DELAYS OF SPIRIT BAPTISM
The Doctrine of subsequence has brought about terrible confusion which has taken believers “off the plumbline” of Holy Scripture.
This doctrine contradicts biblical truth.
The truth is this:- we are baptised by the Holy Spirit immediately we believe the content of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). There are no other requirements for salvation. Not tongues, not continual washings (repentance) not works. There is absolutely nothing that we can offer in exchange for the sacrifice Christ made on that Cross for us sin-riddled human beings. His death was/is a totally satisfactory exchange.
I say again:- There are no other requirements for salvation. Our position in Him, in Christ, is secure, it is guaranteed. In Him, our new position provides us immediately with everything we require for service to Him – to the Body of Christ. Our unique giftings are in place and we have only to discover what they are. All of who we are “In Him” that we are “A child of God” and all the other “I ams” of our positional truth were all given to us in a twinkling of an eye when we believed in the gospel and were baptised by the Holy Spirit – born again. We have everything we need as a new Christian. Our positional truth is that we are now “in Christ” and can never fall away or out of His Body.
The teaching that Spirit Baptism was delayed and should be sought after and received on a continuous basis relies on teaching introduced into the Assemblies of God churches by Charles Parham and his associates. Sound doctrines were deliberately twisted to inject life and vitality into dry and cheerless churches. Doctrines have been developed from historical accounts which lean on the Book of Acts instead of ensuring they were developed from the whole of Scripture and more particularly from the Epistles. It is this teaching that has brought about the need for a continuous diet of experience oriented religion and extra-biblical signs and wonders. I use the word religion quite deliberately for those entrapped by this false system of belief attend church religiously every week seeking after another yet another experience and they are in religious bondage to error.
Without exception every leader I have heard in the Pentecostal movement has made huge emphases on the need to leave one’s brains outside the door and just accept all teachings and experiences as biblically legitimate without question.
The Doctrine of subsequence is demolished by (1 Corinthians 12:13 “for by one Spirit we were all baptised into one Body……..”) and obviously this clearly means that ALL believers were saved the moment they believed and Spirit baptism could not occur until the Spirit was given when Jesus was glorified and He could not be glorified until He ascended when Jesus released His Holy Spirit to the whole world.
The Book of Acts is a book that marks the transition between the Dispensation of Law and the Dispensation of Grace and with it, a dispensational change in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and emphasises the apostolic authority of Peter and Paul.
The delay in the coming of the gift of tongues occurred with select groups of people rather than in a general way i.e. the Jews (Acts 2) Gentiles (Acts 10) Samaritans (Acts 8) and disciples of John the Baptist (Acts 19) who had only been baptised by John unto repentance.
The apparent subsequence of Spirit Baptism was because the disciples had not heard of the full significance of the death of Jesus, His resurrection or in the work of the Holy Spirit. Here the filling occurred because the knowledge of these disciples was incomplete. It was for the purpose of authenticating the fact that these believers were now a part of the Invisible Church and so they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and this brought them into a new life in Christ. However, once having been baptised into the Body of Christ there is no further record of any of these groups receiving it again later. All of these groups received the Holy Spirit the moment they believed.
The purposes of the delays of Spirit baptism in the Book of Acts were for authentication.
For the Gentile believers the experience authenticated the message of Peter, for the Jewish believers it authenticated that the Gentiles were savable and the Jews who observed the experience were amazed the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit along with the gift of tongues. (Acts 10,45-46). This needed to occur in this way so the Jews could see and accept that Gentiles were acceptable to God. They always suffered from spiritual pride and thus God ensured the acceptance by the Jews that the Gentiles were also admitted into the Body of Christ by the Baptism of the Spirit.
No one in Acts 1:4 from the one hundred and twenty in the upper room prayed to receive or to seek the Holy Spirit. They were awaiting the fulfilment of a divine promise. Further are no evidences of anyone seeking or asking for the Holy Spirit or tongues in the book of Acts. Not one person sought the Spirit in Acts 8, 10, and 19. There are no evidences in any of the churches at Antioch, Galatia, Philippi, Colossae, Rome, Thessalonica or Corinth that any prayers were offered to receive the Holy Spirit or to speak with tongues.
Romans 8:9 “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ”
If one were to believe that Spirit baptism can be /or has to be continuously looked for, or expected, at which point then does a person know he/she belongs to Christ and is safe in His Body?
The record of Acts 2:3-4 shows the reception of the Holy Spirit and this together with the miraculous speaking of other languages had a threefold purpose –
ü To show – to authenticate – God’s divine intentions that other groups, other than the Jews, were included in the Church – the Body of Christ (One Church, one faith, one baptism).
ü To confirm the Apostles authority; and
ü As a sign to unbelieving Israel that God was bringing judgment to the nation.
The Pentecost experience was unique. It was historical, and therefore unrepeatable. It was as historical and unrepeatable as the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. It was as unrepeatable as the Rapture of the Church will be.
The historical facts are that the Holy Spirit was to set up the Church Age once and that began at Pentecost. This occurred to fulfil Old Testament typology (Leviticus 23:15-22.
Yet Pentecostals try and make these events re-occur over and over again.
I remember being “at Wimber” in 1989 and everyone was asked to believe that tongues of fire were alighting on peoples’ heads. I can tell you that there were no cloven tongues of fire, no lights and no wind. And what is more there were no healings. I know John Wimber clearly tried to force this issue yet I saw no evidence at all that anyone truly received healing at that conference.
When we look at (Acts 8:14-17) although this Scripture is used to prove subsequence nonetheless the reason for this interval must be understood in that there was a period of transition between the covenants. The interval between the Samaritans’ salvation and receiving the Holy Spirit occurred because that they were in the process of moving from the Law to Grace. They were in transition between the two.
The Jews and Samaritans hated one another. The Jews needed to see that there was a clear supernatural sign to prove the Samaritans were also accepted in the Body of Christ. God’s intentions for His Church were that everyone who believed in the gospel would be saved by faith in the gospel through His grace plus nothing. As much as it was important for the Jews to understand that God found the Samaritans acceptable to be in the Body of Christ it was also important for the Samaritans to know that the Apostles who were Jews were the teachers of God’s truth. It was for this reason that God stayed the giving of the Holy Spirit until the Jewish Apostles were present.
(Acts 8:16) makes this clear for it says – “He had not yet fallen on any of them; they had simply been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus” The Samaritans were saved yet for a specific reason the Holy Spirit’s coming had not yet occurred.
These steps or events represented the growth of the Church not the birth of the Church. The developmental stages in the growth of the church continued to prove to the Church that the middle-wall of partition – the law – had indeed been torn asunder. (Ephesians 2:14-22).
“For He himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in His flesh, the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in His body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He has put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near for through Him we both have access to the Father by One Spirit. Consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the Chief Cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.”
There are some groups who believe that tongues are required to secure salvation yet requirement is not to be found in the gospel by which we are assured of our salvation. There is not one shred of evidence to be found in Scripture directing people to command others to speak in tongues. The absolutely disgraceful and unbiblical “carryings on” of group therapy sessions wherein prayers are offered and seekers commanded to “just try and speak out any old babble” is unscriptural and therefore must expose these hopeful tongues seekers to demonic tongues. Little wonder then that Pentecostal churches are full of the most terrible meaningless babble.
Most assuredly I do believe that God does gift people with tongues today. However, I do not believe that this gift should be sought for everyone any more than everyone is given every gift. In fact there are possibly very few people today who would truly speak with tongues.
For an extensive treatment of the delay of Spirit Baptism please see Doctor Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum’s work “The Ministries of the Holy Spirit”.
Today we have a preacher who interprets “do not let the Word depart from your mouth” to mean: “Don’t get too preachy” and along with so many others who teach the necessity to give a ten per cent tithe. They do not understand that this is an Old Testament principle based upon the Mosaic Law and not intended for the New Testament believer who should not be giving to support the Tribe of Levi. (Numbers 18:21-24. Further, there were three distinct tithes within the Mosaic Law.
This teaching becomes a real stumbling block both for believers and for church leadership who would seek to ensure they receive this ten per cent. If these teachers really understood the correct principles of giving and provided a correct understanding of the concepts of “grace giving” they would find people would give more. These principles are found in 11 Corinthians 9:6-14 and 11 Corinthians 8: 1-5. Giving should be a measure of a believer’s love for God and as expression of their faith. As everything belongs to God anyway the believer is only returning to the Lord that which He has given.
Reader please see “Ariel.org” for a correct exegesis on the “Bibical principles of giving” Manuscript 112. by Doctor Arnold G Fruchtenbaum obtained through Manna International PO Box 179 Seven Hills NSW 1730 ‘phone/fax 02 9624 8947.
Money hungry preachers would seem to be more concerned with teaching what they believe to be the biblical principles of (Luke 12:15) and this only for their own self-interest. This Scripture majors on a covetous lifestyle. People are encouraged to believe that giving ten per cent ensures you receive back ten times what is given. The emphasis is on the abundance of things which can be possessed by giving the ten per cent tithe.
Regrettably, there are so many Pastors today who are incapable of structuring any course of sound biblical study for they do not know the Word of God properly themselves. There are too many Theological colleges teaching Covenant theology denying Israel’s place in God’s heart, the Rapture, the Millenium, that the 144,000 are Jews (they are symbolic) of what they do not know, just symbolic they say. Powerless ineffectual preaching that denies the Word and embraces replacement theology.
It really little wonder today that Pentecostals with their emphasis on experience have found it satisfactory to join with Roman Catholics who in their millions are devoted to extra-biblical beliefs, rely on Papal infallibility, pray to Mary, (Marianism) infant baptism into the RC church saves, fetishes, witchcraft and demonic doctrines which deny priests to marry. Little wonder then homosexuality, paedophilia and sexual abuse is rife throughout its corridors of power.
I do not seek to enter into a study to expose the multi-faceted deficiencies and errors of Roman Catholicism for there is so much scholarly work on this subject and I must honestly say I do not claim to be a scholar. I want readers of this work to know that I am an ordinary, hardworking little lady who has after a long and stony road come to discover that God really does love me. I do not own any degrees or titles which just might make it easier to have this work published and because I have been so generally disliked by Pastors, Ministers and Leaders there is not one person to whom I can turn who would affix their monologue to my work. Nor have never acquiesced with any leadership so I would be found to be acceptable for some position in a church. God provided me with a beautiful instrument of a voice but I know He did not want me to use this in a church. In my deep reflections I have thought that this is because He knows what a pride-filled individual I have been.
My heart is to see the lost come into His Kingdom and in my writings to stand for Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To encourage others to trust and believe and stand up for Jesus and as witnesses to the truth of His Word.
Roman Catholic, Orthodox and many Protestant churches display images purporting to be that of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit (e.g: doves). Followers pay homage to images of Saints and Mary. “We are not worshipping them,” they cry. (Exodus 20: 4,5) Commands us to not have for ourselves, or worship and bow down to graven images made in the likeness of any thing in the heavens above or, that is on the earth, or that is in the water under the earth. Such images are detestable to God and we should not bring such things into our houses. (Deuteronomy 7:26).
An unusual witness to me of God’s view towards those who consider statues and icons to be a satisfactory way to draw closer to God happened when I brought a young woman to know the gospel and accept Jesus as her Saviour. She was Greek Orthodox and repented (changed her mind) about kissing icons. She was standing at the time and she fell to the floor at that moment of repentance – instantly. She stood to her feet quite unaware that anything unusual had happened.
God hates idol worship.
The Roman Catholic catechism deliberately avoids reference to God’s clear command in (Exodus 20: 4 and 5) and splits the commandment, in relation to coveting, into two, thus maintaining ten commandments.
Roman Catholicism is embraced by major denominations as a Christian faith, when in fact it has the largest cult following in the world and should be denounced as such. It has held predominantly Catholic countries, such as Ireland and Boznia in Satanic activity for centuries..
God does reach out with mercy and grace to those within the cults and bring them to a saving knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ. However, it should be impossible for a born again Christian to remain in such an environment as the Roman Catholic church and others, if they are really saved by faith in the true gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
What a mess Christianity is in today!