"Spirit Baptism With Speaking In Tongues."

by G. PRASHER, JR. | Category: Miracles And Miraculous Gifts | May 1952

It will be well first to concentrate on what seems to be a common fundamental teaching among the various groups who urge that the Christian should seek these miraculous powers. Stated in general terms, it is, that after the new birth there is a separate and fuller experience of "the baptism of the Holy Spirit," marked by an involuntary "speaking in tongues." In some cases, it is claimed, this "Spirit baptism" may take place immediately after a person is born again.

Does God's Word in fact teach the believer to expect and strive for such an experience as the most important step in his spiritual life, after he has put saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Those who advocate this view follow the line that the disciples of the Lord were born again through faith in Him as recorded in the Gospels - see, for example, Peter's declaration of faith in Matthew 16.16. Yet they were taught by the Lord to pray for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11.18), and after waiting in prayer, as recorded in Acts 1., they were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. This sequence in the experience of those who companied with the Lord is wrongly applied to the present-day believer, with the result that Christians are urged to strive in prayer with God until they are vouchsafed definite miraculous manifestation of the "baptism of the Holy Spirit," marked with speaking in tongues.

Now that line of argument is thoroughly deceptive. It ignores the all-important fact that Peter and the other disciples lived in a period of overlap between the dispensations of law and of grace. What occurred in their experience was unique to them, since for the first time in human history they were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Believers in Christ prior to that time had not been granted this experience. The Lord made this clear in John 14.16, 17. He taught the disciples to look forward to the coming of the Comforter, who would be with them for ever. "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Until Pentecost they knew the Spirit's presence with them; but the Lord promised that the Spirit would later indwell them in quite a different way.

In order to discover the truth about this matter, we must consider what the Scriptures reveal of the believer's experience of the Holy Spirit from the Day of Pentecost onwards. Few will dispute that truth applicable to the believer in the present time is exemplified in the Acts and the Epistles. That is to say, every major doctrine which is binding on disciples of the Lord throughout this dispensation will be fully substantiated in that portion of God's Word from Acts chapter 1. to the end of 3rd John. This in no way detracts from the equal inspiration of all Scripture, but merely emphasizes to the present-day disciple the importance of truth particularly apposite to the age in which he lives.

With this in mind, let us consider what God has to say about the believer and the Holy Spirit in the Acts and the Epistles.

NEVER ONCE ARE WE TOLD TO PRAY FOR THE "BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT"!

That may be confirmed by every seeker who cares to read again the books in question. Now in the light of this fact, is it not very strange to urge as the most important step after salvation that the believer must cry to God for this "baptism" ?

That in itself would indeed be hard to understand, but suspicion of this alleged experience is deepened when we find that the Scriptures never once mention the " Baptism of the Holy Spirit." The expression used is "Baptism in (Greek en) the Holy Spirit." This expression occurs Only seven times in the New Testament and in six of these places: Matthew 3.11; Mark 1.8; Acts 1. 5; Luke 3.16; John 1. 88; Acts 11.16, the Lord's promise regarding the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is referred to.

The seventh occurrence is in 1 Corinthians 12. 18:

"For by (Greek en) one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, 'whether 'we be bond or fee, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."

Prayerful reflection on this verse will throw much light on the subject. For it states absolutely that to be one with Christ as a member of the Body, a person must be baptized in the Holy Spirit. That the Lord Jesus Himself is the Baptizer is clear from four of the six references given above. So that every believer is, at the time of the new birth, baptized by the Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ. We cannot comprehend this mystery; it must be accepted by faith. This accords perfectly with Peter's words in Acts 11.17

"For as much then as God gave them the like gift as He did unto us,

who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand

God?"

Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a gift from the Lord, freely bestowed on every believer at the time of the new birth. The gift is bestowed purely on the principle of faith-see for example, John 7. 39; Acts 10.48-46; Acts 11.15-17; Galatians 3.2, 14; Ephesians 1.18.

This truth is very powerfully emphasized by consideration of the prayers of the apostle Paul. The Holy Spirit has recorded for our instruction the desires which were uppermost in Paul's heart for the disciples in his day. Not once did he pray that they might be baptized in the Holy Spirit! The burden of his prayers was for their spiritual growth, based on the assured fact of their having already been baptized in the Holy Spirit at their conversion. This may be seen from the following illustrations of Paul's prayers: Ephesians 1.16-28; 3.14-19; Philippians 1.8-11 ; Colossians 1. 9-11 ; 2.1-8.

Similarly, one would expect the need to strive for "baptism in the Spirit" to have a very large place in the exhortations of the epistles. Why then is it never mentioned? In contrast we read, "Be filled with the Spirit." That is quite another matter. Peter was once for all baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, baptized in one Spirit into one Body. Yet on successive occasions in the history of the Acts he was again filled with the Spirit, as in chapter 4. 8 or 4.81. Peter's experience illustrates the Scriptural order. When born again the believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit; but his being filled with the Spirit depends upon his consecration of heart to the Lord.

G. PRASHER, JR. | May 1952
Miracles And Miraculous Gifts