By T.C. Lo (盧天賜); March 24, 2016
The Charismatic Movement
The Charismatic Movement and the Pentecostalism are loosely considered as synonyms. The neo-Pentecostal theology (Note 1) basically holds two premises:
• Not all Christians have the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
• The indispensable sign for having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the speaking in tongues, which is called glossolalia.
Consider, for example, two New Testament episodes:
• On the day of Pentecost there were genuine believers gathered who had not yet received the Holy Spirit.
• Cornelius was already a believer but only later did the Holy Spirit fall (Acts 10:44-11:18).
The Pentecostals believe that the Holy Spirit comes to someone upon his or her conversion, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit comes later as a second work of grace known to them as “Second Blessing”. By virtue of this two-step sequence, Pentecostals divide Christians into two categories:
• Those who have not received the Second Blessing.
• Those who have received the Second Blessing.
But the Bible does not make distinction between the “Haves” and the “Have-Nots”. The Bible says just the opposite:
• ALL believers in Jerusalem received the Spirit.
• ALL the believers at the household of Cornelius received the Spirit.
• Old Testament prophesied, upon ALL believers God pours out his Spirit.
• Paul wrote, “For by one Spirit we were ALL baptized into one body (1 Cor. 12:13).
Therefore, among true Christians there is no such thing as haves and have-nots. ANYONE who is a Christian is
• born of the Spirit,
• indwelt by the Spirit,
• baptized of the Holy Spirit,
• empowered by God for ministries.
I am not saying there aren’t haves and have-nots in the church:
• There are people in churches who have the Spirit. They are true believers.
• There are people in churches who do not have the Spirit even though they may have gone to church for many years. They are unconverted.
If you are Christian, then you have the Holy Spirit in God’s full redemptive work. THERE IS NO SECOND BLESSING. Do not confuse Second Blessing with Sanctification:
• Pentecostals believe Second Blessing is instantaneous—at the wave of a “magic wand”.
• Sanctification takes the whole of our lifetime—there is no magic bullet; there is no short-cut. Salvation is by grace but sanctification is by our works. There is no such thing as instantaneous sanctification.
I must point out that the “work” of sanctification is not a self-will effort. There is no substitute for making diligent use of the means of grace, of diligently pursuing the truth of God through the Word of God, because the Spirit of God works with the Word and through the Word and never against the Word. Therefore it is erroneous to say “Evangelicals center on the Bible whereas the Pentecostals center on the Spirit” as though the Bible and the Spirit are two different sources of authority. Just the opposite, we ought to come to know the Spirit through the Bible. The Bible is our source of authority. Personal experiences are not to be taken as our authority
Pentecostals seem to believe in one-size-fits-all mode of conversion
The basic pattern of the testimonies of the Pentecostals goes something like this: “I went to a meeting, and somebody laid hands on me, and I began to speak in tongues, and my life was changed—richer prayer life, experienced greater joy and more excitement in serving, and so on.” (Note 2)
I do not argue people’s experiences. On the contrary, I praise God for them. It is not their experience I challenge but their understanding of their experience, which I do challenge on the basis of the Word. It is a serious error when one turns his or her experience into the law of the Christian life which says, “It happened to me in a certain way; therefore, that’s the way it has to happen to everybody.”
• Billy Graham went to hear an evangelist after playing baseball, and he was converted and became an evangelist. He did not speak in tongue.
• Ruth Graham, who was born and raised in a Calvinistic household, could not say within five years of when she was converted. She did not speak in tongue.
• My conversion experience (Note 3) was different than others and I have never spoken in tongue.
Sometimes people who had a sudden conversion are suspicious of people who did not have a sudden conversion. Others who become aware of their faith gradually begin to suspect those who think that they can name the day and hour. The issue is not how someone becomes a Christian or when someone becomes a Christian, but whether someone does become a Christian. We all are different. Each one of us is unique. We must understand that no two of us comes into the Christian life at the same point in development.
What does it mean by “Baptism of the Spirit”?
I believe salvation is 100% God’s grace, man has absolutely nothing to contribute and absolutely nothing to boast about. Refer to Ephesians 2:1-5. The text says to the effect that we were dead in our transgressions and sins; and in such a fallen state, we will not be able to choose God. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace and grace alone—we have been saved. So the key phrase is “God through the Spirit made us alive.” After we have been made alive at God’s initiation, we become changed people—our will, our mind, our appetite are all in line with God. It is at this point, God give us the gift of Faith” and we began to exercise our renewed free-will to repent then to receive Christ. I construe this quickening process—“Making us alive spiritually by God”— as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
From the quickening of our soul all the way to the act of receiving Christ is a logical sequence, but not a time sequence. For all these steps happen at the same time. From this supernatural moment on, the life-long process of sanctification begins. So we understand today that a person does not become a Christian because he or she is baptized in water by the church. It is because he or she is already a Christian by the inner and private Baptism of the Spirit then the church administers the water baptism for him or her.
Difficulties
If the step of quickening is initiated by the sovereign God, how would the human freewill and responsibilities come into play? Clearly, the twin pillars of the Absolute sovereignty of God and relative freedom of men are indisputably co-exist. So then how can we harmonize them? This is beyond the scope of this article. But, first, we must have a proper attitude toward Bible difficulties (Note 4) before we attempt to lighten the burden.
Another question is “Why some people in Jesus’ time and in the early church were baptized by water first and later baptized by the Holy Spirit?” To answer this question, one must first understand the difference between John the Baptist’s baptism by water and Jesus’ baptism by the Spirit (Note 5). We may have future discussion on this subject.
Notes:
1. I add the prefix “neo” to refer to nowadays in order to make distinction from the Charismatic Movement at the beginning of the 20th century because it is an ever evolving movement.
2. “ACTS—St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary” by R.C. Sprout; pp.191-198.
3. Why Do I Embrace Christianity
“https://hocl.org/blogs/tincheelo/?p=427”
4. Our Attitude toward the Hard Sayings and Difficulties of the Bible “https://hocl.org/blogs/tincheelo/?p=1505”
5. 受洗的意義The Significance of Christian Baptism
“https://hocl.org/blogs/tincheelo/?p=86”
