tbeachhead
Well-known member
In Luke 3, John the Baptist is preaching, and one of the memorable things he said has always intrigued me.
15The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John could be the Christ. 16John answered all of them: “I baptize you with water, but One more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
Is he speaking of three baptisms here, his and then two from Jesus? Is the baptism of Jesus both simultaneously? Or is one subsequent to the other?
But, then, he also says this: 17His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
This raises several questions for those who have never brought in a harvest by hand:
What could be the “chaff” that was once necessary for growth that is left behind at the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?
David Duplessis, known as "Father Pentecost", came to my little A/G church in Ashtabula, OH in the very early eighties, at the height of the Charismatic renewal. One thing he said has gripped me ever since. I still hear him say it with his Scottish accent: "Chaff is not sin. Chaff is chaff. You can't have wheat without the chaff. And once the wheat is ripe, the chaff has no more purpose, and is fit to be burned.
In that light, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the entire Jewish Orthodoxy, were as essential to the church as Jesus, in that without the preservation of the Word to which they had dedicated themselves, there would have been no Israel to whom Jesus should come. Note, once Jesus came, they were cast aside, ostensibly burned.
The chaff is as essential to the development of the seed, as the seed itself is essential to the future of the crop.
That's probably why the critics' role is so vital to the Church.
15The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John could be the Christ. 16John answered all of them: “I baptize you with water, but One more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
Is he speaking of three baptisms here, his and then two from Jesus? Is the baptism of Jesus both simultaneously? Or is one subsequent to the other?
But, then, he also says this: 17His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
This raises several questions for those who have never brought in a harvest by hand:
- What is the purpose of a “winnowing fork”?
- What does it mean to “winnow wheat”?
- What do you “clear the threshing floor” of?
- What is chaff?
- Is chaff evil?
...and... - Can you have wheat without first having chaff?
- Why or why not?
What could be the “chaff” that was once necessary for growth that is left behind at the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?
David Duplessis, known as "Father Pentecost", came to my little A/G church in Ashtabula, OH in the very early eighties, at the height of the Charismatic renewal. One thing he said has gripped me ever since. I still hear him say it with his Scottish accent: "Chaff is not sin. Chaff is chaff. You can't have wheat without the chaff. And once the wheat is ripe, the chaff has no more purpose, and is fit to be burned.
In that light, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the entire Jewish Orthodoxy, were as essential to the church as Jesus, in that without the preservation of the Word to which they had dedicated themselves, there would have been no Israel to whom Jesus should come. Note, once Jesus came, they were cast aside, ostensibly burned.
The chaff is as essential to the development of the seed, as the seed itself is essential to the future of the crop.
That's probably why the critics' role is so vital to the Church.
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