Don't Let Water Baptism Stop You From The Ultimate Goal!
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Water baptism is an exciting decision that many followers of Christ make in their journey of faith. However, many believers think that once they have been baptized by water, they have reached the end goal. Water baptism is the first step towards reaching the ultimate goal of being baptized by fire, which is the Holy Spirit.
In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist says:
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
I believe that the Baptism with fire is not the same as the Holy Spirit baptism as many have interpreted it. It is a literal fire to a spiritual fire. Water represents the flood and fire is fire. But since we can't be baptized with fire from men servants, God performs it instead. I have been baptized with fire from the Holy Spirit and others I have talked to have also, but not everyone knows about this which is why they are deceived.
Matthew 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"
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Also it's important to understand the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is to allow us to get to know who God is and so that we can learn the difference between us and God, and see that God is good and desirable. Galatians 5:22-23 is a good place to start in getting to understand what qualities God has. The baptism with the Holy Spirit allows us to see how evil we are and how good God is. It shows us contrast.
Also I beleive that the baptism with fire is more of a knowledge of Good and Evil system that God uses. Fire is hellfire and the baptism with fire teaches us about evil, that way we don't need to sin to learn about evil.
Therefore we have the baptism of the Holy Spirit to learn about good and the baptism with fire to learn about evil. Reference Genesis:
Genesis 3:4-5
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Which was somewhat a lie, because God teaches us to be like him and to know good and evil with the Baptisms.
Genesis 3:22
"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:"
When John the Baptist told the wicked Pharisees that they were "offspring of vipers", he was baptizing sincere Jews for sins against the Mosaic Law, and asked rhetorically of the Pharisees: "Who has warned you to flee from the coming wrath ?" and then said for them to "produce fruits (or holy conduct) that befits repentance", but which the Pharisees felt that because they were Abraham's "offspring", they were "safe" from God's anger.(Matt 3:7-9)
However, John told them: "Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. The ax is already lying at the root of the trees. Every tree, then, that does not produce fine fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire. I, for my part, baptize you with water because of your repentance, but the one coming after me is stronger than I am, whose sandals I am not worthy to take off. That one will baptize you with holy spirit and with fire. His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clean up his threshing floor completely and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with fire that cannot be put out."(Matt 3:9-12)
Those who fully accepted Jesus (who was baptized by John shortly after the above interaction, Matt 3:13-17) and showed genuine repentance of their often illicit behavior (such as "tax collectors and the prostitutes"), would later be baptized with holy spirit (Matt 21:28-32; Acts 2:4), but the Pharisees remained unchanged, keeping their arrogant stance, being noted for their public displays of righteousness to impress others, (Matt 6:1, 2, 5) so that they and the rest of the apostate nation of Israel would be baptized (or "immersed") with "fire", or destruction.(Note: the word Pharisee means "Separated Ones", because they stood aloof and away from every one else, putting themselves on a pedestal as if they were the only ones "righteous" and looked down on the common people, calling them "accursed people" or the ‛am-ha·’a´rets [Hebrew meaning "people of the land" but used in contemptuous sense by the Pharisees], see John 7:49)
As John noted, "his (or Jesus) winnowing shovel is in his hand (symbolically separating "the good from the bad", throwing away the "chaff"), and he will clean up his threshing floor completely and will gather his wheat (or those baptized with holy spirit as true Christians) into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with (symbolic) fire that cannot be put out (or everlasting destruction, which Jesus called "Gehenna" at Matt 5:22, 30)."
Hence, the incorrigible nation of Israel received its fiery destruction or ' baptism by fire ' when General Titus laid siege to Jerusalem on April 3, 70 C.E., when many Jews had come for the annual Passover, and by August 30 of that year, Jerusalem lay totally destroyed, and in which Jesus words concerning the temple that "not a stone will be left on a stone" proved true.(Matt 24:2)
The Jewish historian Josephus gave an estimate of 1.1 million Jews having been slain, and some 97,000 taken captive by the Roman armies, only for some to die in gladiatorial fights as well as by other means or scattered among the nations.(The Jewish Wars, VI, 420, [ix, 3])
Thus, Jesus was the one who saw to it that the Pharisees and the rest of the apostate nation of Israel were ' baptized by fire ' by the destructive hand of the Romans because they rejected him as the promised Messiah, and whereby he said just three days before he was executed on a torture stake at the demands of the Jewish religious leaders (John 19:15; 1 Thess 2:14, 15), that "your house (or the temple in Jerusalem that was the center of worship for the Jews) is abandoned to you", with God having removed his favor and presence from it.(Matt 23:37-39)
His favor had now been transferred to "the Israel of God" or a "new nation" that is composed of both Jews and Gentiles, that are the 144,000 seen in Revelation and that make up God's Kingdom and are baptized or "sealed" with holy spirit.(Eph 1:13, 14; Rev 7:4; 14:1-3; Isa 26:1, 2; 66:7-10; Matt 21:42, 43; Gal 6:16; Note: God's personal name is Jehovah, Ps 83:18)
However, John told them: "Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. The ax is already lying at the root of the trees. Every tree, then, that does not produce fine fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire. I, for my part, baptize you with water because of your repentance, but the one coming after me is stronger than I am, whose sandals I am not worthy to take off. That one will baptize you with holy spirit and with fire. His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clean up his threshing floor completely and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with fire that cannot be put out."(Matt 3:9-12)
Those who fully accepted Jesus (who was baptized by John shortly after the above interaction, Matt 3:13-17) and showed genuine repentance of their often illicit behavior (such as "tax collectors and the prostitutes"), would later be baptized with holy spirit (Matt 21:28-32; Acts 2:4), but the Pharisees remained unchanged, keeping their arrogant stance, being noted for their public displays of righteousness to impress others, (Matt 6:1, 2, 5) so that they and the rest of the apostate nation of Israel would be baptized (or "immersed") with "fire", or destruction.(Note: the word Pharisee means "Separated Ones", because they stood aloof and away from every one else, putting themselves on a pedestal as if they were the only ones "righteous" and looked down on the common people, calling them "accursed people" or the ‛am-ha·’a´rets [Hebrew meaning "people of the land" but used in contemptuous sense by the Pharisees], see John 7:49)
As John noted, "his (or Jesus) winnowing shovel is in his hand (symbolically separating "the good from the bad", throwing away the "chaff"), and he will clean up his threshing floor completely and will gather his wheat (or those baptized with holy spirit as true Christians) into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with (symbolic) fire that cannot be put out (or everlasting destruction, which Jesus called "Gehenna" at Matt 5:22, 30)."
Hence, the incorrigible nation of Israel received its fiery destruction or ' baptism by fire ' when General Titus laid siege to Jerusalem on April 3, 70 C.E., when many Jews had come for the annual Passover, and by August 30 of that year, Jerusalem lay totally destroyed, and in which Jesus words concerning the temple that "not a stone will be left on a stone" proved true.(Matt 24:2)
The Jewish historian Josephus gave an estimate of 1.1 million Jews having been slain, and some 97,000 taken captive by the Roman armies, only for some to die in gladiatorial fights as well as by other means or scattered among the nations.(The Jewish Wars, VI, 420, [ix, 3])
Thus, Jesus was the one who saw to it that the Pharisees and the rest of the apostate nation of Israel were ' baptized by fire ' by the destructive hand of the Romans because they rejected him as the promised Messiah, and whereby he said just three days before he was executed on a torture stake at the demands of the Jewish religious leaders (John 19:15; 1 Thess 2:14, 15), that "your house (or the temple in Jerusalem that was the center of worship for the Jews) is abandoned to you", with God having removed his favor and presence from it.(Matt 23:37-39)
His favor had now been transferred to "the Israel of God" or a "new nation" that is composed of both Jews and Gentiles, that are the 144,000 seen in Revelation and that make up God's Kingdom and are baptized or "sealed" with holy spirit.(Eph 1:13, 14; Rev 7:4; 14:1-3; Isa 26:1, 2; 66:7-10; Matt 21:42, 43; Gal 6:16; Note: God's personal name is Jehovah, Ps 83:18)
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