Rethinking The Baptism in The
Holy Spirit
This article was first written in
1993. It
consist of three pages and has about 12,500 words. I have not
really changed any of the text from its original.
Chapter One
Introduction
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit means different things to different people. This issue
has divided the Evangelical church for a long time. Its my thinking such division is
unnecessary when the subject is understood properly in its Biblical context.
In 1971 I was first introduced to the Pentecostal teaching on this subject. After
hearing what was said I felt that the subject matter was important. To put it simply, I
wanted this experience.
The following is my personal testimony and how I think on the subject. Once you see my
thinking, which in the history of the church is not mine alone, then you may come to
appreciate it and see its natural and practical consequences.
My hope is that you will take the time to think about what I say and not just accept
what I or anyone else has to say. That is part of our problem today. We fail to do the
research. We are fast food Christians. We just drive up to our local Christian bookstore
and get the latest book and accept its teaching as our own. We don't like to prepare the
food ourselves. Anything worth believing is worth searching out on our own and coming to
our personal well thought out conclusions.
Chapter Two
The Beginning Of My Experience
After many, and I do mean many emotional trips to the altar, (that I am sure
were good but never did seem to help me know if I was a Christian or not), I met the Lord
in quite a simple way. After watching Billy Graham on television one night I knelt down by
my bed. In a very unemotional five seconds I said, "Lord, if I am not forgiven please
forgive me". It was short and simple but very real, although at the time I did not
know how real that short prayer was. The next day things did change. I read my Bible and
prayed and did the things Christians do because I really wanted to do them. I no longer
did things to satisfy my guilt. A transformation did occur that night. It goes to prove
that although emotions are good and the Lord should be involved in our emotions, they do
not always have to accompany a valid experience with the Lord. All of those emotional
encounters produced no change of heart, yet the Lord responded to one short five second
prayer.
The first time that I was in what you would call a charismatic meeting was in a school
converted into a Christian outreach centre in Kentucky. The room we were in was a normal
sized classroom. You might well imagine one of your highschool classrooms since basically
that is what it was. The room was very crowded and this is what I observed.
First of all I noted the people. It was standing room only. A matter of fact you really
could not say standing room only. The reason being is that people were doing more than
standing. There were people sitting on window sills, the floor, or wherever they could
squeeze themselves into. It reminded me of the time in the book of Acts where Paul was
preaching and someone fell asleep and fell out of the window and needed prayer to bring
him back to life. It meant that the man had to have been sitting on a window sill in order
to have fallen out the window, right? Well the same here, except no one fell out the
window.
Yes, the number of people in that room was something. There definitely was quite a lot
of interest, but even more than the number were the people themselves. There were old
people in their seventies and there were teenagers, and all shapes and sizes in between.
Talk about people being in one accord, well I saw that there. I was so used to the church
being segregated into children, youth, young married couples, middle aged people and
seniors. To see them all in one room at one time was shocking at the least.
Then the meeting began and this was the thing that I really liked. People started
singing these new songs, or at least they were new to me. The lyrics were worshipful,
giving adoration and thanks to the Lord. Then at one point they stopped singing and there
was silence and then very quietly some started to sing in tongues. Everyone was singing in
a different language that the Lord had given them. It started quietly and then grew in
strength and loudness until it all ended. There is no way that I can relate this
experience to you in its fullness if you have not experienced it, or at least seen it. I
had never seen anything like that before. I was impressed. After the singing there was a
message in tongues and then someone interpreted it. That too was new to me. Then came a
time of prayer where people prayed for each other. They laid their hands on one another
and prayed. Everyone was involved. It was more than just the pastor up front doing the
praying. Everyone prayed.
So there it was. Besides being very impressed I knew the Lord was there in that
gathering. That night was another life changer for me. I knew that I did not have what
these people had and after seeing what they had I sure wanted it too.
The following months were an interesting experience in trying to find what these people
actually had working in their lives.
Chapter Three
The Search
The time in Kentucky was March 1971 and upon my arrival home I began my search.
I wanted this thing called the baptism in the Holy Spirit. At that time I had pretty well
accepted the Pentecostal way of thinking concerning this. It was not until later on that I
had shifted my thoughts on the subject. Anyway, this is what happened to me at that time.
Actually my search had begun that Tuesday night down in Kentucky in that jammed packed
spirit filled room . At the end of the gathering there was a call to anyone who wanted
prayer for any reason. So I stayed behind looking for this new experience with the Holy
Spirit. I told the men why I was there and that I was somewhat nervous. They tried to
relieve my anxieties by telling me that all brides felt more than a little nervous on
their wedding day. I am not sure that my nervousness actually went away, but they
proceeded to tell me more about what I was looking for, and that I was about to meet the
bridegroom Himself. What a thought that was. After a short while of sharing back and forth
they laid their hands on my head and began to pray. I really can't remember just what they
prayed, but what I remember happening was nothing. That's right, nothing. I felt
absolutely nothing. I had no feeling at all. That is not what I was hoping for.
Now that I think about it, the bridegroom analogy was inaccurate. I was a Christian and
therefore I already had met bridegroom. They were thinking that I had never met the Lord
before. That was not right. I had met Him before and now was asking Him for something.
After the meeting was completed someone told me that I needed to accept this by faith.
That meant that I needed to believe that it really did happen even though I felt that
nothing had happened. I am not sure that I really believed this type of thinking. I am not
convinced of this type of thinking to this very day. That kind of thinking seems like some
kind of spiritual and mental gymnastics to me. You have to trick or convince yourself that
something happened when in reality it didn't. Some call that faith.
Whether I really believed something happened that night or not I definitely was not
satisfied and my search really did begin in earnest after I arrived home.
At that time there was something else that increased my desire. Some of my best friends
had received this experience and started speaking in tongues. That really made me want it
more. I can remember quite clearly asking my best friend, "how do you speak in
tongues?" It must have been after the fiftieth time that I asked him that question
when he gave me this response. He told me that if I said hallelujah ten times real fast
that my tongue would flip over and then it would all happen. I might have tried that. I
really cannot remember. If I did try it, it didn't work. I'm sure he was joking anyway.
It was a month after Kentucky when I found myself in a small prayer meeting with my
tongues speaking friends. We were huddled around in a little circle that night when all of
a sudden as I was praying this funny little word slipped out of my mouth. "Boy",
I thought, "was that a word in tongues"? I sure thought it was and to this day I
still believe it was, although I got a little disillusioned with it all after awhile.
How could this be speaking in tongues? It certainly was a little strange. I had a hard
time thinking the Lord would give me just one word of this new language. I tended to give
up, but anytime I found myself in one of those prayer meetings with my friends I seemed to
say this one word in my time of prayer. That is, I said it in my personal prayer to the
Lord, not openly in front of everyone.
In one of these subsequent meetings after saying, or praying this one word, another
word slipped out. This was quite interesting. Now I seemed to have two words. Two words
still did not seem right to me. One does not pray in tongues using only two words.
Then again in one of these gatherings in a similar situation another word came. So
first came one word, then two, and now three. Three whole words in this supposively new
language. By this time it was well into the summer and a number of weeks past with any new
words. I struggled over the idea that three words could validate a real gift from the
Lord. So over that summer the struggle intensified.
There was a man I new that did not believe that tongues was for today and he told me
that I needed to seek the Giver of gifts and not the gifts. He had a point so I did seek
the Lord, but deep down inside I wanted that particular gift. Although part of me was
giving up there was something in me that told me to hang in.
Alone in my room, singing to the Lord with my guitar in hand, the Lord met me once
again. I was singing Christian songs that I new. I had just decided to sing those three
little words that I had given up on. Then it all happened. After those three words came a
sentence, and then a paragraph, and then more and. I probably sang in tongues for a half
hour or more. I definitely knew at that moment I had received what I was looking for. I
did not need to accept it by faith any more. I had met the Lord and He had given me what I
was looking for. I believed it to be real, and still do today. I started praying in
tongues back in 1971 and now in 2001 there's not a day that passes by where I don't use
that gift He gave me.
This is a gift from God for us in these days. This is briefly the way it happened to
me. Now let me show you from the Bible what I have learned concerning this subject.
I believe that a mental understanding of spiritual experiences is necessary. If we do
not have a good and balanced understanding of our experiences then they can lead us
astray. We need to check what we experience by the Word of God and we need to understand
them in light of His Word. For this reason I continue on, and will relate to you what my
Biblical understanding is in this area of Christian life and teaching.
Chapter Four
The Old Testament
In the first chapter of the book of Genesis it says that the Spirit of God moved
across the face of the earth. It did not take long for the Bible to show us that there is
a Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is seen in many places in the Old Testament. The main point I would
like to make here is that the Holy Spirit did not reside or live in anybody in the Old
Testament. Many times scripture says that the Spirit came on someone and they spoke the
Word of the Lord. There is a real distinction between the Spirit coming on someone and
actually living inside a person.
Man lost something back in the garden as a result of his disobedience. Man lost the
presence of God when he lost the Holy Spirit within. The separation between God and man
resulted from the withdrawal of His Spirit. Ever since that time it has been God's intent
to restore to man what was lost in the garden.
In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came on men to reveal God to Israel. After that
time was over Jesus Himself came to men to reveal God His Father to Israel and to the rest
of the world. It is at this point that I want to begin our Biblical tour through the New
Testament.
Chapter Five
The Holy Spirit and Jesus
Mary asked the angel Gabriel how she could conceive a child and his name would
be called Jesus. What must that moment have been like? We have felt God's Spirit come on
us resulting in many wonderful blessings. This experience of Mary's was most likely beyond
any that we would have.
Jesus' mother was Mary and His father was God Himself. I do not think that you could
have better genes than that. This means that when Jesus was born He had the Holy Spirit
residing in Him right from birth. I do not think this is too disputable, although some
might try to argue. He was God in the flesh. If you believe in the trinity you would have
to acknowledge this fact since the Spirit and Jesus are one.
In John 1:29 John the Baptist says one of my most favourite words that are found in the
Bible. He said, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."
Then John proceeded to tell how he saw the Spirit of God descend on Jesus. There are a
couple of points that should be made. First, there is more to the Spirit of God than one
body can contain, even the body of Jesus. Here the Spirit of God was in Jesus, and one
with Him. but at the same time the Spirit came on Jesus. That can be true in our life as
well, but most likely to a lesser degree. As born again Christians we do have the Spirit
of God within and yet He still comes on us at times.
John proceeded to say that he baptized with water but Jesus would baptize with the Holy
Spirit. This begins our search in the scriptures since this is the first mention of the
teaching entitled the baptism in the Spirit.
I really want to make one point clear. The point is that John said that Jesus would
baptize. This is a verb phrase. This is an action phrase. This is not a noun phrase, a non
action phrase. By this John was saying that Jesus will baptize you. He did not say that
you would receive "the baptism in the Holy Spirit", as an experience.
You may feel that I am splitting hairs on this point. I say this for a reason. The
Bible is an action book. It is a doing book, not merely a being book. It emphasizes doing
the work of a Christian, doing the work of a pastor, doing the work of a teacher, and so
on. It is more than just being a Christian, or holding the office of a pastor. We have
taken this verb phrase and turned it into a noun phrase. As a result we are seeking the
experience, called the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Many even leave out the words Holy
Spirit in the phrase and just call it "the Baptism". In so doing we begin to
seek the experience and not Jesus Himself. We fall into the twentieth century non
Christian way of optimizing our experience. We all want a better experience for ourselves
at the expense of others, or the truth. And here it is at the expense of Jesus. Do we want
an experience for the sake of receiving a blessing? I hope not. We should want the Holy
Spirit.
Besides, and this is the point of this whole article, we do not receive an experience.
We receive the Holy Spirit Himself. This I want to prove in the chapters ahead. The point
I want to make is that this thing we call the baptism is not a secondary experience. It is
not subsequent to salvation. It is salvation because being baptized in the Spirit is the
same thing as receiving the Spirit. And when you become a Christian, that is being born
again of the Spirit, it is at that time you receive the Holy Spirit. Also every time you
see the phrase baptize with the Spirit in the New Testament it is in reference to one
receiving the Spirit into his life for the first time.
John said that Jesus would baptize us in His Spirit. The baptizing is only the way in
which you receive the Spirit. The way, or means of getting something is not the important
issue. It is what you receive that is important. In this case we "receive the Holy
Spirit". The process, or the way this happens is like a baptism. like being totally
soaked in water.
Chapter Six
The Traditional Thinking
Before going farther there needs to be a little historical background. Back near
the turn of the century there was a group of people who met for prayer in California. The
Lord through His Spirit visited these people in a similar way to that found in Acts
chapter two.
After being blessed with this outpouring they went to their Bibles to see just what had
happened to them. They noted an Acts chapter two experience seemed to have happened to
them. Therefore they called this experience "the baptism in the Holy Spirit". I
know that this history lesson is extremely simplistic, but in a nut shell that is what
happened. This has become a well documented revival of the early twentieth century.
From this one outpouring came revival, and other events similar to this took place all
over. From these events denominations formed over the years that doctrinalized this
experience. Each group may have taken on slight variations on the subject over the passage
of time as they rethought it through.
As an aside at this point I would like to say that the doctrinalization of such an
experience is good to a point but I tend to think that things got carried away. We have
gotten the experience down to a T and if it does not happen the way our doctrine says,
then we question the validity of it right away. We also stress the doctrine and the
experience to a degree that I wonder if the Lord cares to fit His blessings into such a
confined and nicely packaged experience.
Traditionally this experience is said to be subsequent to salvation. That is to say, at
one point we get saved, or born again, and then at another place and time we receive the
baptism in the Spirit. There is two separate and distinct experiences. Some say, but not
all that the two can be one experience, but for the most part they are separate. This is
the first and main point that I want to dispute. It is my opinion that there are not two
experience but one experience that takes place when we first get saved.
The next point I would like to make is that some people who hold to this doctrine say
that first you get saved and then at this baptism you receive the Spirit. Now not everyone
believes this to be true, just some. You often here someone say, "have you received
the Holy Spirit since you have been saved". My opinion on this point is that this is
a fallacy and definitely is not Biblical. One is not a Christian until he receives the
Holy Spirit. Romans 8;9 clearly states that he that has not the Spirit of God is none of
His (does not belong to God). How then can a person be a Christian and not have the Spirit
.
If you believe you receive the Spirit at a subsequent time to initial salvation and the
Bible says that you do not belong to God if you do not have the Spirit, then where do you
stand before this second experience without the Holy Spirit. You cannot reconcile these
two thoughts. Tell me, can you reconcile this thinking with the Romans verse?
Some say that this second so-called experience is an outpouring of the Spirit, or a
filling. These people would say that you receive the Spirit at initial salvation then at a
second date you receive the baptism in the Spirit. This thinking is common.
What I really think is that lots of people really cannot verbalize very well what they
believe. I say this because I hear people using conflicting words and phrases. For example
lots of times I hear those who believe this experience is an outpouring ask, "have
you received the Spirit since you believed." A matter of fact I hear this many times.
They can't really mean this, or at the least they have not thought about it, because if
they believe this experience to be an outpouring and that they have received the Spirit
earlier at initial salvation, how could they logically ask if one has received the Spirit
at this second experience? How can you receive the Holy Spirit when you have already
received Him.
Now after confusing you I would like to show you through scripture that receiving the
Holy Spirit is the same thing as being baptized in the Spirit. They are synonymous. It is
one experience. Then as I show you this point I will draw certain conclusions that as a
result must follow this train of thought.
Chapter Seven
Preliminary to Acts Two
Before we look at Acts 2, I would like to backtrack to John 20;22. The setting
is one of the times that Jesus met with the eleven after His resurrection. He said,
"peace be to you..." Then He said, as He breathed on them, "receive you the
Holy Spirit." That seems simple enough, but what really happened at this point?
Without doing too much thinking you would think that they, the eleven, received the Holy
Spirit at that moment.
I believe they did not receive the Spirit at this point in time. I suppose if you
believe the baptism in the Spirit to be an outpouring of God's Spirit subsequent to
salvation you would they actually received the Spirit at this time.
One reason why I believe they did not receive the Spirit here is because of John 7;39
which says, "this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on him should
receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."
You see the Holy Spirit would be given at some future date. When was that? It says when
Jesus was glorified. The questions then becomes, when was Jesus glorified?
I think that Jesus was glorified at His ascension. The only other time you might say
that He was glorified would be at His resurrection. I do not think that is the case. Jesus
said in John 17;5, "Father glorify me with thine own self, with the glory I had with
you before the world was." This glory was not fully realized until Jesus ascended up
into heaven. It was when He returned to heaven that the oneness He had with the Father was
put back together. As Jesus said in John 17, the oneness is the glory He is talking about.
If this then is the case Jesus could not have given the Spirit in John 20. It had to have
been some type of symbolic gesture. This is an important point in relation to Acts 2. It
is important because it shows us that Acts 2 was more than just an outpouring of the
Spirit. It was a "giving" of the Spirit to those who had not yet received Him.
This was a first for these folk.
Another point is found in Acts one. Jesus told His followers not to leave Jerusalem but
to wait for the promise of the Father. Then He referred back to John the Baptist's words
by saying, "for John baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy
Spirit." The question we should ask here at this point is, what was the promise of
the Father? I believe the promise was the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 14;16 and 17,
"He (the Father) shall give you another comforter...even the Spirit of truth."
It was the Spirit Himself that was the promise. The Father would replace Jesus with the
Spirit after the ascension, after Jesus finally left for this planet in His earthly body.
So we see that John 20 was an illustration of what was to come. We see in Acts one that
the Father would send the Spirit which came true in Acts 2.
One last word here. We will now go to Acts 2 and see that the people received the
Spirit first of all, not the experience we call the baptism in the Spirit. Yes they were
baptized in the Spirit, but these are symbolic words, picture words of what actually
happened. What really happened was, for the first time in the history of man, men and
women received God in their lives in the form of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was a
replacement for Jesus. He was someone that could do more than live with us. He could live
within us, thus restoring, at least partially what was lost in the garden of Eden. I say
partially because Paul says in Ephesians 1;14 that this is a downpayment of things to
come. The things to come means the resurrection of our own bodies. Then at that point the
garden will be fully restored to us.
My main point of this chapter is that the disciples did not and could not have received
the Spirit in John 20. They couldn't because Jesus was not yet fully glorified. They also
couldn't because Jesus in Acts one clearly told them to wait in Jerusalem until they
received the promise of God. You can see that Peter calls this promise a gift from God in
Acts 2;38. He says, "you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit". The gift is
the Spirit. The gift is not merely an experience with God. There is a huge difference
between the two.
I know you are thinking, it's all semantics, just words or double talk, with no
practical point to it all. To me it is very practical and hopefully you will see why if
you continue to think it through with me. I will say now that the clarity of thought that
results in this reasoning saves a lot of confusion and a lot of divisiveness in the
church. When we are able to think and understand clearly, then we can behave and act much
more responsibly and effectively. That is what Biblical teaching is all about. The Lord
wants us to understand, so don't be afraid to jump into issues and get it figured out. Now
we can't figure everything out when it comes to the Lord, but there are many things we can
see clearly. This is one of these things.
continued on Next Page