Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/67

Contributor - J. Van Oostveen

Title - Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Topic - Baptism

The calibre of the spiritual life in the Church today is by many people thought to be very low. Again and again we hear the criticism that the Church is becoming more and more secularized. People within the Church are said to have no longer any assurance of faith and are missing the joy of a life in Christ. Many of those who share this opinion also within our circles have looked and are looking for something else. Especially in the direction of the Pentecostal churches where people supposedly seem to have something more of that which we are missing. These groups emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit. Apparently we no longer seem to be able to take hold of the Holy Spirit.

Certainly it is true that from our pulpits we seldom hear of the Holy Spirit and His work. When Jesus spoke of the coming of the Holy Spirit, He indicated that, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, would be a step forward: "It is better for you that I go" (John 16 : 17). But it is questionable whether the Church of today, has experienced anything of this step forward. The Church has great difficulty in following the Comforter in His work and in His truth. The comfort of Pentecost seems to be depleted in the Church. Could it be that a new and re-awakening and a deepening in faith becomes a necessity in the Church ? The Bible speaks of a growth and a waxing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself has said that he who remains in Him must bear fruit. The Bible also enumerates these fruits as being: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Gal. 5 :22,23.)

In any spiritualistic circles which we can find everywhere today, we find the accusation against the old established Church (including the Reformed Church) that we miss the "gifts of the Spirit". For that reason they claim there is something missing in the Church. Further accusations are leveled: the Church does not pray for the "gifts of the Spirit". For that reason they claim there is something missing in the Church. They give only one solution to our problems. The Church must again seek and pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit and be filled again with the Holy Spirit. The Church must shift from the Baptism with water to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then the Church will start to live again !

Many a person has swallowed these statements and it has caused them to be at a loss in our church because they feel that they are looking for something ore than what can be found in the Reformed Church. Yet we find that these people who are critical of the church are reluctant to leave the Church but seek to make their influence felt by seeking to convince others of the truth which they have found.

Let us take a careful look at this criticism. Is it valid and true that we are missing something ? Do we in the Reformed Church by-pass the Baptism of the Holy Spirit ? Ever since the beginning of the Christian Church people have sought to make a distinction between Baptism with water and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. As proof from Scripture Mark 1:8 was used: "I have baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit". Water Baptism is only a beginning it is claimed, of the real thing which is still to come. If it comes at all. Do not trust in the sign of Baptism. Only when you have experienced your Pentecost then the true peace has become your own. It is only natural that it is supposed that the Holy Spirit and child Baptism have nothing to do with each other. The sacramental connection between Baptism and conversion are positively denied. This also involves of course the rejection of the whole basic teaching of the Bible of the Covenant. Therefore the practice of re-baptism is practiced in these groups. "

In these circles the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is stressed. This Baptism is then a separate experience from water Baptism, through which one is brought to the "gifts of the Spirit". Only after this the true power and peace is received. Hereby we encounter also the denial of the unity of the Church. A distinction is made between two kinds of Christians, the ordinary believer who has received the Baptism with water and those who are born again through the Spirit of God and those who are Baptized with the Spirit. Those Baptized with water always struggle and question whether they belong to Jesus Christ. The Spirit Baptized believers never question their assurance for they stand far above this. They live in the fulness of the Spirit and have spiritual experiences from day to day which assure them of their status before God.

According to the American perfectionalistically used distinction between a first blessing and a second blessing which interpreted here means: the ordinary Christians only have the first blessing (faith, conversion). They have not yet received the second blessing. They miss the gifts of the Spirit. "Stromen van Kracht", a Dutch publication (Leven en overvloed, 4) says: Anyone who is converted is not yet filled with the Holy Spirit. .(transl. J.V.0.) Dr. Torrey says in "Kracht van Omhoog" (De persoon en het werk van de Heilige Geest, 71) "In conversion life is given but in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the power is granted". (transl. J.V.0.) Sometimes these distinctions are sought to be eliminated and it is tried not to lift the Baptism of the Holy Spirit too far above the ordinary life 'in the Lord. Yet as they experience the gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts such as: glossolalia (speaking in tongues), healing, prophesy, etc.... then the temptation easily follows to place these gifts far above the first blessing. The way of the first blessing is then to reach for the second blessing of the Holy Spirit which can be found according to these authorities in conversion

In the same publication of "Stromen van Kracht", just mentioned, it is denied that the converted believer is filled with the Holy Spirit but a little further on it is indicated how a human being can receive the fulness of the Spirit through repentance. What is the meaning of the first conversion then ? It is very clear that sanctification is separated from righteousness through the work of the Holy Spirit as obtained by Christ for us through faith in Him.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit is an extra for which the converted sinner must reach out. When he is Baptized with the Holy Spirit then he experiences Pentecost the pouring out of the Spirit in his heart). Only then is he enabled to serve in the Kingdom of God. That is why the question of the apostle Paul to those who were Baptized by John the Baptist in Ephesus, Acts 19 "Have you received the Holy Spirit?" is the sign of recognition. In answering this question the Word of God is not needed, in order to speak with certainty. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a definite experience of which anyone who has received if gifts can say whether the Spirit abides or does not abide in his heart. Evidence of the presence Of the Spirit is through emotional shocks and ecstacies or through voices of the Spirit and nightly visions.

It is tragic that the Spirit of the Lord who is the foundation and guarantor of the unity of the Church is understood as the power of God which separates the beginners from the more advanced Christians. Dr. Torrey in his booklet writes: "I tremble for those among us, who preach the truth as found in Jesus Christ and as it is written in God's Word - the truth in her simplicity, her purity, her fulness - but those who proclaim its truth with the energy of the flesh and not with the power of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing more dangerous !" (transl. J.V.0.). What a horrible devaluation of the truth of the Word that is brought by a born again child of God who passes on God's message in the name of the Lord. When we do not have the strange experience of the so called Baptism of the Holy Spirit then the claim is that we live in the sin of resisting the Spirit. At the same time such thinking opens the way to a pride and a lifting of oneself above other fellow Christians. Between those who are filled with the Spirit there grows a great wall of separation. We may also ask: "If we are believers but do not possess the Spirit-filled life whose fault is that?" Accusingly the finger of the person who has received the second blessing points to us who only have received the first blessing. This superiority is a real danger and not Christian at all!

We do not read in the Bible anywhere of a distinction between the first and the second blessing. The glory of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit fills all of God's children and all converted and born again Christians may walk ' in God"s light and know the secrets of His salvation. This is why the Acts of the Apostles speaks continually of "being filled with the Holy Spirit". Sometimes even before any kind of Baptism takes place. "Herein we are shown that all who are in Christ have been made anew and as many as are in Christ are called to be saints and witnesses. Paul does not say anywhere that those who miss the fulness of the Spirit are born again and converted. When Paul speaks of the fulness of the Spirit which has been granted to the Church then we immediately meet the Apostolic reserve: "if the Spirit really dwells in you". He is not saying here that perhaps the first blessing has been granted. He says carefully: "anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him". Romans 8:9. Nowhere in the Bible are we told to reach from the first blessing to the second blessing, but everywhere in the Bible we are urged to live out of the first blessing ! Be justified by faith! Be born again to a living hope ! Be washed in the blood of the Lamb! "He who believes in Me," as the Scriptures say: "Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water". John 7 : 38. God has assured this to us in (child)Baptism. "He has put His seal upon us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guaranteed. II Cor. 1 : 22.

The work of the Holy Spirit as we are taught in Scripture:

1. The Holy Spirit is Lord. II Cor. 3:17-18. The sovereign freedom of the Holy Spirit to act where and by whatever means He will must be recognized and respected. Such a recognition eliminates the possibility of manipulating or coercing the Spirit by audible and physical means to act or Speak in a particular fashion.

2. The Holy Spirit bears witness to Christ. John 15:26. In the New Testament the activity of the Spirit never becomes an end in itself but always a means to the confession, both in public worship and in life, that Jesus is Lord.

I Cor, 12:3. Any genuine manifestation of the Spirit, therefore, will lead to a Christological concern and witness. An excessive concentration on spiritual phenomena to the neglect of the once for all revelation of God in Christ is false spirituality

3. John 16:8-11. In an era 3. The Holy Spirit convinces the in which the Christian Church finds the search for a proper language to express its faith a difficult one, a pre-occupation with ecstatic speaking in which the God, intelligibility of the Gospel is obscured can be an escape. The urgent need for the Church today is not glossolalia in which the Church talks only to itself or to God, but a relevant language in which it can communicate with the world. An inner spirituality which neglects the "worldliness" of the Gospel, which is not concerned for righteousness in the world, and which does not prompt an involvement in the Church's mission of service and love in and for the world, is a false spirituality.

4. The Holy Spirit is the bond of the Church's unity. Eph. 4 :3. Those who claim to speak in tongues should not regard themselves as the only Christians who have an authentic gift from the Spirit. It is clear that Christians who do not speak in tongues have also been baptized by the Holy Spirit and given gifts by Him. I Cor. 12:4-13. They should not set themselves up as a spiritual elite, somehow superior to those who have different gifts. I Cor. 12:14-21. They should not cultivate a closer fellowship with others who claim to speak in tongues than with those who do not. I Cor. 12:22-26. They should not disturb the order and decency of the public worship of God. I Cor. 14:14.

5. The Holy Spirit bestows His varied gifts for the common good. I Cor. 12:7.

6. The gifts of the Spirit can be counterfeited or sought for the wrong motive. I John 4:1.

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