Five Views on Sanctification by Melvin E. Dieter

Author:Melvin E. Dieter [Dieter, Melvin E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-310-87228-3
Publisher: HarperCollins Christian Publishing
Published: 1987-12-10T16:00:00+00:00

Palma goes on to note that in 1 Corinthians 12:3 and 9, which mention the work of the Spirit, en is translated as “by”; furthermore, the rest of the chapter talks about the activity of the Spirit. “By one Spirit” is thus the preferred translation of the phrase in 1 Corinthians 12:13 and is so rendered in the King James Version, the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, the Revised Standard Version, the Living Bible, Today’s English Version, the Twentieth Century New Testament, and the translations by Phillips, Moffatt, Williams, and Beck. Clearly, it is not just Pentecostal herme-neutical bias that makes a distinction between the baptism by the Spirit, which incorporates believers into the body of Christ, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit, in which Christ is the Baptizer and where the purpose is to empower the believer through the filling of the Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; 2:4).

The president of the Western Canadian Pentecostal College, L. Thomas Holdcroft, points out that some today teach, either by default or design, that the Holy Spirit’s total role is to baptize the believer into the body of Christ. Others believe there can be fillings from time to time in the believer’s life but do not call them baptisms. Others do distinguish between the baptism by the Spirit into the body of Christ and the baptism by Christ into the Spirit for service but do not accept the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the initial outward evidence for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Holdcroft suggests further that the rejection of the Pentecostal position and the evidence of other tongues often leads to a downward trend that ends in the neglect of the Spirit’s work in the believer’s life. Thus, “quite apart from the issue of tongues, it is clearly of manifest spiritual importance to enjoy a meaningful personal baptism with [in] the Spirit.”38

Pentecostals also recognize that the Old Covenant was abolished at the cross (Eph. 2:15) and that the death of Christ initiated the New Covenant (Heb. 9:15–17). Thus, before Pentecost, Jesus brought those who believed on Him into right relationship with Himself and with God. They were already partakers of His life when He commanded them to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. Acts 1:8 emphasizes power for service, not regeneration.

We recognize also that speaking in tongues is only the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It marked the filling of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It was the convincing evidence at the house of Cornelius (“for they heard them speaking in tongues,” Acts 10:46). Though we make our case primarily from the Book of Acts, we recognize that Luke was a theologian, not just a historian. We recognize also that Paul in the Epistles deals with other people’s experiences as well as his own. Even where the Epistles give propositional truth, such as justification by faith, it is related back to a historical event in the

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