God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes. The baptism is one of the basic parts of Christianity, and it has not changed either. People have tried to change it, but God has not changed it. In the New Testament, baptism in the Holy Spirit referred to receiving power for ministry, and it means the same thing today.
In this article, we will examine 7 arguments which claim that the baptism in the Holy Spirit has changed. We will refute each of them, proving that baptism in the Holy Spirit is the same today as it was in the Bible .
Argument 1: The baptism in the Holy Spirit means receiving the Holy Spirit the moment someone is born again.
In the New Testament, baptism in the Holy Spirit happened when a believer receives power for ministry (Acts 1:5; 1:8). People in the New Testament were baptized in the Holy Spirit after they were born again.
Everyone who is born again receives the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation, but this is different. Baptism in the Holy Spirit means being filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4). It doesn’t mean receiving the Spirit at salvation. The Bible examples of people being baptized in the Holy Spirit shows that this is a separate experience which happens after being born again.
On the Day of Pentecost, the first disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5; 2:4).
Days earlier they had believed in Jesus. They saw him resurrected, heard him explain the gospel, and knew he had conquered sin. They were born again.
Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He didn’t tell them to wait until they were born again. Nor did he tell them to wait to receive eternal life and be joined to the body of Christ. Instead he told them to wait until they received power for ministry (Acts1:8).
On the Day of Pentecost they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They didn’t hear the gospel and get saved on that day because they were already believers. Instead, they were empowered for ministry.
The very definition Jesus gave of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is receiving power for ministry. “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). The baptism in the Holy Spirit is about being filled with the Spirit (something that can only happen to Christians) and being empowered; it’s not about being born again.
Argument 2: The Day of Pentecost was unique because this was the birth of the church. Since then, every Christian is baptized in the Holy Spirit the moment he/she is born again.
This argument is refuted by the next group of people recorded in Acts to be baptized in the Holy Spirit – the Samaritans. Like the first disciples, the Samaritans also received the baptism in the Holy Spirit after they were born again.
When Philip went to Samaria, he preached the gospel to them. Many Samaritans believed the gospel and were born again (Acts 8:12). Then they were baptized in water, as a symbol of the fact they were born again. Later, Peter and John came and laid hands on them, and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Before Peter and John came to them and prayed for them, they were already born again. They had heard and believed the gospel, and they had been baptized in water as a symbol of their salvation.
Peter and John didn’t preach the gospel to them. Instead they laid hands on them so they could be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit, as a post-salvation experience, was not unique to the Day of Pentecost. Others experienced this pattern too. It was the same for the Samaritans: first they were born again, next they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Argument 3: The reason the Samaritans were baptized in the Holy Spirit after they were born again is because the gospel was going to a new people group.
Those who hold to this position argue that Jesus said the gospel would go from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth (the Gentiles). The Jews were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, so now it was the Samaritans’ turn to receive the gospel. Therefore the Holy Spirit had to be poured out on them in a unique way like it was for the first disciples. The first people out of these groups – the Jews, the Samaritans, and the Gentiles – are baptized in the Holy Spirit differently than the subsequent believers from these ethnic groups.
Even if it is accepted that the gospel had to go by stages to the Jews and then to the Samaritans, this does not prove that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was different for the first Christians of these groups than it would be for the later Christians of these groups. The Bible nowhere says that the first members of a people group will be baptized in the Holy Spirit in one way, and the subsequent members of that people group will be baptized in the Holy Spirit in another way. Arguing that just because something happened one way the first time means it must happen a different way the next time makes no sense.
The argument that only the first members of a people group are baptized in the Holy Spirit subsequent to their salvation, but all other members of that people group are baptized in the Holy Spirit at the moment of their salvation is refuted by Acts 19 (which we will look at more closely later). There, some Gentiles, who were not the first Gentiles to be saved, were baptized in the Holy Spirit after they were born again.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit for the first members of these ethnic groups laid out the normal pattern for all future people who would be saved, both in these groups and outside of them. Baptism in the Holy Spirit happens after people are born again – both in the Bible and today.
Argument 4: The reason God baptized the Samaritans in the Holy Spirit subsequent to their salvation was to prove to the Jews that the Samaritans could be saved.
According to this argument, the Jews supposedly despised the Samaritans as half-breeds (and the first Christians despised them too), so God baptized the Samaritans in the Holy Spirit after they were born again so the Jews would accept Samaritans as true believers.
This argument is refuted by the fact that the Jews already knew the Samaritans were saved before they sent Peter and John to pray for them. The Jews didn’t need any more convincing that the Samaritans were saved. In fact, the entire reason the Jewish Christians sent Peter and John down to them was because they knew they were born again.
And indeed, Peter and John didn’t go down to share the gospel with the Samaritans so they could be born again. They didn’t lay hands on them so they could be born again. People are not born again through the laying on of hands. They are born again by believing the gospel – which they had done earlier. Peter and John went to pray for the Samaritans for the express purpose of seeing them baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 8: ), not so they could be born again.
They were following normal procedure – first be born again, then be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is how it happened for the Jews on the Day of Pentecost, it’s how it happened for the Samaritans, and it’s how it is to happen for all believers throughout history.
God baptized the Samaritans in the Holy Spirit not to prove a point to the Jews, but to empower the Samaritans for Christian living, just like he does for everyone else.
The next group to be baptized in the Holy Spirit in the Bible were the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house.
Argument 5: The reason God powerfully baptized Cornelius’ household in the Holy Spirit was to prove to the Jews that the Gentiles could be saved.
We have already seen that God did not baptize the Samaritans in the Holy Spirit so that the Jews could be convinced that Samaritans could be saved. And the same is true for the Gentiles. God doesn’t not baptize people in the Holy Spirit in order to prove something to other people; he does so to empower them for ministry.
That being said, it is true that one byproduct of the Gentiles being baptized in the Holy Spirit is that some Jews were convinced that Gentiles could be saved. Even so, this is not the primary reason the Gentiles were baptized in the Holy Spirit. The main reason they were baptized in the Holy Spirit was to empower them to serve God – just like everyone else.
In addition, Peter already knew that the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house could be born again before he preached to them. That’s why he preached the gospel to them in the first place.
When Peter entered Cornelius’ house, Cornelius told him how God said that Peter “will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household” (Acts 11:14).
In the beginning of his message to Cornelius, Peter said, “I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him” (Acts 10: 34-35). The only way to be righteous and accepted by God is by believing in Jesus and being born again.
Peter preached the gospel to the Gentiles with the expectation that they be saved. And then, while Peter was preaching, they heard the gospel, believed in Jesus, were born again, and then were quickly baptized in the Holy Spirit – while Peter was still speaking.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’ house happened faster than it did in other places, but it followed the normal course of events – hear the gospel, be born again, and then be baptized in the Holy Spirit. It’s what happened with the Jews, with the Samaritans, and with Cornelius – although it happened faster with Cornelius than the others because he was baptized in the Holy Spirit almost immediately after being born again, while still hearing the gospel.
Argument 6: Cornelius and his household were baptized in the Holy Spirit the moment they were born again. This proves that God changed the way the baptism in the Holy Spirit operates, and now this happens automatically whenever someone is born again.
Wrong.
Cornelius’ household heard the gospel and believed it while Peter was still preaching. Shortly thereafter, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, during Peter’s same message.
Furthermore, years later, Gentiles at Ephesus were baptized in the Holy Spirit after they were born again (Acts 19:5-6), following the initial pattern.
Paul preached the gospel to them. Then they were baptized in water. Finally Paul laid hands on them and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
The Ephesians were baptized in the Holy Spirit after they were born again – years after the events in Cornelius’ house. This shows that this baptism in the Holy Spirit didn’t change.
In Acts, all the examples of people being baptized in the Holy Spirit happened after people were born again. This is just like Jesus taught – who said baptism in the Holy Spirit is receiving power for ministry, not being born again.
From the beginning of the events in the New Testament to the end, believers are baptized in the Holy Spirit after they are born again.
Argument 7: The epistles do not tell anyone to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is because the baptism in the Holy Spirit now happens automatically to everyone the moment they are born again.
The epistles were written during the timeline of Acts. For example, Galatians and Thessalonians were written before Acts 19. These epistles are silent about the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but this does not prove that the baptism in the Holy Spirit suddenly happens to every Christian the moment they are born again, because people were still being baptized in the Holy Spirit post-salvation in Acts 19.
Furthermore, Acts was completed after most of the epistles. If the baptism in the Holy Spirit had changed, it is more likely that Acts would have mentioned it, rather than the epistles, for it is the later document. But it doesn’t.
The reason many epistles don’t mention the baptism in the Holy Spirit is because the epistles are written to churches, and the audience is Christians. These Christians were already born again, baptized in water, and baptized in the Holy Spirit. The epistles don’t tell them to be born again, baptized in water, and baptized in the Holy Spirit because they had already done these things. The epistles don’t instruct people to do things they’ve already done.
In addition, the book of Hebrews, possibly one of the last epistles, mentions baptism in the Holy Spirit in Heb. 6:2 as one of the fundamental principles of Christianity, for it is included in the “teaching of baptisms.”
The Bible nowhere says that the baptism in the Holy Spirit would change. It nowhere says that it would become an automatic part of being born again rather than a receipt of power.
If there was a change in the baptism in the Holy Spirit, God would have told us. He did not. This means that any change in the definition of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is man-made. It is a deviation from the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
Bethel Cornerstone 