'The Water of Life' & the Coming of the Age of Aquarius

Jesus, during His earthly ministry, accrued several different titles, but none was more fitting, metaphorically speaking, than the one above! The importance of water to the human body cannot be denied; without that most necessary of ingredients, our bodies would, sooner or later, dry up & blow away. Okay, so technically, Jesus was never referred to as the water of life, but He did say that He would give us this precious Gift, through His Spirit! At the Well in Samaria, as recorded in John 4:1-26, Jesus told a certain woman that 'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life'. The Story here recorded alluded to the transition that was taking place during the ministry of Jesus, from righteousness through the Law to Righteousness through the Spirit. The ordinary water found in say, a well or a river, will nourish the body for a time, but this biology is only meant to persevere so long, then even water will do it no good!

Water is a necessity of life! Though I have never personally been there, basic science will tell even the most casual observer that because of a lack of water, many areas of the Dark Continent, also known as Africa, are well-nigh useless for such basic needs as growing crops. Steps are being taken as we speak to remedy this situation, such as drilling wells in those areas, but there are still certain regions that simply will not support biological life. Even in our own country, certain regions are less arable than others, not just because they have a much shorter growing season, being further north, but because of less rainfall, they simply will not naturally support the kind of biological life that others will.As in other areas of biology, though & with the aid of Science & Technology, mankind has taken giant leaps in bringing water to those areas less fortunate.

For hundreds of years, orthodox Christianity has, to a degree, spurned astrology as 'worldly', or even 'of the devil, but this was not always so! Astronomy, or what might be called the study of heavenly bodies, is akin to astrology, but it pretty much stops there; astrology, on the other hand, bring a bit of mysticism into the mix, with the claim of being prophetic, or telling the future. It's rather interesting that the word 'astronomy', when broken down, would mean, more or less, 'heaven's law', whereas 'astrology' would be more true to 'the study of the heavens'. But astrology his more or less taboo among more traditional, conservative Christians, while astronomy is accepted!

The apostles, Paul in particular, often referred to 'the ages'; though we usually think of only two 'ages', it seems that there was a multiplicity of eras wherein certain things occurred in a certain manner, to a certain people. I am by no means an astrologer, but wiser men & women than me have made studies of these different 'ages' & found that, indeed, they seem to have been ruled by different spirits, with different motives. Several of the constellations are mentioned by name: the books of Job & Amos make mention of 'the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades'. Taurus is the astrological sign that the Bible calls 'the Pleiades' & the first two beasts of Daniel's vision correspond to 'the Bear' & 'the Lion', or Leo. This is not a coincidence; the fact that Jesus told His followers that, until His Kingdom came, they would be 'fishers of men' ( Matthew 4:19 ), should not be lost on those who follow the 'signs'; that was the age of Pisces, or the fish. After the age of Pisces comes the age of Aquarius, also known as the water-bearer!

When Jesus told the woman at the well that those who metaphorically drank the 'water' that He provided would become vessels of Living Water, He referred to the fact that the age of Pisces was almost at an end & that they were at the dawning of the age of Aquarius.Although the age of Pisces was a fairly short age, as ages go, lasting only forty or so years, this era is also known as the transitional period between the Cross & the destruction of Jerusalem & the Temple in AD70: this period witnessed the birth of the early church, during which the disciples of Jesus were known as 'fishers of men', pulling men out of the metaphorical 'Sea' ( Gentiles ) into the Kingdom of God, or Heaven. During His ministry, Jesus taught His disciples to be 'fishers of men', but that in the New Age ( in Him ) they would be water-bearers, or (ad ) Ministers of the Spirit!

Without the Water that Jesus promised, there can be no Lasting Life! It follows that to be born of the Spirit, in Essence, to inherit Everlasting Life, one must first be born of the Spirit. Jesus, in John 3, told Nicodemus as much. As, according to the fulfilled Book of Revelation, there is no more 'Sea' ( actually, the apostle Paul said the same earlier ), the disciples of Christ are no more 'fishers of men'; now they are simply water-bearers; unfortunately, many Christians believe were are still 'fishers of men'; maybe this is the heart of the problem with Christian missions today?

Charles Haddon Shank