Daily Reading

QUESTION: Are men baptized in the Holy Spirit today? Do men receive the“gifts” of the Holy Spirit today? How does He work in people today?
ANSWER: It is clear from your correspondence that you believe the church of Christ, as you perceive it, is not the church of the Bible. We make this judgment based on the unscriptural use of the name “ New Apostolic Church” (Romans 16:16) in your letter, which indicates an erroneous acceptance of the idea that both the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the associated gifts are available for men today. Please carefully consider the following:
The gifts of the Holy Spirit were imparted to man in only one of two ways: through baptism of the Holy Spirit, of which there are only two recorded cases in the Bible (Acts 2:1-4; Acts 10 & 11); and through the laying on of the apostles’ hands (Acts 8:14-18), which is often confused by some with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We must be careful not to do this! The baptism of the twelve apostles, in the first case, was the fulfillment off Christ’s promise that He would send them the Holy Spirit (John 14:16; John 15:26; John 16:7). The Holy Spirit was sent (Acts 2:1-4) to teach the apostles all things, to bring all things to their remembrance (John 14:26), and to guide them into all truth (John 16:13). As a result, men inspired of God recorded all truth (the Bible) one time, for all time (2 Peter 1:3-11; 2 Timothy 3:16). Since we now have all truth, there is clearly no additional truth to be delivered. Therefore, this reason for the baptism of the Holy Spirit no longer exists!
After the falling of the Holy Spirit on the household of Cornelius, in the second case, God completed the fulfillment of the promise that He had made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3; “and in thee and thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed.” The Gentiles were to be blessed by God following this second case of Holy Spirit baptism (Acts 11:14; Acts 10:48) just as He blessed the Jews following the first case of Holy Spirit baptism. This means that God would at this time grant salvation through Christ to the Gentiles (Acts 11:18), just as He had done to the Jews on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37-47). Since Cornelius and his household were baptized in water for the remission of sins (Acts10:47-48; Acts 2:38) following Holy Spirit baptism, it is clear that the reason for Holy Spirit baptism was not to save or wash away sin! What then was the reason? The Bible is clear! In Acts 10 & 11; Acts 15:7-9, we find that this household was baptized in the Holy Spirit only as a witness to the Jews that God had also granted salvation in Christ to the Gentiles. Since the promise of God was fulfilled (filled full) at this time, this reason for Holy Spirit baptism also ceased to exist.
All purposes for Holy Spirit baptism, then, were fulfilled. Therefore, there is no reason for it today. To support this conclusion further, we note that Paul wrote in 63/65AD that, at that time, there was only one baptism (Ephesians 4:5). At the same time (65AD), Peter writes and tells us that water “baptism doth also now save us” (1 Peter 3:20-21). In 65AD then, there was only one baptism and this one baptism was water baptism! This being true, we can only conclude that this one baptism is the baptism of the great commission, which is “unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:18-20). There is no room for Holy Spirit baptism today! If there is only one, there cannot be two!
As stated above, spiritual gifts were given in one of two ways in the New Testament, either through the baptism of the Holy Spirit or through the laying on of the apostles’ hands. It has been shown above that Holy Spirit baptism does not exist today, but what about the laying on of the apostles’ hands? The question that needs to be answered is this: Can one be qualified to be an apostle today? No! To be qualified to be an apostle, one must be an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:22) as were the twelve (Acts 1:21) and the apostle Paul (Acts 26:13-18). None living today have seen the resurrected Christ!
Therefore, none today can be qualified to be an apostle. Those who claim to be apostles today do so without biblical support (Revelation 2:2). Since there is no Holy Spirit baptism today and since the last apostle died about 2000 years ago, it is evident that spiritual gifts could last only as long as the last person was alive upon whom an apostle had laid his hands. In Ephesians 4:7-14; 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, we find that spiritual gifts were for the church in it’s infancy. They were called childish things that would be put away when the church became mature.
Some would teach falsely that the mature, or more spiritual, church practices the use of gifts today. This is in direct opposition to what Paul says in verse eleven, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child: but when I became a man (mature), I put away childish things”; speaking of the miraculous gifts that, in verse eight, “shall vanish away” and, in verse nine, “shall be done away.”
The only way the church could become complete (mature) was through allscripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17), the complete (perfect) law of liberty (James 1:25). In the years following the establishment of the church, the will of God had not yet been fully revealed, written and confirmed by miracles. It was yet in part! The sole purpose of miracles was to confirm the newly revealed word (John 20:30-31). Once all scripture was given by inspiration of God, confirmed and written, it became the complete (perfect) law of liberty, able to “make the man of God perfect (complete), throughly furnished unto every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).
Since we now have “that which is perfect” (1 Corinthians 13:10); that is, the complete, mature, confirmed word of God, in which are “all things that pertain unto life and godliness,” and by which we can become complete (mature) as Christians, there remains no need for gifts to day. They have served the purpose for which they were intended!
Are miraculous gifts evident today? When one, without bias, compares what men claim to do today with the miracles performed in the Bible, it will clearly be seen that “biblical” gifts are not evident today! Where is the man today who speaks a foreign language he has not studied or learned? Where are those today who raise the dead? Where are the dead whom they have raised? Why do those who claim gifts today die? Why do they go to hospitals for treatment? Why do their families get sick and die? Where are those who walk upon water? Surely, biblical miracles are not being performed today!
Those who claim baptism of the Holy Spirit and miraculous gifts today obviously do so without biblical support. They are pretenders and false claimants of something that does not exist! Not only this, but they, knowingly or unknowingly, arrogantly place themselves on an equality with the apostles! God forbid that we should be found guilty of such!
The Holy Spirit does not work in our lives today separate and apart from the Word of God! He operates only through the instrument of the Word, which is His sword (Ephesians 6:17). Through the Word, He saves us (Titus 3:5), bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God (Romans 8:26), witnesses to us (Hebrews 10:15), strengthens us (Ephesians 3:16), sanctifies us (2 Thessalonians 2:13), and He will raise us up in the last day (Romans 8:11) at the direction of Jesus Christ (John 5:28-29). He also makes intercession for us before the throne of God (Romans 8:26-27). Since all of this occurs through the Word of God, what need is there for a “working” apart from it? Absolutely none!
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