The Coming of the Sun of Righteousness

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From J Preston Eby’s Book: Looking for His Appearing - Chapters 17, 18 & 19

Chapter 17

The Word of God turns man's attention repeatedly to the heavens. "The heavens declare the glory of God... day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge" (Ps. 19:1-2). The heavens do not speak English, yet they speak to every Englishman and every American. They speak in every language to every people. The Old Testament closes with God directing man to look to the heavens. God says, in effect, "Look up to the heavens, and don't miss it, because it's important!" "Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings" (Mal.4:2). The Old Testament closes pointing a finger to the East, to the sunrise, proclaiming that all who fear the Lord are to look in that direction because there is the promise of sunrise. It points us to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Sun of Righteousness, arising with healing rays over the horizon of this earth-realm. And, brothers and sisters, that is a fitting figure, because the Lord comes to usher in a NEW DAY.

A person who speaks only the English language can take a book written in French, and, while he may not be able to read it except with much hesitation and mispronunciation, still he can struggle through it after a fashion. Occasionally he will come to a word which closely resembles the English with which he is familiar. But, because he knows nothing of the meaning of French words, no matter how well he can read the text, it means nothing to him until he learns what each individual French word means. Even so Christians who read Bible prophecy, if they do not understand the prophetical language, are confronted with a similar problem. Prophecy is invariably written in prophetical terms, and unless one understands the meaning of each individual term, though he may be able to read the text fluently, yet he has no understanding of what he reads. So, before one can understand prophecy, he first must receive a revelation of the prophetic language. Fortunately the Word furnishes us with the keys to prophetical terms, by which we may through the Spirit become proficient in the prophetic language.

There are many terms used in prophecy, such as stars, moon, sun, sea, rivers, trees, mountains, hills, islands, valleys, heaven, earth, beasts, horns, eyes, etc., etc. In our last study we considered the mystery of the Morning Star. There are stars revealed in the prophetic Word of God which portray the plan and purpose of God. If we go to the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation, we see three things: the first is that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the Morning Star (Rev. 22:16); secondly, we see that all the stars mentioned in the book are people (Rev. 1:20; 9:1, etc.); thirdly, the Morning Star is involved with the promise of the Lord to the overcomers, and is promised to all who overcome (Rev. 2:29). The giving of the Morning Star involves an impartation of the Christ. The Morning Star is a glory of the Christ within, as HE shines in the darkness of our weakness and inability and frustration GIVING A VISION OF AND HOPE FOR THE DAWNING OF THE FULL DAY. There is a remnant of God's people over the whole earth today into whose hearts has shined the Morning Star. And, in thus receiving the Morning Star, do they not in turn BECOME THE MORNING STAR? Flooded with HIS LIFE AND LIGHT they become the herald, the harbinger of the near-approaching dawn.

Long centuries ago in Babylon the aged prophet Daniel received this challenging and assuring word from the Lord: "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Dan. 12:3). There are many other stars besides the Morning Star in God's glorious celestial realm, His spiritual heavens. Here the signification of stars is identified with the saints. Each member of God's elect is one star in God's spiritual universe. You are a star in God's economy! You are appointed to have an eternal fixed position in God's heavenly Kingdom as a star, as a shining one, as a luminary. There are different degrees of glory to the stars, "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. SO ALSO IS THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD" (I Cor. 15:41-42). As one star outshines another in glory so it is in the Kingdom of God. Stars have different dimensions of glory. The greatest of all stars signified to us is the Sun Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord. But there are vast multitudes of stars having different degrees of glory in the Kingdom of God - but they are all called "wise" stars and they all "turn many to righteousness," therefore they burn as bright lights in the Father's Kingdom. Stars are bright lights that give light where there is darkness. Who ARE the wise? The margin reads "teachers" in place of "wise." "They that be TEACHERS shall shine as the brightness of the firmament." That is, of course, those who teach the truth, and lead others to a knowledge of the truth that makes men free.

I am sure every reader of these lines is familiar with the old song, "Will There Be Any Stars In My Crown?" There is no scripture to indicate that the saints will wear "starry crowns," but there is scripture which is greater by far! It is the privilege of all who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship to dwell upon the consolations of this marvelous promise, "And they that be teachers shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever." God's universe embraces all places. This little world of ours, and each star and sun and planet are but tiny grains of sand on the seashore of infinity. Each one is small indeed in relation to all the rest of the systems, and in relation to limitless space. A conception of its magnitude can be gathered only from the stellar worlds themselves. What are those stars, in the likeness of which the teachers of righteousness are to shine forever and ever? How much of brightness, and majesty, and length of days, is involved in this comparison?

The sun of our own solar system is one of these stars. If we compare it with this globe upon which we live (our handiest standard of measurement), we find it an orb of no small magnitude and magnificence. Our earth is nearly eight thousand miles in diameter, but the sun's diameter is eight hundred sixty-four thousand miles. In size it is one million three hundred thousand times as large as our globe. In the matter of its substance, it would balance three hundred thirty-two thousand worlds like ours. What immensity is this! Yet this is far from being the largest or the brightest of the orbs in the heavens. The sun's proximity, only some ninety-three million miles from us, gives him with us a controlling presence and influence. But far away in the depths of space, so far that they appear like mere points of light, blaze other orbs of vaster size and greater glory.

There are stars, as, for instance, Arcturus, which emits light equivalent to one hundred fifty-eight of our suns; Capella, one hundred eighty-five; and so on, until at last we reach the great star Rigel, in the constellation of Orion which floods the celestial spaces with a brilliance fifteen thousand times that of the ponderous orb which lights and controls our solar system! Why, then, does it not appear more luminous to us? Ah, its distance is equivalent to thirty-three million diameters of the earth's orbit; and the latter is one hundred eighty-six million miles! Figures are weak to express such distances. It will be sufficient to say that its glowing light must traverse space as only light travels - one hundred eighty-six thousand miles a second - for a period of more than ten years before it reaches this world of ours. There are many other stars which are hundreds of light-years from our solar system. A few years pass away, and all things earthly gather the mold of age and the odor of decay. But the stars shine on in their glory as in the beginning. Centuries and cycles have gone by, kingdoms have arisen and slowly passed away. Yet the stars' brightness is not dimmed, nor their force abated. The dew of youth still seems fresh upon them. No faltering motion reveals the decrepitude of age. These shine on in undiminished glory through all the ages of time.

Thus shall those wise and blessed sons of God shine who turn the inhabitants of the world to righteousness. Thus shall their ministry and their years roll on from age to age until that wonderful age of all ages, the dispensation of the fullness of times wherein everything in heaven and in earth and in all realms is gathered together into one in Christ and God becomes All-in-all. What glories lie beyond this, we cannot yet know. Of this we may be sure: we who are redeemed have entered a progressive institution, a Kingdom in which stagnation will never enter. We will ever go on "from glory to glory," for "of the increase of His government ... THERE SHALL BE NO END" (Isa. 9:7). We will never come to the place where we can sit down with folded hands and say, "This is the end." We, who have been born into the heavenly realm, have entered a stage of action, we have become active agents in the greatest development program ever conceived. A whole universe awaits our touch and guiding hand. "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Thou hast put ALL THINGS in subjection under his feet. For in that He put ALL in subjection under him, He left N-O-T-H-I-N-G that is not put under him. But we see NOT YET all things put under him (man). But we SEE JESUS..." (Heb. 2:6-9). Surely these words can mean nothing less than UNIVERSAL DOMINION!

Away out there in the blue is a Kingdom of life and light and love for every son of God to explore and develop and perfect. And if ever, in all the countless ages to come, that Kingdom should become too small or overcrowded for its citizens, let us remember that we, being as He is, are therefore, one and all, the very same kind of Beings as He who simply spoke the Word, and lo! the present worlds appeared. Being like Him, we will also be creators, one and all, and not destroyers, as in our human state. "WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM.”

God says that men enter His heavenly Kingdom by being born into it (Jn. 3:5). Men do not die to go to heaven, they are born there. And then after they are born into that state - after they become heavenly beings - they can lay up, by their obedience to the heavenly Father, heavenly riches which will not only be a place, but royal pomp and splendor and majesty and dominion beyond compare. Sonship does not only entitle one to residence in God's limitless and eternal domain, but to the ownership and rule of that domain, in proportion to qualifying in service now. Oh, that it were possible to lift men up above the shadows, and give them just a glimpse of something higher! Mortal minds are so entirely inadequate; human eyes so dim; human ears so dull!

Heaven is not a mansion over the hilltop, not the gratifying of the needs and desires of this vessel of clay. It is not that which will bring creature comfort. It is not a state of eternal creature enjoyment and rest. The celestial realm is something infinitely higher. It is eminence, power, majesty, glory. It is becoming the same kind of a Being as the One who made the worlds (Jn. 10:34-36; I Jn. 3:2), and will bring, not inactive rest with fluttering wings and strumming harps, which in a few short hours even becomes exceedingly tiresome, but activity and accomplishments far surpassing that of earth's limitation. And it includes kingship and priesthood over God's eternal and infinite domain. It is dominion and power and influence far above that which earth can contemplate or even imagine. And then the place which we receive after entering this heavenly state is not heaven, but that which we receive as a consequence of our entrance into the celestial sphere. The place is the reward which faithful heavenly beings will receive as their very own, a part of their inheritance, heavenly real estate.

The stars are distant lights. They shine in other spheres. There is no doubt that vast numbers of these stars are "suns" like unto our own, the centers of great solar systems, with heavenly bodies that revolve around them, perhaps populated by beings of which we know nothing at this present time. Thus will it be in the Kingdom of the Son, in the spiritual heavens of God's universal and eternal dominion. Each son of God will be a star, a sun, shining forth in living and everlasting luster. Each member of the elect will faithfully radiate his beams of life and light and love, shining in those spheres which the omniscient Father shall allot to them. Thus each shall become the central star of a spiritual solar system composed of myriads of creatures in God's glorious creation which revolve around them, unto whom they shine as the revelation of God's nature, glory and power. And thus shall the scripture be fulfilled, "Then shall the righteous SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the Kingdom of their FATHER. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Mat. 13:43). The Kingdom does not become the Kingdom of the "Father" until Christ, having "put all enemies under His feet," including the last enemy death, has "delivered up the Kingdom to God, EVEN THE FATHER" and God becomes "All-in-all" (I Cor. 15:24-28). What glorious and ineffable prospects lie before us!

There is also a negative aspect to the stars - "falling stars." Today we see those who, as falling stars, blaze their way across the heavens. They make a spectacular entrance, and shine brilliantly for a season, and just as suddenly they are gone - their light becoming darkness. Ah, they have done mighty works, they have preached to multitudes, they have cast out devils, they have healed the sick, they have prophesied in His name, they called Him Lord; but they were not subject to His law, His order, His purpose. They were "doing their own thing" and perverting the light into the building of their own kingdoms. He will say to them, "I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity" (Mat. 7:23).

There are also those stars described as "wandering stars." Jude 12 and 13 tells us, "These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; WANDERING STARS, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." So many who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ today are not stars, there is no radiance of His glory from their lives. Some, however, are stars, but they are wandering stars. Do you know what a wandering star is? In our universe a proper star has a certain position and fixed orbit. It continues in its appointed course steadfastly. But there are some stars with no fixed position or orbit: they are wandering stars. They are stars, but they are not steadfast stars. If you follow them you will be misled. If you accompany them they will not take you anywhere in God. These possess no clear vision of God's purposes, no stable comprehension of His plan, no submission to His dealings, no learning of His ways, no dedication to His principles, no putting on of His mind, no divine order in their walk. These are tossed to and fro by every "new" teaching, wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, the prey of the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men - personality followers. They ever seek some "new thing," and let a new revelation come along, or a new teacher come to town, and they will run after him and flock around him for a season, but there is no fruit of God in their walk; just as quickly they cool off to the excitement of the "new," and wait for the next sensation to appear. They themselves are wandering stars: they have no ground, no foundation, no standing, no goal toward which they are unswervingly moving under the guiding and disciplining hand of the Father. Today they say this, and tomorrow they say that; they are wandering. Be careful! You will never arrive at sonship by following a wandering star. If you are wandering you are wasting your time. If you would go to a certain place, get out your map, get on the right road and in the right lane; and as you drive, you will reach your destination. Above all we would BE His stars, bright shining as the sun. In the entertainment world, the "movie stars" shine from their false and lofty skies. God, at the same time, is exalting His sons, the "moving stars" of the heavenlies, that they may swallow up all lesser lights. In becoming Christ-centered, we become life and light to those worlds which rotate around us. We follow on in our prescribed course, in the order and harmony of God's spiritual universe!

Light in a Dark Place

The Lord Himself is the Bright and Morning Star. Hear what the apostle Peter says about the Morning Star. "Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto A LIGHT THAT SHINES IN A DARK PLACE, until the day dawn, and the Day Star arise in your hearts" (II Pet. 1:19). Every person understands what the Morning Star is. The Morning Star appears at the darkest part of the night. It is seen and greeted only by a few who are watching for it. The rest of the world is asleep. The sun, on the contrary, floods the whole world with light and awakens and gives life to all nature. Before its illuminating rays the darkness and shadows of night are scattered.

The dark place where the Morning Star shines is IN OUR HEARTS. The place where the Day Star arises is likewise IN OUR HEARTS. We should not be obliged to present lengthy arguments to prove that without God the heart of man is hopelessly dark, incurably carnal, and desperately wicked. It is most enlightening to read the words of Jeremiah who said by inspiration of the Holy Spirit that "the heart is deceitful ABOVE ALL THINGS, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). To the enlightened mind of this prophet, the depth of iniquity to which the human heart is capable is so great that it is beyond the ability of any man to comprehend. As a friend has said, "We should not find this so amazing a passage of scripture were it not for one important thing. Jeremiah did not list an exception, saying, 'The heart is deceitful above all things EXCEPT THE DEVIL!' He merely stated that the heart is deceitful above all things, PERIOD! Since Jeremiah spake by the Spirit of God this could not possibly have been a slip of the tongue or something uttered before it was thought through. If the heart is deceitful above ALL THINGS, it naturally follows that there is nothing more deceitful. The heart of man, then, is the MOST DECEITFUL THING IN THE WORLD!"

There is no doubt whatever in my mind that Jesus had this very scripture in mind when He spoke the words recorded in Mk. 7:15-23. "There is NOTHING from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: ALL THESE THINGS COME FROM WITHIN, and defile the man" (Mk. 7:15,21-23). Every sin category imaginable is contained in this discourse. Everything that a man could ever think or do that is evil is said by Jesus to come OUT OF THE HEART OF MAN. What an incredibly dark place, the human heart! No wonder the apostle made the heart of man the location of the Morning Star - the star that appears at the blackest part of the night!

Man today wants to hear nothing about the depravity of his heart, the utter corruptness of man's nature. Twentieth century man has endeavored to forget it, to deny it, to ignore it, to turn his back upon it, to get away from it, to escape it, and hope in some way that it will just go away and leave him alone. But it will not! The reality of man's sin has filled to overflowing the prisons and mental hospitals of this nation until they sprawl as endless cities. Wing after wing of these institutions is filled with people who are there primarily because their lives are overwhelmed and crushed by their sin which they've striven to ignore or deny. When will we face reality for the way it is and seek God's remedy for it instead of our own daubing at the surface blemishes of the fatal cancer within? Even Freud, unbeliever that he was, in his psychoanalytic studies probed deep into the soul of men. There, as he plunged down into that subbasement of the human soul which he called the "id," he found lurking in all the crevices and corners of that soul such foulness, such unbelievable hate, such attitudes towards those whom they were supposed to love, such lust and greed and pride, that he himself was shocked at what he discovered. But he was unknowingly putting his imprimatur on the Word of God which says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ... The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? ... I the Lord search the heart."

Ah - the Lord searches the heart! And just how does He do this? The wise man replies, "The SPIRIT OF MAN is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly" (Prov. 20:27). The Psalmist adds this inspired insight: "For Thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness" (Ps. 18:28). Can we not see by this that it is when OUR SPIRIT IS LIGHTED BY HIS SPIRIT that the Morning Star appears over the horizon of our inward darkness? Blessed harbinger of the dawn! It means just this - the Spirit of God in our spirit searches into the dispositions and affections of the soul, praises what is good, condemns what is evil, while announcing the imminent arising of the Sun of Righteousness whose healing rays shall scatter the night, transforming the nature until the heart is purified into the image of God. To many of us now His light may seem no more than the flickering of a candle, shining in the darkness of our lives, but once His light shines upon us, such a response is created in our dead and dormant hearts that we find ourselves quickened with hope and expectation. When the light of the Star divine comes shining into the darkened recesses of the soul, that man can never be the same again. Once Jesus, the light of the world, shines upon him, never again will he be satisfied with the outer darkness of this world.

Every man's life is his own castle of many rooms. By His indwelling Spirit, the candle of the Lord has been moving from one room to the next, silently, carrying the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. He has been challenging every activity, deed, act, word, and even every thought and intent of our lives. Now we come to the close, and just as we are ushering our heavenly investigator to the last room of the castle of our lives, as we are walking down the hall, He stops, looks down and says, "What is this?" We had devoutly hoped that He would not notice that trap door set so securely in the floor. Hardly anyone knew about it at all; and casually we toss it off. "Oh, that's just the basement, Lord. You really wouldn't want to go down there." "Oh," He answers, "but I would. In fact that's why I came - to go down there." So, over all your protestations His will wins out. You lift that creaking door, and as it opens, there is the odor of stinking flesh and hidden corruption and the sound of bats' wings, and a circular, narrow stairway leads down into the inky blackness below. With anxious heart, you follow Christ down those stairs, wondering what evils shall be brought into His light. As the shadows flee before that light which radiates from Him, you reach the floor of the basement with all of its darkened chambers and its unclean imagery. There is no place to hide, for the light that comes from Christ reveals all. Jesus has come, the Morning Star has appeared, the candle of the Lord has come to search the heart and reveal the very depth of the secrets, the suppressed attitudes, secret motives, hidden desires, concealed ambitions, all the darkness of the soul. Thank God! He does not uncover our iniquity to destroy us, but to save us and purify unto Himself a people to show forth His glory in the earth.

Years ago when farmers were clearing land they had great trouble with the stumps of trees. It was easy to cut down the tree but to burn out the stump was a long and torturous process. Finally somebody invented a machine that had a long boom and a huge hook. This hook was planted around the stump between the roots. Then there was a whirring of machinery and a grinding of wheels and levers, and the stump of the tree was ripped from the ground despite the desperate clinging of the roots to their accustomed earth. The Living Word of God is the hook which would go down into the dark soil of our hearts and pull out the stump, root, and all the very last vestiges of carnality, self and wickedness. The wonderful law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus - there is nothing like this law found in all the legislation of ancient or modern history. All the enactments of princes and potentates may cover the deeds, acts and words of their servants. But only God can command the heart. The greatest tyrant who ever lived could do nothing to quell the hatred that raged like a tempest in the hearts of his subjects. He could do nothing to hush the curses that smote him like white lightning. Here, therefore, we see the signature of God, for only God searches the heart, and gives promise of the dawn!

All sin is but the perversion of that which is legitimate in its proper order. Sex, for example, is a wonderful and beautiful thing in the order of God, but misused it is demeaning and creates problems of guilt, distrust, broken homes, venereal disease, etc. Within the marriage union it is holy, the apt figure for the spiritual love and union between Christ and the Church; but out of order expresses itself in fornication, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality and all manner of uncleanness. All the false religiousness of the Babylon system is but the perversion of the holy things of God. Spiritual truth and reality lowered to the carnal plane, and joined to fleshly zeal, results in organized spiritual darkness - RELIGION.

Man's nature is saturated with powerful drives of desire, ambition and creativeness. It has been said that the powerful horses of desire and ambition have to be dealt with in some way. There have been numerous proposals for dealing with these wild horses that gallop in the breast of every one of us. The Buddhist has his suggestion. Gautama, the Prince, recommended very simply that we shoot these wild horses, thus ending all desire, and get rid of all ambition. Thus we would rid ourselves of all misery. The behavioral psychologist today has an opposite view from that of Gautama Buddha. He declares that we should simply let the horses run wild. Whether you are age five, ten or twenty-five, just do the thing that feels good. Let it all hang out. Then what do you have? You have a society just like ours, where you cannot walk the streets in safety at night. You are afraid to send your children to some schools, lest they not come home at all, with or without an education. But God has something to say about those wild horses. He says that we are not to shoot them and we are not to let them go; but we are to tame them. We are to harness them, ride them and redirect them to God's glory. Some people say, "You have never tried to ride my wild horses. That wild horse of lust - I have tried to tame it and have landed on my back in the dust. That wild horse of ambition for the things of THIS WORLD has thrown me many a time. We will never be able to tame them, and it is folly for us even to try." But when Christ comes in HE CAN TAME THE WILDEST HORSE. This One who tamed the raging waves of the sea of Galilee can tame the raging horses in our hearts. That desire can be redirected. That ambition can be redirected. That zeal can be harnessed. Our drives are not to be annihilated; rather they are to be sublimated. They should be purified and reprogrammed to a higher and greater cause - the cause of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ - the cause of the Kingdom of God. Our passions need to be purified and our desires distilled of all carnal thoughts and self-interest, yielded unto the Spirit of God, as instruments of righteousness. When the Spirit of God takes control of our lives, when the soul is subjugated and joined to the spirit, we can say, "My soul panteth after Thee, O God" (Ps. 42:1). How many people are panting after the transient things of this world! How few can honestly say, "As the hart pants after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!"

God has made us to reach for something more glorious than the stars, which will live forever, for the eternal Kingdom of God. With such a grand and glorious goal set before us, millions of Christians are simply digging for clams in the mud flats of material blessing and prosperity for the here and now, and a mansion and a harp in that glory world above. What eternal and infinite loss attends such paltry goals!

The Sun of Righteousness

The Morning Star is the candle of the Lord that shines in the dark place of the heart, searching all the inward parts of the desires, affections and nature. The Sun of Righteousness is the arising of the glory of the Lord shining in His full strength and majesty, dispelling the darkness, bringing in the day of victory, life and glory. In scripture the sun is called the Day Star - it is the star of the day. It is the one star in God's vast universe which gives us the light of day. And just as the natural sun is the center of our physical solar system, so the spiritual sun, or Day Star, is the center of our spiritual solar system. The Day Star typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He is spoken of in Mal. 4:2 as the Sun of Righteousness who arises with healing in His rays. Peter calls Him the Day Star which arises IN OUR HEARTS. The entire Kingdom of God revolves around this Sun of Righteousness who is the Day Star. The saints of God revolve around the Lord Jesus Christ, the center of our spiritual solar system.

Thus, in the prophetic scriptures the Lord is symbolized by the sun. The natural sun is the brightest luminary in the natural heavens. And to help us in correctly interpreting the meaning of the spiritual sun, Gen. 1:16 informs us that God made "the greater light (the sun) to RULE the day, and the lesser light (the moon) to RULE the night." Here we first have the idea of both the sun and the moon being RULERS. Then we find that God, the supreme Ruler, is called in the Word a "Sun." "For the Lord God is a SUN and a shield" (Ps. 84:11). "Thy SUN shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine EVERLASTING LIGHT" (Isa. 60:20).

The comfort and hope of the Morning Star and the dazzling brilliance of the Day Star both originate in the hearts of God's elect. But the scriptures are clear that their influence is destined to extend to the world and beyond to the farthest reaches of creation. "I am the light of THE WORLD," said Jesus, and again, "YE are the light of THE WORLD" (Jn. 8:12; Mat. 5:4). John on Patmos, beholding with astonishment the glistering glory of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, exclaimed with the voice of jubilation, "And the NATIONS of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it ... and they shall bring the glory and honour of the NATIONS into it" (Rev. 21:24,26). To which the prophet Isaiah adds his testimony, saying, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the GLORY OF THE LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but THE LORD SHALL ARISE UPON THEE, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the GENTILES (NATIONS) SHALL COME TO THY LIGHT, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" (Isa. 60:1-3).

One of the most beautiful word pictures of the Lord's coming is painted by the prophet Malachi when he likens the manifestation of Christ to the Sun - the "Sun of Righteousness." This "Sun" will rise, declares the prophet, with "healing in His wings." Here the rays of the sun are likened to great wings upon which it rises, and under the shadow of which is found health and life - "healing." It is the rising of this "Sun" that will scatter the mists and gloom of the long night of sin and weeping through which the human race has been stumbling over the broad road leading to destruction. When the sun rises the face of nature is changed. When He who "rules the day" appears in fullness of strength, the whole world answers to the mighty change; evil is judged; the oppressor is broken to pieces and the captive set free. He who "rules in righteousness" chases all before Him which is unsuited to His sway, and brings in the long sighed-for Sabbath for creation.

There has been a dawn for us and, blessed be God! there shall be a dawn for all creation. The peoples of our planet will not remain in the icy clutches of an ever-deepening darkness until all hope is gone, until there is nothing but total darkness and death. No, light will appear - more light than the world has ever seen - at the arising of the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His rays. The whole face of this old world is yet to be changed by the arising of the Sun of Righteousness within His people!

There will be no unsolved problems anywhere not taken care of by the bright shining of the glory of the Lord through His sons, for nothing short of a universal dispensation of this glorious Sun's healing rays can fulfill Jesus' own promise concerning the manner and object of His coming. Consider the problem of war. Today we find mankind devastated by the ravages of war, revolution and anarchy. But in due time, the LORD will say to the raging nations, "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen (nations), I will be exalted in the earth" (Ps. 46:10). It will be then that the nations will "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks," and NATIONS shall learn war no more (Mic. 4:1-4). We hear much these days about poverty. Poverty is indeed one of the major problems in the world. But through the wise rule and gracious administration of the sons of God, a "feast of fat things" will be made "unto all people," and every man will dwell under his vine and fig tree, and there will be none to molest nor make afraid (Isa. 25:6; Mic. 4:4). We read further concerning this problem that God's Christ "shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor... for He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and he that hath no helper (the forgotten man)" (Ps. 72:4,12).

The problems of religion will also be solved. Today earth's millions worship a multiplicity of gods, and even those who attempt to worship the true God are hopelessly divided into factional groups from which there comes a jargon of conflicting claims, dogmas, and doctrines, some even claiming that God is dead. But all this will be changed, for the proclamation of the Lord is that Mystery Babylon shall with violence be thrown down and burned with fire, for strong is the Lord that judgeth her. And the promise of the Lord is sure: "For then will I turn to the people a pure language (understanding of God), that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent" (Zeph. 3:9).

Then there is the major problem of sickness and death. Unless this problem can be solved, mankind will still need endlessly to travel through the valley of the shadow of death. In such an event there could be no lasting happiness anywhere, for every happy home would be intermittently blighted by that dread enemy which counts its victims by the billions. But the Spirit of God has testified, "The creation itself ALSO shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21). The power of that blessed One who broke up funerals in Judea more than nineteen centuries ago simply by raising the dead to life again will be demonstrated, not on behalf of a limited few, but for the restoration of all the families of the earth. Hallelujah - what a Saviour!

The enlightening rays of the Sun of Righteousness will fill the earth, not only your earth and my earth, but that earth out there - until all the shadows and darkness and night have been chased away. This means that all doctrines of devils, all superstitions, all human creeds and dogmas, all human precepts by which men are taught to fear God rather than to love Him; all political intrigues, all humanistic education and institutions, as well as the thousand and one other evils which plague a dying world, are to be swept away, replaced by the glorious KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD AND HIS TRANSFORMING GRACE. With the glory of God filling the earth, there will come also the destruction of all the myriad citadels of sin and vice and crime. As that glorious Sun of Righteousness forces its healing rays into the various dens of iniquity, the hells of this world, the satanic darkness of these rendezvous of evil will give place to the glorious enlightenment of the NEW DAY.

There will not be a nook or corner in the earth where the light from that glorious Sun will not penetrate. The warmth of its healing rays will pervade the slums of our great cities and radiate into the institutions of suffering which we call hospitals. The prospect for the suffering peoples of earth is truly a marvelous one. It has been well said that the hopes of the world are as bright as the promises of God, and these are very bright indeed. And not only bright, but sure. How glad we are to know that the limited scope of God's Kingdom in the earth today is not the end of the matter! And how blessed we are with the knowledge that the Christ does not arise to destroy the earth, but to bless the people with peace, health, provision and life, and that through the powerful agencies of His Kingdom He will fulfill all the grand promises of sages and prophets, that all the families of the earth shall truly be blessed.

The Sun of Righteousness shall arise and arise and arise until there is no more night anywhere in God's vast universe. No man anywhere will be able to escape the glory of God. The apostle John said that GRACE AND TRUTH came by Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:17). Grace literally means, THE INFLUENCE OF GOD upon the heart and its reflection in the life; and the apostle Paul declared that "where SIN ABOUNDED, grace did MUCH MORE ABOUND" (Rom. 5:20). In the light of that plain scripture let the preachers attempt to tell us that God does not plan to enlighten and deliver the WHOLE WORLD! We praise God that there is a RISING OF LIGHT and we are already in the dawn of it, yea, WE ARE THE DAWN OF IT, for WE are the firstfruits of God's creatures, and it will shine over ALL THE WORLD even unto the West, that part from which darkness comes, and there will be no more darkness.

Approaching the Dawn

We have experienced Christ as the Morning Star, the Christ within shining forth in the dense darkness of our carnal state of being. Before us looms the arising of the Sun of Righteousness, the Day Star, swallowing up all into THE DAY of God's fullness. When there is a shipwreck at midnight, with what longing the mariners look for the morning! How often the sigh goes up, When will the day break? Even so must the Christian wait upon God, and rest patiently until HIS LIGHT shines upon him. "My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning" (Ps. 130:6). O my soul, begin each day with the prayer, "Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant ... Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us ... cause Thy face to shine..." (Ps. 31:16; 4:6; 80:3,7,19).

God lights our candle, gives to us the Morning Star, that HIS LIGHT MAY BECOME OUR LIGHT. It is not possible to explain these truths to human satisfaction. The things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man MUST BE REVEALED to us by the Spirit. You see, God is light and when that God-light works its way out into our outer-man we begin to shine as the firmament. The Day Star is the OUTRAYING of the Father, the FORTHSHINING of the Son; it is being "filled with all the fullness of God," it is "Christ formed in you" and it is "the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

It is from such a realm of glory and eminence and blessing that Adam fell! Since the transgression in Eden long ago, men's spirits have been fallen. They have no power but to receive light and reflections from without, but in the beginning the spirit of man was designed, not only to RECEIVE light, but to BE light and to GIVE light. This is now a wonderful reality in Christ, for "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now ARE YE LIGHT in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Eph. 5:8). Ah, WE ARE NOW LIGHT IN THE LORD, but the measure of light we now are is small indeed, in comparison with the light that shall be revealed at the manifestation of the sons of God. For the sight of this glorious unveiling the whole creation stands on tip-toe, and it shall come to pass that all that is looked upon by these glorious sons of God will be FLOODED WITH THE LIGHT OF LIFE, for the creation shall then be delivered from the bondage of corruption.

The question is asked concerning God's elect, "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun?" (S. of S. 6:10). "Looketh forth" would better be translated "breaketh forth." "Who is she that BREAKETH FORTH AS THE DAWN?" The imagery here bespeaks the Day Star arising within the body of Christ until the morning so breaks forth through them that they themselves BECOME THE DAWN. It is my conviction that even as I pen these words there is a blessed company of saints scattered across the earth in whom the knowledge of the glory of the Lord is breaking forth as the dawn. "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: HIS GOING FORTH IS PREPARED AS THE MORNING (DAWN)" (Hos. 6:3). Even the initial glow of His breaking over the horizon is breathtaking and stunning. There is something grand and glorious, sweet and refreshing and inspiring in the morning hour. "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward" (Isa. 58:8).

We have passed through a time of great darkness. It has been a long night of travail - yearning, waiting, longing. Darkness has blinded the minds of men, a deep sleep has been upon the Adamic race, the death of the carnal mind has kept earth's inhabitants in the regions of the shadow of death. But let it be shouted from the housetops - THE LIGHT IS COMING! It is time to cast off all works of darkness, now to be clothed with the armor of light. CHILDREN OF LIGHT, STARS AND SUNS, WE ARE TO BECOME. Birthed into the new age, to bring forth the glory and triumph of His Kingdom. Thank God, the first rays of light of the new day are painting the eastern sky! Thank God, a few of His chosen ones have arisen to behold the glories of the dawn and to drink in the intoxicating freshness of the morn!

Oh, I am so glad the night is passing. It has been such a long night, and the people have been so weary, and they can find no rest, no rest, no rest; for human breasts and human hearts can find no rest until they find it in God. I am glad the night is far spent; the Day is at hand; that the glory-dawn is piercing through the sky. It is morning, NOT MIDNIGHT as the preachers so loudly proclaim. Hark! Brethren, hark! Do you hear the chariot wheels rolling along the sky? Can you not hear? Can you not see that the heavenly hosts are gathering from all the heavens? Do you not understand that the army of the Lord beyond the veil, and His army on earth, is mustering to the battle? Do you not hear? Have you seen - have you seen a cloud, like unto a man's hand? Already the clouds are passing across the sky, and I hear the sound of abundance of rain, and beyond it I see glories that beggar description. To some of us the Sun of Righteousness has already arisen. Our eyes have seen His coming. Our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is coming with power and great glory, in clouds of power, in clouds of power, IN CLOUDS OF POWER! I see the coming power. I realize something of the touches of that coming power, and the great glory.

"Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?" (Job 38:12-13). Ray Prinzing has so aptly commented on this passage: "Job was in a profound communion with the Lord, and was being challenged with facts and mighty works which were far beyond him. 'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.' Among the questions proposed to Job came this one: 'Hast thou caused the dayspring (or literally, the dawn) to know his place?' God was doing more than causing Job to recognize His omnipotence and His greatness, but underneath these questions God was also imparting revelation to Job - THAT THERE IS A DAY, THERE IS A DAWN, AND THIS DAY SHALL KNOW HIS PLACE, it shall know its proper timing, it shall know its position, and it shall perform its task and purpose. There is a DAY that shall dawn, and when it does, it will SHAKE THE WICKED, or all wickedness, out of the earth, and righteousness shall be established. IT IS THE DAY OF HIS KINGDOM. Such a day is more than a time element, for this day IS A PEOPLE. And when they have been fully prepared, then shall their going forth, like unto the Son of God, be prepared as the morning, and they shall shine with HIS LIGHT AND GLORY, 'a light to lighten the nations.' "

Praise God, the morning IS PREPARED, the dawn IS BREAKING - a people who embody and personify the hopes of creation, a people who are experiencing deep within the transformations so necessary to bring deliverance to the earth, to change the world. The sun comes up at an early hour of the morning and if you are up at that time you will see it rise, but if you sleep until noon, a great number of important events can transpire before you arise. So the morning can be over before you know what is going on! There are those that are asleep in Zion today. They have been lulled to sleep - and if the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch. They have no understanding of the purposes of God, no comprehension of what is taking place, therefore, they are leading God's people astray and THIS DAY will come upon them unaware and take them.

The reason there is darkness today is because of the false doctrines and dark traditions of the church systems. No wonder God's people are full of unbelief, filled with doubts, and overwhelmed with fears. No wonder they magnify the works of the devil and declare him more than they declare God. They know not the DAY in which we are living, because of the darkness of their minds. They receive death and they feed on darkness all about them. But God has raised you up, my brother, my sister, as a light this very day, that you might dispel the darkness and remove these heavens that men have been dwelling under and establish something completely new in the earth, a new heavens in which the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His rays. Bring forth in your life a new likeness, the image of God, that you may declare HIM that is supreme throughout all the earth and that He may reign in every heart. Behold the dawn!

But the popular churches are still lost in dreams. They have not yet awakened. They know not of the dawn. But we who are of the day, and who are not lovers of the drunkenness of false doctrine nor sleepers of the night, have a higher heritage. "We are not of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others" (I Thes. 5:5-6). We who have received the love of the truth are heirs to a higher calling. We have privileges, and we have duties to perform. We must be about our Father's business. There must be a parting of the ways. It is time to forsake the shame and error of the harlot system, and time to look up, time to arise and shine. The day is at hand. The night is spent. We must go forth and lead the way for all who will follow. "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean" (Isa. 52:1).

Hallelujah for the Sun of Righteousness!

Chapter 18

The Lord was presented to us, in a previous article, as the Morning Star. He is now before us as the Sun of Righteousness - the day-spring from on High. How beautifully apt both these figures are, we have already seen, and this will become more evident as we proceed. We have seen the relation between these two characters in which the Lord comes. He comes as the Morning Star. He comes as the Sun of Righteousness. The Morning Star is the candle of the Lord that shines in the dark place of the heart, searching all the inward parts of the desires, affections and nature. The Sun of Righteousness is the arising of the glory of the Lord shining in His full strength and majesty, dispelling the darkness, bringing in the day of victory, life and glory. In scripture the sun is called the Day Star - it is the star of the day. It is the one star in God's vast universe which gives us the light of day.

Thus, in the prophetic scriptures the Lord is symbolized by the sun. The natural sun is the brightest luminary in the natural heavens. And to help us in correctly interpreting the meaning of the spiritual sun, I Jn. 1:5 informs us that "GOD IS LIGHT, and in Him is no darkness at all." The light which God is is the sun of God's spiritual solar system. "For the Lord God is a SUN and a shield" (Ps. 84:11). In the Old Testament as well as in the New, we find that light is given as a symbol or picture of God. Indeed, its very definite language says that light is God and God is light. The 27th Psalm begins with this word, "The Lord is my light." This phrase is found frequently in the Psalms, as for instance in Ps. 36:9, "For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light." Also Ps. 43:3, "O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles." Ps. 56:13, "For Thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not Thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?" Again in Ps. 89:15, "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance." There are sixteen other references in the Old Testament, besides these, which refer to light as emanating from God. These evidence the fact that in some intangible way the physical creature that is such a mystery to us is associated with the Person of God. We read in Dan. 2:22 that light dwells with God. That is to say, light is part of the very "being" of God. It is part of His own Person, makeup and nature. It is embodied in Him. Light has its origin in, and emanates and radiates from God. From the brightest star in the universe to the tail of the tiniest firefly - all light comes from God.

When God created, He began with light. Yes, when God said, "Let there be light," out of dark nothingness came billions of galaxies with billions upon billions of blazing stars. What is light? This question has been a puzzle for millenniums. People once thought light was something that traveled from a person's eyes to an object and then back again. If anything blocked the rays from the eyes, the object could not be seen. Since the 1600's, scientists have made many discoveries about light. They have learned that light is a form of ENERGY that can travel freely through space. The energy of light is called RADIANT ENERGY. There are many kinds of radiant energy, including infrared rays, radio waves, ultraviolet rays, and X rays. And yet, light is something more than just waves. As you know, certain kinds of light will pass through objects that would stop waves. We can see only a tiny part of the different kinds of radiant energy. This part is called VISIBLE LIGHT or simply LIGHT.

While we recognize light as a physical creature it nevertheless has what may be called a spiritual nature. One of the many marvelous phenomena of light is the fact that it can be passed through a physical substance as hard as rock with its speed unimpaired, and its nature unchanged. Even though it passes at many thousand times the speed of a bullet through a physical object, light leaves no hole to mark its passage, and the object through which it thus passed is undamaged! Glass, you know, is artificial rock.  The same elements that make stone are used by man in his manufacture of glass. Indeed, the glassware of the laboratory is generally called flint glass, and had the American Indians possessed this type of glass they would have chipped it into arrow heads and weapons superior to those of native flint. Man, by his art and device, takes the elements of stone and transforms them into an artificial sheet of rock which he calls glass. Light, flashing through space, passes unimpeded through this physical substance leaving no hole to mark its passage, being unimpaired in the process. When one physical substance can pass through another physical substance leaving both unimpaired and unchanged, it is certainly related to the spiritual!

Christ the Light

"And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep ... and God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:2-3). Now what was that light which God spoke into the darkness in that long ago beginning? Was it the sun, or the moon or the stars, as some Bible teachers try to tell us? It couldn't have been, for the sun, moon and stars had not yet been made. They were not made until the fourth day. So this had to be some other light. Now if the Son was the beginning of the creation of God (Rev. 3:14), as He claimed to be, then He must have been connected with this first light somehow. And if He is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, then it is clearly evident the He Himself was the light God brought forth at that time. Let us look at the last light, in the next to the last chapter of the Bible, "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, AND THE LAMB IS THE LIGHT THEREOF" (Rev. 21:23). So in the end there is no need for the sun nor the moon, for the glory of God and the Lamb is the light. If HE is the light in the end, He must have also been the light in the beginning - for HE IS THE BEGINNING AND THE END!

Now let us consider some significant statements that Jesus made about Himself. He said, "I am the light of the world (Greek: kosmos); he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (Jn. 8:12). If we limit the world, or the kosmos, to mankind, then we will fail to see the glorious place the Son has in God's great plan. The whole kosmos we are told was in darkness, the heavens as well as the earth, and the first and greatest need was light, and God brought that light into the dark universe, AND THAT LIGHT WAS HIS SON. Jesus also declared, "I am come a light into the kosmos, that whosoever believeth on Me should not walk in darkness" (Jn. 12:46). So what He said was, I am the light that came into the kosmos, to bring light into the darkened creation. He, indeed, was the light; but there was something greater far in Him coming into the darkened universe than to be just a light. There was an infinitely higher purpose than that! John, in the first chapter of his Gospel, gives additional revelation on this great truth, when he speaks of the Word being with the Father in the beginning, and how all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Then he goes on to make this significant statement, "In Him was life, and THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN" (Jn. 1:4). From this verse we see that LIGHT and LIFE are essentially the same thing. "The life was the light." So when He came a light into the kosmos, He was also the life that came into the creation, to give life unto all creatures. John goes on to say, "That was THE TRUE LIGHT, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (Jn. 1:9). All other lights are artificial, imitation. Only the Son was the TRUE LIGHT, and He came a light into the kosmos, not to be just a light to sinful men, but to be a light to the darkened universe, the heavens as well as the earth, the spiritual as well as the physical dimensions. When John made these enlightening statements he spoke of the time of the beginning of the creation, when the Word was with God bringing forth the creation, and not the time of His birth in Bethlehem. In that dim and distant beginning He was the light, and He has been the light ever since, and will be in the ages to come. The Bible tells us of a glorious day where there is no need of the sun nor the moon to give light. "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof" (Rev. 21:23). "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light" (Isa. 60:19). Christ was the true light in the beginning when the divine fiat was proclaimed: "Let there be light!" But when God subjected the earth to this period we call time, it began with the creation of the sun and the moon. And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years" (Gen. 1:14). These were "lights" indeed, but they were not THE TRUE LIGHT, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world!

The glorious Son of God is the One in whom the unapproachable and utterly incomprehensible glory of God is made manifest. As we only know the sun by the light that shines from it, so is Christ THE OUTSHINING, the revelation of God's glory. As the light that shines from the sun is of one nature with it, so the Son is of one nature with the Father and is Himself called "the everlasting Father." As the light that shines from the sun is one substance with it, so the Son is THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS SUBSTANCE (Heb. 1:3) and is Himself called "the Mighty God." It is all important that we know the glory of Jesus. The more the soul is filled with that glory, and worships Him in it, the more it will see with what confidence it can count upon Him to do a divine and supernatural work within us, and lead us to an actual living out of the glory of the Son in our lives. Let us turn away from earth, that in the knowing of Him our own lives may be transformed, until He, who is the outshining of the divine glory, SHINES INTO OUR VERY HEART, and He, to whom the Father has given such a place as Creator and Upholder and Heir of all, takes that place within us too, and be to us the beginning and the center and the end of all; until He who IS THE IMAGE OF GOD so possesses our beings that WE BECOME THE OUTSHINING OF GOD'S GLORY and THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS PERSON.

The Light of Life

"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men" (Jn. 1:4). Now we are confronted with something else - two of the simplest things in the world: light and life. ZOE and PHOS are the two words in the original language. From ZOE we get zoology, the study of life; and from PHOS we get photo or anything that is built on it, such as photograph - it is light. These two things are so common, we take them for granted. Life - we see it everywhere. There may be a great deal of life right where you are at this moment. You go out in the woods and you see the same thing - life. It greets you on every hand; but can you explain it? You see in the Tabloids headlines from time to time announcing that men have now discovered the source of life. But if you read them, you find that they have not found the source at all, though they think they are close to it. They put the microscope down on a green leaf. One moment that little cell is arranged one way and is dead as a doornail. The next moment the thing is rearranged in another way and it is alive. And then the thing starts growing and doubling, dividing and multiplying itself. Why does it do that? Life!

I often wondered how it could be that God was omnipresent; that He could be everywhere at once, as the Psalmist said, "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me" (Ps. 139:7-10). God can be everywhere, and fill the universe with Himself because the glory of God is the RADIATION of His Light-being into the whole kosmos. God is likened to a SUN, so that bright orb that shines out there in space is a type of God. Let us consider this for a moment.

It is interesting to note that God did not do away with the darkness altogether, rather He separated the light from the darkness, calling the light "day" and the darkness "night" (Gen. 1:4-5). Darkness, in a measure remained, and still does. Isaiah tells us that in the end days darkness shall cover the earth, and great darkness the people. He is speaking here of spiritual darkness, of those people and realms that have not been exposed to the TRUE LIGHT. Though this condition has existed since the beginning, thank God! it shall not continue forever, for He who is the true light shall chase away altogether the darkness, and nothing but the true light will fill God's vast universe. In I Jn. 2:8 we read this assuring statement, "Yet I am writing you a new commandment, which is true in Him and in you, because THE DARKNESS IS PASSING AWAY and the true light is now shining" (R.S.V.). Thank God, the darkness is passing away like the night before the penetrating rays of the dawn. He who separated the light from the darkness in that beginning, because the darkness comprehended not the light, shall obliterate completely the darkness from the new creation. "Behold, I make all things new." There will be no darkness in it at all, for God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. And when the final chapter is written, when the curtain comes down on the closing act of the grand drama of creation and redemption, God will be ALL IN ALL.

Light is life, darkness is death. Whenever we read of light it always speaks to us of life; when we read of darkness it bespeaks of death. Light is that which dispels the darkness. When one brings a light into a dark place the darkness flees, because, you see, darkness is a negative thing, it is really nonexistent; it is just the absence of light. Provide the light and the darkness is gone. I have often wondered why the light in the beginning didn't do away with the darkness; the darkness remained. Why didn't the darkness disappear, when the light came on the scene. If you turn on a light in a dark room the darkness is gone. Where did it go? It didn't go out the door nor through the window. It didn't go anywhere because it is a negative, a no-thing. So why didn't the Light in the beginning dispel the darkness? The answer, of course, lies in the counsels of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. God in His infinite wisdom planned to separate the light from the darkness, causing light and darkness, day and night to co-exist side by side, that through the progression of the ages He might reveal to the entire creation the awesome ability of the light to conquer the darkness. This is a great lesson, and once every being in all realms has learned it well, none will ever seek the darkness again.

This is a great mystery, but the present creation was created on a level of death, and death was from the very beginning, and still is, the state of being of the physical world. As long as darkness exists death will hold its power. Even before man graced this blue-green orb, death was in the universe; and this is why we see darkness as the first condition of creation in Gen. 1:2. And God didn't do away with all the darkness, He ordained the night to remain. This meant that death remained in the creation. So everything of this gross material realm, when it was brought-forth from the hands of the Creator, had the potential of death in it. Death was a built in factor in all things. But included in God's great and eternal purpose is the abolition of darkness and death; and the Almighty, in working out His plan, is doing just that. When He has finished His marvelous purpose there will be no darkness nor death anywhere in the unbounded heavens. "The last enemy that shall be DESTROYED is death" (I Cor. 15:26). But destroyed it will be; and the Son, who is the Light and the Life, is the One ordained to perform this great task.

When God separated the light from the darkness in the beginning, He called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. We are also told that He made two great lights, one to rule the day and the other to rule the night. Man with his limited carnal understanding has restricted this to our solar day and lunar night, and to the sun and the moon. But our almighty Father had something infinitely higher in mind than this! These are mere types and shadows of reality. There is a greater spiritual meaning to all this. There is a REALM OF LIGHT and a REALM OF DARKNESS in creation which has nothing to do with our solar day and lunar night. They are realms in the spirit, and we can be inhabitants of either. The realm of light is ruled over by the Son of God, the Sun of Righteousness, who is THE LIGHT; and the realm of darkness is ruled over by Satan, the Prince of darkness. Paul, in writing to the saints at Thessalonica, stated, "Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (I Thes. 5:5). There are many other passages where we read of the children of light, the children of the day; and the children of the night or of darkness. So we can be either children of the Day, or children of the Night. We can either walk in light, or walk in darkness; it all depends on who we are following. Jesus spoke this beautiful truth: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have THE LIGHT OF LIFE" (Jn. 8:12). As we follow the Lord we will have the Light of Life, for He is the LIGHT and the LIFE.

As we consider this world in which we live, we see that all of the physical light we have here springs from the sun in our sky. Take away that orb and darkness would soon cover the earth. All vegetation would droop and die as it turned yellow, then brown and black and crumbled into the earth. Soon after that all animal and human life would have the same fate. The verdant creatures which grace the surface of the earth have been created to live in light. No one who has ever seen the sickly color of some plant that has struggled for life in semi-darkness can fail to miss the contrast between the green thing which grew in the sunshine, and the pale travesty which grew in the shade. In total darkness every man would become blind within three days, and death would follow shortly after.

The life that we know comes from the sun. In the same way, Jesus Christ is the Sun of Righteousness. The reason for the decay and death that we have all around us is due to a lack of righteousness. Sin! Sin is the lack of rightness, or righteousness. When man sinned, death entered his world. It is what the apostle Paul referred to as "the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). Because of this inexorable law of sin and death mankind, upon Adam's disobedience, fell into the corruption of the world around them. The scientific term for that is ENTROPY. It is known as the second law of thermodynamics, and it states very simply that all things in the universe are moving toward greater randomness, toward decay and dissolution. Thus, according to the scripture, the entire "creation was made subject to vanity - frailty and futility" (Rom. 8:20). The earth itself began to "wax old, as doth a garment" and ultimately "shall perish" (Heb. 1:10-12). Since all flesh is made of the earth's physical elements, it also is subject to the law of decay and death and as "grass, withereth ... and falleth away" (I Pet. 1:24). It is universal experience that ALL THINGS, living or nonliving, eventually wear out, run down, grow old, disintegrate, and pass into the dust.

This condition is so universal that it was formalized about a hundred years ago into a fundamental scientific law, now called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law states that all systems, if left to themselves, tend to become degraded or disordered. Physical systems, whether watches or suns, eventually wear out. Organisms grow old and die. Hereditary changes in species are caused by gene mutations which in many cases have resulted in deterioration or extinction of the species itself. The astounding fact is that there is no reason known to science why things should grow old other than the second law of thermodynamics which simply describes a universal fact that takes place everywhere, from the smallest atom to the greatest sun. Entropy controls all things, and entropy is nothing other than THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH which bespeaks a lack of righteousness which is God's way of saying that in a universe made by God, the all-holy One, unrighteousness cannot be allowed to have permanent existence. Thank God! there is a counterlaw, a transcendental law, THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS. Christ Jesus, the Righteous One, came into this world and was declared to be the Son of God according to THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS" (Rom. 1:4) and was raised from the dead BY THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS. Can we not see by this how HOLINESS is linked to LIFE and UNRIGHTEOUSNESS is connected to DEATH? The law of entropy CAN be broken! The second law of thermodynamics CAN be transcended! The law of sin and death CAN be superseded! "How?" you ask. "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, YE SHALL LIVE. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:13,2). Therefore, it is the Christ who rises, the Sun of Righteousness. He brings light and, with light and illumination, He brings life; the spirits that were drooping and lives that were dying and bodies that were corrupting because of unrighteousness and sin begin to lift up and revive and LIVE AGAIN.

Though the sun is over ninety-three million miles out there in space, it radiates light, heat, energy and life to everything on the earth. The nature of the sun is that of light, heat and energy, and it radiates itself into all our solar system. Even though it is so distant from us, if it weren't for our atmosphere, the light and heat would burn everything to a crisp in a matter of minutes. How much farther its radiation would go, I have no idea, but it could travel an inestimable distance into space. The sun supplies us with light, heat, energy and life that is needed to support life on this planet. Without it no life could exist on this earth. The sun is the source of all this. God is a SUN, and what the sun is to the earth, God is to the creation. He is the life, the light, the energy that pervades and radiates through the universe, on all levels and in every realm, supporting and sustaining all things. Just as our sun radiates itself into our solar system, and supports and sustains natural life on this planet; so God radiates Himself into the entire universe to support and uphold and give life to everything He has created.

In that age of antiquity when the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, the time came for our heavenly Father to bring forth His image in creation. "Let there be light," was the Word of the Lord, and there WAS LIGHT - not the light of the sun, for the sun was not given His command until the fourth day, but the light that shone was that TRUE LIGHT, even the light of God's Christ (Gen. 1:4). If I may add this thought, we must conclude that ALL LIGHT is God's light, even the light that shines from the sun, the moon or the stars. We call it natural light, but can we be wrong in concluding that even natural things are also from the hand of God - spirit lowered in vibration to the material plane?

The pen of a ready writer has written these words of wisdom and understanding: "Our little minds can but dimly grasp the wonderful transformation that took place when the Spirit of God began to move on the face of the deep. The water, of course, was ice because there was neither light nor heat. That was the true ice age, of which men of science often speak. But now the Spirit of God was moving upon the deep, dividing darkness from light, dispelling the bitter cold, melting the endless snows and the timeless ice, to make the dry land appear that both vegetable and animal life could spring forth at God's command to live and thrive. Thus it is written, 'Thou sendeth forth THY SPIRIT; THEY ARE CREATED: and Thou RENEWEST the face of the earth' (Ps. 104:30). What a marvelous transformation was taking place in that natural creation as OLD THINGS began to pass away and all things became new! Gone was the darkness, the death, the snow, the ice, and the dreadful cold, and in its stead bustling life and bubbling song filled the whole earth. The earth, that was without form and void, and the gross and terrible darkness that covered it like a shroud is the Lord's symbolic picture of the condition of unregenerate man. The description given in Gen. 1:2 - the earth was WITHOUT FORM and VOID and darkness was upon the face of the deep - is an apt and accurate description of the spiritual condition of a man outside of Christ, unconverted, unregenerate, and not born again. The word VOID conveys the meaning of emptiness, destitution, unoccupied, of no effect. What more accurate picture could be given of an unregenerate man as he lives without God or hope in the world? The earth was "without form" before the Spirit of God moved upon it, and darkness - gross, outer darkness - was upon the face of the deep. O man of the world, is not this a picture of your life without God? What form or shape can be given to such an emptiness as a life lived without the Lord? Darkness hangs like a pall over the soul that is dead in trespasses and sins, and, should one gain the whole world and lose his soul, it would profit him nothing at all. Moffatt in his translation of Prov. 4:18-19 has so significantly stated, 'The course of bad men lies through darkness dim. They cannot see what makes them stumble; the course of good men, like a ray of dawn, shines on and on to the full light of day"' -The Page.

We are told that when a man gets away from this earth a short distance, he is in total, absolute darkness, and it is frightening to be out where there is nothing from which the sun can be reflected. Our little globe is out in a dark universe, yet that is nothing compared to the spiritual darkness that envelopes it. When the sun disappears, there is physical darkness over the land; but twenty-four hours a day there is spiritual darkness here, awful spiritual darkness. Man does not know God; man is in rebellion against God; man is in sin that blinds him to God. In the Lord Jesus Christ there is life, and the life that He gives is the LIGHT of men. In fact, His life is the only thing that can kindle light in the heart of an individual. An unregenerate man has no spiritual life within him. This is the reason that when you present to him Jesus Christ, he says, "I don't get it. I don't understand that at all."

The light shines in the darkness of this world at this moment. I have a notion that somebody reading these pages is saying, "Why is that preacher talking about being in Spiritual darkness? I understand everything." No, unless you know Jesus Christ as your life and light, you do not understand, and even then you understand only in that measure and to the degree that you truly KNOW HIM. The Spirit of God has to open your heart and mind and enlighten you before you can ever see Him as the light of life. May I say to you, friend, this world is in spiritual darkness. John stated it this way. "The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not" (Jn. 1:5). Understand this, O man, and you will know a great mystery. The word "comprehend" is an unfortunate translation. And a wiseacre did not help it by rendering it, "and the darkness was not able to put it out." That is no translation at all. The word in the Greek is KATELABEN, meaning actually "to take down." It is the picture of a secretary to whom the boss is giving dictation, and she stops and says, "I can't take that down, I am not able to take it down." The light shines in darkness and the darkness is not able to take it in. Barriers have been erected. That is it exactly. Someone said to me, "Boy, was I in darkness before I received Christ! And I don't know why I didn't see." well, that is it - you were in darkness and you did not see. Barriers of sin, ignorance, and unbelief were set up; the darkness just could not take it in.

Nor, may I add, can the religious darkness of carnal-minded Christians "take down" the glorious light of revelation truth that shines so brilliantly into the minds and hearts of those who follow on to KNOW the Lord. The natural man CANNOT understand the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are SPIRITUALLY discerned. In all matters of revelation and spiritual understanding it is impossible to overestimate the absolute necessity of the sovereign and omnipotent moving of the Holy Spirit upon the darkness of our deep, who comes to take the things of God and show them unto us. Two worlds exist all about us - the natural world and the spiritual world. The natural realm is the realm of man, but the spiritual realm is the realm of God. When God's appointed hour comes for a man to be quickened, illumined and given understanding, He sends the Holy Spirit to dispel the darkness of the natural mind that ever hangs as a cloud about us that He may reveal to our wondering eyes the things that are real and true and eternal. It is "when He the Spirit of truth has come" that men are guided into all truth.

Again I share from the words of another, "It is He, the Holy Spirit, who, after revealing TRUTH to our darkened hearts, miraculously transforms the believer into the very truth he sees. The Spirit of God reveals to the believer's heart what the truth of God is and what the mind and will of God is and having done so, He makes him PARTAKER of the truth so that he, by beholding the truth, actually BECOMES the truth he beheld. He reveals salvation to us and we become THE SAVED. He reveals His plan of redemption and we become THE REDEEMED. He reveals His eternal purpose of sonship and we become the SONS OF GOD. These things concern His heavenly calling. As a flower opens to the light of the sun, so eternal purposes unfold in the light of the Holy Spirit and we, seeing and believing them, embrace them and become partakers of them" -end quote.

Light Bodies

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:3). And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also" (Gen. 1:14,16).

I would draw your reverent attention to the words here used for light. The Hebrew text of Gen. 1:3 says, "Ye hi or: wa ye hi or." The nearest to a literal translation our language will permit is to say, "Light be, and light was;" or even better, "Exist light, then exists light." Our English word, light, appears again in the English translation of the Bible in the plural form in the fourteenth verse, God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night." There is, however, a vast difference between the word for light, the substance, in verse three, and the one translated lights in verse fourteen. In verse three the Hebrew word is OR, while in verse fourteen the word is MA-OR. This latter word is best translated as luminary; light container; or light holder; and these light holders are placed about throughout His universe like street lights in a big city. We have the same distinction in the Greek where PHOS appears as light, the essence, and PHOSTER as the word for a light container. The MA-OR, then, are the great luminaries such as the flaming suns, and even their reflecting satellites called moons, the meteors, and the nebulae; but OR itself is the very substance and being of light.

In the Old Testament symbology the Hebrew word used for light, as standing for the Person of Christ our Lord, is OR, and in the New Testament the Greek word for light, as applied to the Person of Christ, is PHOS. The significance of this is noted when we see that the characteristic word for the body of Christ in the New Testament is PHOSTER, or light holder. Jesus Christ then is the Light and we are the luminaries which contain or shine forth the Light. The most significant appearance of this word in connection with the children of God is Phil. 2:15, "That ye may be blameless and harmless, THE SONS OF GOD, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, AMONG WHOM YE SHINE AS LIGHTS (phoster: light holders; luminaries) IN THE WORLD." This word is comparable to the luminaries of the Old Testament, the MA-OR or the light containers. In Rev. 21:10-11 we find, "And he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, having the glory of God: and her light (phoster) was ... clear as crystal."

As we consider this truth we should especially notice in reference to men, that II Sam. 23:3-4 reads, "He that ruleth over men... shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun ariseth." And in II Sam. 21:17 we find David the king called, "the light of Israel." This same meaning is found in II Kings 8:19, "Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David His servant's sake, as He promised him to give him always a light, and to his children." In Mat. 13:43 we find concerning saints who are to be kings and priests and rule with Christ, "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

LIGHT-BEARERS! Friends, Christ is the light, the light is within, it must break through, it must ARISE, it must have pre-eminence in our hearts. The glory of God is the emanation or radiation of His nature, and this glory surrounds Him. As we become partakers of the divine nature, we will also radiate the glory of His nature. This is the real purpose of our calling. The Christ within, not another man's revelation, nor another man's faith, but your own INDWELLING LIGHT enables you to manifest as one of God's light bearers. Other people can follow the wandering stars and the falling stars, vainly chasing after the illusive light within them, but, praise God, there is a people in whom the God of light is being birthed and formed, partakers of His divine nature, conformed to His image, a new life found within - a new star in God's spiritual universe BECOMING. Each and every son of God must ultimately come to that place where all his need is fully met by the INNER SUFFICIENCY of the indwelling spirit of life, not from that which stands without.

We cannot deny, while for the child of God the light is growing brighter and brighter day by day, yet for the world in general it is becoming darker with every passing hour. But God is not going to leave the world swallowed in darkness, He is preparing HIS MESSENGERS OF LIGHT, HIS CELESTIAL LUMINARIES will be established in His heaven, and they announce by their shining a new age to come, when light shall be upon every man. The SIGN COMPANY (Gen. 1:14) which heralds the new creation of God shall be made manifest. Yet what an humbling, purging, purifying process must be accomplished in this company ere God will exalt them in "due" time! Ah, He must thoroughly teach us complete submission to HIS WILL so that we know it is by DIVINE GRACE ALONE, and never anything in ourselves that will give us this position. If you try to shine in God's heaven without first having been filled with Him who IS THE LIGHT OF LIFE, you will fail. Those religious ones, those great ones, those "big names" who streak across the sky in a vain effort to arouse the attention of the world, end in darkness and defeat. They are but meteorites, burning out as they fall through the atmosphere of earth. But in His time GOD PLACES in proper position HIS LUMINARIES that shall shine with the glory of God for the ages.

LIGHT-BEARERS! These are known collectively as ZION, for "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined" (Ps. 50:2). God hath shined - literally, caused to shine. It means much more than just the fact that out of Zion GOD IS SHINING. He is Light, He is always shining. But more specifically, He will cause the light to shine out through His Zion company. Divine radiance will find its expression through this people. Those who shall stand with the Lamb on the mount of Light (Rev. 14:1) shall be vessels, light-holders, luminaries, light-bearers, through whom God shines.

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee" (Isa. 60:1-2). There is a people UPON WHOM OUR GOD IS ARISING. He isn't going to arise in the skies of the physical heavens, as the church-world ignorantly expects, but UPON HIS PEOPLE. "For the Lord shall arise upon THEE, and His glory shall be seen upon THEE." His glory will not be seen streaking across the physical heavens, BUT UPON HIS PEOPLE. Darkness does cover the earth and great darkness the people, but in spite of the abounding desolations, we live in the most glorious hour of all time for the people of God; for we have been selected by God to be priests with Christ in the grand task of bringing reconciliation, restitution, and restoration to the whole fallen world order. Nothing that man has done has so desolated the world that it is beyond hope. On the contrary, when we see sin and darkness all about us, let us be encouraged by the divine principle, "But where sin abounded, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND" (Rom. 5:20).

In the very midst of all this darkness upon the land and gross darkness upon the people, God is arising upon His chosen ones. How joyful we are that God, who is the Light, gets right down where the darkness is. He does not come from afar to dispel the night, but "God ... commanded the light to shine OUT OF DARKNESS" (II Cor. 4:6). First, God has met us right where we are, the dawning of God's day has blazoned our sky and made us a body of light to usher in a new day for all creation. The brightness of our rising brings the dawning of the new day. As we shed His glory abroad, we are lights in humanity's sky - so let no shadow of self keep your light from shining, but be one of God's scintillating stars.

I cannot do better than quote the true and eloquent words of Ray Prinzing: "In James 1: 17 we read of 'The Father of LIGHTS.' As to His Fatherhood, Light can only beget light. And since HE IS The Light, then He begets lights. Wuest's Expanded Translation brings out that He is the Father of 'heavenly luminaries.' And it is of 'His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures' (James 1:18). The firstfruits of His creatures are AS HE IS, namely, they are to be LIGHTS.

"In giving further description to our 'Father of lights,' the Amplified records, in verse seventeen, 'in Whom there can be no variation (rising or setting) or shadow cast by His turning (as in an eclipse).' It seems that far too much of our past experience portrayed us as just being little 'moons,' only reflecting some of His light to earth, to men. And there have been so very many eclipses! There are two important kinds of eclipses with which we are familiar. There is the SOLAR eclipse, when the moon comes between the sun and the earth, then the only light is that which shines out around, and in spite of the moon. Any time a ministry, or vessel so being used, comes between THE SON and the earth, then we surely have an eclipse, and the only light mankind receives at such a time is that which shines out around that ministry or vessel, literally in spite of that one. Oh, may God help us not to become guilty of eclipsing the light which needs to be shining upon men today. When our ministry, our doctrine, our traditions, which we think are reflecting the light of God to men, come in the way, and stand between God and man, then the true light is eclipsed.

"The other most familiar kind of eclipse is referred to as a LUNAR eclipse, when we have a situation wherein the earth comes between the moon and the sun. When our own earth (flesh) gets in the way, then HIS OUTSHINING again is eclipsed, and the light is veiled from view. We have received a blessing from the Lord, and we would pass it along to others, but when our flesh gets in the way, the real light of the blessing does not reach those with whom we would share. But we are not interested in just being 'moons' to serve as some kind of 'reflector' of our Lord. This makes a good illustration for the point of eclipses, but we truly desire to BECOME ONE IN THE SUN, to possess His nature of light, and to have that inherent quality of light within. Praise His name, He shall bring a people into that state of being where there is FULL LIGHT. A very important part of the process is to bring us into ONENESS until we no more walk in duality, partaking of both good and evil, for 'when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light' (Lk. 11:34)." -end quote.

We are appointed to shine as the sun. We have now come to mount Zion, to the city of the living God as a shining scene of great splendor and brightness and dazzling beauty. It is not our desire to merely see the light, or tell of it, or paint it, or live in it as fine as all that is. We must BECOME THE LIGHT. "YE ARE the light of the world." "YE ARE light in the Lord." How unworthy and unprepared for such a calling we feel betimes! But, precious friend of mine, you may be poor, despised, unlettered; but if, through grace, there is a link connecting you to the Sun of Righteousness, "the light of the world," then you are, in very deed, a son of the day, and destined, ere long, to shine in that celestial sphere, that region of glory, of which "the Lamb" will be the central sun forevermore. This is not your own doing. It is the result of the counsel and operation of God Himself, who has given you the light of life, joy and peace, triumph and glory, in Jesus Christ. But if you are a total stranger to the hallowed action and influence of divine light, if your eyes have not been opened to behold any beauty in the Son of God, and no attraction to that place by His side, then, though you had all the learning of an Einstein, though you were enriched with all the treasures of human philosophy, though you had drunk in with avidity all the streams of human science, though your name were adorned with all the learned titles which the schools and universities of this world could bestow, though you were piously devoted to the grandest creeds, traditions, rituals, ceremonies and service of the revered religious systems of earth, yet you are A SON OF THE NIGHT, A SON OF DARKNESS; and are just as dark, just as void, just as formless and empty, just as dead as was the desolate earth, from which you came, before that memorable day in which God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

His Image Impressed

This study would not be complete without suggesting that there is another word for light in the Greek text of the New Testament which appears in text only twice. This word is PHOTISMOS, and we read it in II Cor. 4:4-6, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the LIGHT (photismos) of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the LIGHT (photismos) of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This word is the basis of our modern term PHOTOGRAPH, and this is the literal implication of the text.

Photography is a way of recording a scene by the creation of an image by light. Light travels in a straight line at the speed of 186,000 miles a second. When light hits something it bounces back - or is absorbed. If it bounces back to your eye, the object looks bright. If it is absorbed, the object looks dark. When you snap the shutter of your camera, this permits the light that bounces back from a scene to pass through the lens of the camera to the film at the back of the camera. The film at the back of your camera is a sensitive silver screen. Units of light strike it and leave an invisible record, a "latent image." Each unit, sent to its proper spot by the lens, adds a little to the pattern of light - thus reproducing the scene the lens sees, impressing the picture image on the film. Light has literally taken the image of the thing being photographed and transferred that light-image onto the film. Later on, chemical development makes the "latent image" visible. According to II Cor. 4:6 the face of Jesus Christ is literally PHOTOGRAPHED UPON OUR COUNTENANCE to become our light and glory, and the face we show to the world should be the ILLUMINED COUNTENANCE made so by the light of God impressing the image of Jesus Christ upon us!

The light that creates this image upon us is THE LIGHT OF LIFE, that same incorruptible LIFE which erupted as LIGHT before the astonished eyes of those chosen disciples who climbed with Christ to the invigorating heights of the mount of Transfiguration. We are told in Mat. 17:2 that "He was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as light." In the ninth chapter of Mark, we are told that "His garments became glistering," which, in the Greek means "to lighten forth, flash forth like lightning." Within that form that was marred more than the sons of men, dwelt glory ineffable. As He prayed upon the mount of Transfiguration, He opened a little way the robe of humanity with which He had covered Himself when He came down to earth, and His majesty and glory burst forth!

The glory of the transfiguration was the momentary unveiling of the glorious heavenly light that is brighter than ten thousand suns. It was in truth the manifestation of the light of life promised by our Lord to those who follow Him (Jn. 8:12). It shone from His face. It glistered from His garments. It surrounded Him like a halo. It radiated out from Him with blazing brilliance brighter than any noonday - the light that swallows up all darkness and death of the carnal realm. This was resurrection life, kingdom life, incorruptible life. And, beloved, this beautiful picture tells us what OUR INCORRUPTIBLE BODIES WILL BE, the radiant light of life that Christ Himself actually is. When Jesus burst out of the tomb in resurrection He came forth in the full brilliance of divine light of life. In this glory Paul saw Him in his Damascus vision, a light brighter than the noonday sun (Acts 26:13-14), and in this way John beheld Him in the wonder of the Patmos vision (Rev. 1:16). And this, beloved, is the glory the saints will possess when the fullness of His light of life has been experienced in spirit, soul and body. And in those blessed SONS OF LIGHT will be fulfilled this marvelous promise, "Then shall the righteous SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the Kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Mat. 13:43). Amen!

Chapter 19

"Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings" (Mal. 4:2). "For as the lightning (bright shining; sun) cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Mat. 24:27).

In order that we may get a correct understanding of this verse and its momentous spiritual vision, we must give consideration to the word translated "lightning," since this translation has given rise to a most erroneous concept of the coming of Jesus. It has led Christian people, almost without exception, to look forward to that blessed event as an instantaneous affair, which shall flash suddenly across the heavens and startle the world with its vividness. But nothing could be farther from the truth and nothing could have befogged our vision more. The Greek word translated "lightning" in this passage is ASTRAPE. The meaning, as given in Strong's Concordance, is "lightning; by analogy, glare; bright shining." So we see at once that scholarship recognizes this word as meaning a "bright shining" of light which might arise from a source other than a flash of lightning. It is so used, in fact, in Lk. 11:36 where we read, "If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the BRIGHT SHINING (ASTRAPE) of a CANDLE doth give thee light." Therefore, any BRIGHT SHINING light could fulfill the meaning of ASTRAPE.

Let us now pose a question. Does "lightning," as we understand the English word, always "come out of the east and shine unto the west?" Does it not flash from north, south, east or west according to the location of the clouds which are charged with either positive or negative electricity? And yet, the "bright shining" here spoken about is expanded to shining "from the east even unto the west." Again, if the coming of the Lord is portrayed by "lightning," it would be only in limited areas and over only portions of the earth from time to time. Lightnings' brief flash penetrates the darkness only for a moment. Such a coming of the Lord could portray merely a very limited appearing or manifestation of His presence. Let us no longer be children in understanding!

But, I ask, what light does ALWAYS come out of the east and shine even unto the west? Does not the light of coming day arise always in the east, gradually brightening the horizon until the sun becomes visible and its rays illumine the eastern sky and "spread as a carpet" over the countryside, city and hill, bathing all in its warmth and beauty as it shines even unto the west? Has not our Lord Jesus been likened unto the "Sun of righteousness" to "arise with healing in His wings?" And the Psalmist hath declared, "The Lord God is a SUN... the Lord will give grace and glory" (Ps. 84:11). Praise God, the Sun of righteousness has arisen in our heart and He giveth grace and glory for if we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14). The light of that Sun has shined brightly into our darkened soul and is bringing life and immortality to light through the gospel. Dear reader, you may have Him flashing for a brief moment across your cloudy, dark, stormy earthly sky if you so choose, but we are glad to see Him with SPIRITUAL EYES and behold His grace and glory as it spreads over the whole world of mankind from east to west until it shall embrace the whole human race, bringing warmth and beauty and life where all was, and still is largely, spiritual darkness and death. Yes, dear friends, His coming, His presence is not to be an instantaneous, brilliantly blinding light flashing across the natural heavens from any local quarter as the word "lightning" might and does incorrectly portray; but His coming, His presence, has been, is now and shall be like the DAWN OF A NEW DAY that constantly increases from the first faint rays of spiritual light until the soul and body of the individual are flooded with the noonday brightness of the blessed Sun of righteousness. And so it shall be universally until that light has brought every created being into subjection to our Lord and He shall reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet, for "the entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple" (Ps. 119:130). Shine on, 0 King eternal!

From East to West

The first rays of dawn are seen in the eastern sky, and then the light steadily progresses toward the west. So also is the presence of the indwelling Christ, as He illumines us in a beautiful, progressive manner - so that "the path of the uncompromisingly just and righteous is like the light of the dawn, that shines more and more - brighter and clearer - until it reaches its full strength and glory in the perfect (to-be-prepared) day" (Prov. 4:18, Amplified).

In Gen. 3:24 God gives us the first symbolic portrayal of the "east." "So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." When Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden of Eden, God placed a flaming sword to guard the entrance of the garden and the way in to the tree of life, and it turned every way so that no one could enter in from any direction without encountering that sword, and you will observe that He set it at the EASTERN GATE of the garden. Why is this so important? Because there is a vital message in this inspired record. If the gate to Eden was located at the east, obviously entrance into the garden carried one in a westerly direction. Man's banishment from the garden of Eden, his exile from the life and glory of God was a journey eastward. The message is clear - should Adam seek a re-entry into the garden, he could either return through the sword, as he moved with the processings of God in a westerly direction, or, he could continue in his state of selfhood, independence and rebellion and continue the eastward migration which would carry him farther and farther away from the tree of life. When God drove man from the portals of that heaven-blest Eden, eastward, He was moving him away from the glory of God in the tree of life. So it is our desire, therefore, to turn westward BACK TO THE TREE OF LIFE.

Cain’s Journey Eastward

Although Adam was corrupted by sin, he was still living in the presence of God. Not only did man know God's presence in the garden, he also experienced God's presence outside the garden, for it was there that Abel and Cain both made their offerings, and God even spoke to Cain about his slaying his brother. So, although man was corrupted by sin, he had not left the presence of God to walk out the ultimate of his disobedience - total INDEPENDENCE from God, absolute SEPARATION from God. But with Cain's banishment we read, "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the EAST of Eden... and he builded a city" (Gen. 4:16-17). This is most interesting! Cain traveled eastward, thus departing from the presence of the Lord. Cain left the place where God had placed His presence, and went his own way into further selfhood, to dwell in the land of Nod. Nod is the Hebrew word for exile, vagrancy, wandering. Exiled from a consciousness of the presence of the Lord to walk independently of God, outside of God, separated from the life, righteousness, joy, peace, faith, wisdom and will of God. This is the symbolic position of the land to the east, in contrast to that which is in the west.

Let us UNDERSTAND! What transcendent spiritual realities lie hidden within a story bearing the musty odor of ancient mundane history! Cain, had it not been for sin, would have been living in the garden of Eden, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the realm of the Spirit, the sphere of God's divine life, glory and power. In spite of sin, he was still able to know the presence of God, typifying the ANOINTING. Not the inner abiding anointing which is represented by the figure of the tree of life, but that anointing we see in the Old Testament in which the Spirit of God came upon men, working on and through them in special ways and times, but always working from above and without, working inwards. To Cain was given the opportunity to stand justified in the presence of God, under the anointing of God, justified by the blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But now he is found rejecting the provision of the Lord and moving in the opposite direction from the course of the anointing, turning backwards in his walk, in that reverse condition ever moving further and further from the anointing of God's presence.

Cain's final end was that of an exile, a vagrant, living on a territory never intended for him, not in his true inheritance or possession. There, separated from the anointing, the scripture says Cain "dwelt." He "settled" there. Any man who understands the progressive dealings of God knows one thing if he knows nothing else: the anointing of God is ever from glory to glory, and as long as we are short of the FULLNESS OF GOD we must NEVER SETTLE anywhere! Jesus Christ is pictured by the Psalmist as a bridegroom typified by the sun who comes out of his chamber to run a race through the skies (Ps. 19: 4-6). Malachi speaks of Christ as "the SUN of righteousness, arising." Everyone knows, of course, that the "race" of the sun is from east to west. In the scriptures this is the route of SPIRITUAL PROGRESSION - from east to west.

The Sun of righteousness has arisen in this world to run a race, but Cain went in the wrong direction and DWELT THERE! The very condition of settling indicates the loss of the anointing - lost from the on-going purposes of God - for the Son does not settle until He stands on the pinnacle of Mount Zion in the heavenly sphere of life and glory and dominion. But men always "settle" when, following some spontaneous moving and revelation of God, they begin to organize and systematize it, build walls of formulated creeds and dogmas about it, endeavoring to "preserve" it, as though the Spirit who produced the outpouring in the first place had never said, "Let us GO ON TO PERFECTION!" (Heb. 6:1).

After departing from the presence of the Lord Cain "built a city" - founded a rebellious civilization, of which Paul spake when he wrote of this fallen race that they walk "according to the course of THIS WORLD" (Eph. 2:2). The "course of this world" is that which is built by and upon the "wisdom of this world." Of this wisdom James says, "This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish" (James 3:15). The Bible speaks of "the way of Cain." The way of Cain! With his back to the light, walking away from the tree of LIFE, Cain sought to find satisfaction and fulfillment in SELF. As one has written, "There is an obvious principle in this record - to leave the presence of God, one will build for self. But one cannot build for self as long as they remain in the presence of the Lord, for there they will be immersed in His glory, and fall low before Him to worship at His feet. One cannot worship God and build for self at the same time. Indeed, the Hebrew word for worship literally means: SELF ABASEMENT. 'O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God' (Ps. 95:6-7)" -end quote. Obviously, then, those preachers who build their fleshly religious empires have already "gone the way of Cain" before ever they commence to "build a city." The eastward journey is ever the figure of man's selfhood. How significant, then, the cry of EASTERN PHILOSOPHY: Know Thy SELF!

Abraham Goes West

Reading on in Genesis, we come to the time following the Flood. It is interesting to note that during the time when "the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech," the people JOURNEYED EASTWARD (not "from the east" as the King James gives it). They settled in "the land of Shinar," which is Babylon and is to the EAST OF PALESTINE.

Having journeyed EASTWARD, the people then began to build a tower, which was named Babel, meaning confusion (Gen. 11:1-4). The error of Cain is repeated once more.

God further reveals His plan as it relates to east and west when He called Abraham and selected him to be the father of His purposes in the earth. Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldees, in the area of old Babylon - the EAST. The religions which constituted what today we call Paganism originated in the east. Those religions were for the most part forms of sun-worship, and worship of the moon and the constellations of the heavens. The Chaldeans, like the Persians and most of the ancient nations, were worshippers of the heavens. Sun-worship was their religion, and astrology was, if one might so put it, their theology. The eastern pagan concepts of astrology, divination, psychic phenomena, transcendental meditation, reincarnation, astral projection, etc., etc. today ride upon a crest of popularity unequalled in history. Eastern philosophies are taking the world by storm. Mankind, in his fateful journey eastward, has launched himself into a mystical orbit, where hopefully some answers to life's enigmas can be found. But that which is born of the flesh will always travel eastward, away from the presence, or consciousness of the Lord, into an emphasis upon S-E-L-F REALIZATION, while that which is of the Spirit will guide us from east to west, into the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of JESUS CHRIST, progressing until we come into our final appointed resting place IN HIM.

God commanded Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees (Gen. 12:1) to go to a land that He would show him - the land of Canaan. Ur means light - the light of Babylon. But what is the light of Babylon? Is it the light of God? NO! It is the false light of the carnal mind, as the apostle says, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself IS TRANSFORMED INTO AN ANGEL OF LIGHT. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their work" (II Cor. 11:13-15). Abraham was directed to leave the light of Babylon in order to enter into the Kingdom of God. Leaving Babylon and coming to Canaan is a picture of leaving the darkness of man-made religious systems and coming into the Kingdom of Light where shines the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God. When Abraham and Sarah journeyed from Babylon to Canaan they left from the east and went to the west. Isn't that remarkable! When Adam and Eve were banished from the glory of the Lord they were driven eastward. When Cain went out from the presence of the Lord he traveled even farther eastward. But when God inaugurated a RESTORATION, Abraham was required to leave the east and go west. Herein is revealed God's great pattern for RESTORATION!

Abraham had to learn God's ways step by step. In Gen. 12:7-8 we find, "And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there built he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he called upon the name of the Lord." Notice, beloved, the direction of the pitching of the camp. Abraham pitched his tent to the east, with Hai to the east and Bethel on the west. Bethel means.” the house of God." Hai means "a heap of ruins." When Abraham pitched his tent he was facing Bethel, heading westward, revealing his desire to go towards God's house. The way of ruin, desolation, chaos, destruction and loss the way of the east - lay behind him!

Lot Chooses the East

There came a day when the herds of Abraham and his nephew, Lot, had grown to such an extent that there was not grass enough in one place for both of them to feed their flocks. It became evident that they would have to separate from each other as they reached out for new pasture. Abraham was most gracious and gave Lot first choice. And Lot looked over the land from the mountain where they were standing and saw down in the valley the river Jordan flowing between green fields, where the soil was rich. He saw the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah upon the plain, near the head of the Dead Sea, into which the Jordan flows. "Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed EAST: and they separated themselves one from the other" (Gen. 13:11). Going east is going your way. Going west is going God's way. Lot was enticed by all those things which appeal to the flesh - the well-watered plains, the life of ease for the flesh, the fleshly excitement, activity and entertainment of the cities - and so he JOURNEYED EASTWARD. It was a calamitous journey ending in fiasco. He departed from his uncle, the man of God, and pursued that which gratified the flesh, moving closer and closer to the city of Sodom, until after a time he was dwelling in the very heart of that cesspool of wickedness, until the day that God pronounced judgment on the whole realm and rained down fire and brimstone from heaven. A great cataclysm took place and when it was over the great cities of the plain lay deep beneath the waters of the Dead Sea!

The River that Flows Eastward

It is significant, however, that after Lot had separated from Abraham, God said unto Abraham, "Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land that thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever" (Gen. 13:14-15). So tremendous is the promise of God to Abraham, because he would have an eye single to God, that in due time God would give him an inheritance in ALL DIRECTIONS, even to possess the gates of his enemies, and to restore all of that which was eastward, for "in thee and in thy seed shall ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED" (Gen. 28:14). Then "ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people... and ye shall be unto Me a KINGDOM OF PRIESTS" (Ex. 19:5-6). "And hast made us unto our God KINGS AND PRIESTS: and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev. 5:10). "For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL" (I Cor. 15:25,26,28).

It is a beautiful truth - when the people of God have come into the fullness of all that which awaits them WESTWARD, they will be empowered to bless and restore all of the realm of the EASTWARD, into the light and life and glory of God. It is the healing, life-giving stream that we read about in Ezekiel: "Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house EASTWARD... these waters issue out TOWARD THE EAST COUNTRY, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, THE WATERS SHALL BE HEALED. And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, SHALL LIVE: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish" (Eze. 47:1, 8-9).

The beloved Seer of Patmos beheld in rapturous wonder the same blessed scene and described it thus: "And he showed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb ... and the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:1,17). In the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden we are told of a remarkable river that had its source in Eden, but on flowing out of the garden divided itself into FOUR BRANCHES (north, south, east, west). This is a type or symbol of the life of God, flowing out from the Kingdom of God to the whole earth. The nature of God's wonderful river is that it flows OUTWARD.

Jesus identified this great river of God when in the last day, that great day of the Feast, He stood and cried, saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto ME, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow RIVERS OF LIVING WATER. THIS HE SPAKE OF THE SPIRIT, which they that believe on Him should receive" (Jn. 7:37-39). Thank God that this river now flows! The life of Jesus Christ is flowing as a river out from the throne of God. There is coming an outflow of blessing and life and glory from the body of Jesus Christ, where God is enthroned, that shall utterly eclipse anything we have ever read about in the Bible or in Church history! From the glorious city of God the river shall flow, out of the innermost being of a people filled with all the fullness of God. The body of Christ IS THE TEMPLE of the living God; our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the door; and from under the threshold flow the living waters of the Spirit, ever increasing, both in the individual believer and in that corporate temple of living stones which is built up a spiritual house, an habitation of God through the Spirit. In the symbolism of Ezekial 47 the waters FLOW EASTWARD, i.e., towards the Kedron, and thence towards the Jordan, and so along the Ghor into the Dead Sea. The main point in the picture (see Eze. 47:3-5) is the rapid augmentation from a petty stream into a mighty river, not by the influx of side streams, but by its own self-supply from the sacred miraculous source IN THE TEMPLE.

Note the progress and increase of these waters: They WENT FORTH EASTWARD (vs. 3), towards the EAST COUNTRY (vs. 8). The prophet and his guide followed the stream as it ran down from the holy mountains, and when they had followed it about a thousand cubits they went across, to try the depth, and it was to the ankles (vs. 3). Then they walked along on the bank of the river on the other side, a thousand cubits more, and then, to try the depth, they waded through it the second time, and it was up to their knees (vs. 4). They walked along it by a thousand cubits more, and then forded it the third time, and then it was up to their middle - the waters were to the loins. They then walked a thousand cubits further, and attempted to cross it the fourth time, but found it impossible: the waters had risen, so that they were waters to swim in, A MIGHTY RIVER THAT COULD NOT BE PASSED OVER (vs. 5).Ah, these are increasing waters, this river runs constantly, AND THE FURTHER IT GOES THE FULLER IT GROWS! As it is written, "Of the INCREASE of His government and peace THERE SHALL BE NO END" (Isa. 9:7).

This river of life has been flowing ever since Pentecost; we realize that; but soon it shall empty into the mighty oceans of humanity, bringing life and blessing to a dry and parched wilderness. "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert" (Isa. 43:19). We thank God for the taste we have had from the Fountain of living water. But Jesus has promised, "The water that I shall give him shall BE IN HIM A WELL OF WATER SPRINGING UP into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:14). Sad to say, we have been like the fountain in the Song of Solomon, "A spring shut up, a fountain sealed" (S. of S. 4:12). A fountain! But shut up, sealed, frozen over. Abraham digged many good wells in his day; but after his death we are told that the Philistines had filled them in. Isaac found that he had to dig them again before he could take advantage of the refreshing waters that lay buried under the rocks and dirt and filth which the enemy had tossed into the wells. So it is with the body of Christ, and the fountain which Christ has created in the hearts of His people. All the potentialities of this new life are right in our heart, locked up like the germ-life in the seed.

"RIVERS of living water" is Christ's promise to His people. If men are content with waters up to the ankles, this is not for them. If they are satisfied with waters up to the knees, this is not for them. If waters up to the waist are sufficient, this is not for them. If men are satisfied with a new birth experience, a baptism in the Holy Spirit experience, with gifts of the Spirit and blessings and a comfortable New Testament Church order - such contentment only proves that the Rivers of Living Water have ceased to flow from their souls; for this fountain that Christ places within, if not cluttered up with the mire of the Philistines, is an ever-increasing and inexhaustible supply of divine life and power and glory. Thank God for every measure of truth and life that we have experienced hitherto; but let it flow and grow, child of God - let it surge forward until it becomes a mighty Amazon in this desert-world of sin, sickness, sorrow and death. All who have ears to hear must hear what the Spirit is saying in these momentous days. The Spirit is saying that He is preparing a people, He is preparing sons who shall be a RIVER OF LIFE. God is preparing a body for that first Son, a RIVER-BED FOR THE FLOWING OF HIS LIFE, that His salvation may be manifested unto all the ends of the earth.

This great river flows into the desert and into the sea - the symbol used is the Dead Sea - the very sea, significantly, whose saline waters COVER THE GUILTY CITIES OF THE PLAIN, whither Lot went when he journey eastward - Sodom and Gomorrah! In its bituminous waters no vegetable or animal life is said to be found. But now death is to give place to life in this great sea of humanity - and the healing properties of these waters are such that the sulphurous, death-pervading lake of Sodom SHALL BE HEALED! Praise God, from His WESTERN GARDEN, His RIVER OF LIFE COMPANY shall flow forth EASTWARD, into all the EAST COUNTRY, the life-giving streams! "And there shall be a very great multitude of fish." "Follow Me," said Jesus, "and I will make you fishers of men" (Mat. 4:19).

There is coming a time of unspeakable glory, plainly revealed in God's Word as the time when He shall MAKE ALL THINGS NEW (Rev. 21:5). This renewal of all things is as certain as the rising of the sun and the going down thereof. There is coming a blessed day when the River of Life shall overflow so abundantly unto the whole creation that the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. There is coming a day when there shall be no more sin and no more curse and no more death anywhere, for the former things have passed away, washed and quickened and renewed in the life-giving powers of the River of Life. These are the things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, and certainly they have not even entered into the heart of those who fill the pews of the Churches Sunday after Sunday. These are the things God has revealed to them that love Him. These are the UNSPEAKABLE things, unlawful for man to utter, the things that pertain to the eternal purposes of God in the realm of the Spirit. These are the things that shall be brought to pass in the age and in the ages to come as the River of Life flows out through the ministry of the sons of God.

The Tabernacle

To further illustrate the distinction between the way of the flesh and the way of the Spirit, we read that when Abraham sent away the sons of his concubines, he sent them away from Isaac, "EASTWARD, UNTO THE EAST COUNTRY" (Gen. 25:5-6). And when Balak waited someone to curse Israel, he sent for Balaam who was dwelling "IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE EAST" (Num. 23:7). The children of Israel, God's covenant people, were continually oppressed by "THE CHILDREN OF THE EAST" (Jud. 6:3,33; 7:12; 8:8-10). Indeed, the scriptures abound with these illustrations of the truth that men of flesh face EASTWARD, or dwell in THE EAST COUNTRY, while the Lord's Spirit-led people are always facing WESTWARD, symbolically and spiritually, towards His fullness and glory. Indeed, "eastern religions" are well named, for they are religions devised by man as he stands at his farthest distance from God. Only as we face WEST spiritually can we properly describe God and His ways.

It is also interesting to note that Israel's Tabernacle in the wilderness was always pitched to face the east (Ex. 27:13-16). The great Temple in Jerusalem was likewise positioned so that the entrance was on the east. Thus, there was always an entrance prepared for those who came from the east seeking after the Lord. That "east to west" speaks of the route of spiritual progression is seen in this beautiful symbolic arrangement with the entrance on the east you automatically turned your back to the east and entered in a westward direction, first into the Outer Court with its brazen altar of sacrifice and brazen laver, and then westward into the Holy Place with its ministry, and finally into the most westward location of all - the Most Holy Place. Even so in our spiritual experience do we walk WESTWARD, coming out of the land of the east, with all its selfhood, its building for the flesh, and its separation from God, beginning at the Outer Court of the Tabernacle to partake of HIS sacrifice, being justified freely by His grace; then into the Holy Place with its ministry, His anointing, His manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit, and dimensions of worship wherein HE is exalted; and finally through the veil, until at last we appear before God in the Holiest of all, and there at the mercy seat, with the dazzling light of glory radiating forth, we become like Him, partaking of that divine fullness and those sacred realities for which our heart has long sought after. Moving then from a beginning experience in God into HIS FULLNESS is, in symbolism, a progression FROM EAST TO WEST.

THE WESTWARD STAR. The wise men at the time of the birth of the Christ-child were living in the east, for, said they, "We have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him" (Mat. 2:1-2). It is evident from a careful study of these words that the wise men were in the east, not the star, and having seen that star from their location in the east, they traveled westward to where the star led them. From Persia, Babylon, and all the countries of the east they came! Leaving the place of man's wisdom, they journeyed westward to behold HIM "Who of God is made unto us WISDOM, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (I Cor. 1:30). Leaving all the realms of man's carnal reasoning, all the errors of astrology, all the deceptions of the psychic realm, all the delusions of Eastern philosophy, all the mysteries of the occult, they went westward to seek out HIM WHO IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE (Jn. 14:6).

There is in this hour an insidious intrusion into the ranks of those who have received the call to sonship. I speak of the subtle injection into "sonship teaching" of facets of eastern philosophy which arise from the realm of the SOUL - the carnal, mental realm - and are not of the Holy Spirit. The doctrines of "eastern religion" stand in stark contrast, yes, and in opposition to the truth of the gospel of Christ from the west. These have absolutely nothing to offer the man who has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, transformed in mind and heart by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, quickened and made alive in Him and raised up to share His glory and sit with Him in the heavenly places, far above every principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named in this age and in the ages to come.

None can dispute the fact that those nations of earth which for long centuries have been devoted to eastern religion are today, as ever they have been, lands of INCREDIBLE SPIRITUAL DARKNESS, blinded by ignorance, captives to silly superstitions, devastated by poverty, spread over with squalor, and ravaged by sin, sickness, sorrow and death. Only in those lands where the magnificent display of the grace of God in the saving power of the gospel of Jesus Christ has conquered the hearts of men have entire civilizations been blessed, lifted and transformed economically, physically, politically, educationally and spiritually. The Conquering Spirit of Jesus Christ has transformed the hearts of men and the face of nations.

The subtle force of this Conqueror is seen penetrating all the spheres of modern life. His aggressive warfare on the old heathen homes transformed the home, until the Christian home, where woman is queen, rather than the chattel and slave of the man, and where the children are cradled and cultured in love, rises in beauty and glory. He has transformed governments, until today, instead of people being the servants of the kings and presidents, they are the servants of the people. He has transformed the educational institutions, until today the poorest and obscurest child has the opportunity of the highest and most finished education. He has transformed commerce, until the principles of equity and honesty and fairness are those only which the leaders in the commercial world can adapt if they wish to hold their supremacy. The gospel of Jesus brought tenderness and love into the world until today the mentally ill, impoverished, unfortunates, the sick and the maimed, have grand institutions reared for their benefit, to which they can go, and there find warmth and care and protection. Such things as charitable institutions would have been laughed to scorn by the world before Christ came. All of these dramatic changes, and many others as well, have been wrought by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In stark contrast to the spiritual and material blessings and prosperity of those nations whose God is the Lord, we see the distressed state of those who have served the false gods of the east. The "ascended masters of the east," I am told, have resided in the Himalayas for more than 25,000 years, ostensibly to bless, lift, heal and guide the people into the ways of life and light and blessing. In my opinion, if the nations of India, Tibet, Burma and Afghanistan are the classic examples of the fruit of this long and illustrious ministry - I can get along quite well without them, thank you! Amazing, isn't it, that out of gross pagan darkness come the doctrines of the masters of the far east, transcendental meditation, yoga, ESP, cosmic Christ consciousness, alpha waves, astral projection, telepathy, clairvoyance, reincarnation, karma, etc., and then some would seek to join these unfruitful works of darkness with the glorious LIGHT of the gospel of Christ! Ah, my friend, far too long we have allowed our soul, our mind, to play the harlot with these alluring spirits of the east, which defile our spirits with their sorceries. Harken! ye sons of God. Ere we stand on Zion's holy hill the soul needs to be brought back from the land of its wanderings in the east, to be cleansed by the precious blood of the Lamb. You who would be sons of God, you who would rule and reign with Christ, you who would lead the nations unto living fountains of water - I tell you this day that the voice of the Father calls you back from the polluted waters of the east, to "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:23-24). May the almighty Father cause you to hear His trumpet pealing in your ears, sounding down through all the chambers of your soul's castle. May you see the saber of truth flashing its dazzling light and hear the clatter of the hoofs of the white horse of CHRIST'S TRIUMPH WITHIN as He bounds through your land, delivering from the realms of the world, the flesh and the devil, and bringing us to that place in God where no more do we lean upon anything which the flesh has to offer, no longer trusting in the psychic realms with all their divinations, but we follow on to know HIM who IS our Way, Truth, and LIFE. "O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy" (Ps. 43:3-4).

What a beautiful arrangement for spiritual progression. "We have seen His star in the east, and have come to worship Him." The star seen by the wise men of the east, with all their wisdom, led to the discovery of THE CHRIST, THE WISDOM OF GOD, in what was to them the farther west. Persia was a long way from Palestine; Palestine is a long way from us; but the star that shone from heaven in that far-off day is still guiding the pilgrim feet of the watching few to the lowly place where lies the new-born hope of the world, God's Christ, Head and body. The Christ-child, conceived in the physical womb of a physical woman and then separated from her by a perfectly normal birth, was God's immutable hope of reconciling the world, even as it is written that God was in Christ, RECONCILING THE WORLD unto Himself. Can you not see, precious friend of mine, the rising crescendo of God's almighty purpose? For it is NOW written that Christ IN YOU is the hope of glory, and if I understand God's Christ aright, and God's glory aright, within you, dear child of God, dwells something imperishable, something eternal, something transcendental, something conceived of the Holy Ghost, something God-like, a spark from the Divine Glory that no power shall ever quench. The Christ-child has been born anew in our hearts. The Sun of righteousness has arisen within His people. Hasten where HE leads. Kneel to the Christ who waits expression through your life; bestow your gifts rich and rare - all you have, keeping nothing back. All creation groans with unutterable longing for Christ to be formed in you, in me.

The Westward Journey

Throughout the ages past, God has revealed His purpose to bring His people from the realms of carnality and the ways of man unto the fullness of the presence and glory of the Lord. This was to be A PROGRESSIVE WESTERN MOVEMENT. The coming of the Son of man is likened to the rising sun which shines FROM THE EAST EVEN UNTO THE WEST. It is interesting to note in this connection that history corroborates this progressive WESTERN advance of God's dealings with humanity throughout the unfolding ages.

When God created Adam, He put the man in the garden which was located EASTWARD IN EDEN (Gen. 2:8) so that his progress must be WESTWARD. Then the place of God's blessing and glory moved west into Palestine when God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees in the east and planted his seed in the land of Canaan to the west. The first center from whence the glorious light of the gospel of Christ shone forth to the world was Jerusalem. Following the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the center of spiritual activity moved westward into Greece, entered Asia Minor, penetrated Rome. Into the royal palace, with more than royal grace, strode the Conquering Christ. The revelry which aforetime rang through those imperial chambers hushed itself into reverential silence; and the emperor in lowly manner bowed before the flashings of His authoritative demeanor, and solemnly swore to evermore support His throne, and decreed that the religion of Jesus Christ should thenceforth be the religion of this great realm. The centuries rolled by. Slowly descended the gloom of the dark ages. But by and by the glory of God broke forth afresh, unweakened by the deadly embrace of a hollow and lifeless ceremonialism. Luther's voice rang out its clarion notes, and the whole continent of Europe was convulsed by those tremendous and rapid movements which broke down the elaborate formalism and deadly corruption of those dark ages, and set men forth into the clear light of heaven, where they could breathe its own free airs. The Glory Cloud had again moved westward and Germany and Switzerland became the center from which the great power of God shook the world and changed the course of history. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the center continued its western movement to Britain, as the Spirit of God moved in mighty power across the length and breadth of that land in massive tidal waves of revival, converting and transforming untold millions of lives and birthing the Bible Societies and the modern foreign missionary movements. England sent forth missionaries to her colonies which circled the globe and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covered the earth. And here we have it still moving west, or coming from the way of the east to America.

America was no accident. As God called the children of Israel to leave their bondage in Egypt, led them across the Red Sea, and into the promised land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, so, three millenniums later, God called our Christian forefathers to leave the tyranny of Europe, led them across the great Atlantic Ocean, to live in free America, truly a land flowing with milk and honey, corn and oil, fruit and grain, and gold, coal and iron and wealth untold.

When Columbus first landed in America, he, with his men, kneeled down on the beach, and consecrated the new country to Jesus Christ. When the French Huguenots, driven from France on account of their devotion to Jesus Christ, landed in the Carolinas, they there on the ocean's beach kneeled, and consecrated the new land to Jesus Christ. When the Dutch Holland refugees landed on Manhattan Island, they were animated by the same spirit, and bowed down on the sand, and consecrated the land to Jesus Christ. When the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, they there knelt, and consecrated the land to Jesus Christ. This continent belongs to no other person than Jesus Christ! His Spirit, working in the minds of His followers, discovered it. And He, through them, took possession of it, from the stern and rock-bound coasts of New England, to the sun-kissed slopes of California. Here to these shores flocked legions who acknowledged no submission except to the rule of Jesus Christ.

Here in this new land, born in prayer and faith in God, our heavenly Father has surrounded His chosen people with friendly neighbors to the north and south, and protected them from invasion by wide oceans on the east and west. And from here, God has sent missionaries and raised up preachers, that His Word might be proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of the earth, until almost every creature has had the opportunity of hearing the blessed good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God. "Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord: and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance" (Ps. 33:12).

What was God's purpose in leading our forefathers across the ocean to found here the world's greatest nation? Was it that we alone might enjoy the richest land, the highest standard of living, the choicest freedoms, the greatest wealth, the most marvelous inventions that the world has ever seen? NO! When God called His people, the children of Israel, from their cruel bondage in Egypt and settled them in the rich land of Canaan, He had a very definite purpose in mind for them. There, they were to worship and serve Him, only. They were to exalt His great name before the heathen nations that surrounded them. They were to eventually become a blessing to all mankind. "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:2-3). God has called the United States of America into existence and given us the riches of this great continent, for the very same and definite purpose. Here, we were to build a nation whose very coin and currency would proclaim to a scoffing, heathen, and humanistic world that "In God We Trust." Here, the Bible was to be read and revered and obeyed. Here, God's ministers and God's people were to be free and unhampered in their allegiance to the Almighty. Here, were to be raised up Churches from which missionaries would go to the uttermost parts of the earth with the message that Jesus Christ came to set men free. Yes, America was appointed to be "God's Country," and we were meant to be God's people. How long until the Glory Cloud moves westward again? I don't know. But today the western progression of God's glorious purposes has brought us to the beautiful land of America.

Above and far beyond these physical realities lies the spiritual truth that we presently see ourselves SPIRITUALLY MOVING WESTWARD toward the Most Holy Place, the place of the fullness and glory of God. May these unspeakably solemn truths find a place of lodging, growth and ever-expanding expression in the lives of all who read these pages. Before concluding this message I would share a quotation from the writings of Paul and Emily Mueller. "In 1851 John Soule coined the phrase: 'GO WEST YOUNG MAN, and grow up with the country.' Horace Greely picked up that statement and used it extensively in giving advice to young men, and thus the phrase, 'GO WEST YOUNG MAN' became popular. Today a manchild has been born, and from the time of his birth he has heard a still, small voice behind him saying, 'GO WEST YOUNG MAN.' The pleadings of his heavenly Father have been persistent and determined as the young man was urged to press his way WESTWARD into the Holy of holies. The young man, the manchild company, is indeed pressing his way WESTWARD and will continue to do so until he has been perfected and matured and until his Father tells him to turn around and go EASTWARD to the nations. The deliverance of all creation depends on the sons of God and the direction they take (Rom. 8:21-22). As we continue to go WESTWARD, we will ultimately partake of all God's glory and fullness and become a part of the flowing of God's torrential river of Life" -end quote.

The Light of Understanding

As we have noted, Jesus explained that His coming would be like a BRIGHT SHINING which shines FROM THE EAST EVEN UNTO THE WEST. Here, unmistakably, is the idea of enlightenment. Never has the presence of an earthly king or potentate been so glorious and all-powerful as properly to be likened to a brightness sufficient to enlighten the whole world - from the east unto the west. This, however, is true of earth's great and eternal King, our Lord Jesus Christ. The meaning of these words is evident: Jesus' presence will enlighten the world. And as light is used in the scriptures to symbolize knowledge - the knowledge of God - what the Master really told the disciples in symbolic language was that HE WOULD ARISE AS ENLIGHTENMENT unto all the ends of the earth until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isa. 11:9).

The sweet singer of Israel penned these significant words: "The entrance of Thy words GIVETH LIGHT; it giveth UNDERSTANDING to the simple" (Ps. 119:130). The prophet Hosea, speaking of God, said, "Thy judgments are as the LIGHT that goeth forth" (Hos. 6:5). "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a LIGHT unto my path" (Ps. 119:105). Also in II Cor. 4:6, Paul declares "For God, who commanded the LIGHT to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the LIGHT of the KNOWLEDGE of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Can we not understand by this that TRUTH is LIGHT, UNDERSTANDING is LIGHT, KNOWLEDGE is LIGHT and LIFE is LIGHT. We often hear someone say, "I got some light on that." They are declaring the reception of understanding. In like manner, DARKNESS is IGNORANCE. "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath BLINDED THE MINDS of them which believe not, lest the LIGHT of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them" (II Cor. 4:3-4).

From the above scripture we know there are TWO KINGDOMS: the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, or the Kingdom of LIGHT and the kingdom of darkness. Praise God, He "hath delivered us from the POWER OF DARKNESS, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son" (Col. 1:13). In this world darkness and light, day and night co-exist. Here in Crystal River it is a bright, sunlit day. On the other side of the world people slumber upon their beds in the darkness of night. Therefore I learn in the natural a principle that teaches me a spiritual truth: it is day and night at the same time! These lines are being read by many thousands of people around the world. Some of you walk in light and some of you walk in darkness. Some of you walk in spiritual light in different dimensions, while some of you walk in spiritual darkness in different dimensions. It's a matter of your UNDERSTANDING. It's not a matter of whether you speak in tongues, how you were baptized, or rules and regulations of any kind. It is a thing of the SPIRIT, a condition, a state of being, a spiritual mentality, a KNOWING OF THE LORD IN TRUTH AND UNDERSTANDING.

Darkness is but the absence of light, or the lack of understanding. Christ Himself IS THE LIGHT OF LIFE. Life comes from light, therefore, if we want to know the condition of life in a man, we must see the state of enlightenment within him. We often think that if a man becomes a little more zealous, his life has grown; or if he is a little more pious, his life has increased. Such concepts are totally incorrect. Life is not in the zeal of man; neither is it in the piety of man. There is only one realm and one source of life, and that is LIGHT. Life rests with light; life comes from light. To determine whether a person has grown in life, we must observe the condition of his INNER ENLIGHTENMENT. Thus, if we want to help others grow in life, we must help them to be enlightened. If they can receive enlightenment from us they can obtain life and grow in life. May God help you to experientially become this day part of His SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS COMPANY. Arise, and shine!

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