How could the Jews believe that Jesus was this Messiah? While Jesus vowed to fulfill these prophecies during his second coming, the Jews found no basis for two-advent eschatology. If the prophets anticipated the two advents, they were silent about it. Jesus’ most devoted disciples were stunned by the promise of a second coming. John the Baptist questioned whether Jesus was the Messiah (Matt. 11:3). As Michael Horton points out, John did not think of eschatology “in terms of two-distinct advents of Messiah.”[1] The apostles “imagined that they were going to Jerusalem for an inaugural ball rather than a bloody crucifixion.”[2] In their last words to Jesus, they asked: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6)?
It seems that nobody expected two messianic advents. Was this caused by a biblical omission or a hermeneutical deficiency? While the Old Testament never promised two advents, I contend that the Bible establishes a two-staged eschatological pattern through the pairing of typological pictures of baptism. We will examine the most significant doublets of baptismal types in the story of redemptive history — involving creation and the Flood, Moses and Joshua, and Elijah and Elisha. In this pattern, the first baptismal type signifies an inauguration with the promise of salvation and rest. The second baptismal type then marks the fulfillment of the promise — forging a new beginning for the faithful and bringing destruction upon the wicked. In Christ, this two-stage pattern finds its ultimate fulfillment, and mankind achieves the elusive rest for which it longs.
New Testament: Two Baptisms
The Westminster Confession of Faith explains that the sacrament of baptism bestows immediate “admission…into the visible Church,” but it also looks ahead — serving as a “sign and seal of the covenant of grace.”[3] The sacraments “become effectual means of salvation…only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in them that by faith receive them.”[4]
This baptism, which brings admission into the visible church, anticipates a far greater baptism. John promised that the Messiah would baptize with “the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matt. 3:11). The first part of John’s promise was fulfilled at Pentecost when the disciples were “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5, 2:4). Some suggest that the baptism of fire was fulfilled with the “tongues of fire” at Pentecost. Yet consider the context surrounding John’s promise. The preceding verse mentions trees being thrown into the “fire.” The following verse speaks of chaff being thrown into “unquenchable fire.” Therefore, the baptism “with fire” in verse eleven likely refers to judgment.
These two baptisms are the bookends of our pre-glorified journey. At the judgment, all men will pass through the fires, but those of faith will not be consumed. This is not purgatory. Our God is a sanctuary in the midst of flames. When the Lord appeared in the burning bush, his presence prevented the bush from being consumed (Exod. 3:2). When Moses climbed into what “looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain” (Exod. 24:17), he was transfigured, not consumed (Exod. 34:29). When Elijah was taken to heaven in a “chariot of fire,” he was transfigured, not consumed (2 Kgs. 2:11). When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the blazing furnace, the Lord was with them, and they were not even singed (Dan. 3:27). John Calvin wrote, “In baptism we perceive that we are covered and protected by the blood of Christ, lest the wrath of God, which is truly an intolerable flame, should lie upon us.”[5]
This baptism of fire simultaneously consumes the wicked and glorifies the faithful. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “For with fire and with his sword the Lord will execute judgment upon all men” (Isa. 66:16). God promised, “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze” (Isa. 43:2). Daniel promised that believers will be “purified, made spotless, and refined” (Dan. 12:10). Even the earth, which was baptized in the floodwaters (1 Pet. 3:21), is now being “reserved for fire” (2 Pet. 3:7) — longing for the day when it “will be set free from its slavery to corruption” (Rom. 8:21).
The Second Coming will bring starkly different realities for the faithful and the wicked. For the righteous, the Day of Judgment “will rise with healing in its wings” (Mal. 4:2), and the returning Christ “will be like a refiner’s fire” (Mal. 3:2). On the other hand, that day “will burn like a furnace” for evildoers, and it will “set them on fire” (Mal. 4:1). Malachi concludes by claiming that the “great and dreadful day of the Lord” must be preceded by the return of Elijah (Mal. 4:5), or John the Baptist (Matt. 11:14). God ordained that a baptism of Spirit and waters would precede the baptism of fire.
As we will see tomorrow, the greatest Old Testament acts of redemption always seemed to come in two stages. Tomorrow, we will examine creation & the Flood and Moses & Joshua.
[1] Michael Horton, The
Christian Faith, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 922.
[2]
Horton, The Christian Faith, 923.
[3]
The Westminster Confession of Faith, 3rd ed., Chapter 28: Section 1: “Of
Baptism,” (Atlanta: Committee for Christian Education and Publication, PCA,
1990), 88.
[4]
Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q.91.
[5]
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian
Religion, trans. by Henry Beveridge, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing, 1989), 2:517. [Ch. 15: sect.
9].
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