Halloween
(Copyright 2021) by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) Each year, as the last day of October nears, members of God’s church begin making plans to avoid Halloween. Some plan a trip to the local mall to do some shopping, even though the malls teem with kids and their parents trick-or-treating. Others hope to escape […]
What Happened at En Dor?
(Copyright 10-30-2024) by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) Human beings are a superstitious lot, and those who claim Christianity as their religion are no exception. Things that go bump in the night scare Christians and pagans equally. Some branches of Christianity seem to have a morbid fascination with the otherworldly, and this reality probably […]
Israel’s Long War
(Copyright 2023) by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) I The early-morning Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023—a Sabbath day as well as the Eighth Day (see Leviticus 23:36, 39)—shocked the world. Beginning with a barrage of at least 3,000 rockets, militants crossed into Israeli territory via both ground and aerial (paragliding) units. The stunning attack, which overcame […]
The Pragmatic Japanese
(Copyright 2021) by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) Most neighborhoods in suburban America are densely packed affairs with houses standing perhaps as little as twenty feet apart. The contractors who build them try to use the space as efficiently as possible, building as many houses per acre as the home-buying public can bear. A […]
New Fractures in the ‘Special Relationship’
(Copyright 2021) by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) For many decades, the United States and Britain have enjoyed what has been called the Special Relationship. While the two countries have quarreled in the past, particularly over the matter of independence, they settled into a mostly cordial association, recognizing their shared language, history, and political […]
The Model Prayer
The Model Prayer (Part One): Introduction(Copyright) by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) Prayer is an intrinsic part of the religion revealed in the pages of Scripture. The Old Testament records many instances of faithful men and women humbly requesting mercy and aid from the God of heaven and earth, whether it is Daniel beseeching God to forgive Israel […]
Let No One Deceive You
by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) As Daniel 12:4 predicts, we live in a time of increasing knowledge. Data flows constantly around the globe, facilitated by communications satellites, the Internet, television and radio, newspapers and magazines, telephones, pagers, and a host of other means and methods. This rapid—indeed, almost instantaneous—flow of information makes possible the doubling […]
Holy Days: Atonement
by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) In our continuing study on the holy days, we have seen the plan of God broaden from our personal redemption and removal of sin in Jesus Christ’s offering of Himself on Passover to ridding the self of corruption in the Days of Unleavened Bread and to the founding of the church and giving of […]
‘As It Was In the Days of Noah’
by Richard T. Ritenbaugh (Charlotte, North Carolina) Bahal was beginning to worry, since, as mayor, it was his job to worry for the rest of his remote, highland community. His wife, Chera, had remarked the day before that the rain was unusually heavy for this time of the year, but he had shrugged off her comment. […]