out elect have been warned and exhorted to keep themselves free of religiou... |
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| Deuteronomy 16:1-8 |
Subject: Passover or Unleavened Bread? |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh shows that Deuteronomy 16:1-8 refers to Unleavened Bread rather than Passover (a scribal error, perhaps referring to the season). Ten clues clear up this misconception: 1) The month of Abib refers to Israel's leaving Egypt the day aft... |
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| Devotion and the Days of Unleavened Bread |
Subject: Burnt Offerings |
Summary: David Grabbe, focusing upon the symbolism of the burnt offering, asserts that this offering depicts a total surrender to God with absolutely nothing held back. The level of commitment in the Days of Unleavened Bread, putting out sin and adding right... |
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| Does Doctrine Really Matter? (Part 5) |
Subject: Belief and Unleavened Bread |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh cautions that most religious- professing people (including many members of the greater church of God) have not used the Word of God as their standard of morality and conduct, but instead are allowing society and culture to shape their... |
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| Examine and Come Out |
Subject: Accepting God's Changes in Us, Feast of Unleavened |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh insists that we must be aware of our awesome status as a unique, called- out, chosen, royal priesthood- teachers of a way of life and builders of bridges between people and God. Because God owns us, we differ from the rest of the peop... |
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| Freedom and Unleavened Bread |
Subject: Slavery and Sin |
Summary: Christian freedom has nothing to do with location but how we think. Like Israel on the edge of the Red Sea, we are too willing to turn back to our enslavement. Like Christ, carrying the instrument of our death (the cross), we also carry with us the i... |
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| Fulfillment of the Law |
Subject: The Law's Impact on the Days of Unleavened Bread |
Summary: Martin Collins reflects that mainstream ‘Christianity’ falsely asserts that God’s law has been done away, making it totally unnecessary to keep the Days of Unleavened Bread. The apostle Paul reminds us to keep the Days of Unleavened... |
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| Grace, Unleavened Bread, and the Holy Spirit |
Subject: Why We Eat Unleavened Bread |
Summary: In this message, John Ritenbaugh cautions that we may have had a somewhat incomplete understanding of the symbolism of eating unleavened bread, exaggerating the importance of our part in the sanctification process. Egypt is not so much a symbol of si... |
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| Has Your Heart Been Healed? (Part Two) |
Subject: Purification & Sanctification Through Truth |
Summary: In this second installment of Has Your Heart Been Healed?, David Grabbe points out that even though God has done the major heavy lifting in obtaining our release from bondage, we as the firstfruits have an obligation to cooperate and wo... |
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| How Does God Help Us? (Part 1) |
Subject: He Accomplishes It By Enabling Us To Understand His Truth |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh gives statistics from an army quartermaster who calculated the logistics of supplying food, shelter, and water for 2 or 3 million Israelites on their 40 year trek across the Red Sea and the wilderness--a task only an omnipotent God co... |
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| How Much Leaven Can God Take? |
Subject: Coming Out of Sin is an Individual Responsibility |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh, reflecting that 29 years ago he gave a version of this message in Columbia, South Carolina (a time coincidentally when a state appointed receiver took over the Pasadena headquarters of the Worldwide Church of God) states that the ori... |
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| James and Unleavened Bread (Part 1) |
Subject: Justified by Grace and Works |
Summary: In this Unleavened Bread sermon, Richard Ritenbaugh asserts that learning God's way (and unlearning Satan's way) takes a lifetime- spiritually speaking, perhaps the most difficult and arduous task on the entire earth. Over a lifetime, with our cooper... |
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| James and Unleavened Bread (Part 2) |
Subject: Practical Religion |
Summary: In this sermon, Richard Ritenbaugh asserts that the epistle of James stresses both faith and works, emphasizing those factors necessary for growth, enabling us to produce a bountiful harvest of fruit. We are to exercise humility and impartiality, tak... |
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| James and Unleavened Bread (Part 3) |
Subject: James 5 |
Summary: Richard Ritenbaugh reiterates that the command to eat unleavened Bread outnumbers the command to refrain from eating leavened bread three to one, indicating that if we actively engaged ourselves in studying God's word and doing righteousness, we woul... |
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| Leavening, The Types |
Subject: Recongnizing Leavening |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh suggests that the holy days are reliable, effective, multifaceted teaching tools, emphasizing spaced repetition to reinforce our faulty memories and drive the lesson deep into our thinking. The most effective learning involves drills ... |
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| Magic Doesn't Work (Part 2) |
Subject: Grace Then Works |
Summary: Richard Ritenbaugh reiterates that people are attracted to magic because they think it brings quick results, bringing them their fondest desires, erasing their fears and providing for their needs, altruistically cleaning up the annoyances of the cult... |
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| Passover and Deuteronomy 16:1-8 |
Subject: Deuteronomy 16, Passover, and the Days of Unleavened Bread |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh, focusing on the Night to be Much Observed, rebuts those who derisively called this event "Armstrong’s folly." In Deuteronomy 16, the word "Passover" is out of context in the first verse because it was intended as an overarching... |
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| Principled Living (Part 2): Conquering Sin |
Subject: Declaring Total War on Sin |
Summary: Reflecting on surgical procedures to eradicate cancer, Richard Ritenbaugh observes that every last cancer cell has to be totally destroyed in order to save the patient. Likewise, sin must be excised with the same sustained, relentless aggression. Lik... |
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| Principled Living (Part 3): Growing in Righteousness |
Subject: Our Cooperative Effort With God |
Summary: Richard Ritenbaugh, reminiscing about a school science fair project on tree growth rings, draws an analogy to spiritual growth, pondering what our spiritual growth rings look like. Because nature abhors a vacuum, once people rid themselves of sin, th... |
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| Re-education (Part 1) |
Subject: Unlearning the Wrong Way |
Summary: Richard Ritenbaugh, after marveling that money spent upon education seems to be inversely proportional to its effectiveness and quality, concludes that re-education is a most difficult (nearly impossible) process. Nevertheless, God Almighty, through ... |
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| Rejoicing or Solemnity? |
Subject: |
Summary: John Plunkett , in response to the question whether the Night to be Much Observed should be a time of rejoicing or solemnity gives a qualified yes and no, since both responses are called for by scripture. We should be solemnly protective of this monu... |
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| Repentance and Righteousness (Part 1) |
Subject: Becoming Free from Sin |
Summary: Richard Ritenbaugh asserts that the seven days of Unleavened Bread depicts the protracted time it takes us to get rid of the influences of the world or the clutches of sin. We spend our entire lives fleeing from Egypt- a hard trudge every step of the... |
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| The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 23) |
Subject: Colossians (D) |
Summary: In this twenty-third installment of the Covenants, Law and Grace series, John Ritenbaugh focuses upon two sets of verses (Colossians 2:16-18 and Galatians 4:9-10) which certain Protestant theologians have blasphemously charged that Paul was referring... |
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| The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 5) |
Subject: Justification and Obligation |
Summary: In this fifth installment of the Covenants, Grace and Law series, John Ritenbaugh reminds us that under both the Old and New Covenants, refusal to keep to keep God's Law severs our relationship with Him. Like loving parents who give rules to their ch... |
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| The Days of Independence |
Subject: 7 Freedoms We Have In Christ |
Summary: Clyde Finklea, noting that the Days of Unleavened Bread symbolize freedom and liberty, affirms that when we compare mankind’s distorted view of freedom (license to do as one pleases) with God’s perspective of freedom (the capacity to exer... |
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| The First Day of Unleavened Bread (Part 1) |
Subject: Distinguishing the Passover from the First Day of Unleavened Bread |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh observes that someone had recently taught that Passover, rather than the Night to be Much Observed, should be designated the first day of Unleavened Bread. Leviticus 23:5-6 designates two separate festivals: the Passover (on Abib/Nisa... |
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| The First Day of Unleavened Bread (Part 2) |
Subject: The Importance of the First Day of Unleavened Bread |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh reiterates that, though adjacent, Passover and the First Day of Unleavened Bread each contain unique lessons and spiritual instructions. Due to careless misreading, Exodus 12:42 has been incorrectly applied to the Passover (observed t... |
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| The Glory of God (Part 1): The Shekinah |
Subject: The Fiery Pillar of Cloud |
Summary: Richard Ritenbaugh, reflecting on God's presence in the pillar of cloud and fire, suggests that it is a vital part of the meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread and depicts God's visible presence and protection, His Shekinah, which appeared c... |
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| The Lesson of the Night to be Much Observed |
Subject: God is Watching |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh emphasizes that the Night to be Much Observed symbolizes the beginning of a time of spiritual liberty. The meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek served as a precursor of Passover, having parallel symbols of bread and wine. This event set... |
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| The Night to be Much Observed |
Subject: Night to be Much Observed |
Summary: In this sermon devoted to the Night Much to be Observed, John Ritenbaugh asserts that far from being the "pipe dream" of Herbert W. Armstrong as some have disparagingly called it, this event is a commanded part of the beginning of the Days of Unleave... |
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| The Purpose of Israel |
Subject: Why God Chose Israel |
Summary: Richard Ritenbaugh recounts the stormy historical events of ancient Israel, cyclically falling into captivity only to need rescuing again. Was ancient Israel a "failed run" at God ruling a people or did their experience serve a more transcendental pu... |
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| The Scarlet Letter |
Subject: Forgive Others as He Forgives Us |
Summary: John Plunkett, drawing parallels from Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, focuses on lessons we can apply to the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, particularly the complete forgiveness of our sins. In the novel, Hester Prynne is force... |
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| The Unleavened Life Is a Happy Life! |
Subject: Righteousness Brings True Joy! |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh observes that some misguided individuals in our previous fellowship have denigrated the practice of putting out leaven as childish and something to be outgrown. The fruits of their lives indicate that they never learned the subtle les... |
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| Themes of I Corinthians (Part 3) |
Subject: Judging Righteous Judgment |
Summary: The Christians in Corinth, a place widely known for its sexual debauchery and religious idolatry, received Paul's first epistle around Passover time, as a warning to overcome the affects of 'Sin City.' He did not advocate mass exodus from the environ... |
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| Themes of I Corinthians (Part 4) |
Subject: Fleeing From Sin |
Summary: While most of the world's Christians understand the sacrificial theme of the Passover, they fail to grasp the knowledge of actively overcoming sin, largely because of the concepts of 'free' grace and 'unconditional' forgiveness taught by Protestant t... |
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| Titus 2:11-14 |
Subject: Growth |
Summary: In this sermon for the Days of Unleavened Bread, John Ritenbaugh reiterates that God demands that we have an obligation to dress and keep that which is placed in our care, improving what He has given to us. We dare not stand still, but must make cons... |
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| Unleavened Bread and Hope |
Subject: Hope Inspires Transformation |
Summary: Richard Ritenbaugh, after comparing the behaviors of two fictional friends, suggests that action must accompany hope. After we purge the corruption from our lives, we must replace it with the anti-leaven of truth and sincerity, or our last state will... |
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| Unleavened Bread and Pentecost |
Subject: Understanding Unleavened Bread and Pentecost |
Summary: In this sermon on the meaning of Unleavened Bread, John Ritenbaugh warns that emphasizing our initiative at putting out sin is wrong. Unleavened bread serves as a memorial of God's initiative of delivering us from the bondage of sin. Like our forebea... |
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| Wavesheaf Day in the New Testament |
Subject: Understanding 'the first day of the week' |
Summary: David Grabbe shows that the phrase "first day of the week" in the various gospel accounts of Jesus Christ's appearance should be translated "first of the weeks" (mia sabbaton). This is the wavesheaf day -- the day after the Sabbath within the ... |
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| Why Are We Here? |
Subject: We Are Here to Follow Christ |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh, affirming that the Sabbath was made for mankind and that Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath, does not conclude, as some Protestant theologians have erroneously inferred, that the manner of Sabbath observance is no longer important, no... |
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| Why We Observe Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread |
Subject: Putting the Focus Back on God |
Summary: John Ritenbaugh asserts that we keep the Days of Unleavened Bread, not just as a memorial of the Passover and Exodus event, but because of what the Lord did to bring us out of sin (typified by Egypt) by the strength of His hand. What God does sets ev... |
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