11,141
edits
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 40: | Line 40: | ||
:''Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Jn 3:24.</ref> | :''Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Jn 3:24.</ref> | ||
=What the Bible teaches= | |||
Pauls states in Roman 8:9-11: | |||
:''You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And '''if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ'''. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of '''his Spirit who lives in you'''. <ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ro 8:9–11.</ref> | |||
All, therefore, who belong to Christ have the Spirit of God. There are not 3 classes of Christians as William Branham taught: | |||
#those who have been born again; | |||
#those who have been sanctified: and | |||
#those who have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. | |||
The contrast between being “in the flesh” and “in the Spirit” is a contrast between belonging to the old age of sin and death and belonging to the new age of righteousness and life. So characteristic of these respective “ages” or “realms” are flesh and Spirit that the person belonging to one or the other can be said to be “in” them. In this sense, then, no Christian can be “in the flesh”; and all Christians are, by definition, “in the Spirit.” We miss Paul’s intention if we think of being “in the flesh” here as the condition of mortality that continues to characterize even believers (Nygren), or as the moral weakness and proneness to sin that, more lamentably, we still possess (Dunn). For the rest of the verse makes absolutely clear that (1) to be a Christian is to be indwelt by God’s Spirit; and (2) to be indwelt by God’s Spirit means to be “in the Spirit” and not “in the flesh.” Paul’s language is “positional”: he is depicting the believer’s status in Christ, secured for him or her at conversion. | |||
To be sure, a condition is placed on this being “in the Spirit”: having the Spirit of God dwelling in the person. But, as 1 Cor. 3:16 shows—addressed to the “carnal” (1 Cor. 3:1–3) Corinthian Christians, no less!—Paul believes that every Christian is indwelt by the Spirit of God. Indeed, this is just what Paul affirms in the last part of the verse, where he denies that the person who does not have the “Spirit of Christ” can make any claim to being a Christian at all. In other words, for Paul, possession of the Spirit goes hand-in-hand with being a Christian. However much we may need to grow in our relationship to the Spirit; however much we may be graciously given fresh and invigorating experiences of God’s Spirit, from the moment of conversion on, the Holy Spirit is a settled resident within. That Paul in the same verse can speak of the believer as “in the Spirit” and the Spirit as being “in” the believer reveals the metaphorical nature of his language. In the one case, the Spirit is pictured as entering into and taking control of the person’s life; in the other, the believer is pictured as living in that realm in which the Spirit rules, guides, and determines one’s destiny.<ref>Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 489–490.</ref> | |||
This is reiterated by Paul in Ephesians 1:13-14: | |||
:''And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Eph 1:13–14.</ref> | |||
F.F. Bruce comments on this passage thusly: | |||
:The seal of the Spirit was received by the Gentiles here addressed as it had been received earlier by Jewish Christians—'''when they believed'''. The verbal form used here is identical with that found in Acts 19:2, where Paul at Ephesus asks a group of “disciples” if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed; it is a participial form meaning “having believed” or “on believing.<ref>F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984), 265.</ref> | |||
And Peter O'Brien is clearly in agreement with this interpretation: | |||
:'''When the Gentiles believed the gospel, they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.''' The aorist participle ‘believed’ is best interpreted in this context as being coincident with the main verb ‘you were sealed’. The participle does not here express antecedent action,125 as though the Gentiles believed and then subsequently were sealed with the Holy Spirit. Rather, the believing and being sealed were two sides of the one event. A similar conjunction with the same verb form is found in Acts 19:2, where Paul asks a group of ‘disciples’ at Ephesus if they received the Holy Spirit when they believed.<ref>Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 119.</ref> | |||
=Details of William Branham's teaching= | =Details of William Branham's teaching= | ||
| Line 118: | Line 146: | ||
Indeed, the apostles claimed this revelatory power (John 20:31; 1 Cor. 2:13; 1 Thess. 4:2; 2 Thess. 2:2; 1 John 2:19; 4:6), claiming the church was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:20). The early church recognized this authority and “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). The apostles were the eyewitnesses of Christ (Acts 1:22), even Paul (1 Cor. 9:1; 15:5–9). Since these divinely authorized channels of “all truth” died in the first century, it follows that divine revelation ceased with them. If revelation ceased, there was no longer a need for miracle signs of a new revelation.<ref>Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 471.</ref> | Indeed, the apostles claimed this revelatory power (John 20:31; 1 Cor. 2:13; 1 Thess. 4:2; 2 Thess. 2:2; 1 John 2:19; 4:6), claiming the church was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:20). The early church recognized this authority and “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). The apostles were the eyewitnesses of Christ (Acts 1:22), even Paul (1 Cor. 9:1; 15:5–9). Since these divinely authorized channels of “all truth” died in the first century, it follows that divine revelation ceased with them. If revelation ceased, there was no longer a need for miracle signs of a new revelation.<ref>Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 471.</ref> | ||
{{Bottom of Page}} | {{Bottom of Page}} | ||