NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE MORNING STAR
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 22:12
APRIL 6, 1997
As viewed from earth, the planet Venus is the brightest of all the stars and planets of the heavens. In size and proximity, the planet Venus is the planet closest to earth. But in terms of temperature, Venus is radically different than our planet. The average surface temperature on the planet Venus is 850 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, the oven in your kitchen, if it’s a typical oven, has a maximum temperature of approximately 600 degrees Fahrenheit so you can see that the surface of the planet Venus is like a very, very hot oven.
It was the Romans who gave this planet its name. Why they named this oven-like planet after the Roman goddess of love we do not know. Perhaps they thought, “Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the oven!” This much we know. The Romans called the planet Venus, but the Greeks had another name for it. They called the planet Proinos Aster. That was the Greek name for the planet Venus, Proinos Aster. And that word means “The Morning Star.” Interestingly enough, this is the name in the Bible (one of the names) given to the Messiah. In fact, amongst the Hellenized Hebrews, this was one of the most common names for the Messiah, Proinos Aster, the Morning Star. And Jesus takes this very name and applies it to Himself in Revelation, chapter 22, verse 16. “I am the Morning Star”—”ego eimi ho aster ho proinos.” “I am The Star of the Morning.”
You see, there is one sense in which Jesus Christ is exactly like the planet Venus. This comprises our one teaching this morning. Jesus Christ will usher in a new day. That’s why He’s called “the Morning Star.” Jesus Christ signals the end of the night, and He will usher in a new day. You see, there are certain times of the year when you can look into the eastern sky late in the night, early in the morning, and the brightest star that is there is Venus. That’s why it’s called the morning star. It signals the end of the night, and it signals the dawn of a new day.
Another title given to the planet Venus was the title Phosphorus, which means “light bringer.” The planet Venus was viewed as bringing the light into the world. This title Phosphorus is also applied to Jesus Christ in the scripture. He is the Morning Star. He is the Light Bringer. He will end the night and He will usher in a new age, a new day, a day when death will be no more. Neither will there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore. It will be an age of peace. It will be a millennium. There will be a new heaven and a new earth.
Now, I think all of you have heard of the Aztecs, a powerful ancient nation in Mexico which flourished hundreds of years ago. The Aztecs had a deity they called Quetzalcoatl. They believed that this deity had fair skin, white skin. The Aztecs referred to this deity as Quetzalcoatl the White. They believed that Quetzalcoatl the White had once visited our planet at the dawn of civilization but left. They believed him to be a benevolent, kind, good god and they believed that one day Quetzalcoatl the White would return to earth and usher in a new age, an age of global peace.
I think many of you know that in the year 1518 Hernando Cortez came to the coast of Mexico, landed at Vera Cruz with 11 ships and 700 men. It is said that he burned his ships because there was no turning back and he wanted his men to be committed to the task ahead because they had come to conquer. They had come to conquer the Aztec Empire. Hernando Cortez began his march inland to the capital of the Aztec Empire, a city named Tenochtitlan. This city today is called Mexico City.
Strangely enough, historians tell us the Aztecs had far greater numbers of people and they could have easily conquered Hernando Cortez and his 700 men. But they did not resist him. As he marched towards Tenochtitlan, there was no resistance. In fact, he was greeted with great fanfare. When Hernando Cortez came into the capital city, the people literally bent the knee. They deified him and they made of him a god. Montezuma II gave to Hernando Cortez the keys to the Aztec kingdom. Historians today understand why. They understand that Montezuma II believed that Hernando Cortez was actually Quetzalcoatl the White, the promised one who would usher in global peace, who would usher in a new day. Of course, it did not happen, but the myth of the Aztecs is really very similar to many of the myths of ancient cultures because there is in the hearts of women and men this great desire for a new day. There’s this longing for a new era, for an end to the night, for the dawning of peace and happiness, for a place where death would be no more. This longing is in the heart of men and women.
Now, on the back of a one-dollar bill, you can see the Great Seal of the United States. The Great Seal of the United States was established on June 20, 1782. The Great Seal has been used for decades and centuries to authenticate documents and treaties.
On the back of the one-dollar bill, you can see both the face and the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. On the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States, you see a pyramid with its thirteen layers. Above the pyramid, you see the so-called Eye of Providence. And beneath the pyramid you see three Latin words, “Novus Ordo Seclorum.” These three Latin words mean, “New Order of the Ages.” You see, the founders of this nation, the framers of this nation, really believed that they were ushering in a new order of the ages for our people and perhaps for all people. The world would never be the same. I think, although America certainly has not brought a new order to the world, it is true that within the hearts of most Americans there is this kind of optimistic looking to the future where we think that we can make tomorrow a better world. The history of our nation is filled with promises for the future.
In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt promised a New Deal. In 1948, Harry Truman promised a Fair Deal. In 1952, Dwight David Eisenhower spoke of the Great Crusade for a Better Tomorrow. In 1960, John F. Kennedy looked to what he called The New Frontier. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson envisioned what he called The Great Society. In 1988, George Bush spoke of a New World Order. Throughout his administration, he referred again and again to a New World Order. But, of course, there is no new world order. There is no great society. There’s not even really a new deal. What the Bible tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes is true. There is nothing new under heaven. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
The Bible says that now, in the present, this world is in darkness. The Bible says that on this planet it is nighttime. In John, chapter 3, Jesus said, “This is the testimony that light has come into the world. But mankind loved darkness rather than the light.” In 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, the Apostle Paul tells us that it is nighttime still. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, that most of the people of this world are what he calls “children of the night.” So spiritually speaking the Bible tells us this world is in darkness. But Jesus is the Morning Star, and the night will end, and the day will dawn when He comes again.
We understand what brings the nighttime physically. We experience the physical night when the portion of the planet upon which we live turns away from the sun. When the portion of the planet upon which we live turns away from the sun, we experience physically what we call nighttime. A similar thing is true spiritually. People experience the spiritual night when they turn away from the face of God. The Bible says, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” When we turn away from the face of God, spiritually we experience the night.
The first being to experience the nighttime spiritually was the devil. He was the first one to turn away from the face of God. Recent surveys show that 62% of the women and men of America believe in a literal devil, that he really exists. I must tell you, Satan just doesn’t care. He doesn’t care how many people believe in him. All he cares about is maintaining the night. All he cares about is maintaining the darkness. All he cares about is keeping people from turning back to the face of God. It’s what he cares about.
There’s a little statement that Paul Harvey wrote. I think most of you have heard of Paul Harvey. I want to read this statement to you. It’s entitled, “If I were the Devil.” It really has to do primarily with this nation, the United States. If I Were The Devil, by Paul Harvey:
“If I were the prince of darkness, I would want to engulf the whole world in darkness. I’d want all the world I could get but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, America. So, I would set about to take over the so-called Christian countries, beginning with the United States. I would begin with a whispering campaign. With the wisdom of the serpent, I would whisper to all as I whispered to Eve, ‘Do as you please.’
“To the young I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would tell them that man created God rather than the other way around. I would tell them what’s bad is good and what’s good is square. To the old, I would teach them to pray after me, ‘Our Father who art in Washington, give me…’ I would educate authors in how to make lurid literature acceptable and I would educate television producers how to ridicule all that is decent and honorable.
“I would peddle drugs to whomever I could. I would sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I would tranquilize the rest with prescription pills. I would have families, marriages, churches, and nations war with themselves until each in turn was consumed. I would encourage schools to train intellects but neglect to discipline emotions and just let them run wild. Before they knew it, there would be drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. Soon I could evict God from the courthouse and the schoolhouse and then from the Houses of Congress.
“In God’s own church I would offer the words of men for religion, and I would deify science. I would make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a tree.
“If I were the devil, I would take from those who earn and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of hard work. What do you bet that I could get an entire state to promote gambling as a way to riches? I would caution against extremes in hard work and patriotism and in moral conduct. I would convince young people that marriage is old fashioned. What you see on TV is the way to live. Thus, I could lure scores into bed, and they would wake up with diseases for which there is no cure. I guess if I were the devil, I would keep right on doing what he’s doing.”
Well, some of you might agree with that, some of you might not. But I think it’s hard to deny this: The devil is enthroned in this world. The Bible says he is the archon. He is the prince. He is the ruler of this age. The Bible tells us that Satan has brought a cloud of darkness to this planet. You know, we live in a culture where there are a lot of people who long for some kind of spirituality, but they want a god who doesn’t care about goodness. They want religion without rules. They want a cloak of spirituality with no demands upon their lifestyle. We live in a world where Judeo-Christian values have been cast down into a sea of moral relativism and we have the audacity to describe that moral relativism as values clarification. What a strange time we live in.
This nation has experienced more than a hundred years of increasing secularism, and yet that secularism is now combined with a kind of mysticism because people long for some kind of spirituality. We’ve begun to see people who are open to everything from channeling to psychics. It is a bizarre darkness that we live in. But the Bible tells us as Christians in Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 12 “Put on the full armor of God. For we are not contending against flesh and blood. We are contending against the principalities and powers. We’re contending against the world rulers of this present darkness, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
You know, some years ago, Frank Peretti wrote a book called This Present Darkness and it sold many copies throughout the Christian world. That book’s title was taken from Ephesians 6, verse 12. The Bible tells us that in this present time the world is indeed in darkness. We are at war. You see, God doesn’t want us, as Christians, as we wait for the dawning of the day, as we wait for the end of the night, as we wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ, as we wait for what Peter called “the day when the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in our hearts…” As we wait, God doesn’t want us simply to curse the darkness. He doesn’t even want us to flee the darkness. He wants us to go into the darkness as light. This is the call of Christ upon His people, to go into the darkness, into the night as light. Because you are children of the day the Morning Star has already come into you. Christ has come into you, and we are called to become light in the world.
This is one of the tragedies with regard to cultic phenomena. As you think of Marshall Herff Applewhite and the 38 other people who died with him at Rancho Santa Fe, California, in that cult called Heaven’s Gate which I mentioned last week at Fiddler’s Green… The tragedy is not simply their bizarre theology. And of course their theology was rather bizarre. Believing that a UFO was in the wake of the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet waiting to pick them up if only they could free themselves of their bodily containers… this is what is called bizarre theology.
Cults almost always have bizarre theology, but they have another characteristic. That other characteristic is this: They tend to be isolationists. They basically tell their people to flee out of the world and come together into this isolated unit. They seek escape from the world. Ultimately, in the case of Heaven’s Gate, that longing for escape led to mass suicide.
The Bible has a very opposite message. The Bible doesn’t give us, as Christians, a message of escape. Oh, there is the promise of heaven at the end of the day, but the Bible calls us to engage the world, to go into the night, to go into the darkness as light. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. The city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither does one light a lamp to hide it under a bushel basket, but places it on a lampstand that it might give light to all who are in the house. So let your light shine amongst men that they might see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” This is the call of Christ upon us.
Do you hear this? I mean, do you really have ears to hear? Do you really want to be light in the night?
You know, Friday morning I had the privilege of meeting with Eric and Janet Jeffrey. They are old friends of my family. Eric Jeffrey is an old friend of my dad and knew my dad from 50 years ago. I can remember as kids my brothers and I being in the car with my mom and dad and Eric and Janet Jeffrey and their son, Rick, the eight of us in one car together driving down to the southern California beach at night for a dinner. I can remember us all singing songs in the car and its good memories. It was great to see Eric and Janet in my office. They’ve just moved here to Denver and they’re in their 80’s.
You know what I love? You know what’s so great about seeing them? They’re still working! They’re still serving Christ! They’re still light in the darkness! Eric Jeffrey is in his 80’s and he’s still working for Young Life. Young Life is a parachurch ministry, parachurch Christian ministry. Eric Jeffrey is in Douglas County establishing a new program whereby Christians can volunteer as tutors in the four Douglas County high schools and in the fifth high school that’s soon to be established. Because of Eric Jeffrey, there’s going to be a program through which Christians can volunteer to tutor kids that are struggling. We need Christians there. Kids are hurting in the suburbs as well as in the urban areas.
We also have our Whiz Kids Program where we offer people the opportunity to tutor in the inner city. We go into the inner city with a young African American or Hispanic child and be a tutor and seek to help them with their schoolwork so that their education might be enhanced and someday they might have the dignity of competing for a job and gaining that job. It’s also the opportunity of sharing the love of Jesus Christ in this crazy world, in this world where it is nighttime and the day has not yet dawned. It’s a chance to be light.
Don’t you understand? That’s what Christ has called us to. What’s the great sin of our age in the church of Jesus Christ? It’s not all the bad things we do. It’s the good things we don’t do because we just sit around. We’re called to be light.
Heather came home this weekend from college. She’s working this summer at Sky’s the Limit, which is a Christian camp for inner city kids. Heather worked there last summer as a counselor. She loved the experience. She came down this weekend because she needs to interview prospective counselors for Sky’s the Limit inner city camp. She came home tired. She said it was an incredible experience interviewing these candidates for camp counselors because they all come out of such tragic backgrounds. She said each kid just had an amazing story. “My dad was a drug addict,” “My dad left when I was two,” “I never knew my dad.” There is just story after story after story. You understand that’s all part of the night. That’s all part of the darkness. But praise God for Sky’s the Limit, an inner-city ministry that’s seeking to help kids to be a light.
And when you become a Sunday school teacher, it’s just a willingness to be light. When you become an usher or a greeter, it’s just willingness to be light. When you take that class that you can sign up for today about being a contagious Christian, it’s just because you want to be a light. When you join the prayer team or become a Stephen Minister or work with the youth department, it’s because you want to be a light. When you share with somebody at work or in your neighborhood or when you go visit somebody in the hospital, when you take a gift to somebody next door, hopefully it’s because you want to be a light. This is what it’s all about. You are the light of the world, and this is the call of Christ until the day dawns and He ushers in that new day—when death will be no more, neither will there by mourning nor crying nor pain anymore.
Some of you perhaps are thinking, “Well, if He is the Morning Star, and if the night is going to end, and if indeed because of Him the day is going to dawn, when is it going to happen?” We really don’t have time to discuss that this morning because our time is up, but I do want you to know just through three simple statements that there are three simple signs that the day is drawing near.
The first is the rebirth of Israel. You see, the Bible in the major and minor prophets clearly prophesied that before the day dawns, the Jewish people scattered over the earth will return to their homeland and Israel will become a nation again, reborn. Do you realize that’s what happened in 1948 and in 1967 when the Jews reoccupied the city of Jerusalem? You see, after 1,878 years, Israel became a nation again, miraculously, in fulfillment of biblical prophecy right in our midst. It is a sign, a key sign, that the night is short and the day is drawing nye.
There’s that second sign—what the Bible calls the great apostasy. Do you know this? It is 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet Him. “Be not be mistaken in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion comes first.” The Greek word is “apostasia,” from which we get the word apostasy, and it refers to the“turning away from God by people who once claimed to know God. The great apostasia. We are seeing that in our time. We’re seeing people turn away from God in their values, in their lifestyles, even in their theological affirmations. We are seeing people turn away from God. We’re seeing it in the mainline Protestant denominations, where neoorthodoxy is becoming the theology of choice. You understand that orthodoxy says the Bible is the Word of God. That’s what orthodoxy says. Neoorthodoxy says, “Well, the Bible contains the word of God.” Do you understand the subtle distinction? If the Bible just contains the word of God, then it’s up to you to decide what’s of God and what isn’t and that’s what is sweeping through the churches of America today. It’s all symptomatic of the time, the apostasia that will signal the end of the night and the dawn of the day.
Then finally there is the prophetic sign of the rise of the Antichrist himself. It is in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2 again, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet Him. “Do not be mistaken in any way. That day will not come until the rebellion comes first, the apostasia, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god and object of worship, taking his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” The Antichrist.
The Bible says in Daniel that the Antichrist will seek to change the laws of God. I ask you, is that happening today? In our culture, are people trying to change the laws of God? The Apostle Paul says, “The spirit of Antichrist is at work already.” The work of that diabolical spirit will increase until the consummation when the Antichrist arises.
Well, we do not know the day or the hour of Christ’s coming, but we do know that when He comes, the night will end and a glorious day will dawn. In the meantime, we’re called to be faithful. We have that great message in Revelation, chapter 2, where Jesus spoke to the faithful in the church at Thyatira. Jesus said, “As for the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold to false teaching, who have not learned what some have called the deep things of Satan, to you I say I do not lay upon you any other burden. Only hold fast to what you have until I come. He who conquers and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and I will give him the Morning Star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
What does that mean? “I will give the Morning Star”? Certainly, it means He will give Himself, but it means more than that because as the Morning Star He ushers in the new day. He ushers in the age to come. When He says, “I will give you the Morning Star,” He’s saying, “I give you the life to come. I’ll give you the new day and you’ll reign and rule with Me forever. But until that day be faithful, be light, because it’s night out there and the world is in darkness.” Let’s close with a word of prayer.