Metaphor, what does it mean?

Metaphor

MET'APHOR, noun [Gr. to transfer, over, to carry.] A short similitude; a similitude reduced to a single word; or a word expressing similitude without the signs of comparison. Thus 'that man is a fox, ' is a metaphor; but 'that man is like a fox, ' is a similitude or comparison. So when I say, 'the soldiers fought like lions, ' I use a similitude. In metaphor the similitude is contained in the name; a man is a fox, means, a man is as crafty as a fox. So we say, a man bridles his anger, that is, restrains it as a bridle restrains a horse. Beauty awakens love or tender passions; opposition fires courage.

http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Metaphor

How many times does the SRod message use the word Metaphor? One time. Based on the meaning you will clearly understand why. Here is the following and only example:

Land to Flow With “Milk And Honey.”

     WHEN God promised to lead ancient Israel into a land "flowing with milk and honey," such a condition did NOT LITERALLY obtain in Canaan, SO THE EXPRESSION could only have been metaphorical then finding its fulfillment in the fact that there the prophets did prophecy and write the Scriptures, thus flooding the land with “milk and honey”—truth and joy.—6Tr:32.1

Thus the proper meaning of the word “metaphor” can be not only gleaned from the passage but one would be hard-pressed to now excuse any Davidian to go around teaching from the SRod to indiscriminately and independently begin to attack unpopular literal passages by assigning to them “metaphorical” properties that the context does not support.

Case in point:

The SRod teaches in [5Tr:111.3; 8Tr:16; 8Tr:68; 10Tr:44.2; 12Tr:47.2; 1TG15:9.1; 1TG15:12.4, 5; 1TG16:22.2, 3; 1TG16:24.2; 1TG16:25.3, 4; 1TG17:9.1, 2; 1TG17:10.2, 3; 1TG31:6.4; 1TG48:22.5, 6; 1TG48:29.2, 3; 2TG1:8.1, 2; 2TG2:17.3-18.1; 2TG4:13.1; 1TG4:14.1, 2; 2TG7:13.1; 2TG41:11.3; 2TG42:34.2, 2; 2TG42:37.1; 2TG43:13.1; 2TG43:22.6; 2TG45:10.4; 2TG45:20.2; 2SC9:9.7-10; 7SC7:6.13, 14; 7SC7-12:9.9; 7SC7-12:14.10; 9SC1-12:6.12; 11SC12:26.1, 4; 12SC1:7.1; 12SC1:18.1, 2; 1An:25.4, 5; 2An:15.2; 2An:48.1; 4An:55.3; 1Srp:76.3] all of these passages that God's people are “taken to,” he shall “bring them” [144,000], the purified church, into the promised land.

Brethren say for example some international members of our Association are requested to come for a special administrative function. And once they arrive at the airport they are not expected to remain there but are to make their way to HQ. But How? They understand because the office cordially made all of the arrangements therefore it is a sponsored trip and not a personal visit. That is why they come by faith. They know that reasonable businessmen and women vising from abroad will be brought to HQ somehow because that is their word, they are the ones sponsoring the trip from home abroad to HQ. Do you believe that these brethren would have a reason to be concerned about how they are going to arrive at HQ? No, because they were informed that HQ will “bring them.”

So how is that any different from the prophecies of the Bible concerning anti-typical Zion being told by Brother Houteff's use of the phrase "taken to" or "bring them" to the Promised Land?

When Jesus returns, according to the context of Ezekiel’s vision, to perform Ezek. 9:3-9 [1Tr:17.3-18], the Chariot that transports Him, is that literal or metaphorical? If we are to believe what the “golden bowl” teaches as positive truth it is literal.

Now, how about the same Chariot recorded in 1Tr:39 which is responsible for the transportation of the saints to heaven at the commencement of the millennium, is that literal or metaphorical?

Then by what authority does any Davidian Magician has to turn Ezekiel's literal, physically invisible chariot into a metaphor AFTER the purification of the church?

Is this not the same Chariot that is responsible for the transportation of the Lord of glory with the cherubims to the threshold of the house to complete “the closing work for the church”? Isn't this the same Chariot that is still at the threshold of the house WHEN the angel returns after he gave the 1st report? Doesn't the Lord command the sealing angel, after he returns from doing the sealing, to "…Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims,…" (Ezek. 10:2)? Isn't this the same chariot that is made responsible, according to VTH unmetaphorical application of Ezekiel’s chariot found in 1TG11:13.2, to be the means, the instrument to fulfill all those “golden bowl” passages above?

   We are therefore not to worry about a possibility of anyone's hurting the work of God.  Neither are we to worry about HOW WE ARE TO GET TO Mount Zion, but are to make sure to be ready to board the chariot of God when the angels cry out, “All aboard!”—1TG11:13.2

Isn't this strange to find these words describing God’s instrument of transportation declared to be a metaphor without any logical reasonable indication from the passage? Could this be an attempt to hide the fact that the actual "four horns" turned into "four carpenters" are the real metaphor in this paragraph rather than the Chariot that is as literal as the angel's themselves? Isn't this the same Chariot which brings Michael AT THE COMMENCEMENT of the iJOL to earth to perform Ezek. 9 was ALSO the same means of bringing the message to earth, returns Jesus back to heaven into the Most Holy Place and then returned and remained on earth during the pre-11th hour harvest preparations? How can the Chariot that will transport the saints at His SECOND Visible coming to heaven now AFTER Ezekiel 9 began suddenly "out of order" because it was converted temporarily into a metaphor by private interpretation?

What lengths of blasphemy are brethren prepared to go to protect a cherished pet idea, an unsubstantiated theory that can not be found anywhere supported within the pages of the SRod message. That the 144,000 will rather travel on foot NOT having had their names changed AFTER the purification of the church to the Promised Land to encounter then Jacob's Time of Trouble?

Can you imagine the horror? God directs the angel to give the command “All Aboard” into His chariot to the 144,000 and they turn around AFTER being sealed as faithful servants and disobey the angel of the Lord and respond, “it’s ok, in the type ancient Israel walked so we are going to do the same. We will meet you there.”

The brethren with this fanciful idea cannot deny nor repudiate the literal reality of an invisible chariot present during the pre-11th hour period and the great and dreadful day of the Lord but suspend one of its most important functions to fulfilling what is quoted in the SRod message numerous times in fulfillment of interpreted prophecy.

   Let us be God's real people, logical thinkers, not bait hunters.—2TG24:23.3

   Says the Spirit of Prophecy, "Close reasoners and logical thinkers are few."—3SC5,6:7.8

Lu 18:17—Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.