The Baptism in the Holy Spirit

On the Day of Pentecost visitors to Jerusalem witnessed the unbelievable sight of Spirit-filled believers declaring the glory of God in languages they had never learned. Their response to the supernatural was natural: "What does this mean?" (Acts 2:12).

Twenty centuries later the same question is being asked as the Holy Spirit is doing spectacular things all around the world, not just in one location. Tongues-speaking Pentecostals have become the second largest family of Christians in the world, surpassed only by the Roman Catholic Church. One Pentecostal scholar has gathered convincing statistics on the explosion of church growth around the world in the Pentecostal and charismatic groups that teach the necessity of speaking in tongues as the initial physical evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Biblical and Historical Background
The emphasis Pentecostals place on the person and work of the Holy Spirit is not a recent discovery. The outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was the logical culmination of revealed truth about the Holy Spirit as found throughout Old Testament Scriptures.

The usual reference in the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit is "the Spirit of God" or "his Spirit." At creation, "the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Genesis 1:2). Artisans at the building of the tabernacle were "filled with the Spirit of God" (Exodus 31 and 35). Prophets and national leaders ministered supernaturally when prompted by the Spirit of God (Numbers 24:2; 1 Samuel 10:10; 11:6; 2 Chronicles 15:1; 24:20; Isaiah 48:16; Ezekiel 11:24; Zechariah 7:12).

Prophecy, or speaking in behalf of God, is evident throughout the Old Testament. Sometimes the message came almost silently in thoughts, dreams, or visions. At other times it came with significant emotion (cf. Numbers 11:24-29). In each case, however, prophetic speech is the unique sign of the Spirit's coming to anoint particular persons for divinely given ministries.
In Acts 2:17 Peter decisively connects the Pentecost event with the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days" (Joel 2:28,29). In fact, lest we miss the point, Peter repeats Joel’s prophecy in a way not found in the Hebrew text, saying a second time, "I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they will prophesy" (v.18). The viewpoint of both the Old and New Testaments is that the coming of the Spirit is indicated by prophetic speech. The initial prophetic speech in Acts is speaking in tongues.

The Israelites were unaccustomed to such a universal move of the Spirit in the lives of sons and daughters, old and young, men and women. Only a select few charismatic prophets, kings, and judges were moved by the Holy Spirit to minister supernaturally and experience the presence of the Spirit, as David demonstrates in the Psalms. Peter put the Day of Pentecost visitation into perspective as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and a divinely ordered gift of the Spirit for all believers, not just for leadership offices.

Biblical theology is a unity based on the entire Bible. It is both progressive and unified as God reveals cumulative truth from Genesis to Revelation. The Old Testament prophesied a coming age of the Spirit. The theme is enlarged in the Spirit-empowered ministry of Jesus. At Pentecost the Spirit comes in power to all God’s people. Yet individual writers emphasize special aspects of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The writings of Paul tend to emphasize the Spirit-filled life subsequent to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Luke’s writings place more emphasis on the coming of the Spirit to empower life and ministry through the Spirit-filled life." There is no contradiction between Paul's writings and Luke’s writings. They are complementary.

A Gift with Rich Benefits
Modern evangelical Christians place great stress on being "born again" (John 3:3,5-8; 1 Peter 1:3) which is rightly understood to be the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration (John 3:6; Titus 3:5). As He comes in regenerating power, the Spirit makes His presence known as an inner witness to the believer’s new status as a child of God. The new believer can now pray, "Abba, Father," expressing the intimate and confident relationship of children to their Heavenly Father (Romans 8:15,16). Having taken up residence within, the Spirit also guides and enables the new believer in a transforming life of progressive sanctification or spiritual maturity (Romans 8:13; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Galatians 5:16,22-24).

The work of the Spirit, however, is not just an inner transformation in new birth and sanctification; it is also a work of empowering believers as witnesses for Christ, thus fulfilling the mission of the Church (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). Peter presented the initial descent of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost as a mighty inauguration of the last days in which all of God’s people will be baptized, or filled, with the Spirit (Joel 2:28,29; Acts 2:17,18). The final words of his sermon are, "Repent, and be baptized. . . And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:38,39). Far from being a one-time event on the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit is noted to have baptized, or filled, believer after believer. Both the Book of Acts and the Pauline epistles show repeated and continuing empowerment by the Holy Spirit and the impartation of powerful gifts for ministry (Acts 8:17; 9:17; 10:44-46; 19:4-7; Romans 1:11; 1 Corinthians 12-14; Ephesians 5:18-21; 1 Thessalonians 5:19,20; Hebrews 2:4). Any understanding of the Spirit’s work that is limited to regeneration is not representative of the biblical record.

Fidelity to Scripture, therefore, indicates that men and women ought to seek not only the transformational work of the Spirit in regeneration and sanctification, but also the empowering work of the Spirit in the Baptism promised by Jesus and repeatedly witnessed in the Book of Acts and the Epistles. Lives are to be changed by the Spirit in regeneration and then set ablaze and gifted by the same Spirit for a lifetime of service. Seeking the baptism in the Spirit is strategic for effective Christian living and ministry.

An Experience Subsequent to Regeneration
The baptism in the Spirit is subsequent to and distinct from the new birth. Scripture clearly describes a conversion experience in which the Holy Spirit baptizes believers into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). Scripture just as clearly describes an experience in which Christ baptizes believers in the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11). These cannot refer to the same experience since the agent who does the baptizing and the element into which the candidate is baptized are different in each case.

Luke, author of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, generally presents the baptism or infilling of the Spirit as something which occurs to disciples or believers, his characteristic terms for those who have already been converted or saved. For Luke, baptism in the Holy Spirit is an experience distinct from and logically subsequent to personal salvation. Moreover, Luke presents baptism in the Spirit and its accompanying power as the normal expectation of believers in the first decades of the Church’s history.

Subsequent usually means a time separation, but not always. The Gentiles who had gathered at the house of Cornelius (Acts 10) seemingly experienced both regeneration and baptism in the Holy Spirit at the same time. While a theological description of what happened would require regeneration as a prerequisite for baptism in the Spirit, everything happened so quickly that two separate works of God were experienced as one event. In this case, Spirit baptism was logically subsequent to regeneration, although it may not have been subsequent in time to any perceptible degree.

Every believer has the privilege of being baptized in the Spirit and should then expect to speak in tongues. The obvious starting point for such a declaration is the account of the initial outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). On that day all the believers were gathered together in one place (Acts 2:1); their number was apparently about 120 (Acts 1:15). For roughly 10 days they had been waiting for "the promise of the Father," as Jesus had charged them to do prior to His ascension (Acts 1:4). Then according to Acts 2:4, "all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." As Peter explained to the crowd witnessing the marvelous event, this outpouring of the Spirit fulfilled the ancient prophecy of Joel for the last days (Acts 2:17). No longer would God’s Spirit be restricted to a few prophets, but in the new age initiated by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the work of the Spirit would now be available to all (cf. also Acts 2:39).