October 1927
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
631
Is Holy Spirit Baptism Subsequent to Conversion ? B y J. A. M c C onnelee , D.D. ( United Presbyterian Seminary, Gujranuaba, India )
HE Apostle Paul, speaking through the Holy Spirit, says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.” It was evidently very needful in those days for God’s people to be able to distinguish the true things of the Spirit from the false. Is this not equally necessary today, if not more so? There are among these times those who call themselves “Pentecostals,” or “Latter Rain Saints,” or members of “Assemblies of God,” who place special emphasis on spiritual “gifts and manifestations.” These are most earnest in seeking what they consider the higher things, and for their earnestness we commend them. But with reference to “spiritual gifts” many questions arise, such as—Were these gifts intended for all believers, or only for certain chosen saints? Were they merely for the apostolic age, or may we expect to find them in the Church of the present day ? Especially, are we to look for the “sign gifts,” namely, : ‘‘working of miracles,” “t o n g u e s,” “interpretations,” and “healings,” at the present time? Are these “sign gifts” the special evi dence of the enduement of the Spirit, and are we to con clude that no one is really “endued” who is without these signs ? The name “Pentecostal” implies that this belief claims special connection with the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit at the beginning of the Christian era. This body of Christians insists that no believer should be satisfied until he obtains “his Pentecost,” or, to put this matter in the words of one of their own books, “What God gave to His Church on her birthday was intended to be the normal ex perience of her every member .” Within this experience they include not only (1) the being filled with the Spirit, but also (2) what they claim to be the one Pentecostal and Scriptural evidence o f that fulness, namely, the speak ing in tongues. They call the fulness the “baptism” of the Spirit, doing this, evidently with the'object of linking up with Pente cost the experience of Cornelius and his household and the experience of the disciples at Ephesus, which is re corded in Acts 19, so that they may have a basis for their teaching that all believers o f this dispensation should receive the Holy Spirit “as at the beginning.” A re F ulness and B aptism the S ame But is it legitimate for us to call the fulness of the Spirit by the term “baptism” ? Is this the way Scripture teaches us to use this term for believers of the present day ? This Holy Spirit baptism is definitely mentioned only seven times in the New Testament, namely, in Matt. 3:11; Mark 1 :8; Luke 3 :16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16; and 1 Cor. 12:13. Six out of these seven passages refer to the prophecy of John the Baptist that the Christ was He who would “baptize in the Holy Spirit,” while refer ence to Acts 1 :5 clearly shows that it was at Pentecost that this blessing actually came into the experience of the Apostles and their fellow-believers. But we must not overlook the fact that, as McConkey in his masterful book, “The Threefold Secret of the Holy Spirit,” clearly points out, “the Apostles lived before Christ came, while He walked the earth, and after He left it.
Wherefore the experience that matches ours is not so much that of the Apostles, who had also believed on Jesus before the gift of the Holy Ghost, as that of the Apostles’ converts,, who believed on Him exactly as we do, after the work of Christ was finished and after the Holy Ghost was given.” Indeed, th e ,Scriptures distinctly state that the Apostles were believers before Pentecost, but that they did not, and could not, receive the Holy Spirit till that “day” was “ fully come.” “This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). This giving and this receiving of the Spirit, it should be added, was that feature of the Spirit’s coming of which Christ spoke when He said, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Com forter, that he may be with you for ever” (John 14:16). Though there are evidences to show that the Apostles were the objects of many ministries of the Spirit, yet the only legitimate conclusion from these words of Christ is that it was at Pentecost they actually received the Holy Spirit Himself as an ever-present indwelling power. "But it is not so with us as to our believing and our receiving of the Spirit. It is an impossibility for anyone to be a be liever in the present time without receiving the Holy Spirit. As Scofield says, “The Holy Spirit indwells every believer during this dispensation. There is no such thing as a believer who has not received the. Holy Spirit.” Wherefore, to argue that the experience of the Apostles at Pentecost should be the normal experience for believers of the present age is beside the point. A postolic E xperience Is N ot O urs In other words, we cannot take the experience of the Apostles as a guide in determining what the baptism of the Spirit is for us. But we can, and we should, take the experience of their converts as a determining factor, as well as the direct apostolic instruction on this point: (1) On the very first day of the Church’s life, when in answer to the cry of the convicted multitude, “What shall we do ?” the apostolic direction was to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we find light on the subject before us. The Apostle Peter said, “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off” (Acts 2:38, 39). Now what is this promise which is called “the promise” ? It is mentioned in the 33rd verse of this sec ond chapter of the Acts, where it is said that the exalted Jesus received “the promise” from the Father (see, also, Luke 24 :49). But, going back still farther in the Acts, we find it mentioned again in Chapter 1 :4,-5, from which it can easily be seen that this promise is the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Hence the answer of the Apostle Peter to the multitude was virtually, “Repent, and acknowledge Christ as your Saviour” (water baptism is but the outward sign of this acknowledgment), “and ye shall receive the Holy Spirit.” Now without question the repentance and faith which the Apostle demanded of the Jerusalem multitude are the prerequisites to salvation, that is, to a man being born unto eternal life. So we come
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