This morning my brother asked me a question about the following biblical text.
“I indeed baptize you in 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 in the Holy Spirit and in fire .”—Matthew 3:11.
He, my brother, had a conversation with a brother in the congregation who stated that “being baptized by fire was not the [same as being baptized by] Holy Spirit.” Apparently, it seems, the brother’s statement came from the Society’s CD-ROM. The brother stated that “fire always means destruction or something destructive and not rewarding.” The brother also said “that the Disciples were not ‘immersed’ in fire” and, thus, asserting that what happened at Pentecost was not a baptism in fire.
I wondered about this and asked my Lord: ‘Lord, how am I to respond to this inquiry? I don’t know how to answer him (my brother).’ My Lord said to me: ‘Do what you normally do. Look up the words. Start there.’ So that’s what I did. I looked up the words.
I then began writing the following to my brother:
While it is true the fire can destroy, it is also known to cleanse or make pure, while at the same time not destroy that which has been placed in the fire, yes?
Note that the Greek word for fire (pyr) means first: “to purify.” Thus, this “brother’s” assertion (and the Society’s CD-ROM explanation) that “fire always means destruction or something destructive and not rewarding” is false.
Note also the meaning of “baptize”: 1) to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk); 2) to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one's self, bathe.
Note too that while “baptism” is defined as “dipping or submerging,” it is also defined as “wash[ing]” and to “bathe,” which does not necessarily REQUIRE that one be totally submerged or IMMERSED in water (or fire) to be cleansed. One can be “wash[ed]” with a wash cloth and thus be made clean, yes? Meaning? Meaning, again, that one does not have to be totally IMMERSED in fire to be made clean (as some would have you believe MUST be done).
At this point, my Lord reminded me, ‘Did I not also say when washing ONLY the feet of my disciples:
‘He that has bathed does not need to have more than his feet washed, but is wholly clean.’”—John 13:10.
So it’s not necessary to be IMMERSED entirely or washed entirely to be made clean as some would have you believe MUST be the procedure. When Christ ‘washed’ the feet of his disciples it wasn’t necessary to bathe their entire bodies for them to be made clean, now was it?
My Lord then said to me: “When I washed their feet only, was I not, according to the definition of the words, ‘baptizing’ them?” Indeed he was. Thus, the flames of fire (holy spirit) above the heads of the disciples at Pentecost was also a “baptism” by ‘holy spirit and in fire.’
So, if you follow the meanings of the two words themselves, you get “being baptized” or, said another way, you get cleansed, washed, made clean, and bathed, with fire that purifies. Yes? Fire is first and foremost a cleansing agent before it becomes a destroying agent. Jah himself is described as a “consuming fire” and yet, what does He choose first? He chooses FIRST to save before the necessity of destroying. And it takes a long, long, long time for Him to get to that point of destroying. ‘Jah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness.’
So then, when John says that the One coming after him (Christ) will baptize with “holy spirit and in fire” it means Christ will “cleanse” and “purify” first and foremost.
--Inkie