Pentecostal and Charismatic Theology — Unit 4: Spirit Baptism I: Subsequence and Empowerment

Key Verse

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain what classical Pentecostals mean by "baptism in the Holy Spirit" and why we describe it as subsequent to conversion.

2. Show from Luke and Acts that the purpose of Spirit baptism is empowerment for witness.

3. Walk through the key passages in Acts (2, 8, 9, 10, 19) and say what each contributes to the doctrine.

4. State fairly the view that Spirit baptism happens at conversion, and give the Pentecostal answer.

5. Explain how a pastor can teach and encourage Spirit baptism without pressure, pride or confusion.

The Voice of This Unit

This unit is written from inside the classical Pentecostal tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and Trinitarian. Course 1 told our history. Here we ask: what does the Bible teach about baptism in the Holy Spirit? We state the objections of other evangelicals honestly, and then answer them from Scripture.

What We Teach

Classical Pentecostal churches teach that the Bible describes a baptism in the Holy Spirit that Jesus Himself gives to believers. We teach three things about it.

First, it is distinct from conversion in its purpose. At new birth the Spirit gives us life, forgives and joins us to Christ. Spirit baptism is given for power to witness and to serve.

Second, it is subsequent in logic, and often in time. "Subsequent" means "coming after." We say that a person may be saved and then receive this baptism. The gap may be minutes, as in some cases in Acts, or years. We will see that the Bible shows both.

Third, it is available to every believer. Peter said, "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:39). It is a promise for the whole church in every age.

Unit 5 takes up the sign that we believe accompanies the baptism, speaking in tongues.

We begin with a point of respect. Romans 8:9 says, "Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." Every true believer has the Spirit, but we believe there is more that the Lord wishes to give.

The Promise in Luke and Acts

The best place to begin is where Jesus Himself begins. In Luke 24:49 the risen Lord says to His disciples, "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." At the start of Acts He tells them the same thing and gives the reason: "you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me" (Acts 1:8).

Notice three things.

The disciples already belonged to Jesus. They had followed Him for years and seen Him raised from the dead. Yet He told them to wait. If Spirit baptism were only another word for becoming a Christian, this command would make no sense.

The purpose is power for witness. The promise does not say, "you will be forgiven," or "you will be born again." It says, "you shall receive power . . . and you shall be witnesses." Luke's emphasis is mission.

The promise reaches to the end of the earth. The gift is tied to the church's task among all nations.

In all four Gospels, and again in Acts 1:5, Jesus is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. It is His gift. We do not earn it, and we do not make it happen by our efforts.

Luke's Way of Speaking About the Spirit

Roger Stronstad, a Pentecostal scholar, has argued in The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke (1984) that Luke has his own way of speaking about the Holy Spirit. In Luke's writing the Spirit is regularly the Spirit of prophecy, who comes on people to empower them for speech and service. We see it in Luke's account of Jesus: at the Jordan "the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him" (Luke 3:22), and He then began His ministry "in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14). If Jesus, the Son of God, was anointed by the Spirit for ministry, the church should not expect less. The disciples follow the same pattern.

The Key Passages in Acts

Acts has five main accounts of people receiving the Spirit. Each should be read carefully.

Acts 2: Jerusalem

The disciples were gathered in Jerusalem after Jesus' ascension. "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). Peter explained this as the fulfillment of Joel. These disciples were already believers. Pentecost was a new stage in salvation history. Some critics say that Pentecost was a one-time event that cannot be repeated for individuals. Yet Peter promised the gift to all who would be called (Acts 2:39). The event was unique as the birthday of the church, but the experience was meant to continue.

Acts 8: Samaria

Philip preached in Samaria and the people believed and were baptized. Then Peter and John came down, "prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 8:15-17).

This is the clearest case of subsequence in Acts. Yet the Spirit had "fallen upon none of them." Something happened afterward that could be seen, because Simon "saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given" (Acts 8:18).

Acts 9: Damascus

Saul met the risen Lord on the road. Three days later Ananias came and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 9:17). Saul had already called Jesus "Lord" (Acts 9:5-6) and had submitted to Him. Whether we think Saul was converted on the road or in the days that followed, there was a distinct moment when he was filled with the Spirit. Years later Paul wrote, "I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all" (1 Corinthians 14:18).

Acts 10: Caesarea

Peter preached to Cornelius and his household, and while he was still speaking "the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word" (Acts 10:44). The Spirit came as they believed, before water baptism. The Jewish believers were amazed "because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God" (Acts 10:45-46).

Acts 19: Ephesus

Paul found some disciples at Ephesus and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit" (Acts 19:2). Paul taught them, baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus, and "when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied" (Acts 19:6).

Paul's question is important. He assumed that a person could believe and still not have received the Spirit in this sense. Some debate whether these twelve were fully Christian, since they knew only John's baptism. But Luke calls them "disciples," and Paul's question implies a distinction in his mind between believing and receiving.

What the pattern shows

Putting these together, Acts does not give one fixed order. In Acts 2, 8, 9 and 19 the Spirit comes after belief or discipleship has begun. In Acts 10 the two are almost at once. So Pentecostals say that subsequence is logical and not always chronological: receiving the Spirit for power is a distinct thing, even when it happens close to conversion.

The Objection: Spirit Baptism Happens at Conversion

Many evangelicals teach that every believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit at the moment of conversion. James D. G. Dunn argued this in Baptism in the Holy Spirit (1970). Max Turner, in The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts (1996), agrees that Luke sees the Spirit as empowering for witness, but does not connect it to a separate experience. Their arguments are these.

1. First Corinthians 12:13. Paul wrote, "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit." Paul says "all" were baptized. Since Paul writes to the whole church, the baptism must be common to all believers at conversion.

2. Acts is a record of a time of change. Critics say Acts describes a unique period of transition, when Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles were brought in one by one. So Acts 8 and 19 show unusual events, not a pattern for today.

3. The danger of two classes of Christian. Critics fear that teaching a second experience makes some believers feel second-rate and others proud.

These are serious objections from believers who love the Lord and His Word. We answer them.

Our answer to the first objection

First Corinthians 12:13 is about being placed in the body of Christ by the Spirit. There the Spirit is the one who baptizes us into the body. In the Gospels and Acts 1:5, Jesus is the baptizer and the Spirit is the element in which we are baptized. These are two different pictures. The verse describes how a believer is joined to Christ's body, which every Christian has experienced. The Gospels and Acts describe an experience of empowerment given by Christ. Luke, who wrote Acts, is the one who uses the phrase "baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5; 11:16). He never uses it to describe the new birth. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 12:13 for a different reason, to show unity in the body.

We affirm what the verse says: every believer is united to Christ's body by the Spirit. But it does not cancel what Luke teaches about power for witness. The Bible has room for both.

Our answer to the second objection

It is true that Acts records a time of change. But the Pentecostal answer is that the word of Peter, "to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off," carries the promise beyond the first generation. And Paul asked the Ephesian disciples about it, which shows that he expected ordinary believers to be able to answer that question.

Further, we hold that Luke wrote his narrative to teach. Second Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is profitable for teaching. We should not turn every event into a rule, but where Luke repeats a pattern across several accounts, we believe he intends us to learn from it. Gordon Fee, himself an Assemblies of God minister and a respected scholar, has urged care about building doctrine on historical precedent alone, and his warning is worth hearing. We take it as a call to build on Luke's evident purpose and on clear promises such as Acts 2:39 and Luke 11:13, not on isolated events.

Our answer to the third objection

This is a real pastoral danger. The answer is to teach rightly, not to remove the teaching. All believers are fully saved and fully Christ's. The Lord offers an additional gift of power, received with humility and not earned. Where the experience produces pride, it has been misused.

A word about other evangelicals

R. A. Torrey, the well-known evangelist and teacher, taught that the baptism with the Spirit is separate from conversion and gives power for service, though he did not teach that tongues were necessary. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the Welsh preacher, also taught that believers could receive a fresh baptism of the Spirit with assurance and power. These men were not Pentecostals, so Pentecostals did not invent the idea of subsequence.

Empowerment, Not Status

What does the baptism do? In Acts it produces boldness and witness. After Pentecost, Peter, who had denied Jesus, stood and preached to thousands. In Acts 4:31 the believers prayed, "and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness."

Many Pentecostals also testify to a new love for prayer and the Bible. But we do not measure maturity by this experience. Maturity is seen in the fruit of the Spirit, in holiness and in faithful service. Unit 6 takes up holiness.

Believers also need to be filled again and again. Paul tells them, "be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18), and Luke shows the same disciples filled again (Acts 4:31).

Receiving the Gift

How does a believer receive? Jesus teaches us in Luke 11:13: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" We ask as children ask a Father who wants to give.

Pastors may pray with believers, and sometimes lay hands on them, as in Acts 8 and 19. But no technique forces the Spirit; Jesus baptizes. A pastor teaches the Bible, removes fear and prays with faith. Pastors must never pressure, shame or imitate.

Pastoral Application

A young woman named Lucía has been a believer for three years in your church. She is faithful and kind, and she has heard from a friend at another church that "all Christians already have everything the Spirit has to give." She says, "Pastor, I have been told that I am fine as I am. But I do not feel any power when I speak about Jesus at work. Am I missing something?"

First, the pastor assures her that she is saved and that the Holy Spirit lives in her. He does not shame her or compare her with others.

Second, he opens Acts 1:8, Luke 11:13 and Acts 2:39 with her, and explains that Jesus' own disciples were believers who needed power.

Third, he tells her honestly that other faithful Christians understand 1 Corinthians 12:13 differently. He does not insult her friend.

Fourth, he invites her to ask the Father with faith and offers to pray with her, with no pressure to produce anything. He tells her to watch for the fruit: boldness and love in witness.

Summary

Classical Pentecostals teach that baptism in the Holy Spirit is given by Jesus to believers for power to witness. It is distinct from conversion in purpose, and it is subsequent in logic and often in time. Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8 show that disciples who already belonged to Jesus were told to wait for power. Stronstad has argued that Luke presents the Spirit as the Spirit of prophecy who empowers for mission. Acts 2, 8, 9, 10 and 19 show believers receiving the Spirit, sometimes after a delay and sometimes at once. Dunn and Turner, and many evangelicals, say Spirit baptism occurs at conversion and rely on 1 Corinthians 12:13. We answer that Paul there speaks of being placed in Christ's body, while Luke speaks of Jesus baptizing for power. Torrey and Lloyd-Jones also taught a distinct experience. We never treat those without it as second-class believers.

Further Reading

• Roger Stronstad, The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke (1984).

• James D. G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (1970), an evangelical critique.

• Max Turner, The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts (1996).

• Frank Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit (2006).

• Gordon D. Fee, God's Empowering Presence (1994).

• R. A. Torrey, The Baptism with the Holy Spirit (1895), a public-domain source.

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