Dr. Couch, who or what is the morning star that will arise in the hearts of believers in 2 Peter 1:19?
This is a clear reference to the shining of the Lord Jesus
in the hearts of the believers when all sin is vanquished and He has
full control of His universe. The verse reads "We have the prophetic
word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp
shining in a dark place, until the day down and the morning star arises
in your hearts."
For now, in this dark world,
we only see darkness and evil, but we also have the promises of prophecy
that the day will arrive when Christ will bring gladness, as the early
morning star, to shine in our hearts. That Christ is the morning star is
made clear in what He says in Revelation 22:16: "I am the root and the
offspring of David, the bright morning star." This idea is also spoken
of in Revelation 2:28: "I will give to the believing overcomer 'the
morning star.'"
Christ is the true morning
star, the bright One from God the Father who will illumine all creation
with His Son. However, temporarily, Satan appears to the world as the
"shining one," or Lucifer, "the son of the morning" as seen at the time
of his fall in Isaiah 14:12. The name "shining one" is translated as
Lucifer in the Latin Vulgate.
The idea of the
morning brightness of the Messiah is seen in the prophecy of the father
of John the Baptist, about the advent of his son as the herald of the
Messiah. He said that by the tender mercies of God, "the Sunrise from on
high shall visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the
shadow of death" (Luke 1:78-79; Malachi 4:2). Thus, Christ is the Light
of the world (John 1:4, 5; 8:12; 9:5), the One who would bring light to
the Gentiles (Isa. 42:6; Acts 13:47).
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
