in Christ: Andrew Fountain's blog

The subject of Holy Spirit Baptism has been very divisive. Typically people are polarized into two camps:

1. At the moment you become a Christian you receive the Spirit.
   • “Baptism with the Spirit” happens at the point of conversion.
   • There may be later “re-fillings” but all Christians have the Spirit
   • Characteristic of non-Charismatic evangelicals and Third-wave Charismatics such as the Vineyard,
2. “Baptism with the Spirit” is a second experience after conversion (sometimes called the doctrine of subsequence)
   • There are two kinds of Christians, those who have been Baptized and those who have not.
   • Some groups, such as traditional Pentecostals, would say you must speak in tongues to be baptized.
   • Characteristic of Pentecostals and many Charismatics

One of the ablest proponents of the first view is Sam Storms (who would characterize himself as a Third-Wave Charismatic). He articulates his position in Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views and here:

• The two main arguments of those like Sam storms are:
  1. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says all Christians are baptized in the Spirit—It is very hard to make a good Biblical case that this is not what the text is saying.
  2. “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” (Romans 8:9) sounds pretty convincing!

To save you looking to the end to see my conclusions, this is what I am going to argue:

• Jesus received the Spirit in a new way as an empowering for ministry
  • This was an empowering: he began to preach the Kingdom and do signs and wonders from that point on.
  • It was immediately following his water-baptism
• What Jesus promised would happen at Pentecost was an empowering:
  • “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49)
  • “...But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. (Acts 1:8)
• The main problem is our terminology.
  • After reviewing about 150 references to Spirit filling/baptism/receiving/giving/pouring out in the N.T. my conclusion is that:
    • The phrase that is consistently used is “receive the Spirit”
    • “Baptism in the Spirit” is used almost entirely in reference to John the Baptist’s prophecy
  • Most of the problems have come about through confusion of these terms
• “Receiving the Spirit” was never promised at the moment of salvation, but only after baptism
  • Pentecost and Cornelius were unique events when Jews, then Gentiles, were brought into membership of the the new people of the Spirit.
  • Apart from that, Peter’s sequence has no exceptions: “Repent… be baptized… receive the Holy Spirit” (Act 2:29)
    • See the full notes for many examples of this. There is not a single time when this rule is broken.
  • So even if it was only a short delay, there was always a delay between believing and receiving.

Definition of Terms

✽The only difference between the filling of Acts 2:4 and the filling of Acts 4:31 is that Acts 2 was the first time:

• Acts 2 is referred to as receiving and filling (1:8, 2:4)
• Acts 4 is only called filling (4:31)

Bottom Line

• Our goal is to be Spirit-filled right now!
  • It is fruitless to try and analyze our past experiences as to whether we have received the Spirit yet.
  • The N.T. command is to be filled (Eph 5:18)
• For some people it might be for the first time (receiving), for others it might be re-filling
  • But for everyone, what they have to do is the same:
  • To be hungry for more and earnestly desire (1 Cor 12:31)
  • To ask (Luke 11:13)

Read rest of the notes...

• Full notes and audio download
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