Baptism with the Holy Spirit (or Baptism in the Holy Spirit) in Christian theology is a term describing baptism (i.e. washing, immersion, or plunge) in or with the Spirit of God.[1][2] While the phrase "baptism with the Holy Spirit" is found in the New Testament and all Christian traditions accept it as a theological concept, each has interpreted it in a way consistent with their own beliefs on ecclesiology and Christian initiation.[3] One view holds that the term refers only to the "once-for-all" event for the whole Church described in the second chapter of the Book of Acts[4] while another view holds that the term also refers to an experience of the individual believer distinct from salvation and initiation into the Church.[5]
Before the emergence of the holiness movement in the mid 19th century and Pentecostalism in the early 20th century, most denominations believed that Christians received the baptism with the Holy Spirit either upon conversion and regeneration[4] or through rites of Christian initiation. Since the growth and spread of Pentecostal and charismatic churches, however, the belief that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is an experience distinct from regeneration has come into increasing prominence.[6]
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In the Gospels, the term was first used by John the Baptist who said in reference to Jesus, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire".[7] According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus described the baptism with the Holy Spirit as "the promise of the Father".[8] In Acts, it is described as "a gift" from God [9][10] It is also described in various places as the Spirit "falling upon", "coming upon", or being "poured out upon" believers.[11]
In Acts, Jesus stated he would send the Holy Spirit so that his followers would "receive power" to be "witnesses for [him]".[12] The New Testament describes this occurring in several ways: By giving them supernatural courage[13][14] by giving them supernatural understanding,[15] and by giving them various "gifts" for building each other up, from administrative ability to speaking in unknown languages.[16][17]
Historically, Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants agreed that the Church as a whole experienced baptism with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Thus any Christian being made a member of the Church also received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and various Protestant denominations have had different ways of defining who is and who is not a "full" member of the Church and thus of who has and has not received the Holy Spirit. However, despite differences in defining who is and who is not a Christian, these all agreed that all Christians have received baptism in the Holy Spirit.[4] They agreed that the marvelous or demonstrable outpourings of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, Acts 8, and Acts 10 are not paradigms to be repeated, but special events to signify that the Gospel was crossing the special boundaries that Jesus described in Acts 1:8 (Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth). Historically these three traditions agreed that extending the borders of the Church to Samaritans (half-Jews; Acts 8) and then to Gentiles (Acts 10) were watershed moments of redemptive history which warranted the irrefutable outpouring of the Holy Spirit, citing, for example, Acts 10:45-48:[4]
And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 'Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?' And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
In the early Church, the practice of laying hands on the newly baptized to impart the gift of the Holy Spirit was the origin of the sacrament of confirmation. In the Eastern church, confirmation continued to be celebrated immediately after water baptism. The two rites were separated in the Western church.[18]
According to Pentecostal historian H. Vinson Synan, "the basic premise of Pentecostalism, that one may receive later effusions of the Spirit after initiation/conversion, can be clearly traced in Christian history to the beginnings of the rite of confirmation in the Western churches".[19] Synan further traces the influence of Catholic and Anglican mystical traditions on John Wesley's doctrine of Christian perfection, from which Pentecostal beliefs on Spirit baptism developed. John Fletcher, Wesley's designated successor, argued that Christian perfection or the second blessing, as it was also called, was a "baptism in the Holy Spirit" as well as a cleansing experience.[20] His Checks to Antinomianism later became a standard for Pentecostally-inclined holiness teachers. On the subject, Fletcher wrote:
Lastly: if we will attain the full power of godliness, and be peaceable as the Prince of Peace, and merciful as our heavenly Father, let us go on to the perfection and glory of Christianity; let us enter the full dispensation of the Spirit. Till we live in the pentecostal glory of the Church: till we are baptized with the Holy Ghost: till the Spirit of burning and the fire of Divine love have melted us down, and we have been truly cast into the softest mould of the Gospel: till we can say with St. Paul, "We have received the Spirit of love, of power, and of a sound mind;" till then we shall be carnal rather than spiritual believers.[21]
After his conversion in 1821, Presbyterian minister and revivalist Charles Grandison Finney experienced what he called "baptism in the Holy Spirit" accompanied by "unutterable gushings" of praise.[22] Finney identified Spirit baptism as a means to enter into sanctification and proposed the possibility of receiving subsequent receptions of the Holy Spirit for believers.
Within the holiness movement, which began in the Methodist Church but soon spread to many denominations, baptism in the Holy Spirit was generally understood to be synonymous with second blessing sanctification. In the early 1890s, R.C. Horner, a Canadian holiness evangelist introduced an important theological distinction between the two terms. He argued in his books Pentecost (1891) and Bible Doctrines (1909) that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was not included in sanctification but was actually a third work of grace subsequent to salvation and sanctification which empowered the believer for service.[23] Charles Fox Parham would build on this doctrinal foundation when he identified speaking in tongues as the Bible evidence of Spirit baptism.[24]
The diverse views on Spirit-baptism held among Christian traditions can be categorized into three main groups. These are baptism with the Spirit as sacramental initiation (Orthodox and Catholic churches), regeneration (traditional Protestantism), and empowerment for witness and vocation (Pentecostals and charismatics).[25]
Orthodox Churches believe that baptism in the Holy Spirit is conferred with water baptism. The individual is anointed with oil (chrism) immediately after baptism. According to Cyril of Jerusalem:
This holy ointment is no more simple ointment, nor (so to say) common, after the invocation, but the gift of Christ; and by the presence of His Godhead, it causes in us the Holy Ghost. It is symbolically applied to thy forehead and thy other senses and while thy body is anointed with visible ointment, thy soul is sanctified by the Holy and life-giving Spirit.[26]
The Catholic Church teaches that baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist—the sacraments of Christian initiation—lay the foundations of the Christian life.[27] The Christian life is based on baptism. It is "the gateway to life in the Spirit" and "signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit".[28] The post-baptismal anointing (Chrismation in the Eastern churches) signifies the gift of the Holy Spirit and announces a second anointing to be conferred later in confirmation that completes the baptismal anointing.[29]
Confirmation, then, is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace.[30] When confirmed, Catholics receive the "special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost".[31] For the confirmand, it:
Protestants, prior to Wesley and Fletcher, have believed that the gift of the Holy Spirit is given at the moment of regeneration, which, in Protestant terms, is not predicated on water baptism or membership in the Visible church. Rather all who have faith in Jesus Christ are members of the Invisible church and as such are given the Holy Spirit.[4]
Within the Wesleyan tradition, baptism with the Holy Spirit has often been linked to a sanctified life. The United Methodist Church has a sacramental view of baptism, believing that it is by both water and Spirit and "involves dying to sin, newness of life, union with Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit, and incorporation into Christ's church". It also believes that baptism is the "doorway to the sanctified life" defined as "a gift of the gracious presence of the Holy Spirit, a yielding to the Spirit's power, a deepening of our love for God and neighbor".[33]
The churches in the holiness movement emphasize entire sanctification as a definite experience linked to Spirit baptism. According to the Articles of Faith of the Church of the Nazarene, sanctification is a work of God after regeneration "which transforms believers into the likeness of Christ" and is made possible by "initial sanctification" (which is regeneration and simultaneous with justification), entire sanctification, and "the continued perfecting work of the Holy Spirit culminating in glorification". Entire sanctification (as opposed to initial sanctification) is an act of God in which a believer is made free from original sin and able to devote him or herself entirely to God:
It is wrought by the baptism with or infilling of the Holy Spirit, and comprehends in one experience the cleansing of the heart from sin and the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, empowering the believer for life and service.[34]
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the "Baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost" refers to the experience of one who undergoes the ordinance of confirmation with the laying on of hands to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. It follows baptism in water and is essential to salvation.[35] The gift of the Holy Ghost is the privilege of receiving inspiration, divine manifestations, direction, spiritual gifts, and other blessings from the Holy Spirit.[36] It begins the lifetime process of sanctification.[37]
Pentecostal and charismatic Christians believe that all Christians have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.[38] However, they believe that the experience commonly called "baptism in the Holy Spirit" is a separate and distinct experience occurring sometime after regeneration. It is an empowering experience, equipping Spirit-filled believers for witness and ministry.[11] Extending from this is the belief that all the spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament are to be sought and exercised to build up the Church.[6] It is Spirit baptism that initiates the believer in the use of the spiritual gifts.
Pentecostals and charismatics look to the Bible to support their doctrinal position. According to their biblical interpretation, the Gospel of John 20:22 shows that the disciples of Jesus were already born again before the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost. They then cite biblical examples in the Book of Acts 2, 8, 10, and 19 to show that it was common in the New Testament for Spirit baptism to occur after conversion.[39] In following the biblical pattern, they argue, Christians today should also ask Jesus for this baptism which results in greater power for ministry and witness. There are differences between Pentecostal and charismatic Christians' understanding of Spirit baptism.
Classical Pentecostalism includes any denomination or group which has origins in the Pentecostal revival that began in 1901 and is most identified with the Azusa Street Mission of Los Angeles. Some Pentecostal denominations teach that speaking in tongues (glossolalia) will always follow Spirit baptism; though this is by no means universally believed or practiced among Pentecostals.[40]
On the subject of Spirit baptism, Donald Gee wrote:
Therein lies the dynamic source of the whole subject. The early believers had all received the gift of the Holy Ghost as promised by our Lord and by Peter on the Day of Pentecost. With them it was not mere intellectual assent to some article in a creed defining an orthodox doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit. Neither were they satisfied to acquiescence to a vague idea that in some indefinite manner the Holy Spirit had been imparted to them upon conversion. They gladly and thankfully recognized His gracious operations in their regeneration and sanctification, but their own personal reception of the Holy Spirit was an intensely vivid experience. They knew when He came, where He came, and how he came. Nothing reveals this more than Paul's searching question to certain disciples whom he immediately sensed to be spiritually lacking in a vital part of their Christian inheritance—'Have ye received the Holy Ghost?' (Acts 19:2). The challenge was to experience, not to doctrine. How significant! An Ephesian 'Pentecost' speedily rectified their shortcoming, and it was an experience as vivid as all the rest had received—'They spake with tongues and prophesied.'[41]
In Pentecostal experience, Spirit baptism can be quite dramatic, as shown by William Durham's account of his Spirit baptism:
I was overcome by the mighty fulness of power and went down under it. For three hours He wrought wonderfully in me. My body was worked in sections, a section at a time. And even the skin on my face was jerked and shaken, and finally I felt my lower jaw begin to quiver in a strange way. This continued for some little time, when finally my throat began to enlarge and I felt my vocal organs being, as it were, drawn into a different shape. O how strange and wonderful it was! and how blessed it was to be thus in the hands of God. And last of all I felt my tongue begin to move and my lips to produce strange sounds which did not originate in my mind.[42]
In some accounts of Spirit baptism, Pentecostals report receiving visions, such as the account of Lucy Leatherman, an Azusa Street participant:
While seeking for the Baptism with the Holy Ghost in Los Angeles, after Sister Ferrell [sic] laid hands on me I praised and praised God and saw my Savior in the heavens. And as I praised, I came closer and closer and I was so small. By and by I swept into the wound in His side, and He was not only in me but I in Him, and there I found that rest that passeth all understanding, and He said to me, you are in the bosom of the Father. He said I was clothed upon and in the secret place of the Most High. But I said, Father, I want the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the heavens opened and I was overshadowed, and such power came upon me and went through me. He said, Praise Me, and when I did, angels came and ministered unto me. I was passive in His hands working on my vocal cords, and I realized they were loosing me. I began to praise Him in an unknown language.[43]
Charismatics trace their historical origins to the charismatic movement of the 1960s and 1970s. They are distinguished from Pentecostals because they tend to allow for differing viewpoints on whether Spirit baptism is subsequent to conversion and whether tongues is always a sign of receiving the baptism.[6] Some charismatics remain within existing Protestant and Catholic churches while others have started new denominations.
The Catholic Charismatic Renewal[44] believes that there is a further experience of empowerment with the Holy Spirit. As stated by Rev. Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, "baptism in the Spirit is not a sacrament, but it is related to a sacrament…to the sacraments of Christian initiation. The baptism in the Spirit makes real and in a way renews Christian initiation".[45] Emphasis of the event is on the release of existing spiritual gifts already given to the individual through baptism in water and confirmation.
During the 1980s, another renewal movement emerged called the "Third Wave of the Holy Spirit" (the first wave was Pentecostalism and the second wave was the charismatic movement). Third wave charismatics stress that the preaching of the gospel, following the New Testament pattern, should be accompanied by "signs, wonders, and miracles". They believe that all Christians are baptized with the Holy Spirit at conversion, and prefer to call subsequent experiences as "filling" with the Holy Spirit.[6] John Wimber and the Vineyard churches are most prominently associated with this label.