The doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is one of the most misunderstood doctrines being taught in our churches today. Some of our churches teach that every believer should receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and if they haven’t, they have failed to attain the fullness of what God has available to everyone and would like to give to every believer.
This doctrine is not according to what the Bible says. The churches fail to teach the truth of the scriptures: that there is a difference between receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and receiving what God promised through the prophet Joel. That promise is the gift of the Holy Spirit being poured out on every believer to dwell in their hearts and become one with them.
As was quoted on the day of Pentecost by the Apostle Peter, God said through the prophet Joel; that in the last days He would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. But there was a condition for one to fulfill in order to receive this promise. Jesus said in John 7:38-39: That whoever believes on Him would receive the promise of God, which was the gift of the Holy Spirit. So the condition was that only those who believed on Him would receive the promise.
The Apostle Peter was given the authority by Jesus, as is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in the sixteenth chapter, to put forth the conditions of receiving the Holy Spirit, and Peter did set those conditions forth on the day of Pentecost. Peter said: Acts 2:38 “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So Peter set forth the conditions as: Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Every believer that obeys this commandment receives the Holy Spirit, the promise of God of His Spirit poured out to every believer.
Many churches teach that Peter’s statement in Acts 2:38 actually means that sometime after you have done what Peter said to do, you would receive the gift. They do not all teach that it is given at the time you repent and are baptized. But as we examine Acts and compare the original scripture with the one translated into English, we can see how this misunderstanding can occur.
Let’s look at what the scripture says:
Acts “Then Peter said to them, repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
You may note that I have boldfaced two words in this scripture, the words “ye shall”. The translators added these two words in order to improve the readability of the scripture. There were no Greek words existing in the original scripture that were translated to “ye shall.” Now this is not really important that these words were added, for Peter said if you do these things, you would receive the gift. But in some cases these words “ye shall” may seem to imply that the gift will come at a later time after you comply with Peter’s commandment.
If we look at Acts with the words “ye shall” removed, as they were in the original Greek, we see the following:
Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and //////// receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
It then becomes very clear that when you comply with the conditions Peter set forth, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit right at that time. There is no waiting, nor anything else you have to do. God’s promise was that if you believe on His Son, He would give His Spirit to you. If you have, then He has.
The problem that believers have is that they won’t believe what God’s Word actually says; they would rather believe man’s interpretation of it. Just like your salvation, how do you know that you have been saved? You know because God’s Word said if you accept His Son as your Lord and Saviour, you shall be saved. You have no other proof that you can show that you are saved. You accept it by faith because you believe the Word of God to be true. How do you know that your sins have been forgiven? You can’t show any proof that they have, but through faith in His Word, you accept the fact that they have been forgiven.
Then when it comes to whether or not you have received the Holy Spirit, you look for some physical evidence. You say, “Well I do not feel any different”. Faith comes by believing and not by feeling. “Well,” you say, “I haven’t spoken in tongues.” Paul the Apostle said that all do not speak in tongues.
Tongues are a gift of the Spirit given to a person just like prophecy or gifts of healing or working of miracles, etc. You cannot rely on speaking in tongues or anything else other than the Word of God to determine if you have received the Holy Spirit. Many times throughout the scriptures, it says that God gives the Holy Spirit to those that obey Him: Acts 5:32, 1 John 3:22, 1 John 4:1.
God’s promise was that He would give His Spirit to all that would believe on His Son. But nowhere in the scriptures does it say that every believer would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, nor does it say that this is necessary to receive eternal life. By the same course, the scriptures do not say that all believers cannot receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but there are certain indications that this baptism was for a limited number of persons and for very specific reasons. There is a difference between receiving the Holy Spirit at conversion and receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist made the first mention of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. In the third chapter of Matthew, when John was baptizing in the Jordan River , certain people came to him to be baptized. At that time John said to them that one was coming after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. But John did not say that everyone would receive this baptism he was talking about.
Let’s look at what John did say:
Matthew “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”:
Please note again that I have boldfaced some words in this verse that were not in the original scriptures, but were added by the translators. The scripture appears to say to those to whom John was speaking, that Jesus would baptize them with the Holy Spirit when He comes. The addition of the word “you” puts John’s statement on a very personal basis, but without the added word “you” in the statement, it is a very general statement that John is making. It says that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit but does not necessarily say that it will be done to the people to whom John spoke.
It might be good at this point to elaborate on just what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit means and how this is different from the receiving of the indwelling Spirit that fulfills God’s promise to the believer.
When we think of a baptism, we picture water baptism where the new convert is immersed in water. The Holy Spirit baptism is much the same, as it is the believer being “immersed into God’s Spirit,” or a better phrase to use might be “to be overwhelmed by God’s Spirit.” To be overwhelmed is not a word I just came up with, as it is another definition for the Greek word that was translated into baptism. To be baptized with the Holy Spirit is to be completely filled with God’s Spirit. Since God does not force Himself on anyone, a person must be willing, seeking, and wholly prepared in his or her life, in order to receive the overwhelming baptism of God’s Spirit.
Since the scriptures record that Jesus told the apostles that they would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, let us look and see how they were prepared to receive it. The apostles had been with Jesus throughout His ministry on earth and seen Him perform many miracles. They saw multitudes healed, demons cast out, and the dead were raised back to life. They saw thousands fed with a small amount of food, blind eyes opened, and the deaf made to hear again. Think how seeing these things occur would have made their faith strong, seeing the power of God in operation. But throughout all of these things, as their faith was increasing, still they had doubts in their hearts. They did not really believe all that Jesus had told them.
Jesus told them, as is recorded in Matthew 17:20, if you have faith, nothing shall be impossible for you to do. He said: if you have faith, you can move mountains only by speaking to them to be moved. He said to them, as is recorded in John 14:12 that they would do greater things than they have seen Him do. This only confirms what He said about them receiving power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Jesus told them time and time again what they could do if they only had faith enough to believe it. Yet, still after all this, they doubted, but Jesus knew the limits of their faith and told them that when the Holy Spirit came, they would remember all that He said.
Then there was one event that happened that made their faith strong and removed any doubts they had. When Jesus was raised from that tomb and talked with them and when they saw Him being carried away into Heaven, then they were completely convinced that all He said to them was true. Their faith had reached a point where all doubts were removed from their minds.
With all doubts removed from their minds and knowing that all the words He spoke were true, they waited for the promise of the anointing of the Holy Spirit that He had spoken to them about. They were completely convinced of the truth of His words, completely dedicated to do the work of God, and completely separated from the physical desires of the world.
It says in Acts 2:1, the apostles were all with one accord in one place. Let’s think on just what that means for a moment.
To be in one accord means that they were in agreement and all had the same purpose in mind, which was to be obedient to His Word. They had committed themselves to doing nothing else but serving Him and obeying the commandment He had given them. That commandment was: (Mark 16:15) “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” They were all in agreement to do this work for Him and were waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit to come upon them to prepare them to accomplish that task.
When the Spirit of God comes upon a person, it comes in a measure consistent with the amount of faith and sacrifice a person has demonstrated. John the Baptist said that Jesus had the Spirit without measure (John ). This means that Jesus did not have just a limited portion of the Spirit, but had the fullness of the Spirit. All other believers are given the measure of the Spirit of God appropriate to the amount of faith and commitment they have demonstrated to Him.
The apostles, on the day of Pentecost, were full of faith and had completely surrendered their lives to God.
Jesus told the apostles that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. The power He spoke of was the miracle working power of God that would be used to confirm their ministry. This kind of miracle working power would not be given to a person unless God was confident that a believer would use it in a meaningful way for the glory of God and for the uplifting of His Kingdom. The power to move mountains and perform other miracles would be dangerous in the hands of someone who was not completely surrendered to doing the will of God and separated from the cares of this world.
Jesus did not say that all believers would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the power that came with it, but He did say that certain signs would be seen in the lives of all believers. Mark 16:17-18 “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; {18} They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover”.
Paul the Apostle also said that certain gifts would come to the believer when they received the Holy Spirit: “The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues.”
But these are given to the believer in proportion to their faith and preparation to do the work of God. Your work for God and the gifts He gives you to do that work are based upon your faith, commitment and the surrender of your life to Him.
The scriptures tell us that the twelve apostles were the first to receive the filling of the Spirit and that certain signs and wonders followed their ministry. The most recorded ministries that were confirmed with signs and wonders following were those of Peter and Paul, but there were others also who had received the filling of the Spirit. Two of the seven deacons that were chosen, Stephen and Philip, were also active in the ministry and had signs and miracles occurring in their work. Also Barnabas, the companion of Paul, had signs and wonders following his ministry. So the baptism of the Holy Spirit was not just for the apostles, nor was it unconditionally for every believer.
The Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians:
1 Cor. 12:13: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, whether we are bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
This verse is used by many Bible teachers to say that you must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit to become a member of the body of Christ, but this is not confirmed anyplace else in the scriptures.
To start with, two words have been added to this verse by the translators that cause us to interpret this verse as meaning that we are baptized by the Spirit into the body. The first two words that I have boldfaced, “For by” could just have well been “because of” and changed the meaning to be: Because of one Spirit, the Spirit of God, we have been baptized in water, in His name, and have become a member of the body of Christ.
Throughout the scriptures, Paul speaks of the only true baptism as being water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 4:5 he says that there is only one baptism: Eph: 4:5 “One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” And again in Galatians 3:27 Paul says: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” You are baptized into Christ when you repent of your sins and receive water baptism in His name.
Isn’t is obvious today that if all the people who claim to have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit actually had received it, many signs and wonders and miracles would be occurring throughout the world? Jesus said that because God loves us, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him would receive everlasting life. God expects us to believe on His Son and accept Him as our Saviour, and in doing so, we will receive the promise: His Spirit into our lives imparting unto us eternal life in the world to come.
Paul said in Ephesians 1:13: “In who you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in who also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,”
Again the translators added two words leading one to think that sometime after they believe, they receive the Holy Spirit. The words boldfaced: “after that” that was added could have just as well been “When”: saying when you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit.
Here is a summary of just what the scriptures show us about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The commission that Jesus gave to the apostles was to “go into all the world and preach the gospel”. This commandment was not given to every believer, but just as Mark 16:14 indicates, it was given to those who were assembled with Him, the eleven apostles that He had chosen. Paul said in Romans 10:15 that a person must be sent in order to preach the gospel.
But before these chosen men were to embark on their missionary journeys to preach the gospel, they needed one other thing to prepare them to accomplish this mission, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told them to wait in the city of Jerusalem until they received power from on high, the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49). For Jesus knew that without the miracle working power of the Holy Spirit working in their ministries, they would not achieve the necessary results. He told them, that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 1:8)
These men were full of faith and believed that all the words of Jesus were true, were obedient to His commandment, and waited for the anointing that He had promised. When this anointing came upon them, they set out to fulfill their commission, and they were effective because of the signs and wonders that followed their ministry.
Even today, the Lord selects certain men to be sent out to preach His Gospel. And when He sends them out, He prepares them in the same way as He did the apostles, first filling them with the miracle working power of the Holy Spirit to insure the effectiveness of their ministry.
Can you now see why there is no unity of the faith and so many divisions in the church?
When the translators of the Bible were given their instructions to translate the Bible into English in 1611, they were told that whenever they came across something that could have several meanings; they were to translate it according to the teaching of the church leaders of that day. Thus man’s wisdom and his own interpretation of the scriptures were to influence future generations and their understanding of God’s Word. Well, we can see what has happened. All we have to do is to look around us at the divisions in the churches and the many differences in their church doctrines.
Paul said in Ephesians chapter 4, that God has set pastors, teachers and evangelists in the church to bring us all into the unity of the faith, but just the reverse has happened. Instead of all being in the unity of the faith, we are divided. This has happened because most of those now preaching the gospel have not been sent and have not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
I once believed that Bible teachers were not necessary, that the Bible was written for everyone to understand, but God knew better. That’s why He ordains certain preachers and teachers in the church. He knew that down through the years man would add to and take away from His original Word and cause confusion among His people.
I continue to believe that the King James Version of the Bible is the most accurate translation available in print today, but if a man is called to preach or teach God’s Word, it behooves him to be sure that he is teaching what the original scriptures said and not what some man has passed down to him.
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