The meaning of Pentecost
The signs of the times are all around us. The events of the gospel recorded in the pages of Scripture are similarly riddled with signs that indicate the changing time in which these saving events occurred. A pilgrim through Jerusalem in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry may have heard testimony about the miracles he’d performed; they may have heard accounts of his resurrection from the dead; they may even have been present on the day of Pentecost and heard the sound like the blowing of a violent wind and seen the tongues of fire that came to rest on people who began declaring the great acts of God in any one of fifteen languages.
But the signs given by Jesus in this amazing time were not understood. On the day of Pentecost the crowd who saw and heard evidence of the Spirit’s outpouring asked one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12) And so the Apostle Peter addressed the crowd, “let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.” (Acts 2:14) In light of the modern confusion over the events of Pentecost, we cannot do better than to give all of our attention to a careful reading of the apostolic explanation of the true meaning of Pentecost.
The miracles
Peter’s Pentecost explanation began with the last days, before which God had said, “I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below… before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.” (Acts 2:17-21) To the surprise of his listeners Peter declared “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him...” (Acts 2:22) God had already signaled the arrival of the day of the Lord with the miracles, wonders and signs performed by Jesus.
The resurrection
The miracles of Jesus were just the prelude. To the already amazed crowd Peter then dropped a bomb with his announcement of the Resurrection. The news would have come as a great shock: one whom they had crucified was the one whom God had raised from the dead (Acts 2:22-24), about which their hero King David had said in Psalm 16, “God will not let his Holy One see decay” (Acts 2:27). Peter’s point was clear: God’s Christ is this Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 2:30-32).
The outpouring of the Spirit
But the resurrection of Jesus was only the beginning: Peter claimed that what they had witnessed only moments earlier was evidence of Jesus’ activity from heaven: “Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” (Acts 2:33) The tongues of fire they saw and the tongues-speaking they heard were not only evidence of the reception of God's Spirit but also a demonstration that Jesus is the Lord God himself. God had said through Joel, “I will pour out my Spirit.” (Acts 2:17) The fact that Jesus is he who gives God’s Spirit is therefore a demonstration of his divinity. David also spoke prophetically in Psalm 110 about the ascension of one of his descendents, whom he thus referred to as ‘Lord’ (Acts 2:34): “'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand...” The Lord God had made a promise to place one of King David’s sons at his own right hand and bring all of his enemies under his judgment (Acts 2:35). The Spirit’s outpouring at the hands of Jesus is therefore a demonstration of his position as this son of David in heaven under whom God’s judgment will fall.
The time to repent
The crowd understood Peter’s point perfectly: Jesus’ resurrection showed him to the Christ and his giving of the Spirit showed him to the Lord God himself. (Acts 2:36) And this is the very one whom not many days ago they had hung upon a cross. “They were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"” (Acts 2:37) What possibly could those who had crucified the Lord Christ himself do?
The good news that began on the day of Pentecost is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “...everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved' (Acts 2:21). Still, it took the Apostle Peter to reveal the true application of these words that had for so long been a mystery. Now, in these final days, everyone who calls on Jesus Christ as Lord will be saved. It is on his name that people must call; it is in his name that everyone may be saved. (Acts 2:38)
Peter’s statement in Acts 2:38-39 is complete: Salvation is forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit and is promised for all whom Jesus the Lord God will call; that is, baptism in the Spirit is related to the forgiveness of sins: it is Christ’s new covenant work of washing with the Spirit all who turn to him as Lord. And this gift is promised for all of God’s people; just as Christ’s death was for our sins and his resurrection for our justification, his ascension was so that he might pour out God’s Spirit on all who seek forgiveness in his name.
The Apostle Paul’s words about the gift of the Holy Spirit similarly shows that salvation in the new covenant marries together cleansing from sin and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: “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.” (Titus 3:5-6)
The only right response to the events of Pentecost is repentance for the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name because the revelation of Jesus as Lord and Christ is the true meaning of the day of Pentecost. Whatever one might think about the events of the day of Pentecost and the meaning of Joel’s famous prophecy, a true reading of Acts 2 falls into line behind the Apostle Peter’s own explanation in terms of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
More on this topic
Baptism in the Spirit: The Apostles' experience
Baptism in the Spirit: What the Scriptures say
Baptism in the Spirit: The examples in Acts - Part II
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on Pentecost Sunday, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The day of Pentecost: Part II - The Promise
The Promise of Pentecost
They had come to Jerusalem from all over the world. And when the sound of a group of Jews speaking each of their native languages reached their ears they were perplexed and bewildered. To their amazement they heard a declaration of the great works of God; what they couldn’t understand was how this group of Hebrew speaking Jews spoke their foreign languages – Parthian, Egyptian, Italian, Arabian. It took them an Apostle of Jesus to explain it to them: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.” (Acts 2:14, NIV) So began the Apostle Peter’s address to the crowd of utterly amazed on-listeners on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).
What was spoken
To the confused crowd, Peter quoted the prophet Joel at length (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:17-21): “…this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). Joel had spoken of a time at the end of the world when the day of the Lord would come – the great and dreadful day of God’s judgment (Joel 2:11). After judgment, God would pour his Spirit onto all types of people (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:17-18). There would be wonders in heaven and signs on earth before the arrival of this day to signal its coming (Joel 2:30-31; Acts 2:19-20) and there would be salvation for anyone who called on the Lord by name (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21). It was to the shock of Peter’s audience that, following this quotation, he reminded them that God had recently given signs on earth through the man Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 2:22). Even more, a shock would have been his case that Jesus was the one who had just now poured out God’s Spirit and given from heaven the signs that they had just witnessed (Acts 2:33). They were cut to the heart by his point: This Jesus, whom they had crucified, was the Lord, now raised up into heaven itself – Jesus is the name in whom salvation is now given (Acts 2:38).
Before talking in detail about Peter’s explanation of Joel’s prophecy (beginning in v. 22), notice what the prophet had promised about the Spirit:
Peter announced that the time Joel described has now arrived: that is, the day of the Lord has arrived; in Peter’s words, these are “the last days.” This time is characterised by God’s pouring out of His Spirit on all; that is, the Spirit is no longer reserved for certain ones within God’s people who have special tasks, such as judges, kings and prophets. Now God's Spirit is given to all of God's people (the young and the old; women as well as men; slave and free).
A new revelation
Joel also indicated that the result of God’s outpouring of this Spirit would be the prophecy, visions and dreams of all (Acts 2:17-18). Twice Peter emphasized, “They will prophesy.” The reception of visions and dreams was the usual way God revealed Himself in the Old Testament: “When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams” (Numbers 12:6). However such revelation in the past had only come to certain ones, particularly prophets. In promising visions and dreams, Joel predicted a new stage in salvation history when there would be a new revelation from God. Peter’s explanation of Joel’s prediction (beginning in Acts 2:22) sees these words as applying to God’s new revelation of Jesus as both Lord and Christ.
A new prophecy
In promising prophecy, Joel also described the last days as a time when every one of God's people would declare this new revelation from God; sons and daughters, young men and old, even servants will be the prophets of this new revelation from God. Pentecostalism is not wrong in wanting to see evidence for the reception of the Spirit in God’s people. Here in this prediction of Joel quoted on the day of Pentecost by the Apostle Peter, the result of the reception of God’s Spirit is prophecy. The speech in the tongues of the various nations gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost was the beginning of such prophecy: “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2:11, ESV). The last days began with a simultaneous declaration of the gospel to representatives from ‘every nation under heaven.’
A new series of signs
Before the arrival of the day of the Lord, Joel predicted that God would show a new series of signs and wonders. The Exodus is an example of a new stage in salvation history when God displayed signs and wonders (the 10 plagues) before the arrival of his great acts of judgment on Pharaoh in Egypt and his salvation through Moses for Israel. Joel predicted God would in cosmic proportions signal the coming of the Lord’s great and dreadful day of judgment and salvation with wonders in heaven and signs on earth. This news must have left Peter’s audience anxious, to say the least: For if as Peter indicated Joel’s words about the Spirit’s outpouring described the events of the day of Pentecost, what and when were the signs and wonders that were to precede it and what of God’s impending judgment? Again, Peter’s explanation of Joel’s prediction (beginning in Acts 2:22) sees these words as applying to the signs and wonders that God did through Jesus.
A new name
The final point in Peter’s quotation of Joel is a pointy application concerning the means of salvation for those who seek to escape God’s judgment in the day of the Lord that is now upon us. Once again, Peter’s message comes as a shock: In these last days when God’s time of judging the whole world has begun, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; that is, it will be possible for anyone who knows the Lord by name to be saved, but anyone who does not know the name of the Lord, or calls on the wrong name will not escape God’s judgment. Peter begins at this very point (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21) to apply Joel’s words to the events of the gospel in order to reveal the new name under heaven by which people must be saved: The Lord Jesus Christ.
In part III of this article, we’ll talk in detail about Peter’s explanation of Joel’s prophecy and the events of the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:22-38).
More on this topic
The day of Pentecost: Part III - The meaning
Baptism in the Spirit: The Apostles' experience
Baptism in the Spirit: The examples in Acts – Part I
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on Pentecost Sunday, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
They had come to Jerusalem from all over the world. And when the sound of a group of Jews speaking each of their native languages reached their ears they were perplexed and bewildered. To their amazement they heard a declaration of the great works of God; what they couldn’t understand was how this group of Hebrew speaking Jews spoke their foreign languages – Parthian, Egyptian, Italian, Arabian. It took them an Apostle of Jesus to explain it to them: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.” (Acts 2:14, NIV) So began the Apostle Peter’s address to the crowd of utterly amazed on-listeners on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).
What was spoken
To the confused crowd, Peter quoted the prophet Joel at length (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:17-21): “…this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). Joel had spoken of a time at the end of the world when the day of the Lord would come – the great and dreadful day of God’s judgment (Joel 2:11). After judgment, God would pour his Spirit onto all types of people (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:17-18). There would be wonders in heaven and signs on earth before the arrival of this day to signal its coming (Joel 2:30-31; Acts 2:19-20) and there would be salvation for anyone who called on the Lord by name (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21). It was to the shock of Peter’s audience that, following this quotation, he reminded them that God had recently given signs on earth through the man Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 2:22). Even more, a shock would have been his case that Jesus was the one who had just now poured out God’s Spirit and given from heaven the signs that they had just witnessed (Acts 2:33). They were cut to the heart by his point: This Jesus, whom they had crucified, was the Lord, now raised up into heaven itself – Jesus is the name in whom salvation is now given (Acts 2:38).
Before talking in detail about Peter’s explanation of Joel’s prophecy (beginning in v. 22), notice what the prophet had promised about the Spirit:
“'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” (Acts 2:17-21, NIV)A new time
Peter announced that the time Joel described has now arrived: that is, the day of the Lord has arrived; in Peter’s words, these are “the last days.” This time is characterised by God’s pouring out of His Spirit on all; that is, the Spirit is no longer reserved for certain ones within God’s people who have special tasks, such as judges, kings and prophets. Now God's Spirit is given to all of God's people (the young and the old; women as well as men; slave and free).
A new revelation
Joel also indicated that the result of God’s outpouring of this Spirit would be the prophecy, visions and dreams of all (Acts 2:17-18). Twice Peter emphasized, “They will prophesy.” The reception of visions and dreams was the usual way God revealed Himself in the Old Testament: “When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams” (Numbers 12:6). However such revelation in the past had only come to certain ones, particularly prophets. In promising visions and dreams, Joel predicted a new stage in salvation history when there would be a new revelation from God. Peter’s explanation of Joel’s prediction (beginning in Acts 2:22) sees these words as applying to God’s new revelation of Jesus as both Lord and Christ.
A new prophecy
In promising prophecy, Joel also described the last days as a time when every one of God's people would declare this new revelation from God; sons and daughters, young men and old, even servants will be the prophets of this new revelation from God. Pentecostalism is not wrong in wanting to see evidence for the reception of the Spirit in God’s people. Here in this prediction of Joel quoted on the day of Pentecost by the Apostle Peter, the result of the reception of God’s Spirit is prophecy. The speech in the tongues of the various nations gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost was the beginning of such prophecy: “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2:11, ESV). The last days began with a simultaneous declaration of the gospel to representatives from ‘every nation under heaven.’
A new series of signs
Before the arrival of the day of the Lord, Joel predicted that God would show a new series of signs and wonders. The Exodus is an example of a new stage in salvation history when God displayed signs and wonders (the 10 plagues) before the arrival of his great acts of judgment on Pharaoh in Egypt and his salvation through Moses for Israel. Joel predicted God would in cosmic proportions signal the coming of the Lord’s great and dreadful day of judgment and salvation with wonders in heaven and signs on earth. This news must have left Peter’s audience anxious, to say the least: For if as Peter indicated Joel’s words about the Spirit’s outpouring described the events of the day of Pentecost, what and when were the signs and wonders that were to precede it and what of God’s impending judgment? Again, Peter’s explanation of Joel’s prediction (beginning in Acts 2:22) sees these words as applying to the signs and wonders that God did through Jesus.
A new name
The final point in Peter’s quotation of Joel is a pointy application concerning the means of salvation for those who seek to escape God’s judgment in the day of the Lord that is now upon us. Once again, Peter’s message comes as a shock: In these last days when God’s time of judging the whole world has begun, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; that is, it will be possible for anyone who knows the Lord by name to be saved, but anyone who does not know the name of the Lord, or calls on the wrong name will not escape God’s judgment. Peter begins at this very point (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21) to apply Joel’s words to the events of the gospel in order to reveal the new name under heaven by which people must be saved: The Lord Jesus Christ.
In part III of this article, we’ll talk in detail about Peter’s explanation of Joel’s prophecy and the events of the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:22-38).
The day of Pentecost: Part III - The meaning
Baptism in the Spirit: The Apostles' experience
Baptism in the Spirit: The examples in Acts – Part I
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on Pentecost Sunday, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The Day of Pentecost: Part I - The Event
The Event of Pentecost
Jews from fifteen different nations came together in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, each speaking with their own language. Then, when a group among them began declaring God’s mighty works in these fifteen languages, a crowd developed of amazed and confused listeners. What the group were saying the crowd could understand well enough; what they couldn’t understand was why they could understand them. (Acts 2:5-12)
Jesus promised to send God’s Spirit (Acts 1:4-5) before being taken up into heaven (Acts 1:11), commanding his followers to stay in Jerusalem until they had received him. When on the day of Pentecost the 120 followers were all filled with the Holy Spirit three signs were given from heaven to demonstrate beyond any doubt their reception of Jesus’ baptism with the Spirit (Acts 2:2-4): wind signifying the creative work of the Spirit, as it had done at the creation of the world; fire signifying the saving work of God, as it had done at Mount Sinai; and the Spirit enabled declaration of God’s wonders in the languages (tongues) of the nations of the world.
What did the sign of tongues show? What is the significance of the Spirit enabled utterances of the first Christians? This is the first part of an article in which we'll talk about the Pentecost Sermon, where the Apostle Peter answers this very question.
Confusion over Pentecost
With the proliferation of the worldwide Pentecostal movement in the last few decades, this chapter in the New Testament, Acts 2, has become the most misunderstood passage in the Bible within 21st century Christianity. It's not hard to understand why; the events described in Acts 2 were met with misunderstanding when they occurred. In fact, Acts 2 is a record of the Apostle Peter’s explanation of the events of that day because of the ignorance that surrounded him: “Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"” (Acts 2:12) And so Peter stood to answer this very question: “let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say” (Acts 2:14).
Old Testament Prophecy: Promises of the Spirit
Peter began his explanation by quoting the Old Testament prophet Joel (Acts 2:17-21). His claim was that the events of the day were what Joel had prophesied about (v. 16). Naturally he follows his quotation with his own explanation of the events in terms of Joel’s prophecy. He doesn’t give Joel’s prophecy as the answer; he gives a gospel sermon that explains the Old Testament prophecy as the answer. His sermon in Acts 2:22-36 is a declaration of the meaning of what the crowd had just witnessed, for he says about Jesus in Acts 2:33, “he has poured out what you now see and hear.” His sermon was not an evangelistic add-on: His sermon is the apostolic interpretation of the events of Pentecost; it is God’s own version of events; it is the Spirit himself speaking about what his own activity signifies.
The only way to understand the Spirit
Even though this was a genuine work of the Spirit, it could not simply be understood by observing it, or even experiencing it. The only way to interpret it correctly was to listen to the apostolic explanation of the OT prophetic expectation. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:22-36 demonstrates the fact that the events of Pentecost can only be understood with a New Testament comprehension of the promises of the Old Testament prophets, such as Joel. Much to their suprise, Peter explained that Pentecost was not primarily about the Spirit, but about Jesus of Nazareth, whom they crucified: "Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear." (Acts 2:33).
In Part 2 of this article we'll be talking about Peter's explanation of Joel's prophecy and the events of his day. (Acts 2:14-32)
More on this topic
The day of Pentecost: Part II - The Promise
Baptism in the Spirit: The Apostles' experience
The day of Pentecost: Part III - The meaning
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on Pentecost Sunday, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Jews from fifteen different nations came together in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, each speaking with their own language. Then, when a group among them began declaring God’s mighty works in these fifteen languages, a crowd developed of amazed and confused listeners. What the group were saying the crowd could understand well enough; what they couldn’t understand was why they could understand them. (Acts 2:5-12)
Jesus promised to send God’s Spirit (Acts 1:4-5) before being taken up into heaven (Acts 1:11), commanding his followers to stay in Jerusalem until they had received him. When on the day of Pentecost the 120 followers were all filled with the Holy Spirit three signs were given from heaven to demonstrate beyond any doubt their reception of Jesus’ baptism with the Spirit (Acts 2:2-4): wind signifying the creative work of the Spirit, as it had done at the creation of the world; fire signifying the saving work of God, as it had done at Mount Sinai; and the Spirit enabled declaration of God’s wonders in the languages (tongues) of the nations of the world.
What did the sign of tongues show? What is the significance of the Spirit enabled utterances of the first Christians? This is the first part of an article in which we'll talk about the Pentecost Sermon, where the Apostle Peter answers this very question.
Confusion over Pentecost
With the proliferation of the worldwide Pentecostal movement in the last few decades, this chapter in the New Testament, Acts 2, has become the most misunderstood passage in the Bible within 21st century Christianity. It's not hard to understand why; the events described in Acts 2 were met with misunderstanding when they occurred. In fact, Acts 2 is a record of the Apostle Peter’s explanation of the events of that day because of the ignorance that surrounded him: “Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"” (Acts 2:12) And so Peter stood to answer this very question: “let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say” (Acts 2:14).
Old Testament Prophecy: Promises of the Spirit
Peter began his explanation by quoting the Old Testament prophet Joel (Acts 2:17-21). His claim was that the events of the day were what Joel had prophesied about (v. 16). Naturally he follows his quotation with his own explanation of the events in terms of Joel’s prophecy. He doesn’t give Joel’s prophecy as the answer; he gives a gospel sermon that explains the Old Testament prophecy as the answer. His sermon in Acts 2:22-36 is a declaration of the meaning of what the crowd had just witnessed, for he says about Jesus in Acts 2:33, “he has poured out what you now see and hear.” His sermon was not an evangelistic add-on: His sermon is the apostolic interpretation of the events of Pentecost; it is God’s own version of events; it is the Spirit himself speaking about what his own activity signifies.
The only way to understand the Spirit
Even though this was a genuine work of the Spirit, it could not simply be understood by observing it, or even experiencing it. The only way to interpret it correctly was to listen to the apostolic explanation of the OT prophetic expectation. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:22-36 demonstrates the fact that the events of Pentecost can only be understood with a New Testament comprehension of the promises of the Old Testament prophets, such as Joel. Much to their suprise, Peter explained that Pentecost was not primarily about the Spirit, but about Jesus of Nazareth, whom they crucified: "Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear." (Acts 2:33).
In Part 2 of this article we'll be talking about Peter's explanation of Joel's prophecy and the events of his day. (Acts 2:14-32)
The day of Pentecost: Part II - The Promise
Baptism in the Spirit: The Apostles' experience
The day of Pentecost: Part III - The meaning
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on Pentecost Sunday, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The Purpose Driven Life - Part II: A Corrective
What is the centre of the Christian life? What gives us purpose and drive? What message do we have to share with the world around us? These are some of the questions that Rick Warren's incredibly popular The Purpose-Driven Life sets out to answer.
In Part I of this article I reviewed The Purpose-Driven Life and concluded that because Warren identifies our basic need as meaninglessness, his gospel offers at its core the knowledge of God's plans and purposes. The problem with this is that it does not go far enough. Our basic problem, according to God's word is rebellion against God and so our greatest need is forgiveness and transformation, not just information. The failure of The Purpose-Driven Life is that it doesn't recognise that the gospel of Jesus' work of salvation is at the centre of God's purposes for the world.
Part II of this article aims to provide a corrective. I want to convince you that the Christian life should be gospel-driven, because the gospel alone can and should control the Christian life. In order to do this I want to ask two important questions.
A QUESTION OF POWER
What is it that enables a Christian to live as a Christian? It's a question of power. By insisting that the Christian life must be 'purpose-driven', Rick Warren assumes that living according to a set of purposes (derived from Scripture) will give power to drive the Christian life. However simply knowing certain rules and living a certain way will not empower Christians. For God's power is not located within us, as if it depended upon ourselves.
From the very beginning God's purposes were accomplished by his powerful word. Throughout the Bible there is a strong relationship between the purposes of God and the word of God that accomplishes it. A classic example is found in Isaiah 55:11:
If Christians try to just run 'purpose-driven' lives, in the sense Warren uses 'purpose', they will inevitably bind themselves up in a powerless straight-jacket and rob themselves of the enabling influence of the Spirit. Without depending solely on the power of God in the gospel, 'purposefulness' will ultimately degrade into 'sinfulness'. For the purpose of every human heart is only sinful all of the time. Only the gospel can drive the Christian life, because it alone is God's power over human sin.
A QUESTION OF CONTROL
There is a second question needing to be raised: What controls the Christian life? If the gospel contains the 'driving-power' behind the Christian life, what turns the 'driving-wheel' in the Christian life? According to Rick Warren there is nothing more fundamental that ought to control you than 'God's purposes for your life' (p. 30).
It is definitely right to teach that Christian activity should be guided, controlled, and directed. But should it be by a list of purposes? One immediate problem with conformity like this is that it tilts the focus towards thinking in terms of 'what' we do. But it's just as important to consider 'how' we do it - even more so is 'why' we do it. The question is what should be controlling how and why we do what we do as Christians.
When Warren uses the word 'purposes', he seems to use it in a very narrow sense. He appears to mean God's end-point goals for our individual lives. This definition is far too narrow. God's purposes for us include his purposes for all things. We cannot talk about his will for our lives individually without referring to his plans to glorify himself in Christ.
It's not 'God's purposes for us' that ought to control Christians. For this is little different to being driven by God's law - which was the expression of his desires for Israel. This is why The Purpose-Driven Life is inescapably emphasising a works-driven lifestyle. But it was God's mercy in saving Israel that was to motivate them to keep God's law (Ex 20:2). Similarly, the New Testament emphasises that the gospel itself should be the controlling agent in our lives. Christian are to:
THE GOSPEL-DRIVEN LIFE
In answering the question, "What on earth am I hear for?", to a secular audience as well as Christian, The Purpose-Driven Life uses over 1,200 scriptural quotes and references. Yet it fails to even begin outlining the gospel revealed by these Scriptures. Jesus' words to the Jews comes to mind: "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me..." (John 5:39). How is it that a 300-plus page book on the subject of 'God's purpose' forgets to explain God's "eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph 3:11)? Could it be that the writting of this book was not gospel-driven?
This book certainly has some good things to teach us. Some of its challenge comes directly within its broader message. But the big lesson to be learnt from The Purpose-Driven Life is indirect. The moral of this story is that anything that displaces the primacy of the gospel in the Christian life is actually sub-Christian. This includes the notion of 'purpose' if it has been separated from its real meaning in the Christian life, which is the gospel of salvation from sin.
The book begins with a challenge to enter a covenant, committing to a 40-day spiritual journey of discovery. Compacts such as this are appealing to those looking for relatively quick and easy change, because they inadvertantly promise greater power: the power of new commitment; of new wisdom; of new experiences. But they fail to realise that the 'pact' of faith in Christ is the only covenant that promises any real life-transforming power. There is nothing new about it. The danger of any gimmick (and the modern Christian world is full of them) is that they take Christians away from the age old power of the gospel of Christ crucified.
CONCLUSION
It should always be clear that the gospel alone provides what is essential for sinful humanity: God's power for salvation. We should never fudge over this, because the whole Christian life is gospel-driven. Christians are still being saved by God and it's the gospel that is doing it. It alone enables us to live for God's glory. It directs us, controlling how and why we do live for God's glory, as well as the activities that this involves. So the Christian life really should be purpose-driven in the truest sense of that word, not at all meaning that we are driven by God's purposes for our own lives, but rather by God's purpose for himself as revealed in the gospel, in which we have been included.
More on this topic
The Purpose Driven Life - Part I: A Review
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
In Part I of this article I reviewed The Purpose-Driven Life and concluded that because Warren identifies our basic need as meaninglessness, his gospel offers at its core the knowledge of God's plans and purposes. The problem with this is that it does not go far enough. Our basic problem, according to God's word is rebellion against God and so our greatest need is forgiveness and transformation, not just information. The failure of The Purpose-Driven Life is that it doesn't recognise that the gospel of Jesus' work of salvation is at the centre of God's purposes for the world.
Part II of this article aims to provide a corrective. I want to convince you that the Christian life should be gospel-driven, because the gospel alone can and should control the Christian life. In order to do this I want to ask two important questions.
A QUESTION OF POWER
What is it that enables a Christian to live as a Christian? It's a question of power. By insisting that the Christian life must be 'purpose-driven', Rick Warren assumes that living according to a set of purposes (derived from Scripture) will give power to drive the Christian life. However simply knowing certain rules and living a certain way will not empower Christians. For God's power is not located within us, as if it depended upon ourselves.
From the very beginning God's purposes were accomplished by his powerful word. Throughout the Bible there is a strong relationship between the purposes of God and the word of God that accomplishes it. A classic example is found in Isaiah 55:11:
"...So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."In the New Testament the same active power attributed to the word of God in the Old Testament is applied to the gospel itself. (Acts 20:32; Rom 1:16; 1Cor 1:18; Col 1:5-6; 1Thes 2:13; Heb 4:6,12; Jas 1:18; 1Pet 1:23). The gospel is living and active by judging the thoughts and attitudes of its hearers. It bears fruit and grows all over the world by powerfully saving unbelievers. And for Christians who are being saved it continues to be the power of God by working in them to building them up and give them an inheritance. So it is actually the word of God in the gospel that enables our participation in the purposes of God. It is the gospel that drives the Christian life, because it alone can.
If Christians try to just run 'purpose-driven' lives, in the sense Warren uses 'purpose', they will inevitably bind themselves up in a powerless straight-jacket and rob themselves of the enabling influence of the Spirit. Without depending solely on the power of God in the gospel, 'purposefulness' will ultimately degrade into 'sinfulness'. For the purpose of every human heart is only sinful all of the time. Only the gospel can drive the Christian life, because it alone is God's power over human sin.
A QUESTION OF CONTROL
There is a second question needing to be raised: What controls the Christian life? If the gospel contains the 'driving-power' behind the Christian life, what turns the 'driving-wheel' in the Christian life? According to Rick Warren there is nothing more fundamental that ought to control you than 'God's purposes for your life' (p. 30).
It is definitely right to teach that Christian activity should be guided, controlled, and directed. But should it be by a list of purposes? One immediate problem with conformity like this is that it tilts the focus towards thinking in terms of 'what' we do. But it's just as important to consider 'how' we do it - even more so is 'why' we do it. The question is what should be controlling how and why we do what we do as Christians.
When Warren uses the word 'purposes', he seems to use it in a very narrow sense. He appears to mean God's end-point goals for our individual lives. This definition is far too narrow. God's purposes for us include his purposes for all things. We cannot talk about his will for our lives individually without referring to his plans to glorify himself in Christ.
It's not 'God's purposes for us' that ought to control Christians. For this is little different to being driven by God's law - which was the expression of his desires for Israel. This is why The Purpose-Driven Life is inescapably emphasising a works-driven lifestyle. But it was God's mercy in saving Israel that was to motivate them to keep God's law (Ex 20:2). Similarly, the New Testament emphasises that the gospel itself should be the controlling agent in our lives. Christian are to:
* Walk worthily of the calling we've received in the gospel (Eph 4:1) * Walk in love just as Christ loved us in the gospel (5:1-2)We always fix our eyes on God's purposes for all things as we live our lives. We cannot simply focus on a narrow list of God's end-point goals for our lives individually. The gospel must drive our worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. If not, it will be all the more likely that someone modeling the purpose-driven life may not even be a Christian! They may be actively involved in 'worship services', attending the 'fellowship', participating in the 'discipleship program', using their gifts in a church 'ministry', and even enthusiastically 'evangelising' others with their story, and yet the gospel may never have taken root below their externals, bringing them to genuine repentance and faith from the heart. That's why only the gospel should drive the Christian life.
* Walk as children of the light because the gospel has taken us from darkness to light (Eph 5:8)
* Work out the salvation we have in the gospel (Php 2:12-13)
* Live up to what we've already obtained in the gospel (Php 3:16)
* Walk with Christ Jesus as Lord, just as we received him as Lord (Col 2:6-7)
THE GOSPEL-DRIVEN LIFE
In answering the question, "What on earth am I hear for?", to a secular audience as well as Christian, The Purpose-Driven Life uses over 1,200 scriptural quotes and references. Yet it fails to even begin outlining the gospel revealed by these Scriptures. Jesus' words to the Jews comes to mind: "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me..." (John 5:39). How is it that a 300-plus page book on the subject of 'God's purpose' forgets to explain God's "eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph 3:11)? Could it be that the writting of this book was not gospel-driven?
This book certainly has some good things to teach us. Some of its challenge comes directly within its broader message. But the big lesson to be learnt from The Purpose-Driven Life is indirect. The moral of this story is that anything that displaces the primacy of the gospel in the Christian life is actually sub-Christian. This includes the notion of 'purpose' if it has been separated from its real meaning in the Christian life, which is the gospel of salvation from sin.
The book begins with a challenge to enter a covenant, committing to a 40-day spiritual journey of discovery. Compacts such as this are appealing to those looking for relatively quick and easy change, because they inadvertantly promise greater power: the power of new commitment; of new wisdom; of new experiences. But they fail to realise that the 'pact' of faith in Christ is the only covenant that promises any real life-transforming power. There is nothing new about it. The danger of any gimmick (and the modern Christian world is full of them) is that they take Christians away from the age old power of the gospel of Christ crucified.
CONCLUSION
It should always be clear that the gospel alone provides what is essential for sinful humanity: God's power for salvation. We should never fudge over this, because the whole Christian life is gospel-driven. Christians are still being saved by God and it's the gospel that is doing it. It alone enables us to live for God's glory. It directs us, controlling how and why we do live for God's glory, as well as the activities that this involves. So the Christian life really should be purpose-driven in the truest sense of that word, not at all meaning that we are driven by God's purposes for our own lives, but rather by God's purpose for himself as revealed in the gospel, in which we have been included.
The Purpose Driven Life - Part I: A Review
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The Purpose Driven Life - Part I: A Review
The Purpose-Driven Life (Rick Warren, 2002) has become a phenomenonally popular book in recent times. Heading the blurb is an endorsement by Billy and Franklin Graham: "Read this book!" - and plenty have. Over 20 million copies were sold in less than 3 years - that's more than the The Da Vinci Code. Pastors all over the globe are giving the book their unreserved recommendations. The book is even creating a movement of its own. A quick brouse of www.purposedrivenlife.com, and you may find yourself ordering The Purpose-Driven Life Video Curriculum, or any number of other resources to help you during your 40 Days of Purpose. And its appeal has gone beyond the Christian scene. It rose to become #1 New York Times Bestseller. What are we to make of The Purpose Driven Life?
A LIFE DRIVEN BY PURPOSE
In Rick Warren's own words, "This is more than a book; it is a guide to a 40-day spiritual journey that will enable you to discover...God's purpose for your life".The promise is to know the answer to life's most important question, "What on earth am I here for?" And knowing this will "reduce your stress, focus your energy, simplify your decisions, give meaning to your life, and most important, prepare you for eternity" (p. 9).
The central emphasis of the book is that the Christian life should be purpose-driven. By purpose Warren means God's purposes for your life, as he has defined them. By driven he means "guided, controlled and directed" (p. 30). In specifics, 'purpose-driven' life is one guided, controlled and directed by worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism (p. 55-57).
The Purpose-Driven Life contains a lot of darn good calls. The clear way that Warren appeals to Christians to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the purpose of glorifying God is very challenging. In this regard the book is spot on. Purpose is the right place to start, and the purpose of glorifying God is the right point to arrive at. However, the book contains at least two significant problems.
THE PROBLEM OF PURPOSE
The first problem with The Purpose Driven Life is that its central message is not that of Scripture. This becomes clear when people are invited to become Christians at the end of the first section:
As a result, the book leaves us with a gospel that is trying to fix the problem of ignorance. This comes through in the book's essentials list for Christians. The central cry is that the absolute driving force in anyone's life should be the purposes of God for our lives, as it outlines them:
THE GOSPEL OF GOD'S PURPOSE
The second problem with The Purpose-Driven Life follows from the first: the central message of Scripture has been omitted. Jesus makes it explicit that the central message of the Bible it is the gospel about himself:
According to Rick Warren,
There is another aspect to Paul's gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 worth picking up on: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures...he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. The gospel involves an explanation that the Scriptures are fulfilled in Jesus' death and resurrection. That is, they happened according to the eternal purpose of God.
Warren's view of the purposes of God is too narrow. For if by God's 'purposes' we mean, as Warren does, God's end-goal for our lives then we need to look behind good things such as worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. The reality is that God's glory shown in the gospel of salvation is the great overall purpose of God. And this is not different to his purposes for our lives. That is the remarkable thing: God's purposes for us are to be found within his gospel purpose for himself from all eternity.
In part 2 of this article, we will go on to explore how the gospel actually can and should drive, control and dictate our lives, for God's glory.
More on this topic
The Purpose Driven Life - Part II: A Corrective
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
A LIFE DRIVEN BY PURPOSE
In Rick Warren's own words, "This is more than a book; it is a guide to a 40-day spiritual journey that will enable you to discover...God's purpose for your life".The promise is to know the answer to life's most important question, "What on earth am I here for?" And knowing this will "reduce your stress, focus your energy, simplify your decisions, give meaning to your life, and most important, prepare you for eternity" (p. 9).
The central emphasis of the book is that the Christian life should be purpose-driven. By purpose Warren means God's purposes for your life, as he has defined them. By driven he means "guided, controlled and directed" (p. 30). In specifics, 'purpose-driven' life is one guided, controlled and directed by worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism (p. 55-57).
The Purpose-Driven Life contains a lot of darn good calls. The clear way that Warren appeals to Christians to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the purpose of glorifying God is very challenging. In this regard the book is spot on. Purpose is the right place to start, and the purpose of glorifying God is the right point to arrive at. However, the book contains at least two significant problems.
THE PROBLEM OF PURPOSE
The first problem with The Purpose Driven Life is that its central message is not that of Scripture. This becomes clear when people are invited to become Christians at the end of the first section:
"First, believe. Believe God loves you and made you for his purposes. Believe you're not an accident. Believe you were made to last forever. Believe God has chosen you to have a relationship with Jesus, who died on the cross for you. Believe that no matter what you've done, God wants to forgive you." (p. 58)These brief mentions are the first we've heard of Jesus' death. Sin has certainly not been explained adequately and judgement has certainly not been explained. And this is as close as the book takes us. Notice the repetition of the word 'you' in this formula. Notice also that Jesus' death is mentioned in passing only as a way of identifying who he is. Notice the use of the word 'believe' to mean giving assent to a list of facts about us and what God wants for us, rather than placing our trust in God and his mercy. Warren has not brought us to God's revelation of himself in the gospel, instead, he has brought us straight to ourselves and our lives. The purpose-driven gospel is not primarily concerned about God and what he has done for himself. Yet, as we'll see, it is only when we focus on God's goals for his own glory that we can really understand our own lives properly.
As a result, the book leaves us with a gospel that is trying to fix the problem of ignorance. This comes through in the book's essentials list for Christians. The central cry is that the absolute driving force in anyone's life should be the purposes of God for our lives, as it outlines them:
"Nothing matters more than knowing God's purposes for your life, and nothing can compensate for not knowing them...The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose." (p. 30)Since human ignorance is assumed to be the problem, it is not surprising that knowledge is puported as the solution. That's why, after outlining 'God's five purposes for your life', Warren thinks you're ready to be converted. But our problem is not a lack of purpose, but having the wrong purpose. It's what the Bible calls 'sin': willfully glorifying ourselves rather than God. Since the fall of mankind, the solution for humanity has never been mere information but salvation; people need rescue.
THE GOSPEL OF GOD'S PURPOSE
The second problem with The Purpose-Driven Life follows from the first: the central message of Scripture has been omitted. Jesus makes it explicit that the central message of the Bible it is the gospel about himself:
"'Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." (Luke 24:25-27)Once again, the Apostle Paul, wanting to remind the Corinthians of the gospel he preached to them, summarised it this way:
"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared..." (1 Corinthians 15:3-5)This shows that the gospel does involve a list - but it's not the five things God wants for your life. Rather it's the past events concerning Christ and what they mean. As well being history, the gospel is God's explanation of history. The gospel is a declaration that Christ's death was for our sins. It necessitates an explanation of sins and of Christ's death as substitution.
According to Rick Warren,
"Jesus modeled a purpose-driven life, and taught others how to live it, too. That was the 'work' that brought glory to God. Today God calls each of us to the same work." (p. 310)That's what Jesus must be on about if you believe that "life without purpose" is the heart of the problem that Jesus fixed. But the heart of the gospel is not Jesus' 'life modeled to us', but his 'death offered for us'. It's sad that RickWarren can write with confidence, "Welcome to the family of God!" (p. 59), to a worldwide audience who have read nothing of Christ's death for their sins.
There is another aspect to Paul's gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 worth picking up on: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures...he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. The gospel involves an explanation that the Scriptures are fulfilled in Jesus' death and resurrection. That is, they happened according to the eternal purpose of God.
Warren's view of the purposes of God is too narrow. For if by God's 'purposes' we mean, as Warren does, God's end-goal for our lives then we need to look behind good things such as worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. The reality is that God's glory shown in the gospel of salvation is the great overall purpose of God. And this is not different to his purposes for our lives. That is the remarkable thing: God's purposes for us are to be found within his gospel purpose for himself from all eternity.
In part 2 of this article, we will go on to explore how the gospel actually can and should drive, control and dictate our lives, for God's glory.
The Purpose Driven Life - Part II: A Corrective
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Filled with the Spirit: Experiencing the Spirit
What do Pentecostals believe about being ‘filled with the Spirit?’ What do the Scriptures say about it and what do they mean?
Pentecostal experiences
Pentecostalism teaches not only a singular initial experience of baptism in the Spirit for Christians after conversion, but also the need for multiple experiences of ‘filling’ after Spirit-baptism. Pentecostals emphasize the need for continual experiences of the Spirit based upon Ephesians 5:18 where the Apostle Paul gives the command: “be filled with the Spirit.”
Luke’s reference to Jesus’ statement that God is ready to “give the Holy Spirit” to those who ask him (Luke 11:13) is also used in support of this emphasis. The central message in Pentecostalism is the importance of personal experiences for Christians because of a continual need for the reception of ‘more’ of the Spirit.
What the Scriptures say
Although there are references in the narratives of Acts to individuals and groups of people who were “filled with the Spirit”, some of these refer to Spirit-baptism (such as Acts 2:4; 9:17) – that is, people receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit – and others refer to those who, after receiving the gift of the Spirit are described as being ‘filled’ or ‘full’ of the Spirit (Acts 4:8, 31; 6:5; 7:55). The term can clearly be used generically to describe baptism with the Spirit or the Spirit’s ongoing work in Christians.
Ephesians 5:18 is the only verse in the New Testament that gives direct instruction to Christians about being filled with the Spirit and it describes the Spirit’s ongoing work in Christians. It is in fact a command given by Paul to Christians in the church in Ephesus: “be filled with the Spirit.” What does it mean? Is this a solid basis for the Pentecostal emphasis on spiritual experiences and the need for Christians to have ‘more’ of the Holy Spirit?
Ephesians 5:18 in context
The passage of which Ephesians 5:18 is a part gives a clear picture of what it means to be 'filled with the Spirit':
No full stop
There is no full stop at the end of Ephesians 5:18. Verse 18 is the beginning of one very long paragraph in the Greek describing what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Unlike drunkenness, which is foolishness and leads to debauchery, being 'filled' with the Spirit is understanding the Lord’s will and leads to addressing one another, singing to the Lord, giving thanks in everything and submitting to one another.
Not an experience, but a relationship
Ephesians 5:18 does not imply Christians need regular experiences in order to ‘top up’ or ‘refill’ with the Spirit. The context of this verse does not imply that spiritual experiences are in view at all. What Ephesians 5:18-6:9 does collectively indicate is that being “filled with the Spirit” – unlike drunkenness, which leads to sensual indulgence – leads to godliness: speaking to one another God’s word; singing praises to the Lord; heartfelt thanksgiving to him in trials; submitting to husbands; loving wives; obeying parents and legal authorities.
Clearly the language of 'filling' is used because of the contrast with alcohol. However 'experiences' are events, and what is described here is a continual process. And the agent is not an inanimate element such as liquid, but a person. What is in view here is the active involvement of the person of the Spirit; that is, if this is an 'experience', it is relational. Of course, we all experience one another in some sense when we relate. If somebody is particularly influencial in my life, then it is true that my behaviour changes because I experience that person's persuasion, or temptation, or whatever else causes me to do the things I am led to do when I am with them.
But Pentecostals emphasis ecstatic, momentary spiritual experiences as singular (though repeating) events. But a Christian 'under the influence' behaves like one 'full' of Spirit-likeness, precisely because the person of the Holy Spirit is a powerful influence upon their behaviour to lead them away from sin to live like Christ Jesus.
Walk by the Spirit; Be led by the Spirit
It is much like 'walking' ('living' in the NIV) and being 'led' by the Spirit. The passages in which these terms occur also show that spiritual experiences are not what is in view. This language also refers to the 'controlling' influence of the Spirit in the context of our conflict with the influence of sin.
Be filled with the Word
Ephesians 5:18-6:9 should also be read in comparison to Colossians 3:16-4:1. When writing to the Colossians at the same time as Ephesians, Paul preceded the same commands to both with similar but different exhortations: in his letter to the Ephesians he says, “be filled with the Spirit”; in his letter to the Colossians he says “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”. He interchanges his command, “be filled with the Spirit” with an analogous command: “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” For God’s word is God breathed – the Scripture is the word of his Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit to those who ask”
Similarly, Pentecostalism misunderstands the meaning of Luke 11:13; “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him”. One cannot literally have more of the person of the Spirit, for he is One; yet this verse is used to gain support for the idea that God will give the Spirit to Christians who are in Christ already because they have been given his Holy Spirit.
Luke 11:13 does not contain the idea of Christians receiving ‘more’ of the Spirit. Christ is recorded here speaking before the day of Pentecost and his words look forward to his gift of the Holy Spirit (his ‘baptism with the Spirit’), first given in Acts 2. At this time no one yet had received his Spirit in this way (John 7:39); Jesus was teaching that God will be good in giving his Spirit after Jesus' resurrection to those who asked him. In other words, there is no one to whom God will give judgement when they ask the Father for the gift of his Spirit unto salvation. This understanding of Luke 11:13 is consistent with the vital truth that the Holy Spirit is a person. The Spirit is not a ‘power’ or a ‘force’; it is impossible to have more of him because he is the third undivided Person of the Godhead.
The true experience of the Spirit
Christians do experience the Spirit in their lives. While not the reception of ‘more of the Spirit,’ what Ephesians 5:18 shows is that being filled with the Spirit is (to use a cliché) the experience of the Spirit taking more control of Christians. Of course, Christians do need to have an ever increasing amount of the Spirit’s influence and active control in their lives. Those full of the Spirit are those full of wisdom, full of the word of Christ, full of an understanding of what the Lord's will is, who walk under the influence of the Spirit (not alcohol) so that they live holy and godly lives in all of their relationships.
More on this topic
The Day of Pentecost: Part I - The Event
The day of Pentecost: Part II - The Promise
The day of Pentecost: Part III - The meaning
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Pentecostal experiences
Pentecostalism teaches not only a singular initial experience of baptism in the Spirit for Christians after conversion, but also the need for multiple experiences of ‘filling’ after Spirit-baptism. Pentecostals emphasize the need for continual experiences of the Spirit based upon Ephesians 5:18 where the Apostle Paul gives the command: “be filled with the Spirit.”
Luke’s reference to Jesus’ statement that God is ready to “give the Holy Spirit” to those who ask him (Luke 11:13) is also used in support of this emphasis. The central message in Pentecostalism is the importance of personal experiences for Christians because of a continual need for the reception of ‘more’ of the Spirit.
What the Scriptures say
Although there are references in the narratives of Acts to individuals and groups of people who were “filled with the Spirit”, some of these refer to Spirit-baptism (such as Acts 2:4; 9:17) – that is, people receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit – and others refer to those who, after receiving the gift of the Spirit are described as being ‘filled’ or ‘full’ of the Spirit (Acts 4:8, 31; 6:5; 7:55). The term can clearly be used generically to describe baptism with the Spirit or the Spirit’s ongoing work in Christians.
Ephesians 5:18 is the only verse in the New Testament that gives direct instruction to Christians about being filled with the Spirit and it describes the Spirit’s ongoing work in Christians. It is in fact a command given by Paul to Christians in the church in Ephesus: “be filled with the Spirit.” What does it mean? Is this a solid basis for the Pentecostal emphasis on spiritual experiences and the need for Christians to have ‘more’ of the Holy Spirit?
Ephesians 5:18 in context
The passage of which Ephesians 5:18 is a part gives a clear picture of what it means to be 'filled with the Spirit':
Ephesians (ESV) 5:15: "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands… 25 Husbands, love your wives… 6:1 Children, obey your parents…4 Fathers, do not provoke your children… 5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters… 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord…"
No full stop
There is no full stop at the end of Ephesians 5:18. Verse 18 is the beginning of one very long paragraph in the Greek describing what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Unlike drunkenness, which is foolishness and leads to debauchery, being 'filled' with the Spirit is understanding the Lord’s will and leads to addressing one another, singing to the Lord, giving thanks in everything and submitting to one another.
Not an experience, but a relationship
Ephesians 5:18 does not imply Christians need regular experiences in order to ‘top up’ or ‘refill’ with the Spirit. The context of this verse does not imply that spiritual experiences are in view at all. What Ephesians 5:18-6:9 does collectively indicate is that being “filled with the Spirit” – unlike drunkenness, which leads to sensual indulgence – leads to godliness: speaking to one another God’s word; singing praises to the Lord; heartfelt thanksgiving to him in trials; submitting to husbands; loving wives; obeying parents and legal authorities.
Clearly the language of 'filling' is used because of the contrast with alcohol. However 'experiences' are events, and what is described here is a continual process. And the agent is not an inanimate element such as liquid, but a person. What is in view here is the active involvement of the person of the Spirit; that is, if this is an 'experience', it is relational. Of course, we all experience one another in some sense when we relate. If somebody is particularly influencial in my life, then it is true that my behaviour changes because I experience that person's persuasion, or temptation, or whatever else causes me to do the things I am led to do when I am with them.
But Pentecostals emphasis ecstatic, momentary spiritual experiences as singular (though repeating) events. But a Christian 'under the influence' behaves like one 'full' of Spirit-likeness, precisely because the person of the Holy Spirit is a powerful influence upon their behaviour to lead them away from sin to live like Christ Jesus.
Walk by the Spirit; Be led by the Spirit
It is much like 'walking' ('living' in the NIV) and being 'led' by the Spirit. The passages in which these terms occur also show that spiritual experiences are not what is in view. This language also refers to the 'controlling' influence of the Spirit in the context of our conflict with the influence of sin.
Galatians 5:16-26: "live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control....Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires."
Romans 8:5-14: "For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God."To be 'led' by the Spirit, like being 'filled' with the Spirit, is to (through faith) be influenced by God to live in the new way of the spiritual nature, not in the old way of the sinful nature.
Be filled with the Word
Ephesians 5:18-6:9 should also be read in comparison to Colossians 3:16-4:1. When writing to the Colossians at the same time as Ephesians, Paul preceded the same commands to both with similar but different exhortations: in his letter to the Ephesians he says, “be filled with the Spirit”; in his letter to the Colossians he says “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”. He interchanges his command, “be filled with the Spirit” with an analogous command: “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” For God’s word is God breathed – the Scripture is the word of his Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit to those who ask”
Similarly, Pentecostalism misunderstands the meaning of Luke 11:13; “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him”. One cannot literally have more of the person of the Spirit, for he is One; yet this verse is used to gain support for the idea that God will give the Spirit to Christians who are in Christ already because they have been given his Holy Spirit.
Luke 11:13 does not contain the idea of Christians receiving ‘more’ of the Spirit. Christ is recorded here speaking before the day of Pentecost and his words look forward to his gift of the Holy Spirit (his ‘baptism with the Spirit’), first given in Acts 2. At this time no one yet had received his Spirit in this way (John 7:39); Jesus was teaching that God will be good in giving his Spirit after Jesus' resurrection to those who asked him. In other words, there is no one to whom God will give judgement when they ask the Father for the gift of his Spirit unto salvation. This understanding of Luke 11:13 is consistent with the vital truth that the Holy Spirit is a person. The Spirit is not a ‘power’ or a ‘force’; it is impossible to have more of him because he is the third undivided Person of the Godhead.
The true experience of the Spirit
Christians do experience the Spirit in their lives. While not the reception of ‘more of the Spirit,’ what Ephesians 5:18 shows is that being filled with the Spirit is (to use a cliché) the experience of the Spirit taking more control of Christians. Of course, Christians do need to have an ever increasing amount of the Spirit’s influence and active control in their lives. Those full of the Spirit are those full of wisdom, full of the word of Christ, full of an understanding of what the Lord's will is, who walk under the influence of the Spirit (not alcohol) so that they live holy and godly lives in all of their relationships.
The Day of Pentecost: Part I - The Event
The day of Pentecost: Part II - The Promise
The day of Pentecost: Part III - The meaning
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Speaking in tongues: Why tongues were given
Why were tongues given? Why did God's Spirit, in all his sovereignty, enable his first recipients to speak these strange languages? This is the right question to be asking because it's one that the Scriptures answer.
The Spirit's demonstration
"God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us." (Acts 15:8)
Luke, the author of Acts, explains the purpose of tongues within his narrative. In Acts 15:8, within the context of the conversion of Cornelius' Gentile relatives and friends (Acts 10-11), Peter addresses believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. They were insisting that "the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses" (Acts 15:5). They were shocked by Peter's acceptance of the Gentiles. In the Samaritan case (Acts 8), Phillip’s activity would similarly have caused tension.
Peter's explanation to the Jewish Christians who had criticized him was simple: "the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning...if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" (Acts 11:15-18). Sometime later, when the matter came up again in Jerusalem, he argues similarly: "God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us". (Acts 15:8)
Peter replies to this situation by explaining the function of 'tongues' in the spread of the gospel. He says that the Spirit showed (that is, 'demonstrated') his acceptance of Gentiles by providing the outward sign of speaking in tongues (Acts 10:44-46): the Holy Spirit came on them "as he had come on us"; he gave them the Holy Spirit, "just as he did to us." That is, God showed he had given his Spirit to these groups of half-Jews and Gentiles by giving them 'tongues' – the same sign given to the Jews.
It was not immediately clear to the Jewish Christians that God did accept Samaritans, much less Gentiles. But God gave the Gentiles the same sign he had given the first Jewish disciples in the beginning (Acts 2) to show them his acceptance of them. (It had to be the same sign, for otherwise, it would not have conclusively shown that God had accepted them in the same way (by giving his Spirit to them) and upon the same basis (through faith in Jesus alone) as the Jewish believers.)
Therefore, the reception of tongues was the Spirit's demonstration of his own reception of different cultural groups into the Christian community: Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. In this way, God "showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them" (Acts 15:8).
The Apostles witness
It also seems that God wanted the reception of the Spirit (as evidenced by the sign of tongues) to be witnessed by the Apostles. We often forget how different this time in salvation history is from ours. At this time Christians would have automatically doubted the authenticity of the conversions and the reception of Samaritans into the Church. But to stop the segregation between Jews and Samaritans infiltrating the Church, God provided them with an unmistakable sign. And in this way, God was also fulfilling his plan in a special way of making the Apostles the first-hand eye-witnesses of the gospel's progress from Jerusalem (Acts 2-7), to Judea and Samaria (Acts 8-11:18) – as in this case – and to the ends of the world (Acts 11:19 – 28:31), as foretold by Jesus (Acts 1:8).
Their written accounts
Because of this progressive demonstration as the gospel penetrated across people groups, we now know that any people group, without distinction, who turns to the Lord in faith and repentance, will be be given God's Spirit as God's people. As witnesses, the Apostles recorded these events and their meaning in Scripture, so that by them the Spirit continues to teach this vital lesson to every generation of Christians. Today, new cultural groups who turn to Christ do not require the sign of tongues to prove their reception of God's Spirit, for the Holy Spirit makes clear their acceptance through these narratives in Acts.
The conclusion on Spirit-baptism
Baptism in the Spirit is not a special experience of the Spirit promised for Christians subsequent to their conversion. Tongues are not evidence of its reception. Spirit baptism is given by Christ when he includes individuals into God's people through faith and repentance. The Scriptures maintain that every Christian has received baptism in the Spirit; this is what it means to be Christian. The basis of Christian unity – that all of God's people have an equal status in his Church – relies on the truth that all are given one baptism in one Spirit. Tongues were given as a sign to prove this. When God first gave his Spirit to different people groups he gave them all the same sign of tongues to demonstrate his acceptance of them all in the same way and upon the same basis.
Coming up
We'll be talking more about speaking in tongues (especially the teaching of 1 Corinthians 12-14) in the context of gifts of the Spirit.
More on this topic
The gift of tongues: What the Scriptures describe
The day of Pentecost: Part III - The meaning
Speaking in tongues: The pattern in Acts
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit's demonstration
"God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us." (Acts 15:8)
Luke, the author of Acts, explains the purpose of tongues within his narrative. In Acts 15:8, within the context of the conversion of Cornelius' Gentile relatives and friends (Acts 10-11), Peter addresses believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. They were insisting that "the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses" (Acts 15:5). They were shocked by Peter's acceptance of the Gentiles. In the Samaritan case (Acts 8), Phillip’s activity would similarly have caused tension.
Peter's explanation to the Jewish Christians who had criticized him was simple: "the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning...if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" (Acts 11:15-18). Sometime later, when the matter came up again in Jerusalem, he argues similarly: "God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us". (Acts 15:8)
Peter replies to this situation by explaining the function of 'tongues' in the spread of the gospel. He says that the Spirit showed (that is, 'demonstrated') his acceptance of Gentiles by providing the outward sign of speaking in tongues (Acts 10:44-46): the Holy Spirit came on them "as he had come on us"; he gave them the Holy Spirit, "just as he did to us." That is, God showed he had given his Spirit to these groups of half-Jews and Gentiles by giving them 'tongues' – the same sign given to the Jews.
It was not immediately clear to the Jewish Christians that God did accept Samaritans, much less Gentiles. But God gave the Gentiles the same sign he had given the first Jewish disciples in the beginning (Acts 2) to show them his acceptance of them. (It had to be the same sign, for otherwise, it would not have conclusively shown that God had accepted them in the same way (by giving his Spirit to them) and upon the same basis (through faith in Jesus alone) as the Jewish believers.)
Therefore, the reception of tongues was the Spirit's demonstration of his own reception of different cultural groups into the Christian community: Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. In this way, God "showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them" (Acts 15:8).
The Apostles witness
It also seems that God wanted the reception of the Spirit (as evidenced by the sign of tongues) to be witnessed by the Apostles. We often forget how different this time in salvation history is from ours. At this time Christians would have automatically doubted the authenticity of the conversions and the reception of Samaritans into the Church. But to stop the segregation between Jews and Samaritans infiltrating the Church, God provided them with an unmistakable sign. And in this way, God was also fulfilling his plan in a special way of making the Apostles the first-hand eye-witnesses of the gospel's progress from Jerusalem (Acts 2-7), to Judea and Samaria (Acts 8-11:18) – as in this case – and to the ends of the world (Acts 11:19 – 28:31), as foretold by Jesus (Acts 1:8).
Their written accounts
Because of this progressive demonstration as the gospel penetrated across people groups, we now know that any people group, without distinction, who turns to the Lord in faith and repentance, will be be given God's Spirit as God's people. As witnesses, the Apostles recorded these events and their meaning in Scripture, so that by them the Spirit continues to teach this vital lesson to every generation of Christians. Today, new cultural groups who turn to Christ do not require the sign of tongues to prove their reception of God's Spirit, for the Holy Spirit makes clear their acceptance through these narratives in Acts.
The conclusion on Spirit-baptism
Baptism in the Spirit is not a special experience of the Spirit promised for Christians subsequent to their conversion. Tongues are not evidence of its reception. Spirit baptism is given by Christ when he includes individuals into God's people through faith and repentance. The Scriptures maintain that every Christian has received baptism in the Spirit; this is what it means to be Christian. The basis of Christian unity – that all of God's people have an equal status in his Church – relies on the truth that all are given one baptism in one Spirit. Tongues were given as a sign to prove this. When God first gave his Spirit to different people groups he gave them all the same sign of tongues to demonstrate his acceptance of them all in the same way and upon the same basis.
Coming up
We'll be talking more about speaking in tongues (especially the teaching of 1 Corinthians 12-14) in the context of gifts of the Spirit.
The gift of tongues: What the Scriptures describe
The day of Pentecost: Part III - The meaning
Speaking in tongues: The pattern in Acts
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Speaking in tongues: The pattern in Acts
What is the basis for the Pentecostal belief in tongues as the initial evidence of baptism in the Spirit, outlined previously. Is their basis sound? Does it hold water?
Pentecostals argue for the reception of tongues as an initial evidence of baptism in the Spirit partly upon the basis that this phenomenon is described in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, which they believe to provide a biblical precedent. However, speaking in tongues cannot on this basis form a universal pattern, for in this case the precedent includes the presence of wind and tongues of fire on heads of the recipients of baptism in the Spirit.
The pattern of tongues
Pentecostals argue that the phenomenon of tongues-speaking in Acts 2 provides a precedent because it is part of a pattern revealed through out the Acts narrative. This pattern is apparently present in the set of narratives described in previous artices on the examples in Acts (Part I and Part II) (The first disciples, Acts 2:1-42; The Samaritans, 8:4-24; Saul, 9:1-19; Cornelius' household, 10:1-48; The Ephesian disciples, 19:1-7). Pentecostalism maintains that these five narratives consistently feature tongues as the common sign of the reception of Spirit-baptism.
Although Pentecostals admit that historical events are not commands, and that neither Jesus nor the Apostles ever commanded or promised tongues-speaking to the recipients of baptism in the Spirit. They argue that Luke, the author of Acts, intends in his narrative to teach that tongues-speaking is the universal sign of Spirit-baptism.
However, if Luke intended in his narrative to demonstrate that tongues were always present at the reception of Spirit-baptism to provide initial evidence, then why would he omit this detail in two out of five of the narratives being discussed: In the case of the baptism in the Spirit of the Samaritans (Acts 8) and Saul (Acts 9) he does not point this out. Therefore the Pentecostal view is an inconsistent reading of Luke; he does not intend to show that tongues are always present at the reception of Spirit-baptism because he does not always record that it is present.
The pattern of Apostles
There are more common elements in these accounts than tongues-speaking alone. However, Pentecostalism does not maintain that all of these elements are necessary for the reception of baptism in the Spirit; they place importance only in the predominance of tongues within the narratives. The presence of Apostles in each of these cases is a stronger common element than the phenomenon of tongues: in every one of these narratives used as a basis for teaching that tongues-speaking is the initial evidence of baptism in the Spirit, the reception of the Spirit and the reception of tongues occurred in the presence of Apostles (Acts 8:14, 10:46, 19:6); that is, Apostles were witnesses to each of these events. Pentecostalism cannot escape the conclusion that they seek an experience based upon on a pattern in the Scriptures that involved the presence of Apostles, without exception.
The pattern of new groups
In all four cases where the reception of the Spirit and the reception of tongues come together in the New Testament, tongues came to whole groups, not to individual seekers to the exclusion of non-seekers. Similarly, reception of tongues to recipients of the Spirit came to those who were not seeking either the Spirit or tongues. In addition, in each of the cases, the narratives record baptism in the Spirit and the sign of tongues being given to a new group, geographically and/or racially: Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 2); Half-Jews in Samaria (Samaritans, Acts 8); Gentile God-fearers in Caesarea (Cornelius was Italian, Acts 10); Gentiles, formerly Pagans, in Ephesians (Acts 19). These narratives must have something else to teach us than what Pentecostalism has maintained.
The pattern of Paul's teaching
If Pentecostals hold that tongues is a universal sign of ‘baptism in the Spirit’, then this seems to go against Paul’s entire argument in 1 Corinthians 13. For if ‘baptism in the Spirit’ is available to all, and tongues is a sign of ‘baptism in the Spirit’, then we must hold that all should speak in tongues, or at least that all can speak in tongues. However this would contradict Paul’s rhetorical question “Do all speak in tongues?” (1 Cor 12:20) which is asked within the context of God’s deliberate distribution of gifts within the church as a whole. No doubt Paul implies that God has intended that all do not speak in tongues.
The secular pattern
The phenomenon of tongues speaking occurs in other religious and non-religious contexts completely divorced from Christianity (See What is the history of tongues?). Clearly tongues simply cannot serve as an infallible sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in a person within his new covenant ministry. In addition, owing to the ever present possibility of self-deception and counterfeit, surely this warning should be heeded, and the greatest amount of care taken before condoning the use of an evidence for Christianity (let alone an external one such as this) that was never commanded by Jesus or his Apostles, nor anywhere else in Scripture.
Why were tongues given?
The reception of tongues were given by God as a ‘sign’ to the early church to confirm his new covenant work of salvation to new groups of people; not as an evidence of an experience subsequent to conversion for all Christians today.
More on this topic
Speaking in tongues: Why tongues were given
Tongues and Spirit-baptism: What Pentecostals believe
Filled with the Spirit
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Pentecostals argue for the reception of tongues as an initial evidence of baptism in the Spirit partly upon the basis that this phenomenon is described in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, which they believe to provide a biblical precedent. However, speaking in tongues cannot on this basis form a universal pattern, for in this case the precedent includes the presence of wind and tongues of fire on heads of the recipients of baptism in the Spirit.
The pattern of tongues
Pentecostals argue that the phenomenon of tongues-speaking in Acts 2 provides a precedent because it is part of a pattern revealed through out the Acts narrative. This pattern is apparently present in the set of narratives described in previous artices on the examples in Acts (Part I and Part II) (The first disciples, Acts 2:1-42; The Samaritans, 8:4-24; Saul, 9:1-19; Cornelius' household, 10:1-48; The Ephesian disciples, 19:1-7). Pentecostalism maintains that these five narratives consistently feature tongues as the common sign of the reception of Spirit-baptism.
Although Pentecostals admit that historical events are not commands, and that neither Jesus nor the Apostles ever commanded or promised tongues-speaking to the recipients of baptism in the Spirit. They argue that Luke, the author of Acts, intends in his narrative to teach that tongues-speaking is the universal sign of Spirit-baptism.
However, if Luke intended in his narrative to demonstrate that tongues were always present at the reception of Spirit-baptism to provide initial evidence, then why would he omit this detail in two out of five of the narratives being discussed: In the case of the baptism in the Spirit of the Samaritans (Acts 8) and Saul (Acts 9) he does not point this out. Therefore the Pentecostal view is an inconsistent reading of Luke; he does not intend to show that tongues are always present at the reception of Spirit-baptism because he does not always record that it is present.
The pattern of Apostles
There are more common elements in these accounts than tongues-speaking alone. However, Pentecostalism does not maintain that all of these elements are necessary for the reception of baptism in the Spirit; they place importance only in the predominance of tongues within the narratives. The presence of Apostles in each of these cases is a stronger common element than the phenomenon of tongues: in every one of these narratives used as a basis for teaching that tongues-speaking is the initial evidence of baptism in the Spirit, the reception of the Spirit and the reception of tongues occurred in the presence of Apostles (Acts 8:14, 10:46, 19:6); that is, Apostles were witnesses to each of these events. Pentecostalism cannot escape the conclusion that they seek an experience based upon on a pattern in the Scriptures that involved the presence of Apostles, without exception.
The pattern of new groups
In all four cases where the reception of the Spirit and the reception of tongues come together in the New Testament, tongues came to whole groups, not to individual seekers to the exclusion of non-seekers. Similarly, reception of tongues to recipients of the Spirit came to those who were not seeking either the Spirit or tongues. In addition, in each of the cases, the narratives record baptism in the Spirit and the sign of tongues being given to a new group, geographically and/or racially: Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 2); Half-Jews in Samaria (Samaritans, Acts 8); Gentile God-fearers in Caesarea (Cornelius was Italian, Acts 10); Gentiles, formerly Pagans, in Ephesians (Acts 19). These narratives must have something else to teach us than what Pentecostalism has maintained.
The pattern of Paul's teaching
If Pentecostals hold that tongues is a universal sign of ‘baptism in the Spirit’, then this seems to go against Paul’s entire argument in 1 Corinthians 13. For if ‘baptism in the Spirit’ is available to all, and tongues is a sign of ‘baptism in the Spirit’, then we must hold that all should speak in tongues, or at least that all can speak in tongues. However this would contradict Paul’s rhetorical question “Do all speak in tongues?” (1 Cor 12:20) which is asked within the context of God’s deliberate distribution of gifts within the church as a whole. No doubt Paul implies that God has intended that all do not speak in tongues.
The secular pattern
The phenomenon of tongues speaking occurs in other religious and non-religious contexts completely divorced from Christianity (See What is the history of tongues?). Clearly tongues simply cannot serve as an infallible sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in a person within his new covenant ministry. In addition, owing to the ever present possibility of self-deception and counterfeit, surely this warning should be heeded, and the greatest amount of care taken before condoning the use of an evidence for Christianity (let alone an external one such as this) that was never commanded by Jesus or his Apostles, nor anywhere else in Scripture.
Why were tongues given?
The reception of tongues were given by God as a ‘sign’ to the early church to confirm his new covenant work of salvation to new groups of people; not as an evidence of an experience subsequent to conversion for all Christians today.
Speaking in tongues: Why tongues were given
Tongues and Spirit-baptism: What Pentecostals believe
Filled with the Spirit
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Tongues & Holy Spirit Baptism: What Pentecostals believe
Speaking in tongues is a characteristic of Pentecostalism. What do Pentecostals believe about speaking in tongues? In particular, what is the relationship between their beliefs about baptism in the Spirit and their practice of speaking in tongues?
Evidence of baptism in the Spirit
After teaching that baptism in the Spirit is an experience of the Spirit for Christians subsequent to their regeneration/conversion, Pentecostalism maintains that the reception of tongues is the initial (physical) evidence of the reception of baptism in the Spirit. This teaching would give Christianity a doctrinal priority for the practice of speaking in tongues.
The initial evidence
Within the Charismatic movement some insist that the reception of tongues is not the only initial evidence of baptism in the Spirit; other evidences include the manifestation of other spiritual gifts; an increased level of power in life; an increased sense of joy; a greater experience of God’s love. However, traditional Pentecostalism insists that the act of speaking in tongues is an initial special evidence of Spirit-baptism that is always given by God to individual recipients.
The pattern in Acts
This emphasis is partly due to the Pentecostal view that in the book of Acts God has revealed a very close relationship that exists between the reception of tongues and baptism in the Spirit. This belief originated from a characteristic reading of the five narrative accounts in Acts previously described, in which Luke records examples of people being Spirit-baptised.(The first disciples, Acts 2:1-42; The Samaritans, 8:4-24; Saul, 9:1-19; Cornelius' household, 10:1-48; The Ephesian disciples, 19:1-7).
Three of these narratives describe the speaking in tongues of the recipients of baptism in the Spirit (The first disciples, Cornelius' household and the Ephesian disciples). In the case of the Samaritans it is certainly possible that they also spoke in tongues. In the case of Saul it is evident that he did speak in tongues after this event (Paul writes in 1 Cor 14:18, "...I speak in tongues..."), though it is unknown as to whether or not he did this when Ananias laid his hands on him.
The nature of 'tongues'
It is important to note however that in Pentecostalism tongues are generally viewed as a God given ‘prayer language,’ used mainly for prayer or praise in a private devotional sense (It is believed however that these tongues can serve other purposes, such as to ‘prophesy’ when used in conjunction with the gift of interpretation). By ‘prayer language’ it is meant that ‘tongues’ are not an actual language with definite structure and words that convey meaning in the same way that a normal language does; rather, they are ‘miraculous’ and ‘spiritual’ utterances - unitelligible to a speaker or hearer directly - and given by the Spirit for the purpose of edifying one’s spirit.
More on this topic
Speaking in tongues: The pattern in Acts
Baptism in the Spirit: The examples in Acts - Part II
Speaking in tongues: Why tongues were given
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Evidence of baptism in the Spirit
After teaching that baptism in the Spirit is an experience of the Spirit for Christians subsequent to their regeneration/conversion, Pentecostalism maintains that the reception of tongues is the initial (physical) evidence of the reception of baptism in the Spirit. This teaching would give Christianity a doctrinal priority for the practice of speaking in tongues.
The initial evidence
Within the Charismatic movement some insist that the reception of tongues is not the only initial evidence of baptism in the Spirit; other evidences include the manifestation of other spiritual gifts; an increased level of power in life; an increased sense of joy; a greater experience of God’s love. However, traditional Pentecostalism insists that the act of speaking in tongues is an initial special evidence of Spirit-baptism that is always given by God to individual recipients.
The pattern in Acts
This emphasis is partly due to the Pentecostal view that in the book of Acts God has revealed a very close relationship that exists between the reception of tongues and baptism in the Spirit. This belief originated from a characteristic reading of the five narrative accounts in Acts previously described, in which Luke records examples of people being Spirit-baptised.(The first disciples, Acts 2:1-42; The Samaritans, 8:4-24; Saul, 9:1-19; Cornelius' household, 10:1-48; The Ephesian disciples, 19:1-7).
Three of these narratives describe the speaking in tongues of the recipients of baptism in the Spirit (The first disciples, Cornelius' household and the Ephesian disciples). In the case of the Samaritans it is certainly possible that they also spoke in tongues. In the case of Saul it is evident that he did speak in tongues after this event (Paul writes in 1 Cor 14:18, "...I speak in tongues..."), though it is unknown as to whether or not he did this when Ananias laid his hands on him.
The nature of 'tongues'
It is important to note however that in Pentecostalism tongues are generally viewed as a God given ‘prayer language,’ used mainly for prayer or praise in a private devotional sense (It is believed however that these tongues can serve other purposes, such as to ‘prophesy’ when used in conjunction with the gift of interpretation). By ‘prayer language’ it is meant that ‘tongues’ are not an actual language with definite structure and words that convey meaning in the same way that a normal language does; rather, they are ‘miraculous’ and ‘spiritual’ utterances - unitelligible to a speaker or hearer directly - and given by the Spirit for the purpose of edifying one’s spirit.
Speaking in tongues: The pattern in Acts
Baptism in the Spirit: The examples in Acts - Part II
Speaking in tongues: Why tongues were given
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit Baptism: The examples in Acts - Part II
Are there instances in Luke’s accounts when time separates the Spirit’s work in the regeneration and Spirit-baptism of individuals? Are regeneration and Spirit-baptism separate experiences (in time) and therefore distinctive experiences (in identity)? Pentecostalism insists there are such instances, using five narratives in the book of Acts – The day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-42); the Samaritans (Acts 8:4-24); Saul (Acts 9:1-19); Cornelius (Acts 10:1-48); and Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7) – as a basis for their unique doctrine in which conversion (or regeneration) is separate in identify from baptism in the Spirit.
However each of these examples in the Acts narrative actually demonstrate that baptism with the Spirit is the gift that Christ gives individuals in the New Covenant that causes conversion/regeneration; that is, Spirit-baptism makes people Christians.
As discussed in Part I, the case of the original disciples (Acts 2), Paul (Acts 9), Cornelius (Acts 10) and the Ephesian disciples (Acts 19:1-7) are all examples of the gift of the Holy Spirit being given for the first time to groups people previously living under the Old Covenant or living outside of the New Covenant.
The only instance in the New Testament where it may be more difficult to see that conversion/regeneration occurs by Christ giving his baptism in the Spirit is the Samaritan experience (Acts 8:4-24).
The Samaritan experience (Acts 8:4-24)
The Samaritans "believed Philip" after his gospel preaching and had been baptised in water by him before Peter and John prayed that they might receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:12-15). Therefore, Pentecostals believe that these Samaritans were converted/regenerated under Philip’s ministry and that their reception of the Spirit at the laying on of the Apostle’s hands was a separate and distinct experience.
"The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them"
Although Luke records that the Samaritans had “believed Philip” and been baptised, the also text explains that the Spirit had "not yet come upon any of them" (Acts 8:16). This point of explanation is given by Luke during the narrative to enable us to understand the actions and events that follow. Luke points out that the Spirit had "not yet come upon any” of those who had appeared to Philip to be genuine believers (for otherwise, he would not have baptised them).
"Receive the Holy Spirit"
Luke does not use the language of "baptism in the Spirit" to describe the event that follows. Instead, he records that the Apostles, Peter and John, prayed for them that they might "receive" the Spirit. The reason is obviously: they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Luke avoids any confusion, for he emphasises again that after the Apostles had prayed for them, they did then "receive the Holy Spirit". This eliminates the possibility that the narrative is reporting a second-stage experience of the Spirit, where after initially receiving the Spirit they then experienced baptism in the Spirit. Luke is clear and his words are unambiguous: these are people who had previously not received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
"If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ"
The wider context of Scriptural teaching regarding the reception of the Spirit is helpful here. The consistent teaching of the New Testament is that anyone without the gift of the Spirit is without Christ: "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (Rom 8:5). These disciples could not, therefore, have previously been genuine believers; although they "believed Philip," they had not truly put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Though they had been baptised in water, they hadn't yet received the baptism in the Spirit, and therefore were not genuinely converted. Here Philip was overzealous in baptising a group without seeing true repentance, as the example of Simon the Sorcerer illustrates.
"Simon himself believed and was baptized" (Acts 8:13)
The example of Simon the Sorcerer surrounds this narrative and is the context in which these events are recorded. He is introduced in verse 9, before the events mentioned in verse 14-17. Then, after this group receive the Holy Spirit in verse 17, the narrative again turns back to Simon the Sorcerer. Therefore, his example should be allowed to influence how we read this passage. The main point of this narrative becomes clearer when the example of Simon the Sorcerer is seen for what it is.
"Your heart is not right before God. Repent..." (Acts 8:21-22)
Simon the Sorcerer is an example of one of the groups who had believed Philip and was water baptised, but it was later revealed that his heart was "not right before God" and he was commanded by Peter to repent and seek the Lord's forgiveness (Acts 8:22). He was not truly converted because he had not truly repented and been made right with God.
The mark of a true Christian
Thus, the main point of this narrative is not that baptism with the Spirit is a second experience for Christians, but in fact that conversion/regeneration has not occurred until Christ's baptism in the Spirit has been given. In other words, regeneration is the act of Christ giving his Spirit to an individual.
This entire narrative, therefore, highlights the importance of repentance accompanying faith in order to demonstrate true belief. It also reminds us that what marks a genuine Christian is not outwardly believing the gospel or being baptised. But the mark of a true Christian is having received the Holy Spirit, and until this takes place a person is not converted.
The sign of tongues?
It may well be that God gave an outward sign not mentioned in the text at this point to show the Apostles that these Samaritans truly had now received the Spirit. This seems likely because Simon saw that the Spirit was given, at which point he offered them money and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." (Acts 8:18-19). This does not indicate that what is on view here is a second-stage experience of the Spirit. As in the other narratives discussed (Acts 2, 10 and 19) which are all clearly examples of conversion into the New Covenant, tongues were also given to provide a sign of what had taken place inwardly. But more on this in the articles coming up.
The verdict on Spirit-baptism from the Acts narratives
Each of the five Acts narratives used as a basis for Pentecostalism to insist that baptism in the Spirit is a secondary post-conversion experience for Christians actually demonstrates that baptism with the Spirit is the gift that Christ gives individuals in the New Covenant that causes their conversion; that is, Spirit-baptism makes people Christians; until individuals receive Christ's Spirit they are not regenerated.
In Part I, we saw that the cases of the original disciples (Acts 2), Paul (Acts 9), Cornelius (Acts 10) and the Ephesian disciples (Acts 19:1-7) are all examples of the gift of the Holy Spirit being given for the first time to groups of people previously living under the Old Covenant or living outside of the New Covenant. And as we have seen here in Part II, the case of the Samaritan disciples is no different, for it shows a group of followers who on the surface accept Philip's words and undergo water baptism, yet like Simon the Sorcerer are still without the inner gift of Christ's Spirit, but who then, except for Simon, subsequently receive for the first time Christ's gift of regeneration. Only Christ's own act of baptising with the Holy Spirit brings someone into the New Covenant of life in his Name.
More on this topic
Tongues and Spirit-baptism: What Pentecostals believe
Baptism in the Spirit: The examples in Acts – Part I
Speaking in tongues: The pattern in Acts
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
As discussed in Part I, the case of the original disciples (Acts 2), Paul (Acts 9), Cornelius (Acts 10) and the Ephesian disciples (Acts 19:1-7) are all examples of the gift of the Holy Spirit being given for the first time to groups people previously living under the Old Covenant or living outside of the New Covenant.
The only instance in the New Testament where it may be more difficult to see that conversion/regeneration occurs by Christ giving his baptism in the Spirit is the Samaritan experience (Acts 8:4-24).
The Samaritan experience (Acts 8:4-24)
The Samaritans "believed Philip" after his gospel preaching and had been baptised in water by him before Peter and John prayed that they might receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:12-15). Therefore, Pentecostals believe that these Samaritans were converted/regenerated under Philip’s ministry and that their reception of the Spirit at the laying on of the Apostle’s hands was a separate and distinct experience.
"The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them"
Although Luke records that the Samaritans had “believed Philip” and been baptised, the also text explains that the Spirit had "not yet come upon any of them" (Acts 8:16). This point of explanation is given by Luke during the narrative to enable us to understand the actions and events that follow. Luke points out that the Spirit had "not yet come upon any” of those who had appeared to Philip to be genuine believers (for otherwise, he would not have baptised them).
"Receive the Holy Spirit"
Luke does not use the language of "baptism in the Spirit" to describe the event that follows. Instead, he records that the Apostles, Peter and John, prayed for them that they might "receive" the Spirit. The reason is obviously: they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Luke avoids any confusion, for he emphasises again that after the Apostles had prayed for them, they did then "receive the Holy Spirit". This eliminates the possibility that the narrative is reporting a second-stage experience of the Spirit, where after initially receiving the Spirit they then experienced baptism in the Spirit. Luke is clear and his words are unambiguous: these are people who had previously not received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
"If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ"
The wider context of Scriptural teaching regarding the reception of the Spirit is helpful here. The consistent teaching of the New Testament is that anyone without the gift of the Spirit is without Christ: "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (Rom 8:5). These disciples could not, therefore, have previously been genuine believers; although they "believed Philip," they had not truly put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Though they had been baptised in water, they hadn't yet received the baptism in the Spirit, and therefore were not genuinely converted. Here Philip was overzealous in baptising a group without seeing true repentance, as the example of Simon the Sorcerer illustrates.
"Simon himself believed and was baptized" (Acts 8:13)
The example of Simon the Sorcerer surrounds this narrative and is the context in which these events are recorded. He is introduced in verse 9, before the events mentioned in verse 14-17. Then, after this group receive the Holy Spirit in verse 17, the narrative again turns back to Simon the Sorcerer. Therefore, his example should be allowed to influence how we read this passage. The main point of this narrative becomes clearer when the example of Simon the Sorcerer is seen for what it is.
"Your heart is not right before God. Repent..." (Acts 8:21-22)
Simon the Sorcerer is an example of one of the groups who had believed Philip and was water baptised, but it was later revealed that his heart was "not right before God" and he was commanded by Peter to repent and seek the Lord's forgiveness (Acts 8:22). He was not truly converted because he had not truly repented and been made right with God.
The mark of a true Christian
Thus, the main point of this narrative is not that baptism with the Spirit is a second experience for Christians, but in fact that conversion/regeneration has not occurred until Christ's baptism in the Spirit has been given. In other words, regeneration is the act of Christ giving his Spirit to an individual.
This entire narrative, therefore, highlights the importance of repentance accompanying faith in order to demonstrate true belief. It also reminds us that what marks a genuine Christian is not outwardly believing the gospel or being baptised. But the mark of a true Christian is having received the Holy Spirit, and until this takes place a person is not converted.
The sign of tongues?
It may well be that God gave an outward sign not mentioned in the text at this point to show the Apostles that these Samaritans truly had now received the Spirit. This seems likely because Simon saw that the Spirit was given, at which point he offered them money and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." (Acts 8:18-19). This does not indicate that what is on view here is a second-stage experience of the Spirit. As in the other narratives discussed (Acts 2, 10 and 19) which are all clearly examples of conversion into the New Covenant, tongues were also given to provide a sign of what had taken place inwardly. But more on this in the articles coming up.
The verdict on Spirit-baptism from the Acts narratives
Each of the five Acts narratives used as a basis for Pentecostalism to insist that baptism in the Spirit is a secondary post-conversion experience for Christians actually demonstrates that baptism with the Spirit is the gift that Christ gives individuals in the New Covenant that causes their conversion; that is, Spirit-baptism makes people Christians; until individuals receive Christ's Spirit they are not regenerated.
In Part I, we saw that the cases of the original disciples (Acts 2), Paul (Acts 9), Cornelius (Acts 10) and the Ephesian disciples (Acts 19:1-7) are all examples of the gift of the Holy Spirit being given for the first time to groups of people previously living under the Old Covenant or living outside of the New Covenant. And as we have seen here in Part II, the case of the Samaritan disciples is no different, for it shows a group of followers who on the surface accept Philip's words and undergo water baptism, yet like Simon the Sorcerer are still without the inner gift of Christ's Spirit, but who then, except for Simon, subsequently receive for the first time Christ's gift of regeneration. Only Christ's own act of baptising with the Holy Spirit brings someone into the New Covenant of life in his Name.
Tongues and Spirit-baptism: What Pentecostals believe
Baptism in the Spirit: The examples in Acts – Part I
Speaking in tongues: The pattern in Acts
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit Baptism: The examples in Acts – Part I
Does Luke, the author of Acts in the New Testament, intend in his narrative to demonstrate a normative pattern for Christian experience in all times in which conversion (or regeneration) is separate from baptism in the Spirit? He does according to Pentecostalism, which maintains that present day Christians should expect a two stage experience of the Holy Spirit (being firstly, regeneration and secondly, baptism in the Spirit).
The Basis of Pentecostalism Reviewed
The basis for this belief has been discussed previously (Baptism in the Spirit: The Basis of Pentecostalism). In summary, Pentecostal doctrine uses as its basis five narrative accounts in the book of Acts: The day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-42); the Samaritans (Acts 8:4-24); Saul (Acts 9:1-19); Cornelius (Acts 10:1-48); and Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7). Pentecostals contend that in each of these cases the groups of people concerned were believers who had already experienced regeneration before their experience of baptism in the Spirit; that is, they were ‘Christians’ before they were baptised with the Spirit.
This unique doctrine stands entirely upon their reading that in three of the narratives (Pentecost, Samaritans, Paul) baptism in the Spirit appears to be subsequent to regeneration and in the remaining two narratives (Cornelius, Ephesians) baptism in the Spirit appears to be logically separable from regeneration.
They reason that, since there seem to be instances in Luke’s accounts when time separates the Spirit’s work in the regeneration and Spirit-baptism of individuals, therefore regeneration and Spirit-baptism can be separate experiences (in time); and since they can be separated in time, they are therefore distinctive experiences (in identity).
Baptism in the Spirit: The Pattern in the Acts Narratives
The Pentecostal reading of the five accounts in the book of Acts used as a basis for Pentecostalism (Acts 2:1-42; 8:4-24; 9:1-19; 10:1-48; 19:1-7) does not do justice to the text or to the context. In each of the five accounts the New Covenant work of regeneration is seen to occur when Christ gives his baptism in the Spirit to individuals. In four of the cases this is more than clear (Pentecost, Paul, Cornelius and the Ephesians). In the case of the Samaritans, the narrative appears to need more careful comprehension by the modern reader. What we'll talk about in Part I and II of this article is how each of these examples in the Acts narrative actually demonstrates that baptism with the Spirit is the gift that Christ gives individuals in the New Covenant that causes conversion/regeneration; that is, Spirit-baptism makes people Christians.
The first disciples, Acts 2:1-42
The experience of the first disciples and Apostles has been discussed previously (In Baptism in the Spirit: The Apostles Experience). The group in Acts 2:1-42, although ‘believers’ (Acts 1:15), had not previously been given the Spirit before the day of Pentecost (John 7:39; 16:7). Although Pentecostals believe that the twelve Apostles who were part of this group had previously received the Spirit before Jesus’ ascension – when he breathed on them and said, “receive the Holy Spirit,” (John 20:22) – the surrounding context of Jesus’ teaching about the Spirit (John 7:39; 14:17; 16: 7; Acts 2:33) makes this reading a contradiction. It is impossible to read this statement as an indication that his disciples did at that moment receive the Holy Spirit. The disciples may have had a two-stage experience of Spirit in that he was ‘with’ them before the day of Pentecost when they received his indwelling (John 14:17). However they had only a one-stage experience of the reception of the Spirit in the new covenant. For they received for the first time the promised new covenant gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This was their regeneration experience, when Christ put his own Spirit to live in them (Acts 2:33).
Saul, Acts 9:1-19
In Acts 9:1-19, Saul sees a vision in which Jesus reveals himself as the Lord whom Saul had been persecuting (Acts 9:5-6). Although Pentecostals maintain that Paul experienced conversion at this moment prior to his reception of the Spirit in Acts 9:17, there is nothing in the text to indicate this. Quite the opposite: Saul at this time did not know the name of the Lord, who is Jesus. For he says, “who are you, Lord?” Although Saul was praying, this is no indication of his regeneration, for he had always prayed previously, as did the Apostles and Cornelius prior to their new covenant new-birth. When 3 days later Ananias prayed for Saul (that he might be “filled with the Holy Spirit”) it says “immediately something like scales fell from his eyes” (Acts 9:18). This was the moment of his regeneration, after which time he was baptised and began preaching Jesus as the Son of God; the moment Christ removed his Old Covenant blindness was the moment Christ flooded his heart with the Holy Spirit.
Cornelius’ household, Acts 10:1-48
In Acts 10:1-48 Cornelius’ household begin speaking in tongues and praising God while Peter was still preaching the gospel to them (Acts 10:44-46). In this instance the experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit obviously occurred at the same time as conversion (it was not subsequent). There is no evidence here either for a distinction between regeneration and baptism in the Spirit. On the contrary, their regeneration is here seen to have occurred by Christ pouring out his gift of the Holy Spirit on them (Acts 10:45) (Inseparability).
John's disciples in Ephesus, Acts 19:1-7
In Acts 19:1-7 Paul met a group of believers who had repented under John the Baptist. Like the disciples before the day of Pentecost, and Cornelius before Peter’s sermon to his household, they had ‘believed’ already even though they had not yet received the new covenant gift of the Spirit (Acts 19:2). They were repentant believers under the Old Covenant, but like John the Baptist, were yet without Christ’s baptism with the Spirit. Thus, Paul baptised them in the name of the Lord Jesus after telling them about Jesus and when he placed his hands on them “the Holy Spirit came on them” (Acts 19:6). Pentecostals admit that subsequence is not apparent here, as it is not in the analogous cases of the Apostles (Acts 2) and Saul (Acts 9) and Cornelius (Acts 10). Baptism in the Spirit is not logically separable from to their conversion here either. For the narrative highlights the fact that the Holy Spirit now came upon a group who had not previously received the Spirit.
The conclusion so far
The case of the original disciples is an example of the gift of the Holy Spirit being given for the first time to a group of previously Old Covenant believers. As explained here, the case of Saul (Acts 9) and Cornelius (Acts 10) are similarly examples of the gift of the Spirit coming at the moment of New Covenant regeneration. Likewise, the Ephesian disciples (Acts 19:1-7) had only repented under John the Baptist and not received the Holy Spirit before Paul told them the gospel of Jesus and placed his hands on them. The Ephesian narrative is an example of the conversion/regeneration of a group of John the Baptist’s disciples.
The conclusion so far is that each of the narratives discussed give examples of the New Covenant work of regeneration occurring when Christ gives his baptism in the Spirit to individuals.
The Samaritans, Acts 8:4-24
The only instance in the New Testament where it may be more difficult to the modern reader to see that conversion/regeneration occur by Christ giving his baptism in the Spirit is the Samaritan experience (Acts 8:4-24). In Part II of this article, we will talk about this example in closer detail. What we'll see is that the main point of this narrative is iin fact that conversion/regeneration does not occur until Christ's baptism in the Spirit has been given.
More on this topic
Baptism in the Spirit: The examples in Acts - Part II
Baptism in the Spirit: The Apostles' experience
Speaking in tongues: The pattern in Acts
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The Basis of Pentecostalism Reviewed
The basis for this belief has been discussed previously (Baptism in the Spirit: The Basis of Pentecostalism). In summary, Pentecostal doctrine uses as its basis five narrative accounts in the book of Acts: The day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-42); the Samaritans (Acts 8:4-24); Saul (Acts 9:1-19); Cornelius (Acts 10:1-48); and Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7). Pentecostals contend that in each of these cases the groups of people concerned were believers who had already experienced regeneration before their experience of baptism in the Spirit; that is, they were ‘Christians’ before they were baptised with the Spirit.
This unique doctrine stands entirely upon their reading that in three of the narratives (Pentecost, Samaritans, Paul) baptism in the Spirit appears to be subsequent to regeneration and in the remaining two narratives (Cornelius, Ephesians) baptism in the Spirit appears to be logically separable from regeneration.
They reason that, since there seem to be instances in Luke’s accounts when time separates the Spirit’s work in the regeneration and Spirit-baptism of individuals, therefore regeneration and Spirit-baptism can be separate experiences (in time); and since they can be separated in time, they are therefore distinctive experiences (in identity).
Baptism in the Spirit: The Pattern in the Acts Narratives
The Pentecostal reading of the five accounts in the book of Acts used as a basis for Pentecostalism (Acts 2:1-42; 8:4-24; 9:1-19; 10:1-48; 19:1-7) does not do justice to the text or to the context. In each of the five accounts the New Covenant work of regeneration is seen to occur when Christ gives his baptism in the Spirit to individuals. In four of the cases this is more than clear (Pentecost, Paul, Cornelius and the Ephesians). In the case of the Samaritans, the narrative appears to need more careful comprehension by the modern reader. What we'll talk about in Part I and II of this article is how each of these examples in the Acts narrative actually demonstrates that baptism with the Spirit is the gift that Christ gives individuals in the New Covenant that causes conversion/regeneration; that is, Spirit-baptism makes people Christians.
The first disciples, Acts 2:1-42
The experience of the first disciples and Apostles has been discussed previously (In Baptism in the Spirit: The Apostles Experience). The group in Acts 2:1-42, although ‘believers’ (Acts 1:15), had not previously been given the Spirit before the day of Pentecost (John 7:39; 16:7). Although Pentecostals believe that the twelve Apostles who were part of this group had previously received the Spirit before Jesus’ ascension – when he breathed on them and said, “receive the Holy Spirit,” (John 20:22) – the surrounding context of Jesus’ teaching about the Spirit (John 7:39; 14:17; 16: 7; Acts 2:33) makes this reading a contradiction. It is impossible to read this statement as an indication that his disciples did at that moment receive the Holy Spirit. The disciples may have had a two-stage experience of Spirit in that he was ‘with’ them before the day of Pentecost when they received his indwelling (John 14:17). However they had only a one-stage experience of the reception of the Spirit in the new covenant. For they received for the first time the promised new covenant gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This was their regeneration experience, when Christ put his own Spirit to live in them (Acts 2:33).
Saul, Acts 9:1-19
In Acts 9:1-19, Saul sees a vision in which Jesus reveals himself as the Lord whom Saul had been persecuting (Acts 9:5-6). Although Pentecostals maintain that Paul experienced conversion at this moment prior to his reception of the Spirit in Acts 9:17, there is nothing in the text to indicate this. Quite the opposite: Saul at this time did not know the name of the Lord, who is Jesus. For he says, “who are you, Lord?” Although Saul was praying, this is no indication of his regeneration, for he had always prayed previously, as did the Apostles and Cornelius prior to their new covenant new-birth. When 3 days later Ananias prayed for Saul (that he might be “filled with the Holy Spirit”) it says “immediately something like scales fell from his eyes” (Acts 9:18). This was the moment of his regeneration, after which time he was baptised and began preaching Jesus as the Son of God; the moment Christ removed his Old Covenant blindness was the moment Christ flooded his heart with the Holy Spirit.
Cornelius’ household, Acts 10:1-48
In Acts 10:1-48 Cornelius’ household begin speaking in tongues and praising God while Peter was still preaching the gospel to them (Acts 10:44-46). In this instance the experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit obviously occurred at the same time as conversion (it was not subsequent). There is no evidence here either for a distinction between regeneration and baptism in the Spirit. On the contrary, their regeneration is here seen to have occurred by Christ pouring out his gift of the Holy Spirit on them (Acts 10:45) (Inseparability).
John's disciples in Ephesus, Acts 19:1-7
In Acts 19:1-7 Paul met a group of believers who had repented under John the Baptist. Like the disciples before the day of Pentecost, and Cornelius before Peter’s sermon to his household, they had ‘believed’ already even though they had not yet received the new covenant gift of the Spirit (Acts 19:2). They were repentant believers under the Old Covenant, but like John the Baptist, were yet without Christ’s baptism with the Spirit. Thus, Paul baptised them in the name of the Lord Jesus after telling them about Jesus and when he placed his hands on them “the Holy Spirit came on them” (Acts 19:6). Pentecostals admit that subsequence is not apparent here, as it is not in the analogous cases of the Apostles (Acts 2) and Saul (Acts 9) and Cornelius (Acts 10). Baptism in the Spirit is not logically separable from to their conversion here either. For the narrative highlights the fact that the Holy Spirit now came upon a group who had not previously received the Spirit.
The conclusion so far
The case of the original disciples is an example of the gift of the Holy Spirit being given for the first time to a group of previously Old Covenant believers. As explained here, the case of Saul (Acts 9) and Cornelius (Acts 10) are similarly examples of the gift of the Spirit coming at the moment of New Covenant regeneration. Likewise, the Ephesian disciples (Acts 19:1-7) had only repented under John the Baptist and not received the Holy Spirit before Paul told them the gospel of Jesus and placed his hands on them. The Ephesian narrative is an example of the conversion/regeneration of a group of John the Baptist’s disciples.
The conclusion so far is that each of the narratives discussed give examples of the New Covenant work of regeneration occurring when Christ gives his baptism in the Spirit to individuals.
The Samaritans, Acts 8:4-24
The only instance in the New Testament where it may be more difficult to the modern reader to see that conversion/regeneration occur by Christ giving his baptism in the Spirit is the Samaritan experience (Acts 8:4-24). In Part II of this article, we will talk about this example in closer detail. What we'll see is that the main point of this narrative is iin fact that conversion/regeneration does not occur until Christ's baptism in the Spirit has been given.
Baptism in the Spirit: The examples in Acts - Part II
Baptism in the Spirit: The Apostles' experience
Speaking in tongues: The pattern in Acts
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
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