Your ShelfYour Projects

THE BAPTISM OF FIRE

14%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 28, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 52, No. 22.

Read the full edition

THE BAPTISM OF FIRE.

By G. W. A.

In Matt. 3:11, John the Baptist says to the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptism, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me [Christ, the Messiah] is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.”
The view is held by not a few critics, that this baptism of fire does not refer to the sanctifying fire of the Holy Spirit, such as fell on the apostles at Pentecost, Acts 2:3, but rather to the fire which will baptize the wicked at the time of the awful second death. See Rev. 20:9, 10, 14. Accordingly, in the late Prof. Whiting’s excellent translation of the New Testament, we find this phrase rendered, “He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit, or in fire.” This is wholly in agreement with the seventh and twelfth verses, where the expressions “the wrath to come” and “unquenchable fire” evidently refer to the destruction of the wicked in the fires of the last day.
It is pleasant to find the same view advanced in so popular a commentary as that of J. P. Lange, D. D., of Germany, although his translator, the Rev. Philip Schaff, has sought to controvert the view in a foot-note.
Mr. Lange’s notes on this clause are as follows: “He will either entirely immerse you in the Holy Ghost, as penitents, or, if impenitent, he will overwhelm you with the fire of judgment (and at last with hell-fire). This interpretation of the expression ‘fire’ has been propounded by many of the Fathers, . . . and among modern expositors, by Kuinoel, Schott, Neander, De Wette, and Meyer. But some commentators [the names are omitted] apply the expression to the kindling, sanctifying fire of the Holy Ghost. The warning tone of the passage, and the expression UNQUENCHABLE FIRE, in verse 12, are against this interpretation.”
The above thoughts seem to be quite in harmony with both reason and Scripture. It might also be observed that if the baptism by fire meant the baptism of the Holy Spirit, then the passage would simply mean, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with the Holy Ghost,” which is a tautology not to be tolerated.
G. W. A.