Claim. The clouds in the cloud-return prophecies symbolize devout reborn believers — Christians whose hearts dwell in heaven — and Jesus’s own prophecies that he would come “on the clouds” had two deliberate strategic purposes: to prevent false-messiah delusions from causing universal confusion, and to inflame the zeal of first-century disciples carrying a heavy cross.
Elaboration. Per 2.3. What is the Meaning of the Verse that Christ Will Return on the Clouds?: 7 — “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, every one who pierced him.” If Christ were a spirit on literal clouds, only those with spiritually-open senses (like St. Stephen seeing Jesus at God’s right hand) could see him; the “every eye” cannot be literal-spirit. And “every one who pierced him” cannot mean the Roman soldiers — they will not be resurrected at his coming. It must metaphorically describe Christians alive at the Second Advent who hold fast to the cloud-return belief and reject him when he comes humbly. If “those who pierced him” is metaphorical, the clouds in the same verse must be metaphorical too.
What clouds symbolize: clouds form by evaporation of impure water; in the Bible, water often symbolizes fallen people; clouds therefore symbolize devout believers reborn from their fallen state, hearts in heaven. The Bible also uses clouds to symbolize multitudes. The Moses-wilderness pillar-of-cloud represented Jesus (the leader of Israel to come), the pillar-of-fire represented the Holy Spirit. “Jesus’s coming on the clouds signifies that he will emerge from among a group of reborn believers to become the leader of Christians, the Second Israel.” The 37 “where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered” answer to “where” reaches the same conclusion by another route.
Why Jesus said clouds (§2.4): First, antichrist-prevention — if Jesus had plainly revealed physical-birth return, anyone with high spirituality and humble background could claim to be the SA and produce mass delusion; the cloud-expectation kept Christians’ gaze skyward and avoided that turmoil. Second, disciple-encouragement — “you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of man comes” and “some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man” inflamed disciples to overcome Roman/Judaic persecution and build the early church.
See also. dp-caught-up-in-clouds-means-received-into-good-sovereignty · dp-bible-eschatological-imagery-read-symbolically · dp-you-are-the-lord-revelations-are-position-recognition-not-identity