Purpose of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

I was having a conversation yesterday with a friend of mine. Not odd in itself. We were talking about what some people mean by revival, by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It seemed to him that if all that was expected was a lot of commotion and stuff going on for 6 months then the purpose of the whole thing was not fulfilled; that purpose was a life of love lived in the power of the Spirit.

He wondered why moves of the Spirit only seemed to last for a short time. My response was that to my way of thinking they stopped or slowed because people would grieve or quench the Spirit by refusing to live life according to the nature of the Holy Spirit. Instead of living a life of love they would be jealous, angry, divided, controlling, fearful, dishonest, thieves, liars, and the like.

I told him the story of how, when the Spirit was outpoured at Asuza street the very early 1900's, a guy named William Seymore was then the pastor. He was a poor guy of African heritage and had experienced the segregation common to the era. It was at this church where the move of the Spirit began that many of today's Pentecostal denominations find their roots. Seymore used to say that even though many people experienced the supernatural power of the Spirit manifesting in the gifts of the Spirit, the greatest manifestation of the Spirit he saw was that white and black people, rich and poor, men and women, would sit on the same pews together, work in the ministry together, and generally behave like they loved one another. This to him was the point of it all.

But, like I said, it didn't last. The Assembly of God were the white folks, the Church of God in Christ were the black folks, and they parted ways. This had to have grieved the Holy Spirit. This was just one division, there were others. Like 1Corinthians 13 says, without love we are nothing.

So when I say I want to see people baptized in the Holy Spirit and experience the power of the Spirit, it is for this end: that we Christians would find the power and presence of the Spirit of Christ filling our hearts with love like the scripture speaks. I am looking for a loving and powerful Christianity; first of all in me then in those I know. This is the kind of Christian that will be a true witness with a true testimony of our risen Lord.

Why Bother?

It is clear, if you have been following this blog, that I think a lot about the baptism in the Spirit. The question arises, why bother? What is the big deal?

I have been a Christian now for 40 years. I find that the thing I miss the most is the kind of immediacy of the Spirit that I experienced and witnessed in the first years of my journey. I miss seeing many people come to Jesus hungry for all that Jesus offers. I miss seeing people by the hundreds want to burn every and any bridge in order to serve Jesus. I miss those silly mistakes that were made because someone stepped out on to the water like Peter did only to find that even when they go beyond their faith Jesus is still there to rescue them.

Today's church seems to me to be more interested in fitting in with society than believing the gospel. Christians were never socially accepted unless they were the ruling power. Even though someday I know that we will rule, that time awaits the coming of our King. We will reign and rule with Him.

The baptism in the Spirit has the potential to blast people out of their conforming cultural complacency into the rule of the kingdom of God. This faith filled life that is entered into by a willing abandonment of the concern for how we look to ourselves and others has had a bad reputation. So many people have done harm to others because they were unconcerned with how others felt that now few want to go anywhere near this kind of abandonment.

I think that the mistake was made in what our focus became. We were so interested in seeing others come to Jesus and be filled with the Spirit as we were that we forgot that the chief goal of all this was the power to show real love. That was too hard though. We would rather tell people our version of the gospel and leave it with that, not wanting to actually spend the time to love that person.

The day is upon us when neither an emergent rehashed liberal social gospel, or a powerless Evangelicalism, or a provincial Pentecostalism will do. Not a new kind of Christianity as Maclaren wrote, but Spirit filled, supernaturally powerful, loving Christians are what is needed.

This is why I think so much about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. A Christianity without the power is not the Christianity that is needed. But since so many Christians are unaware or willingly ignorant of this power, I had hoped that if I could understand how to correctly teach it I would be able to help others of my brothers and sisters who have not yet received what is theirs in Christ would then be able to. Only God knows if I have succeeded.

One Baptism

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied. Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all. Acts 19:1-7 NIV

I always wondered why Paul asked those disciples in Ephesus if they had received the Spirit when they believed. He must have noticed something. Was it that they did not speak in tongues when they prayed? Or was it some kind of discernment that we don’t seem to have anymore? Or was it that they did not have the fruit of the spirit? Whatever the reason, Paul noticed that they were disciples and that they did not have the Spirit.

The next question is even more mind boggling to a Pentecostal like me. Upon getting a negative answer to his question, negative in the sense that they had never heard of the Holy Spirit, Paul asks them about the baptism they received. How had they not heard of the Holy Spirit? Why would they have heard of the Holy Spirit if they had received the proper baptism? Was it because in the new believers baptism it was done in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Doesn’t say. Or was it because the Holy Spirit was expected to come upon those who were baptized in Jesus’ name? I think so. This would fit all the New Testament’s record of the baptism in the Holy Spirit in both Luke’s historical record and Paul’s letters.

The Holy Spirit was promised to believers, all believers. Peter’s Pentecostal address makes the reception of the Spirit upon repentance and baptism very clear. And when at the house of Cornelius those who were already baptized in the Spirit could not be denied baptism in water. And at Samaria when the Holy Spirit did not come upon any of those who believed the gospel and were baptized, it was so serious that the Apostles were sent for from Jerusalem in order to remedy the matter.

In my view receiving the Spirit and receiving water baptism are conceptually two halves of the same coin. This is Paul’s “one baptism”. Now this following passage also makes more sense:

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7 NIV

Jesus is our prototype. We are to imitate Jesus. When Jesus received water baptism, and upon coming up out of the water, the Holy Spirit came down upon him bodily as a dove. This is our pattern. When we are baptized we too are to receive the outpouring of the Spirit. Water baptism and Spirit baptism are forever conceptually linked.

But being linked is different than being the same thing. Acts shows us over and over that they are not the same thing. When we come up out of the waters of baptism we are to come into a new life. As Paul wrote ”We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Rom 6:4 NIV An new life in the Spirit.

That is what our new life is all about! A new life today as well as forever!

So I ask, did you receive the Spirit around when you believed? You were supposed to. This reception was to be the kind of thing that would be noticed if you had not received. Did you speak in tongues and/or prophesy? Did you thrill like the Ethiopian eunuch when he went his way rejoicing? What happened? Nothing? Then drink deep of the Holy Spirit. Put down your unbelief and receive what is yours in all its fullness.

1 Cor 12:13 (my translation)We were all baptized in one Spirit for one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Drink deep!

Particle or Wave, Part 2

Nowhere is the particle or wave dichotomy more evident than in the different stories that John in his gospel and Luke in the book of Acts give for the reception of the Spirit. All throughout the gospel of John the Holy Spirit is given prominence. Jesus promised the Apostles (and through them us) another Advocate or Comforter just like him. By this name Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit. John 7:39 even makes mention of the Spirit not being given yet because Jesus is not yet glorified. Thus John builds an expectation of a reception of the Holy Spirit to continue Jesus’ work in the world with and through the disciples.

This expectation reaches a climax when Jesus, after his resurrection but before the ascension, breathes on the disciples in a prophetic act and commands them to receive the Holy Spirit. If they did receive it then, then the disciples received the Spirit again after Jesus’ ascension as recorded by Luke. Putting John and Luke side by side produces two receptions of the Spirit by the disciples. Many modern commentators try to harmonize these two stories by making what John wrote a metaphor for what happened in Luke/Acts. By my way of thinking this is very unlikely because it runs uncaringly over the plain meaning of John’s words.

Yet this leaves us in the uncomfortable position of having the disciples receive the Holy Spirit two times, the second of which was called the baptism in the Holy Spirit by Jesus as written by Luke. So far every resolution that tries to harmonize these two stories is based on speculation. I do not mean by this that these two stories cannot be harmonized. I just mean that without interviewing both Luke and John personally the harmonization may be beyond our grasp. So I am not saying that different authors of books in the Bible have conflicting theologies. I am just saying that from our view of 2000 years later we do not have enough evidence to produce a full harmonization.

But we can still draw insight from this. We have two different stories regarding the reception of the Holy Spirit that are treated as harmonious. I find evidence for this kind of two and three part harmony all throughout the gospels. Jesus Himself was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit mediated the presence of the Father and the Son to Mary. Christians too are born of the Spirit when they receive Jesus. One cannot say that a person born of the Spirit does not have the Spirit. Remember how tricky it is that Jesus could be both in heaven and in our heart at the same time. If Jesus is in our hearts through the Spirit, then the Spirit must be there too. Yet receiving the Spirit, personally, is different than receiving Jesus. Yet by receiving Jesus we also get the Father and the Spirit.

In John 14:23 (NIV) Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” So when we get the Son we get the Father too. But it is the Spirit who mediates both the Son and the Father to us, making them present within.

Whew, this is a puzzle. One for all and all for one!

Lake Louise Michigan

Here is a story of something that happened to me regarding the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

In the summer of 1972, I was a camp counselor at Lake Louise in northern Michigan. It was a Baptist camp for 7th and 8th graders, both boys and girls. An ordinary camp with exercises first thing in the morning, games, food-like-stuff to eat, swimming, campfires, all with very normal people. At the Wednesday night campfire we were singing “Give Me Oil in My Lamp’, (you know the song about gas in the Ford™) a song that must have been sung billions of times at campfires all over the world, when one of the counselors started yelling at the top of his lungs that God was pouring out His Spirit. He kept repeating this at the highest of volumes.

I was near the outer edge of the group and watched to see what would happen. Within seconds two things started to happen. The first was that all the young kids that I could see began to either cry, or hold onto one another, or fall on the ground, or pray, or speak in tongues (that is a language they did not know). It was very chaotic and the leader looked panicked. At the same time it also began to rain. I looked up and saw no clouds overhead, but I did see a few off to the side in the moonlight. I wondered where the rain was coming from.

After a while the leader got us all back to our cabins. The boys in my cabin were writing a group poem to Jesus on a long length of paper towel. The boy next to me just said out loud, to no one in particular, “I get it now. Jesus is God.” You could hear shouts from one cabin to another of “Jesus is Lord”, or “Praise God!” These were 12-14 year old boys. Normal, fun-loving, physically hyper, trick playing, boys. No one coached them. It just poured out of them.

The next morning, the camp director, who was a conservative Baptist pastor from Bad Axe, Michigan, cornered me and one of the other counselors and accused us of being ‘holiness’. No, I said, I am a Christian. I didn’t know the terminology. He told us that there was going to be a meeting for all the counselors shortly and that we must attend.

At the meeting, he was very upset. The camp had gotten out of control. Kids were doing crazy things, like having spontaneous prayer meetings without counselors present. Who knows what trouble they could be getting into? What would their parents think?

We got into a discussion if what had happened was from God or not. At the end of the meeting the director agreed to pray and ask God if what was happening was from God or not.

All I remember is that I was abnormally tired that afternoon. My arms and legs felt like lead wire. I had made my way to the front door of my cabin and I was just standing there. The camp director was slowing walking over towards me. As he came close I noticed that it looked like someone had thrown a bucket of water onto his face. He explained that he had been crying. Then he just told me that he never had understood the power of prayer. When he asked in prayer if this episode the night before was from God or not, he evidently experienced the same thing all the kids had. Then he knew it was indeed from God.

Other remarkable events continued to happen that week. Some girls wanted me to come to a prayer meeting they were having in the dinning hall. About 6 kids or so were there. As we prayed I had a vision of Jesus. I remember wrapping my arms around his knees as he stood in the center of our group. It was like a waking dream, only additionally tactile. I could see and feel, yet it was like a dream, only I was awake. I now call it a vision. I remember that when he put his hand on my shoulder I cried and cried because I knew that he knew me as I was in the very depths of my heart and loved me.

Another time my friend, George, and I were leading the kids through a hike in the woods. We were chatting as we walked. Suddenly my friend turns to me and asked me if I had just said “Oregon”? No, I responded, why? His face blanched and he said that God had just spoken to him out loud and told him to drop everything he is doing and go to Oregon.

Years later I met people who were affected by that camp meeting. One of the girls who was at the camp later came to our church in Port Huron. She told of how when she went home what had happened to her happened also to her parents. They wound up going into the ministry because of it. The pastor from Bad Axe was called to account for the stuff that happened at the camp. His congregation voted 51% for him and 49% against him. He left, I do not know where.

A Particle or a Wave?

We have to take things to where the evidence leads us. When people studied light they came up with conflicting models as to what is light. Some evidence would give us the impression that light is a point, a photon. Some experiments would seem to prove this. Other experiments seem to prove that light acts like a wave by traveling omnidirectionally. But something cannot be in two places at the same time, can it? Yet the facts about light merely expose our presuppositions and our ignorance as to what light really is. To our way of thinking it acts like both a wave and a particle, yet also in our way of thinking that is not possible. But it is, so we must be ignorant of something.

Many of the teachings we get from scripture are like this. So when we add up all the evidence we get a picture of something we have a hard time conceiving. Like is Jesus actually a true human in every way, or is he God's only son, the exact image of God Himself, eternal creator and Lord of all? All the evidence points to the inescapable conclusion that the answer is yes. But that conclusion takes us beyond our past experience to something that looks like a contradiction. It is not truly a contradiction, it only appears so because of our ignorance.

What about the trinity? How could one be three and three be one? All our analogies look weak. The water vapor, water, ice trinity has only one point of correspondence - three different modes of the same molecule. But the Father - Son - Spirit are not three different modes of God. They are three different beings who are individually and corporately the one God who made it all. That stretches our understanding a bit, doesn't it.

This kind of thinking is not knew. Most world views have some way of unifying contradiction. Yin-Yang is well known as the two sides of the same thing. Though what the thing is is hard to explain or imagine. Explaining it as in evil the seeds of good are sown and in good the seeds of evil are sown is inadequate. It is inadequate because the fields of good and evil must be defined by some objective standard which is assumed. This relates to the eating of the fruit of the tree of good and evil as seen in the book of Genesis. Human nature is defined by its drive to put everything into the categories of good and evil. The most you can say for the Yin-Yang concept is that it clearly defines human nature after the fall.

Yet the scripture keeps pushing us further than where our experience has gone. This is how we grow in understanding. I do not intend to say that contradiction is the evidence of truth, as some mystical world views would have it. I say that contradiction, by itself, proves nothing. This is because contradiction can either be the proof that something is not true or the evidence that we have misunderstood something. How can we tell which it is? By how much faith we have in our evidence. (Just because we have faith in our evidence does not, by itself, make something true. Yet we have no other option open to us. So the perception of truth becomes an hermeneutical issue. It becomes an issue of how we understand, how we interpret, evidence.)

So is receiving the Spirit a particle, a single point in time, or a wave affecting many points at the same time? Yes. We receive the Spirit when we receive Jesus. Yet can we receive the Spirit at another point too. It seems our understanding of the Spirit needs growing.

My Limp, part 2

From the best that I can determine, neither the Evangelical approach - which gives priority to Paul - nor the Pentecostal approach - which gives priority to Luke/Acts - can answer all the questions. It is neither either, nor neither or. So many of the teachings of scripture can only be parsed so far and then they appear to lose coherency. I doubt if it really does lose coherency, it is just that our presuppositions are more likely to interfere the more finely we chop the meaning of words. This is because by finely chopping we get into areas where we cannot triangulate our position without depending on conjecture. It is like building a tall tower with a tiny flaw in the foundation. After a while the tower will tip over as inaccuracy after inaccuracy is piled on top of one another.

The scripture makes it very clear that the world in it's wisdom cannot know God. Cannot is the operative word. One reason is that worldly wisdom teaches that truth is perceived through doubt. By doubting we test the veracity of something or someone. We doubt until we are convinced. But when doubt ends we do not have the truth, but faith. Only by faith is truth perceived. Doubt left to itself will continue to doubt. Doubt cannot recognize truth because it can always come up with another reason to doubt. Whatever someone believes can always be doubted by another. Only faith can end doubt.

So this is why I limp. My natural self, my worldly wisdom, cannot find for me a stable position. I can always find more things to question. And so can you. Yet my encounter with God has given me a staff of faith to lean upon.

I accept both Paul and Luke's testimony regarding the Spirit. I have some ideas as to how their differences can be reconciled, but nothing that is a sure thing. My experience with the Holy Spirit has taught me of it's reality and the reality of Jesus.

I invite one and all to set aside doubt and by faith receive the truth. Will all you questions be answered? No. But how can doubt be set aside? By believing that God indeed loves you and has reconciled himself to you. Be reconciled to him.

My Limp

Now you can see my limp. After all this thinking, I’m left pretty much where I started. The teaching that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is the same as conversion is only partially convincing. It can only become convincing if conversion is viewed as something other than a single point in the journey of a believer. The verses that say that if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord is sufficient for salvation cannot then be made to cover the whole concept of conversion. There needs to be a baptism in water and a baptism in the Holy Spirit to further the process. Acts 2:38 describes Peter’s message in response to the question of what shall we do. Repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit. Yet is this conversion?

What of all those people, true believers and lovers of God, who have not done these three? What of the Quakers who do not believe in a literal water baptism? Paul wrote that “Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” Rom 6:3-7NIV Can we then say that those who are not baptized do not have new life, cannot be free from sin, and will not partake of the resurrection? The controverted passage in Mar 16 that tells us that those who believe and are baptized will be saved. Are we to tell the Quaker that they are not saved, not yet converted?

Peter, at the home of Cornelius, said after the Spirit had been outpoured, what prevents us now from baptizing these who have received? Was Cornelius and those with him not yet converted? Did they need water baptism to complete their conversion? Why baptize them? They had already received the Spirit. What more do they need?

Yet there is a good reason to be baptized – we are commanded to. I will not say to the Quaker that they are not saved. But I will say that Jesus told us to baptize the nations in making disciples of them in Mat 28:19. You want to be a disciple? Be baptized. I will not speculate on the nature of the relationship between God and the one who, for whatever reason, is not baptized in water. That is stepping onto God’s toes – this is the area of God’s responsibility, not mine.

So too with those who have simply confessed their faith in Christ Jesus, obeyed Jesus’ command and have been baptized in water, I will not say that their conversion is lacking completion. But I will say that God has provided more for you than what you already have. Yet if you don’t know or do not believe you will not receive all that God has promised.

I like the way Luke describes the encounter between Apollos and Priscilla and Aquila. ‘Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately’ (accurately, carefully). Acts 18:24-26 NIV

Here was a guy who taught accurately and with great fervor, with great results, about Jesus. Yet he only knew the baptism of John. A few short verses later we see that Paul finds some other disciples who are in the same condition – they knew only John’s baptism. Their inadequacy was that they had not received the Spirit when they believed. So Paul re-baptized them in the name of Jesus and laid hands on them for the reception of the Spirit. Do you think that Luke wanted us to see the connection? It is hard to imagine that he didn’t. The implication is that Apollos needed the same correction as those disciples Paul met up with.

You know, we may approach the scriptures as a discerner of truth, but, in the end, the scriptures will be used to discern the truth about us. God has promised much for us in His word. The Spirit is even called the Spirit of promise, that which the Father has promised. So I will not judge your relationship with God. That is none of my business. But God has provided more in the Spirit than what many of us have received. This includes all – even those who claim their baptism in the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. The Corinthians had the Spirit but really needed a large dose of wisdom. What are we willing to receive? As Paul says, what do we have that we did not receive? And all is ours. So let’s quit quibbling about each others standing in Christ and look to our own life. Are you walking in the fullness of the Spirit, using the gifts that God has given to you to build up the body of Christ (the baptism in the Spirit is for or unto the body of Christ), or are you hardening your heart in unbelief? If you have received the Spirit, then do what the Spirit desires. If you have not received the Spirit, receive it. “How much more will God give the Spirit to those who ask him” writes Luke in Lk11:13. The point isn’t to divide the body of Christ into the have’s and the have-not’s, but that we all might have all that God has given to us all.

So where does this leave us?

So where are we? It is clear to me that receiving the Holy Spirit is not an automatic thing. This is probably why Luke uses the active voice in the Greek verb for receive so often when referring to people receiving the Spirit. It is something the receiver must do. It is not done to them. Then it would be in the passive voice. When you receive you take what is offered. It can be offered, but if you do not take it, it yours but you have not yet received it. Or you take only the part that you understand, or see. Like the Ephesian disciples, they didn’t even know what they were missing. Yet missing it they were. Paul must have noticed something lacking in order for him to ask the question, Did you receive the Spirit when you believed? How could he even ask such a question if it were automatic? Could an Evangelical ever ask such a question? Not hardly. So to my way of thinking the Evangelical position that you automatically receive the Spirit when you believe is faulty. If it was automatic, then no one would have thought to look and see if the Samaritans had actually received the Spirit.

Yet how can this be if, as Paul seems to insist, that receiving the Spirit is foundational – essential – basic – definitive – of our life in Christ? According to the current Evangelical position on salvation, you are not saved if you do not have the Spirit, you are not part of the body of Christ, not translated into the kingdom of the Son, and not a recipient of the new covenant. Pretty serious stuff. Due to the serious doctrinal nature of the reception of the Spirit, how can one say that a Christian would not have the Spirit?

So it appears that Paul and Luke cannot be reconciled. I cannot accept this. In Luke’s telling of the things that Paul did and the things that happened to him, Paul and Luke are in agreement. This leaves me no alternative than to say that the common Evangelical understanding of soteriology, how salvation is to be understood, is in error. Paul’s own statements in Acts cannot be made by the Paul envisioned by the Evangelical.

But where is the error? Here are some suggestions:

1. Receiving Jesus is not the same as receiving the Spirit. When my oldest son was four years old he asked me if Jesus was in his heart. I said that He was. Then he asked me if Jesus is in heaven. I said that that was true too. He then responded by saying that this was really tricky. Our encounter with Jesus is through the Spirit, yet we receive Jesus.

2. That being born of the Spirit and being baptized in the Spirit are not the same thing.

3. That conversion is not necessarily punctilliar, a single turning point, but a complex of events/experiences/beliefs that may or may not happen simultaneously. The baptism in the Spirit is part of our conversion in that it is the part where we receive the down payment of our inheritance as a child of God.

4. That the theme of the already/but not yet that pervades our understanding of the kingdom is applicable not only in the macro scale but also in the individual or micro scale.

5. That the baptism in the Holy Spirit has more to do with the blessings and powers of the kingdom than effecting our salvation.

6. That some verses that could grammatically indicate that receiving the Spirit is based on our salvation or being a child of God actually mean that. In Eph 1:13-14 NIV it reads “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession — to the praise of his glory.” Having believed could also be translated after you believed based on your understanding of the context. See also Gal 4:6 “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." Yet to teach subsequence by these verses is more than they can bear.

My Baptism in the Holy Spirit

I came into Christianity through the Pentecostal gate and I still believe that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit 6 weeks after coming to Jesus. You may remember that in my article, What Convinced Me, I mentioned that my sister directed me to ask God for this baptism thing. I knew nothing about it. I knew that I was truly ‘born again’. So here is what happened when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Ever since my sister told me to ask God for this baptism in the Holy Spirit, I had been asking. I also had been trying to figure out what it was, without too much success. I learned that you speak in tongues when you get it. I was taught this by a Pentecostal church that we attended in Quilcene Washington. A lady, who was viewed as a prophetess, would round up us hippies in Port Townsend and take us to church there. The pastor (or was it pastoress?) was a lady from the south, she spoke with a odd southern accent. She would beat her tambourine with gusto throughout the service. Her husband was never seen to say a word. He usually sat at the back unless he was playing his violin. His ears were quite noticeable as the tips were bent down like they were ‘dog-eared’.

Every now and then the prophetess lady would pour out a speech in King James-like-English that was filled with dire warnings and promises of blessing for obedience. Her voice, without any microphone, would completely fill the room. When she spoke most of us would turn introspective, examining our own hearts. I usually did not know enough about what she was saying or how it applied to make any connections with my own life. I just smiled a lot and watched.

One time a guy stood up and wanted to apologize to the church for something. He was invited to come up and speak from the pulpit. As he was trying to get across why he was offended and how it got solved, the lady pastor beat her tambourine at the back of the stage. Finally this guy got ticked and asked her to stop. She said that she would not stop because God was giving her insight into his life, and she hit the tambourine even harder. This really offended this guy, and to be heard over her tambourine and shouts of hallelujah and bless the Lord, he stood on the pulpit to get his point across, but to no avail. He could not compete with her and left the church.

Another time the lady pastor and visiting ministry decided that everyone who wanted a demon cast out of them should come forward. It looked like a good thing to do because, after all, who would want a demon inside of them, making them do bad things? Nearly everyone came forward. I went too, not to be left out. When it came our turn to be prayed for, they would make a cross on our foreheads with their fingers that they had dipped in oil, and lay their hands on our heads and speak in languages I knew to be tongues. The word ‘shondai’ was heard a lot. When they were done casting demons out of the congregation, they proceeded to cast demons out of each other. This was indeed a mystery.

On Wednesday, February 10, 1971,we had a visiting ministry from Port Angeles come to speak to us. His topic was the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I was so glad as I had been fasting for this. On Monday I had decided to go on a three day fast for the Baptism, starting Tuesday. Now this was the second day of my three day fast. Earlier that day I had been speaking to some kids on the street about Jesus. Things were going well until some joker came up and started to rip into me, tearing apart what I was saying with logic I couldn’t compete with. He wound up taking the whole crowd away from me, laughing.

I had heard that this Baptism thing gave you power to tell people about Jesus. I really wanted that. I also thought it would be cool to speak in a language I didn’t know. This preacher told us all about it. When he was done with his message, he asked if there was anyone in the audience who wanted to receive it, to lift their hand. My hand shot up as is if pulled by a string. He then asked those of us who had raised our hands to stand. I stood with the same alacrity. I remember thinking, what is all this delay about? He then asked those of us who were standing if we would come down to the front. I was the first person there. They had me get down on my knees to pray.

As I knelt there in the front of that church, people began to give me advise. Some would say hold on, others would say let go, others told me to pray out loud, others said something different. I felt as if I should be sorry and cry because of my sin. Yet I felt nothing. I said to the Lord, “What a schmuck I am, I cannot even cry.”

As soon as I said this to the Lord, I felt words beginning to form in the back of my mind. I spoke them out. Someone lifted my hands into the air. I held them there and spoke these words even more loudly. Before long I was shouting in tongues. I shouted for about a half an hour, until I was hoarse. It was glorious! The whole room looked like it was filled with a golden glow. I felt waves of love flow through my emotions. I began to ask people their names and introduce them to others, who they probably already knew. But I did not care or notice. I just felt so much love.

I wondered where my sister and brother-in-law were. I could not find them anywhere. Turns out that in the midst of my baptism I did not notice that my sister’s water broke as she was praying for me. They were able to clean it up and take her to the hospital without me noticing. A short time later little Naarah was born. Beth and Naarah came home the next morning.

I didn’t want to stop speaking in tongues. When at the end of the service they began to sing some songs I didn’t know, which was really common, I just sang along in tongues. I could hardly wait to go out onto the street the next day and tell people about Jesus.

But what was I going to do about the third day of my fast? I had told the Lord that I would fast for three days, yet I received the baptism on the second. I broke the fast when I got home from church, yet I felt that I had done wrong. So I started my fast all over again the next day, fasting for three more days.

The next day I went out onto the street looking for someone to talk to about Jesus. I was in a gift shop when I met this girl who I struck up a conversation with. Quickly the topic turned to Jesus. She was hungry and pulled the words out of my soul. I poured and poured and she drank and drank. The people she was with had to drag her away to go where they needed to go. I felt the power of the Spirit helping me, giving me the words to say. So this was the power of the Spirit. I was so delighted!

I know that this story is not the usual story about how someone was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Because the church was so out of order it could reflect badly on my experience. But the fruit through the years since has been great. More reflections later.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water, Part 2

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14-15 NASU

So begins the preaching of Jesus. The topic of the kingdom provides the context in which we can understand all that Jesus said. Jesus’ message was not primarily about love, or repentance, or Israel, or His deity, or salvation, or eschatology. Yet all these themes and more find their place in the story about the King and his kingdom. It is in the kingdom that all these other topics find their proportion and place.

No wonder then there is so much confusion about the kingdom. To understand the kingdom is to understand the main thrust of Jesus’ teaching. It is the thread that weaves these various subjects into a whole.If ‘Jesus is Lord’ is the heart of the gospel and maranatha its benediction, then the kingdom is the message.

How then is the baptism in the Holy Spirit to be understood in light of the kingdom? Where does this topic fit into this story? So often this baptism is put into other stories. If you are an Evangelical, this baptism becomes salvation. Since their view of salvation is punctilliar – a point in time where at one moment I’m not saved and the next moment I is, conversion and receiving the Spirit must be identical. If you are a sacramentalist, the baptism in the Spirit is conferred by some specific liturgical act such as water baptism or the laying on of hands. Those who believe that you receive the Spirit in water baptism find evidence here for that belief. If you are a Pentecostal, this is where you receive the Spirit after you are saved with evidence of speaking in tongues. If you are of a holiness extraction, this baptism becomes the time where you are totally given over – sanctified - to the will of God. Whatever your point of view, this baptism in the Spirit is located at the heart of your doctrine.

Everybody loves 1 Corinthians 12:13. Yet all of these views are unchanged by their reading of this verse. This is a problem for those who believe that doctrine must, in all cases and times, take precedence over experience. Gordon Fee makes it really clear in his book How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth that history must be interpreted through the lens of the didactic – the teaching – portions of scripture. Too bad the early Christians didn’t know this. They interpreted the whole Bible of their day, now known as the Old Testament, through their experience of Jesus and the resurrection. And, I might add, through their common experience of the Holy Spirit.

This common experience of the Spirit is what 1 Corinthians 12:13 was referring. Yet many translations do not bring out this point. The way it is translated makes it look like the Spirit is the baptizer, and by the Spirit we are baptized in or into the body. The body becomes the thing into which we are baptized. As Fee and Turner, among others, have pointed out, the Spirit is what we are baptized into, not the body. This is the normal phrase always translated elsewhere as baptized in the Holy Spirit. The goal of this baptism in the Spirit is to unify one body out of many diverse peoples through their common experience of the Spirit. The whole passage is emphasizing unity in diversity, and this verse is making it explicit. We all, as the body, have a common experience of the Spirit.

This is what Paul seems to mean by saying that we were all given the Spirit to drink. Like land being flooded for irrigation purposes, we all have an opportunity to be soaked in the Spirit. This is where my title comes in. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. For God’s kingdom purpose of unity in the body, we were all given the Spirit to drink. But we must drink. Some sip, some refuse, some gulp it down like thirsty travelers crossing the desert. But we are all given the same drink. So it is not a case of the have’s and have-not’s. It is a case of those who drink deep and those who sip.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water

Recently I have been wrestling with the Lord. Like Jacob, I’m trying to pin the Lord down. And like Jacob, I have a limp for all my trouble. I have been trying to pin the Lord down on an understanding of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Simple, you might say. Why bother with something so obvious…?

I started out as a simple Pentecostal. I met Jesus and was completely changed. I was healed of drug abuse, my behavior radically changed, and all I wanted to do was pray, read the Bible, and tell others about Jesus. Six weeks after I met the Lord I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, shouting in tongues until I was hoarse.

Everything was simple. The few people I came across who believed that the gifts of the Spirit died out with the Apostles I quickly dismissed. We needed the word confirmed to us as much as they did and the perfect won’t come until Jesus returns. Simple.

But as I read more and more and did my best to come to an equitable understanding of scripture I began to notice things. I noticed that there was no verse that said that you must speak in tongues – and that there was no proof that speaking in tongues was the evidence that someone had received the Holy Spirit. The only verse that even indicated that tongues was an evidence of the reception of the Spirit was in Acts 11, where Peter is explaining to the leaders in Jerusalem how he knew the Gentiles had received the Spirit and could therefore be baptized. I also noticed that according to Romans 8:9 NIV “ if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” At first this was a non-issue. After all, everyone I knew believed that the Spirit lived in a person when they were born again. When you were born again your spirit and the Holy Spirit were conjoined. As far as I knew, only those radical Pentecostals who didn’t think you were saved until you spoke in tongues believed that you did not, in some sense, get the Spirit when you believed.

But we all believed that having your spirit made new by conjoining with the Holy Spirit was not the same thing as receiving the Spirit in the baptism in the Holy Spirit. In recent years this has come under attack. Bruner, Dunn, Fee, Turner and others have all claimed that you are baptized in the Spirit at conversion. They have done some real scholarly work. The non-issue has become an issue. If what I understood about my experience is incorrect, I want to know. I need to able to teach the truth.

In this controversy I see two pivot points. For the Pentecostal side, this verse is crucial. 1 Corinthians 12:13 NIV “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” For the conversion/baptism in the Spirit side, Acts 8, the incident at Samaria.

In the next post I’ll look at 1 Cor 12:13 and the following post I’ll take on the implications of Samaria.