Mike,

Can you please explain about this river Jordan? The bible tells us much about Joshua crossing of the River Jordan, and Elijah And Elisha crossing the River Jordan to Jericho. What is the symbolic meaning of this crossing the River Jordan in scripture? Please reply.
God Bless You!
J____

Hi again J____,
You ask:

Is River Jordan Just Symbolically Mentioned In The Scripture?

Thank you for your question.
Crossing the Jordan is the same as crossing the flood of Noah or crossing the Red Sea. All are types and shadows of baptism according to these verses of scripture:

1Pe 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
1Pe 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
1Co 10:2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

The typical baptism of the Old Testament was done with water, and it did not change the hearts of those who were baptized in water, be it the flood of Noah, the Red Sea, or the Jordan River. On the other hand the true baptism of the New Testament, of which all of those Old Testament baptisms are but types and shadows, is done with with the fiery word of God which enters into our hearts and judges us and changes us from within.
Look at these verses of scripture, and let them speak for themselves:

Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Mat 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? [“Lose life… {Mat 10:39} die daily… {1Co 15:31} living sacrifice… {Rom 12:1} crucified with Christ”{Gal 2:20}] They say unto him, We are able.
Mat 20:23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Here is what all these verses address:

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by [ the baptism of] fire; and the [ baptism of] fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Here are a few verses which give us the spiritual, Biblical meaning of the word ‘fire’:

Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Jer 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
Jer 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

What “tries” all men are Christ’s words which have been written down for us so we, too, can “try the spirits”. We cannot “try the spirits” when we regard anything said which is “above that which is written”. In other words we cannot think about the written Word of God. When we so much as entertain the thought that the words of a prophet or a minister, which are “above that which is written” as God’s word, are truth, we have at that moment severed our relationship with God, and we are adrift on a stormy sea which will destroy us.
Here are those words which we are to read, believe and live by. Here is “that which is written”:

Joh 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
1Co 4:6 Now these things, brothers, I applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us ye might learn not to think above that which is written, so that ye may not be puffed up, one over the one against the other. (ACV)
1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world [“think[ ing] above that which is written”].

So let no one “think above that which is written”. “The word [ Christ] has spoken” may be His written Word, but it is still spirit:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

I hope all these verses of scripture help you to understand that the baptisms of scripture are all types and shadows of the baptism of fire spoken of by John the baptist:

Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Your brother in Christ,
Mike