The Baptism of Fire

by Jeff Smelser

What We Learn by Comparing Mark’s Account with the Accounts Found in Matthew and Luke

According to Matthew 3:11, John said, “The one who is coming after me is more powerful than I” (CSB), and he illustrated the point by contrasting his own ability to baptize in water with the ability of the one coming after to baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire.

An important question is whether baptism “in the Holy Spirit and fire” is one baptism or two. Are the people baptized in the Holy Spirit also baptized in fire, or does John have in mind two different groups of people, one being baptized in the Holy Spirit and the other being baptized in fire? Should we desire the baptism in fire?

A popular interpretation among Pentecostals and Charismatics is that one baptism is in view. They imagine a baptism that involves both the Holy Spirit and fire, and they see this baptism in fire as something we should desire. They think of “being on fire for the Lord.” Citing Acts 2:1-4, some of them connect baptism in fire with speaking in tongues.

However, it has often been noted that, in this context, John uses fire as a figure of condemnation and destruction. Immediately before and immediately after the mention of Jesus’ power to baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire, John spoke of trees that do not bear good fruit being cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:10), and of chaff that has been separated from wheat being burned up with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12). In the midst of John’s talk of chaff and unfruitful trees being burned up, it hardly seems appropriate to construe John’s mention of a baptism in fire as something we should desire.

But I recently noticed something that clarifies my understanding of this baptism in fire. The contrast between Mark’s account of John’s words and the accounts in Matthew and Luke is key.

First, let’s notice what we find in Matthew and Luke. Crowds (Matthew notes “the Pharisees and Sadducees” in particular) were going out to be baptized by John, and John challenged them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” In both Matthew and Luke, John warns, “the axe is already laid at the root of the trees.” The point is, judgment is coming. The unfruitful trees are about to be “cut down and thrown into the fire.” Both Matthew and Luke also include John’s description of chaff separated from wheat and burned up “with unquenchable fire.” And in the midst of these things, both Matthew and Luke include John’s mention of a baptism in fire.

Now look at Mark’s account. There is no mention of a “brood of vipers,” of “wrath to come,” of an axe that “is already laid at the root of the trees,” of the trees that are “thrown into the fire,” or of chaff that is burned up “with unquenchable fire.” And you know what else isn’t included in Mark’s account? Baptism in fire.

Mark mentions none of the negative things, and he doesn’t mention baptism in fire. He only speaks of baptism in the Holy Spirit.

So what do we have? We have three accounts of John’s message wherein he contrasts himself with one who is coming afterward, one who is more powerful than John. In Mark, the focus is entirely on the positive response to John’s baptism of repentance unto remission of sins, and on the more powerful one who would come after John and have the power to baptize in the Holy Spirit. But in Matthew and Luke, we see a focus on the interest shown by the religious elites of Judaism, the “brood of vipers,” those whom Jesus himself would later condemn. When they come out to John’s baptism, they are rebuked. Wrath is coming, and they will be the objects of that wrath. Hence the warnings about what happens to trees that don’t bear good fruit and to chaff as opposed to wheat. And so in the accounts of Matthew and Luke, John’s description of the one who is more powerful includes not only the ability to baptize in the Holy Spirit, but also the ability to condemn to unquenchable fire. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Baptism by fire is mentioned only in the two accounts that highlight the brood of vipers for whom wrath was coming.

Don’t make the passage a discussion of what everyone should hope to receive from Jesus. See the passage as highlighting Jesus’ superiority to John and, in Matthew and Luke especially, what was in store from that more powerful one for the hypocritical religious leaders who were not bearing good fruit.