For by one Spirit
we were all
baptized into one body--
whether Jews or Greeks,
whether slaves or free--
and all have been
made to drink
into one Spirit.
1Corinthians 12:13
One of the most misused and misunderstood teaching to be found in the Bible is that of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It isn't that the Bible is not clear on this teaching, rather it is the misuse by some Churches that have clung on to a teaching that is inappropriate. This misuse and misunderstanding of the baptism of the Holy Spirit has led some people to misuse and misunderstand the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Each teaching or misuse of the Bible's clear and plain teaching on this Doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are two sides of the same coin, has led to the Pentecostal Movement and to the Charismatic Movement, both Movements are not Scriptural and has led to practices that are demeaning to the Holy Spirit, that is to God. There are Churches, yours may be one, that in their Statements of Faith hold to a doctrine that a believer must be baptized by the Holy Spirit, a second Baptism, or just that they quietly, in some Churches, as can be found in the Calvary Churches, that the gifts of the Holy Spirit as outlined in First Corinthians is to be practiced today. Yes, I know that by naming certain groups is touchy, and may cause you to rile, but read on and see what the Bible actually teaches. I am not here speaking of a person's salvation, that is between you and God. I, nor anyone else, saves a person, that is not what a true Christian is called to do; we are called to make disciples, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to save people and all He will save is those who were elected before the foundation of the world. I do not know who they are, and neither do you, therefore, preach, teach, and live a Christian life, and then you have done all that God has commanded. Some people will be saved and others will not be saved and this we leave in the hands of our Sovereign God. But, we are to practice our Christian lives in accordance to Scripture and not to some denominational supposition that is not to be found in God's word.
Have you ever had this happen to you; a person walks up to you and asks; "Have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit" and if you say yes they will ask; "When were you baptized by the Holy Spirit?" To admit to another that you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit is not necessarily agreeing with the other person. You may understand one way and he another. Some people believe and teach in a second baptism of the Holy Spirit and point to such events as the Azusa Street experience where people were supposed to have been baptized by the Holy Spirit, or to other such events in history as proof that there is a second baptism of the Holy Spirit. Are these events something that God is making known that there is a second blessing, a second pouring out of the Holy Spirit? Is this what the Bible teaches? Have we missed this important teaching in the Bible? Are our practices in line with the pure teaching of God's word? I shall allow the Bible to teach us, and it is the Bible that is God's truth that reveals Himself to us and how we are live in this world until He comes again to take us to be with Him. We should never want practices or teachings that make us feel "holy" and "Christian," we want to live by God's word. Do not succumb to a reasoning, or rationale, that points to the numbers of people doing such and such as proof of a particular belief to be of God. It is not numbers, or the fact that there can be found in such Churches as the Roman Catholic Church, or Methodist, or any other denomination that practices and believe a misuse of the the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as proof that this is what God wants His people to believe and practice.
Baptism is one of the two sacraments appointed by God for His people, the other is the Lord's Supper. The Roman Catholic Church has seven sacraments, but that discussion is for another time. What is baptism? The Scriptural use of the word "baptism" shows that it is something initiatory both in the case of water baptism and Spirit baptism and either elements are not repeated. There is no Biblical data to confirm that there are more than one baptism. Does baptism save you? No! Emphatically, NO! If that were true then the thief on the cross alongside Jesus would never have been allowed to enter into the paradise of God. He was not baptized by water, but as the Scripture teaches he was filled by the Holy Spirit as all believers have the promised Holy Spirit. I have a personal difficulty to sit under the teaching by those who either do not know the original languages, or refuses to teach from the original languages, as they often sound good, but are teaching nothing more than some form of counseling. What does the Bible actually say and how did a Greek speaking and understanding of the Greek language, hear when the either heard or read God's word? Remember an important fact: we hear in English and we understand what we hear by means of our English language. This does not mean that we hear as a person does who speak and understands their language. In the opening Scripture Paul writes: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized" and as can be noticed that those words are in English. Two words must be understood as a Greek person would understand them, the first is "all" and the other is "baptized." When, as an English speaking person, hears the word "all" we immediately make the word to be inclusive of everyone and not to be exclusive of anyone. As for the word "baptized" we use the English word as a participle and there is no time associated with it, but could possibly be in the past as the word included the ending: "...ed." So this word means that in some time or other baptism happened. There is no indication that it is more than once, only that it happened. In English we do not have the Greek tense aorist, which speaks of an event having taking place in time, and it is clear to a Greek hearing person, that is when he hears a particular Greek word what the speaker is actually saying. the word that the Corinthian readers heard from Paul was:
έβαπτίσθημεν; which is first person plural, in aorist 1, indicative passive. Let us break this word down into parts: 1. The word is in the first person plural: therefore it speaks of "we" in the singular it would be "I"; 2. The word is aorist 1, don't get confused with the number one, the word in any number associated with it only states that the aorist word has its emphasis on punctiliar action; that is, the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present,or future time. In other words, it happened. There is no clear English equivalent for this tense, though it is generally rendered as a simple past tense in most translations. While grammarians divide the aorist tense into a number category, the most common of these include a view of the action as having begun from a certain point, or having ended at a certain point, or merely existing at a certain point. 3. that the word is imperative: The imperative mood corresponds to the English imperative, and expresses a command to the hearer to perform a certain action by the order and authority of the one commanding. An example may be found at Mark 1:15: "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" and if you do not know Greek then you will believe that this is an invitation but it is not, the Greek words are imperative and are a command requiring full obedience on the part of the hearer. 4. The word is passive and when we translate a Greek passive word into English we normally will use the English past tense.You may cavil at the fact that I will attempt to teach some Greek but I am not attempting to make you Greek scholars, rather I am giving the basis for which I write and with this basis you can check me out. Do so, I invite you to do so, that is Scriptural (1Thessalonians 5:21). I have furthermore laid out the ground on which I will lay the Scriptures in regards to this Doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the next blogs I will dig deep into the Bible and give Scriptural reasoning for my position that has been clearly enunciated, that is there is only one Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The purpose is not to prove one belief wrong and another right, yet this is what will be done, rather it is to teach us to live according to God's word. We are the light of the world, and the world is watching us and determining whether or not we are just another religion. We are not! We should never get caught up into things that are not befitting a Christian because when we do we bring shame upon our Lord and Savior, our God, and we blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
But if you do not
forgive, neither
will your Father in
heaven forgive
your trespasses.
Mark 11:26
Beware of false teachers
Richard L. Crumb
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