Baptized With Fire

 “Baptized by Fire” The Signs of the Times

E. J. Waggoner

'How often do we hear people ask the Lord to baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire! But they do not know for what they are asking. They connect in a vague sort of way Matthew 3:11 and Acts 2:3, and suppose the latter to be the fulfillment of the former. But even though the cloven tongues were as of fire, and although they were upon all, the disciples were not in any sense baptized with the tongues or the fire. Baptize means to immerse, not to sit upon. They were on the day of Pentecost baptized with the Holy Spirit. The room in which they were was filled with the divine, life-giving influence, and they were literally immersed in the Holy Spirit, and the tongues were but another manifestation of the same Spirit.

There are two classes spoken of by John in Matthew 3:11. One class-the faithful-will be baptized with the Holy Spirit; the other-the wicked-will be baptized by fire; immersed in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15), and utterly burned up. Revelation 20:9. This application of Matthew 3:11 is shown to be correct, by the next verse: “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Let no one pray, therefore, to be baptized with fire, unless he wishes the Lord to burn him with fire.'