Baptism of the Holy Spirit – Part 3 – Count; Implications

Baptism of the Holy Spirit – Part 3

How Many Baptisms? 

Implications

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a baptism to be taken or given separately; and neither have the Christian Believers been instructed to have it. The Holy Spirit, through Paul very clearly writes that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5). Now, if after being saved there is the water baptism, and then, allegedly, to be effective for the Lord there is another Baptism of the Holy Spirit, then it is no longer one baptism but two, and the statement in Ephesians has become false! This means that the Holy Spirit, through whom all of the Scriptures have been given (2 Timothy 3:16), has had a lie written in God’s Word, He has contradicted Himself, He has Himself brought in an error – these are all impossibilities, even entertaining such a thought is utter foolishness.

Now, since water baptism is an established fact – that is the baptism John the Baptist gave (Mark 1:4-5, 8), the Lord Jesus took (Mark 1:9), and the Lord prescribed in His Great commission to the disciples (Matthew 28:19), and it is the one administered to all the initial Christian Believers in Acts chapter two at the birth of the Church (Acts 2:41), and is being given to all Christian Believers since then; therefore the count of one gets completed here with this water baptism. Hence teaching the doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is then deliberately introducing an error in the Word of God, turning it into a lie, and misusing God’s Word simply to support ones wrong doctrine and teaching. When it has been made very clear in Acts 11:15-18, in the name of the Lord and through His teaching it has been clearly explained that receiving the Holy Spirit and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit are one and the same thing, then where is the necessity of changing this and bringing in concocted teachings and instructions about it?

Pay heed that how cleverly and subtly Satan has disguised this wrong doctrine and teaching as a seemingly pious and reverential act, and has beguiled people into falsifying God’s Word and becoming disobedient to God. Therefore Paul through the Holy Spirit, warns about those who preach such wrong teachings, “Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words” (Colossians 2:4); “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). As we have seen and established in the discussions above, the ‘Baptism of the Holy Spirit’ mentioned in Acts 11:16 and 1 Corinthians 12:13 is the use of figurative language, employing a figure of speech, to express the accomplished act of bringing together all the actual Christian Believers into one body by the Lord i.e. the Church, through the Holy Spirit, to give all of them one and the same status and honor in the body of Christ; it is not an instruction that has been given for being followed in future.

There is only one baptism – the immersion water baptism, which every Christian Believer ought to take after coming into the Christian Faith in obedience to the commandment of the Lord – baptism does not give salvation (do not be misled by misinterpretations of Acts 2:38; see: Does Acts 2:38 teach that baptism is necessary for salvation?), baptism is for those who have received salvation to testify of their submission and obedience to the Lord (Matthew 28:19) – baptism was to be given to those who had become the disciples of the Lord, and not that by being baptized they became the disciples).

Implications

The body of Christ, His Church has come into existence; and those who are Born Again i.e. those who come into faith in the Lord Jesus through true repentance of sins, sincerely seeking the Lord’s forgiveness for them and actually fully submitting their lives to Him, automatically become members of the Body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit resides in them. If it were to be hypothesized that as per this verse, only those who additionally have received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit become the active and effective members of the Body of Christ, then it introduces a very dangerous and very un-Biblical doctrine, of there being atleast two bodies of Christ – one composed of those who have received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the other of those who have not; the former being the ones useful for the Lord, while the latter cannot be useful for the Lord. Naturally then, all the rewards and benefits for eternity will go to the former group, and the latter will have to remain empty handed for eternity. So, see for yourself how destructive, abhorrent, un-Scriptural, and un-God like are the implications of this seemingly pious but utterly deplorable contention.

In addition, this is again, another way of shying away from the responsibility of telling the people the truth and explaining to them that if they are not feeling the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in their lives, then either they are not actually saved and Born Again, and need to take a decision about it and rectify it immediately; or they are not fully submitted and obedient to the Holy Spirit and so He cannot express Himself through them, and this too needs to be properly rectified immediately.

- To Be Continued

 Next: What is the filling of the Holy Spirit? (Part 1)