Bishops wear a mitre hat picturing tongues of fire resting on each of the faithful (Acts 2). Yet many churches which speak of this as the baptism of fire predicted by John in Matthew 3:1-12 do not recognize a water baptism that only places water on the head. What a contradiction! How then is the coming of the Holy Spirit also a baptism of fire? The Baptist argument is that only immersion is a proper baptism. However, if we accept that the children of Israel were baptized into Moses in a non-literal sense because they walked through dry shod, then the door is open for other modes of baptism. Baptism with fire also has a double meaning. The unrepentant who choose hell over heaven will also be thrown into a lake of fire, a mode even Baptists might approve.
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