Title: 13
Author: JOEG
Last saved by: Matthew C. Lawson
Company: Auth Co

© 2001 Joe Griffin	                                   ▼                      01-12-09-A.JSH-582 /

The Inscrutable Question: “A Little Soul Is Born”; Light Shining in a Dark Place: Doctrine in the Soul, the Morning Star, & Jesus Christ at His Second Advent

A LITTLE SOUL IS BORN
The Selection of Ryan Owens
Along with Jo Henra, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family and the church’s Internet congregation.  It is my joy to present Mr. Ryan Christopher Owens.  He was born on Tuesday, December 4, 2001 at Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama, at 12:56 P.M.  At birth he weighed in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 21 inches bow to stern.  Since his beautiful mother is our daughter, Shannon, Jo Henra and I are delighted to become this young man’s grandparents.  Also holding this esteemed title are Jim and Pat Owens of Chattanooga, Tennessee, whose son, Chris, is Ryan’s proud father.  Ryan is the first grandchild for the four of us.  Our job is to get in the way and disrupt domestic tranquility.
It is during rare occasions such as this that the beauty of God’s plan can be observed and appreciated.  It is one that has already been experienced by so many of you in this congregation.  You have seen the personal sacrifice and earnest resolve displayed by a young mother as she battles the ravages of the curse hour upon long hour, the relentless undulations of labor straining every nerve in order to bring a conclusion to the nine-month long mystery.  The unremitting pain is suppressed by the innate obligation to see it through, to successfully present the life within to the Father for His sovereign selection and the resultant transfer from mother dependence over to God dependence.  Suddenly, with the severing of the umbilical cord, a little soul is born.  Shannon was such a trooper on this occasion.  She did her duty to the end and although left exhausted, the motherly instincts kicked in immediately and it was a beautiful thing to see.  Our daughter is now a mother.  She will love her child, care for him, and teach him.  And someday if he is wise, Ryan will come to know his mother and love her with the kind of intensity that Jo Henra and I have loved Shannon since the day her little soul was born.
In addition I must take a moment to salute Chris.  He has displayed, in abundance, the attributes of a caring, loving, and devoted father.  These characteristics were constantly evident during the few days I was in Birmingham and foretell of a lifelong commitment to Ryan’s well-being.  And Chris never left Shannon’s side from the time she entered the hospital at 1 o’clock Tuesday morning until they were dismissed at 4:00 Thursday afternoon.  His tireless efforts to care for Ryan and to comfort Shannon have been ongoing and have not gone unobserved by me.  Chris might counter that it never crossed his mind to do otherwise.  But such an attitude is absent from so many marriages today and many suffer because of its scarcity.  Consequently I admire Chris because of the fact that this is who he is.  I admire him for these things for which I am also deeply appreciative.  Jo Henra and I are duly blessed to have him in our family.  And he will make Ryan a great father.
And so a new adventure has begun.  For Jo Henra and me the shadows are growing long.  But in the time we have left our prayer will be that Shannon and Chris will prepare Ryan to give an objective hearing to the gospel.  And if he is fortunate enough to place his faith in Christ for eternal life, Jo Henra and I hope to observe and contribute to his early spiritual growth.  Our greatest desire for Ryan is that he would advance to spiritual maturity, contribute to the sustenance of this client nation, and become an invisible hero for the next generation.
And as a bonus may he be left-handed and someday pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals.

58)	The place into which the Lord implored the disciples to shine the light of the Word of God was the darkness of the devil’s world.  Peter gives an apt description of this fallen environment with this adjective which is translated in most of the lexicons by the English word “squalid.”
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “dirty”:
Adds to the idea of dirtiness and filth the idea of slovenly neglect.  Applicable to moral uncleanness, baseness, or obscenity.
				More graphic definitions are provided by:
	Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “squalid”:
Naturally foul and repulsive by the presence of slime and the absence of all cultivation or care.  ¶ Foul through neglect or want of cleanliness; repulsively filthy.  ¶ Fig. Wretched, miserable, morally repulsive or degraded.  ¶ Dry, parched, marked by drought.
59)	These all contribute to describing Peter’s opinion of the kind of darkness that pervades the devil’s world.  His choice of words indicates his distaste for the fallen environment of Lucifer’s domain and its figurative application portrays the drought of divine viewpoint that ravages the souls of degraded mankind.
60)	Peter’s suggestion is that the only way a believer can avoid discouragement in such a squalid environment is to keep habitually concentrating on the prophetic light that points to the eventual Second Advent of Jesus Christ in great glory.
2 Peter 1:19 -	Yet we keep on having a more reliable guaranteed source for prophetic doctrine to which you will do a right thing in a right way by habitually concentrating in your streams of consciousness as you would concentrate on a lamp which shines in a squalid place until the day has dawned …
		61)	Peter’s “dawning day” is an idiom that makes reference to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.  You will remember in our study of the six days of Restoration how we distinguished between the words “day,” “night,” “dawn,” and “day”:
Genesis 1:5 -	God called light [ roa / or / ] day [ <oy / yom ] but darkness [ Evj / hoshek / ] He called night [ hlyl / layelah / ].  And it became evening [ bru / arab / ] and it became dawn [ rqB / boqer / ].  Day one.
		62)	God named the light “day” and He named the darkness “night.”  But as the earth rotates, the light fades to darkness and darkness fades to light.  Therefore, we have additional vocabulary words, “evening” and “dawn.”
		63)	That concept is important here.  The “day dawns” speaks of the Second Advent at which time the world will be encapsulated in total darkness.  The first light to be seen is that of the Shekinah Glory.
		64)	As the earth rotates on its axis those on its surface who approach the terminator first see the refracted light from the sun but not the sun itself.  This initial period is called “dawn” and once the sun appears it is called “day.”  During the period called “dawn” the only heavenly body that remains visible is the morning star.
		65)	Literally this star is Venus but metaphorically it makes reference to Jesus Christ.  One of His titles in Scripture is the Bright Morning Star.
		66)	These two terms are prophetic references to the Second Advent when Christ will return with His church in great glory to establish His millennial kingdom.
67)	The word “day” is used figuratively several ways in Scripture.  The application here is a period more than 24 hours.  Here reference is made to the “day of the Lord” which includes the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Second Advent, and Millennium, totaling 1,007 years.  However, it also refers to any portion of this period, the context dictating how long.
		68)	The context of 2 Peter 1:19 indicates that it references the Second Advent.  This is because of the use of the Messianic title, “Morning Star.” We get some interesting commentary on this title from:
Lockyear, Herbert.  All the Divine Names and Titles in the Bible.  (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1975), 128-30:
By the bright and morning star we are to think of Venus, the brightest of the planets, and conspicuous for its wonderful brilliancy and beauty.  The ancients knew this star as Phosphorus, or “Light-Bearer,” the morning star.
Under this striking figure Christ gives us a guarantee of the sovereignty of light over darkness when, with the children of the day, He will be manifested.
The morning star is the harbinger, a prophecy, a messenger of light and life.  Christ sustains the same relation to His people as this star does to the world.  It succeeds the darkness of night and ushers in another day, mingling its rays with the morning light.  It heralds the approach of a new period of time and is therefore a fitting type of Him who is to lead us on to Eternal Day.
The morning star is a harbinger of the greatest natural joy, namely, the rising of the sun, and Christ is the Harbinger of great joy to all nations.  As His first coming heralded a new day, so His second coming is to usher in the longed-for Day.
The morning star is likewise a terror to evil men and thieves, for when they see this sun of the morning rising they haste away to hide themselves, lest the light of day overtake them and they are discovered.  “Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.” [John 3:19]
69)	Just as the morning star penetrates the darkness at the dawn of a new day, likewise Jesus Christ is the Morning Star that penetrates the darkness at the dawn of His millennial kingdom.  Our Lord speaks of these events in His Olivet Discourse found in:
Matthew 24:29 - “Immediately after the Tribulation in those days shall the sun be darkened, the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.”
70)	As the armies of the world concentrate their forces around Jerusalem and the satanic objective of Jewish obliteration is eminent, the world is suddenly encapsulated in a supernatural darkness which brings the combat of the Armageddon Campaign to a sudden halt.
Matthew 24:30 - “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky [ darkness-penetrating light of Great Morning Star ], and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”
71)	Penetrating the darkness will be the “great glory” of our Lord Jesus Christ, the same glory witnessed by Peter, James, and John on the mount of transfiguration.  
Revelation 1:7 - Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.
72)	When a person is in darkness and light suddenly appears his eye is immediately directed toward the light.  This is the principle used by Peter in our passage:
2 Peter 1:19 -	Yet we keep on having a more reliable guaranteed source for prophetic doctrine to which you will do a right thing in a right way by habitually concentrating in your streams of consciousness as you would concentrate on a lamp which shines in a squalid place …
		73)	At the Second Advent, believers of the Church Age will, in resurrected glory, return with the Lord and witness the penetration of the Tribulation’s supernatural darkness by the light of the Bright Morning Star.
Revelation 19:7 - “Let us rejoice and celebrate and give the glory to Him, for the marriage banquet of the Lamb has come and His bride has prepared herself.”
v.8 - And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean [ uniform of glory ]; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
v. 11 -	And I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges [ baptisms of fire ] and wages war [ terminate the Armageddon campaign ].
v. 14 -	And the armies [ str£teuma / strateuma /: (1) Angelic Order of Battle under Michael; (2) Church Age believers in resurrection bodies; and (3) Old Testament saints and tribulational martyrs in resurrection bodies ] which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.
		74)	In the concluding statements of His Revelation to John, the Lord identifies Himself as the Bright Morning Star in:
Revelation 22:16 - “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches.  I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.”
75)	All of these things fulfill Old Testament prophecies regarding the Second Advent and the appearance of the Lord in glory.  Isaiah gives us a poetic description of the Lord’s glorious arrival at Jerusalem and the dawn of the millennial day in:
Isaiah 60:1 - “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
v. 2 - “For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you.
v. 3 - “And nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”
		76)	A classic commentary on the book of Isaiah is that by F. C. Jennings.  His remarks about this passage are found in:
Jennings, F. C.  Studies in Isaiah.  (New York: Loizeaux Brothers), 692-93:
The gospel has been preached for 2,000 years with more or less clearness and fidelity; but that light of truth has been turned into a dense darkness that enshrouds the whole race of man, darkness the more dense because of the light rejected.  Yet see that harbinger, the Star, has not given a false testimony, a dawn is breaking over Jerusalem—it is Jehovah-Jesus who is rising over her.

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