‘’…Will Baptize You With the Holy Spirit and Fire”

My teaching on this phrase yesterday morning seems to have sparked a lot of discussion. The phrase comes from Matt 3:11. Given the context of the verse itself and in particular, the following verse, my proposition was that this describes two types of baptism that come from the Lord, Jesus; one into salvation and another into judgment and condemnation.

Traditionally, this verse has been used to show that there was one baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire, an empowering yet refining baptism.

The difficulty in translating this verse revolves around the use of the English word 'and' for the Greek word 'kai'. Kai is a conjunction which can be translated a variety of ways depending on the Greek context. I can be translate as 'and' but it can also be translated as 'but also' as well.

The debate over this use of 'kai' goes as far back as two of the early Church Fathers, Chrysostom (who thought this was one phrase describing one baptism) and Origen (who saw it as two words describing two baptisms).

In any event, any translation of the word 'kai' would have to be in harmony with the context of the verse which means it would have to flow, with some sense of continuity, into Matt 3:12. When taken in this context, the meaning of the two baptisms becomes clear as does the intent of the author. He's talking about salvation and judgment.

There are a lot of fires mentioned in Scripture. You have the consuming fire that destroys (Deut 9:3), the consuming fire that demands our all without destroying us (Heb 12:29), refining fire (Rev 3:18) and tongues as of fire (Acts 2:3) among others. In order to fully understand how these fires are used, they have to be read within the context of the verses and passages they are written in just like we find in Matt 3:11.