Hi Bob... not sure what exactly you are saying with this statement... nor how precisely you came to it? Could you possibly elaborate your point for me, and provide a scripture you arrive at this from? Thanks!
I would be happy to. Thanks for asking. Please first understand that I am using a method of interpretation which uses symbols. When a symbols is used in a certain way, it must be used that way everywhere it exists, or a complete understanding of the symbol has not been arrived at yet.
So when I say that Jesus is water, I am saying that everywhere that water is used, it refers to the word, and generally of Jesus, with the caveat that since "we are to be made like him" 1Jo 3:2 that the symbol may have a dual application in speaking of the church. On rare occasion of a word that is not Jesus. This is the language of riddle.
So where I begin is with
Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
this gives us a hint that water may be a symbol of the word. Then we are reminded that John the baptist fulfilled the prophesy of Elijah. There was no rain (water) until he spoke. God was silent for four hundred years before John. There was no Word (water) until he spoke.
We are not absolutely sure that the water is the word until every verse concerning water is examined to see that it makes sense. When we have two or three witness scriptures, you may be sure that you are close to an understanding, and use it provisionally.
I have confidence that it is the word since every scripture I have seen it in in the last seven years has been consistent. You will want to be sure for yourself.
So the question is, what word is it? This now depends on context. Sometimes it represents the word of liars, and when you reject their word, you spit. Sometimes it represents the written, spoken or living Word of God. In most cases this is it. And since we are like him, we find in one of the voices it applies to the church.
In the context of this thread, we were speaking of clouds.
Jud 5:4 LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,
the clouds also dropped water.
Doesn't sound like much to go on, but the word 'dropped' also means 'prophesied' or 'preached'. Isn't it cool how it starts to weave together?
The clouds preached the word. Not all clouds do though:
2Pe 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
So the proper understanding of clouds is that they are people designed to carry water (the word) but sometimes don't.
Since the clouds referenced are with Christ, they are with the water/word.
We could, and eventually will go through every verse that has water, mist, sea, clouds, spit, well, stream, etc. and see that each one refers to word.
When Elisha removed the axe (judgment - the axe is laid at the root) from the stream it is a picture of Christ removing judgment from the word. (he didn't come to judge...)
When the water was spilled in the dust it became blood. When the word was made incarnate in the dust of the earth, it made Life. (Life is in the blood).
When the waters above were separated from the waters below, Law and grace were separated, and Jesus was the firmament between them.
The two rivers at Babel were law and grace. The four rivers in Eden the Word as spoken by prophet, priest, king and judge, the four faces of the wheels.
It is the language of riddle, and the rules keep it from being free-for-all allegory.
Someone will ask that if it speaks of Christ and the church and the written word and the spoken word, isn't that multiple meanings? No. Since the scriptures say that we are made one in Christ, He in us and us in him, we are constrained to make them one in our thinking. The error is not with the method but our definition of who we are. If we think we are separate from Christ, we are in trouble.
That's not my style.
