ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST—Continued “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” John 14:16. those of the Bible days. Why, then, would our Lord declare, concerning the coming of the Spirit, that the Comforter should abide with us forever? (John 14:16). Our Bible tells us that “‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”” (Heb. 18:8). Of His day, the Lord said: “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24).
The parable of the Ten Virgins reveals that oil for empty vessels is obtainable until the very hour of the Bridegroom’s return. The fact that the foolish Virgins have empty lamps is no indication that there is a lack of oil for the wise! They who “‘go to Him and buy oil’ find Him still upon the giving hand.
Consider also the spiritual interpretation of the miracle of wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. John 2:3-7.
The earlier hours of the wedding feast had seen an abundance of wine. The wine had now run low. Realizing the lack, the mother of our Lord had cried unto her Son, ‘‘They have no wine.”
According to the instructions of the Lord the empty vessels were filled with water to the brim. He then turned the water into wine.
“Wine” is a type of the Holy Spirit.
On the Day of Pentecost, when the hundred and twenty were filled with the Spirit, the superficial onlooker, beholding their joy and the spiritual hilarity, jumped to the conclusion that they were filled with new wine.
In the beginning of the days of gospel feasting (days which will terminate as did the marriage feasts of old, with the wedding itself) there was a plentitude of wine.
New bottles — born again hearts and lives — were filled with the new Pentecostal wine.
Old bottles — Pharisees and Scribes, who would have burst and been unable to contain, in their hardened state, the wine of the Spirit — were left empty and shriveling in their wizened souls.
On and after Pentecost, the wine of the Holy Spirit flowed lavishly into the brimming cups of Jew and Gentile believer. But alas, as the ages sped by, and coldness settled upon the backslidden church, Dark Ages ensued and the wine ran low. Few then possessed that which is the heritage of each child of God during the Dispensation of the Holy Ghost — the glorious fulness of the Spirit.
Then came the days of the Reformation, when hearts awakened unto the sense of their own deficiency and need. The ‘‘Mary” company, that is, the more spiritual, earnest children of the Lord, began to ery unto Him for the fulness:
“Master, they have no wine!
“Our hearts are empty! Our lives are barren! What shall we do?”
Obey the instructions of that former day: : “Fill the waterpots with water, fill them to the rim.”
When the vesselsof our hearts and lives are filled to the brim from the wells of Salvation, from which we are bidden to draw with great joy, the Master stands ready and willing to change the ‘‘weaker water experience”’ into the rich, deep, full “‘wine experience”’ of the Kingdom.
Let us be on guard against accepting without challenge the word of those who veto blandly, and without scriptural warrant, the promise of the abiding Comforter.
The church has grown cold and backslidden, having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof. But this is not sufficient authority upon which to make the statement that the days of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are passed, and such careless, unscriptural and superficial statements are unworthy of the real Bible Christian. Yet how much easier and more fashionable it has become to excuse our leanness of soul by the smooth explanation:
“Tt is not for our day. We are living in an enlightened age and have no further use for the miraculous, or of supernatural manifestations.”
God help us!
If we, living in these days of dark perplexity preceding the coming of our Lord, have no need of the outpoured Spirit of God, this old sin-cursed world has-never needed Him! These are days of coldness and of perplexity; days of atheism and unbelief; days of modernism, higher criticism and pantheism; days when the world is surging in from every side and battering the outposts of the church, and men have a name that they live but are dead.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is needed today as never before! And, thank God, from the skies comes the glorious promise:
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” Acts 2:17-18. man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost, He is therefore received at regeneration.
It is true that no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost; but it is not true that regeneration and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost are synonymous. The work of the Holy Spirit in the life begins long before the Baptism of the Spirit is received; yes, even before conversion.
“And when he is come, he will reprove the world 4 sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” John
:8. '
A. The earliest work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is that of conviction. Coming unto the sinner, He wields the Sword of the Spirit, and convicts of sin. He shows unto the sinner his lost and undone condition, reasons with him of the things of Heaven, Hell and Eternity, then shows forth the dying of Christ on Calvary to redeem him.
B. When conviction for his sin and a realization of his lost condition has gripped the heart of the sinner, the Holy Spirit points him to the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world, and tenderly woos him to the foot of the Cross.
C. There His Spirit witnesseth to the Blood; yea “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God.” Rom. 8:16.
He Who erstwhile cried, “Thou art lost!”’ now cries, “Thou art found!’’ He Who before signified unto the sinner his lost estate, now joyously declares unto his heart through the Holy Word, that Christ is his righteousness and the precious bleeding side his secure abiding place.
D. And now, walking daily with the believer, He judges the acts, thoughts and deeds; bearing faithful reproof and correction, teaching the will of God in the new and living way, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you (John 14:17).
The eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles forever settles the argument as to whether the incoming of the Spirit takes place at or after conversion to Christ.
Philip, the Evangelist, had gone down to Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. As he preached, a great revival ensued and marked power and miracles attended the Word. The following list sums up the major results of the revival, as detailed therein:
(1) The people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did (Verse 6).
(2) Unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them (Verse 7).
(3) Many that were taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed (Verse 7).
(4) And there was great joy in that city (Verse 8).
(5) They believed Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ (Verse 12).
(6) They were baptized, both men and women (Verse 12).
(7) They continued steadfastly in the faith, having “received the Word of God” (Verse 14).
The results of the Samaritan Revival listed in the foregoing manner show conclusively that the men and women who heard Philip preach were really converted, obedient Christians.
Read the evidence set forth therein once more and there will be no doubt left within your mind that the Samaritans were genuinely born again, and that the work accomplished by the Evangelist Philip would, even though he had left the City of Samaria at that moment, have compared favorably, to say the least, with the greatest campaigns of present day evangelists and teachers.
But the fact remains that though they had been converted, healed, baptized in water, and had continued under the teaching of the Word, the Holy Spirit had fallen wpon none of them (Verse 16).
Let us quote the passage fully, and then let that man who claims regeneration and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to be synonymous, answer if he can.
“Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: For as yet He was fallen upon none of them; only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.” Acts 8:14-17.
Do you see it?
Here was a revival swept city.
Those who had believed upon the Lord had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. They had been blessed and healed and filled with the joy of the Lord, but none of these comprised the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
No! Regeneration is not one and the same with the incoming of the Spirit. There is a definite, clear cut, well defined work therein embodied.
Philip was the Evangelist who brought Samaria to Christ.
Peter and John were the deeper teachers, who taught and brought them through to the rich experience of the Holy Spirit.
The incoming of the Holy Spirit, in the eighth chapter of Acts, was so definite, so visible and audible, so not to be gainsaid, that Simon the Sorcerer, who stood by and watched the marvelous outpouring of the Spirit upon the believers, offered money to the disciples beseeching that in exchange they would give unto him power to bestow such a wonderful experience. He was told to repent, because his heart was in ‘‘the gall of bitterness.”
The revival in Samaria occurred but one year after the outpouring upon the Day of Pentecost.
Therefore, considering this fact, plus the fact that the Holy Spirit was falling in like manner eight and twelve and sixteen years after Pentecost (Acts 10:44; 1 Cor. 14), it is but reasonable to conclude that that which Simon saw and heard was none other than the same experience which the thousands saw and heard (Acts 2:33) upon the Day of Pentecost —namely the speaking with other tongues.
8. The Holy Ghost, while still for today, should nevertheless be received without manifestation. Taken by faith, the incoming of the Holy Spirit is today enacted so quietly that the recipient himself may not be aware of that incoming.
To make the statement that the Spirit has changed the manner of His incoming is to make an assertion without a shred of scriptural foundation. Those who make such statements have not the flimsiest thread of Biblical authority with which to back their theories.
“T am the Lord; I change not!’”” Malachi 8:6.
If the Lord contemplated a change in the mode of bestowing His Spirit, certainly He neglected making the slightest reference to that change.
He set forth examples of the manner of conversion, and ever after we proceed upon the premise that herein lies God’s pattern for the experience of the new convert.
He set forth a group of people and incidents wherein the manner of the incoming of the Spirit is described in the Word, and this over a period of years, and among different races and nations. We therefore draw the conclusion that the Lord has herein made plain His plan and His manner of bestowing His Spirit upon His saints.
For what other reason would all of these experiences be related and so carefully set forth in detail?
For mere historic value?
To entertain the reader?
To make his mouth water with longing to have lived in that particular day?
Ridiculous!
Here is God’s New Rese pattern, the divine fashion book which sets forth the styles whereby the believer may shape his spiritual life.
A clear mirror is displayed in the Acts of the Apostles, before which the believer may dress himself. He has every right to look into that mirror and compare his own experience with that recorded in the Word of God.
If his experience does not measure up and tally with that set forth therein, he is well within his rights if, pausing to mourn his own deficiencies, he falls upon his knees in the Upper Room of heart searching and surrender and tarries until this glorious experience is his very own.
As to the teaching that the Spirit is to be received “by faith,” there is no discredit upon receiving any gift of God by faith. Naught could be more pleasing unto the Lord! If one really receives a gift by faith, he has it. But there is a vast difference between receiving a gift of God “‘by faith” and receiving that same gift ‘by theory’’!
Many who kneel and receive the laying on of hands by one who says, ‘‘Now take it by faith; and believe you have it and you have it,” rise and claim the gift by mere theory, never having really been filled with the Spirit.
As for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit without knowing it, one has but to realize that if one could receive the gift and never know it, one could lose it and never miss it!
The absurdity of such a claim needs no enlargement.
9. Many who claim to have received the Bible Baptism of the Holy Ghost are fanatical and have brought disae upon the experience. It is therefore to be shunned y all. i If this argument were applied to all our Christian walk, how little of God’s grace there would be left!
When the sinner exclaims “I once came in contact with a professing Christian who turned out to be a hypocrite; he professed to be filled with Christ’s love, yet he cheated his neighbors; he professed much in church and lived none of his professions at home; Iam therefore through with Christianity forever,” what do you think of his judgment?
With such a one you sit down and reason. You say: “Brother, the fact that one professes to live for Christ and fails, or is a charlatan, is no reason for you to lose your own soul. Fix your eyes upon the Christ. He is the great example. If every one in the whole world fails to live the life, that does not change the Bible standard or lessen the privileges of the saints.”’
Yet, ofttimes the very Christian worker who speaks so reasonably to the sinner, will himself stumble at the same stone, refusing the deeper walk in the Spirit because he has known another to have gone off the track and failed God.
The fact that Simon the Sorcerer, in the eighth chapter of Acts, was a disgrace to the gospel preached so purely by Peter and John, did not stumble others ™ or keep them from the blessing.
The fact that Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Ghost and came to a terrible end, only caused the true light to shine the brighter by comparison and brought multitudes of believers to the church.
Argument number ten was found in a book which has just come to my hand upon the subject of the Holy Spirit. It is written by one who senses and admits the need of the deeper experience but refuses to accept the gift in the Bible way.
The argument which he advanced was this:
10. The language received by the hundred and twenty on the day of Pentecost was a universal language, which miraculously could be understood by all nations. In other words, when he read “‘how hear we every man in his own tongue,”’ it seems that the hundred and twenty really spoke their own Galilean language but the Lord by a miracle caused each of the hearers to understand tt in the language of his own particular land.
Each time a writer or speaker thinks up a new argument against the self-evident explanation of Acts 2:4, one can fairly see him swell up and say:
“There now, I’ve settled that subject this time! I have explained away the miracle of Pentecost.”’
But they are no nearer the accomplishment of this than before. Take the foregoing argument, which seems quite the latest. How could the Bible interpretation mean that each spake in his own natural tongue, when in 1 Corinthians 14:2 we read that:
“He that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man under~ gtandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mys-
_teries.” And again, “Let him that speaketh in an
unknown tongue, pray that he may interpret” (Verse
13). Or yet again, “If I pray with an unknown tongue,
my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruit-
ful” (Verse 14).
Far from being a “‘universal language” it was called
an “unknown tongue.” Concerning the speaking in
tongues Paul plainly stated that in the Spirit he
speaketh ‘‘mysteries.”’
Frequently today, as on the Day of Pentecost, those
of foreign countries hear and understand in their own
language those who speak in other tongues.
The ‘other tongues,” according to the Word, may
be a known language of some existent tongue, or may
be “the tongues of angels’ (1 Corinthians 18:1). In
other words, the recipient may pray in the languages
of the nations or in the language of Heaven, address-
ing his petitions to God in the tongue which is used
by those about the Throne. His songs in the Spirit
(1 Corinthians 14:15) may blend with those of angelic
choirs.
received by measure. One may receive a portion at con-
version, and be further filled at sanctification. He may
have frequent fillings and refillings of the Spirit. There-
fore there is no definite or specific “Baptism of the
Spirit.” “Baptism” denotes a specific act at a specific
time; ‘filling’ denotes a progressive experience. One
should therefore discourage the use of the term “baptism,”
and substitute ‘“ainfilling of the Spirit.”
There are three in the Godhead: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is more than an influence; He is the third Person of the Godhead. Jesus Christ never referred to the Spirit as “‘it,” but as “He.”
He did not say, “It, when it is come, will lead you into all truth.” “It will take the things of mine and reveal them unto you.” He used the third personal pronoun, saying, “If I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”’
There is but one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism. There may be many fillings. But the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the coming upon one from on High, of that glorious Spirit of God, Who enters to abide forever. The fillings which occur thereafter constitute not a coming in from “without,” but a rising up of the Spirit from “‘within.”
When the baptized child of God kneels to pray, the Spirit takes the things of Christ and reveals them unto Him. Calvary is made real, vital, precious. The heart is blessed beyond measure. The Spirit is quickened and the joy of the Lord bubbles up within his heart and life until he is filled with spiritual ecstacy which overflows in torrents of praise and testimony.
That man has not received a fresh Baptism, but a fresh filling, and that blessing was not from without but from within. Out of his innermost being flows rivers of Living Water.
There is a definite Baptism of the Spirit, and that term is the correct one to use in describing the definite “T indeed baptize you with water . . . He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit does come at a definite specific time, for note the words of Christ Jesus:
“John truly baptized with water: but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”’
Referring back to the experience of Pentecost and the Baptism of the Spirit, the disciples always spoke of that one specific time: “giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us.” They did not refer to innumerable fillings enjoyed by the child of God at the Father’s Throne, but to that one definite time of His glorious incoming.
Oh, that we might cast aside all arguments and excuses, all reservations and quibblings and receive the Holy Ghost as they received Him of old!
How then would our churches be revolutionized!
ee then would the vats overflow with wine and oil!
How the altars would overflow with converts, and the pews with the praises of the Coming King!
The desert would blossom as the rose; pools would Spr forth in the wilderness, and floods in the dry and!