Anticrepuscular rays are similar to crepuscular rays, but seen opposite the sun in the sky. Anticrepuscular rays are near-parallel, but appear to converge at the antisolar point because of linear perspective.[1] Anticrepuscular rays are most frequently visible near sunrise or sunset. Crepuscular rays are usually much brighter than anticrepuscular rays. This is because for crepuscular rays, seen on the same side of the sky as the sun, the atmospheric light scattering and making them visible is taking place at small angles (see Mie theory).
Although anticrepuscular rays appear to converge onto a point opposite the sun, the convergence is actually an illusion. The rays are in fact (almost) parallel, and the apparent convergence is to the vanishing point at infinity.[2] (from Wikipedia.com)
As compared to Crepuscular rays...
What beautiful images!!! Although I have done a post with a picture of Anticrepuscular rays before, there is something about this new picture that really puts it into focus. That something is the opposition of the sun; and now I really understand what these are (as much as I am capable of understanding, that is). I am reminded of yesterday's Bible Class at Zephyrhills church of Christ, where brother Daniel Stearsman taught an excellent class on the first epistle of John. One of the major texts used was:
1 John, Chapter 2
18 Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the final hour. 19 They went out from us, but they didn’t belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us. 20 You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son, the same doesn't have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.
How many times have we heard premillennial preachers going on and on about the signs of the times and how current events relate to THE ANTICHRIST? But what about the "many antichrists" mentioned in verse 18? Not much discussion about THAT, is there? Yet, there were many who believed that God was solely Spirit and that the flesh was evil and so denied the physical reality of Jesus of Nazareth being the CHRIST OF GOD; God in the flesh, coexisting as both human and divine. Those that taught such things also taught that the flesh was unimportant and that one could do whatever you wished - it just didn't matter!!! Kind of a first century "do you own thing"!!! But, no matter what they and the Gnostic teachings attempted to do, they could not suppress the truth. Lets turn our attention once again to the top picture; notice where the rays come from? Not the sun, that sure!!! Compare the beauty of the first picture with that of the second. Notice the intensity? The Sun (son) makes all the difference. While the Gnostic teachers may have been intelligent and had something a little extra in the way of brain power (please note the emphasis on may) they could never compare to the truth, for its revelation from God is in stark reality to a reflection!!! In the first century, God gave special gifts to guide the first Christians in their understanding of the truth
1 Corinthians, Chapter 12
10 and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits; to another different kinds of languages; and to another the interpretation of languages.
and
1 Corinthians, Chapter 14
27 If any man speaks in another language, let it be two, or at the most three, and in turn; and let one interpret. 28 But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the assembly, and let him speak to himself, and to God. 29 Let the prophets speak, two or three, and let the others discern. 30 But if a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first keep silent. 31 For you all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be exhorted. 32 The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, 33 for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.
Today, we have been given God's full revelation of truth as is shown by the following...
Jude
3 Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Bottom line is... Don't listen to anyone who teaches you something more or something less that what the Scriptures teach. It does not matter how charismatic the teacher, how many institutions have granted advanced degrees to them or how long you have known them. The only source of truth is what God has left for us in HIS WORD. See the light now; I mean the light from God!!!!