The White Stone and the Morning Star

Carrying on from the last post, I'll explain what the two things are: "...and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." and "And I will give him the morning star." Verse 17 and 28 of chapter 2 in Revelation.

Basically, the white stone is a ticket and a reward and the morning star is another name for Jesus Christ.

FIRST off, the white stone:

According to Baker Commentary on the Bible, white stone = ticket/voting piece. "The new name on the white stone is that of being a Christian, for whom everything was made new (new covenant [Luke 22:20, 1Cor 2:25, 2Cor 3:6, Heb 8:8], new commandment [John 13:34, 1John2:8], new creature [2Cor 5:17, Gal 6:15], new man [Eph 2:15, 4:24], new heavens and new earth [2 Peter 3:13, Rev 21:1], New Jerusalem [Rev 3:12, 21:2], all things new [2 Cor 5:17, Rev 21:5]. In antiquity a white stone was used as an entrance ticket, or voting piece. Here it guarantees us entrance into God's kingdom and blessing" (pg 1205).

According to William MacDonald's Believer's Bible Commentary, "The white stone has been explained in many ways. It was a token of acquittal in a legal case. It was a symbol of victory in an athletic contest. It was an expression of welcome given by a host to his guest. It seems clear that it is a reward given by the Lord to the overcomer and expressing individual approval by Him. Alford says that the new name indicates acceptance by God and title to glory" (pg 2357).

According to MacArthur's Bible Commentary, "white stone. When an athlete won in the games, he was often given, as part of his prize, a white stone which was an admission pass to the winner's celebration afterwards. This may picture the moment when the overcomer will receive his ticket to the eternal victory celebration in heaven. new name. A personal message from Christ tot he ones He loves, which serves as their admission pass into eternal glory. It is so personal that only the person who receives it will know what it is" (pg 1997-1998).

SECOND, the morning star:

In all of the commentary's that I've read, they've all said that the morning star in this case means Jesus Christ. You can find what they have to say in the same pages i have already given you for the topic of the white stone.

The one thing that made go "eh." to that is the fact that in the beginning of speaking to that church leading up to the verse containing "morning star" (i'm looking at verse 18 if u'd like to follow along.) It clearly says, "These are the words of the Son of God..." and I thought, "why would Jesus say, 'I will aslo give him Christ' when it's already Him? Why couldn't He just say, 'I will give him Me'?"

So it made me think that the word "morning star" must have meant something else; i was confused. BUT remember the Trinity? A term for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Remembering them as one, verse 18-28 is different. Even though in verse 18 says, "These are the words of the Son of God..." it could also take in the form of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit because they are one and the same (haha i learned that from ENLI :) when we talked about the Holy Spirit [which Dave suggested that we recommend the course to everyone!! PLEASE TAKE ENLI!!! IT'S A BLAST AND U LEARN A LOT!!].

Anyway, i'm done for today. Maybe next time, I'll go over Rev. 3?? But then again, i want to talk about the animals in ch. 4 (along with Ezekiel and Daniel...it's amazing how everything in the Bible ties together and talks about the same thing but written from different times and in different books of the Bible ^.^)