Page 119 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT

wanted to pray for the fire of heaven to come down Gentiles (Acts 10) into one new spiritual Body (Ep.
and incinerate the Samaritans) to understand that 2:16).
these people with whom they had only a very brittle What about Acts 19:1-7?
relationship, were to enter into the same Church, have
the same Christ, the same salvation, the same God and The last occasion of speaking in tongues in the book
the same Holy Spirit. ... BY DOING THINGS IN THIS of Acts is in chapter 19. Paul found some men who had
WAY, THE HOLY SPIRIT BROUGHT DOWN THE been baptized with “John’s baptism” but did not have
BARRIERS OF BITTERNESS AND DESTROYED THE the Holy Spirit. Apparently he observed something
SEPARATING WALL RIGHT FROM THE START (Ep. about them that made him question whether they were
2:14)” (Fernand Legrand, All about Speaking in true Christians, and after preaching Jesus Christ to
Tongues, pp. 84, 85). them, Paul baptized them and then laid his hands on
In Acts 10 the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit them and they received the Holy Spirit and spoke in
The Gentiles, of course, were hated by the Jews even tongues.
more than the Samaritans. Thus God gave a special It is common in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles
demonstration in Acts 10 to the Jews that He was to treat this passage as a proof text for the doctrine that
accepting believing Gentiles on the same spiritual the baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that occurs
footing. On this occasion He gave two signs to the Jews: after salvation and is accompanied by speaking in
Peter’s triple vision and tongues speaking. In the tongues.
account in Acts 10 it is obvious that Peter was still For the following reasons we reject this
reluctant to preach the gospel to the Gentiles even interpretation:
though he had seen the sign of tongues on the day of
Pentecost and had even preached on that day that God First, it is obvious that the men had not believed the
was going to pour His Spirit upon all flesh (Acts 2:17) gospel of Jesus Christ but had only believed in a corrupted
and that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord version of John the Baptist’s message. These were not
shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). The Lord Jesus Christ had saved men who had not yet received the Holy Spirit.
commanded the Jewish disciples to preach the gospel to These were unsaved men. Though they had been
every nation (Acts 1:8) but the chief of them were still “baptized with John’s baptism,” they didn’t know John’s
hesitating in this matter because of their deep-seated message. We say this for the following reasons: For one
racism and spiritual pride. The vision that Peter saw in thing, John preached salvation through Jesus Christ
Acts 10:9-16 was given to prepare him to receive the (John 1:29), but these men did not understand this
Gentiles and to stop looking upon them as unclean and salvation, apparently knowing only the ritual of baptism
outside of God’s love, and it had its intended effect. without its significance. Further, John preached the
Because of this vision Peter was willing to go to coming of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11), but these
Cornelius and to preach the gospel to him and his men did not know about the Holy Spirit. The men in
Gentile friends. Acts 19 were emigrant Jews who had heard a semblance
of John’s message and had been baptized but had never
But it was the sign of tongues that fully broke down heard or believed the gospel of Jesus Christ and were
the barrier (Acts 10:44-46). Observe that it was the sign not in association with the believers in Ephesus.
of tongues that astonished the Jews, showing them as it
did that God had definitely and unmistakably saved Second, observe that the laying on of hands was by an
these believing Gentiles and bestowed upon them the apostle (v. 6). This pattern cannot therefore be followed
Holy Spirit. The tongues on that occasion was a sign to today, since there are no apostles. The situation in Acts
the Jews, just as Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 19 was unique. These men were Jews and they spoke in
14:20-22. tongues as a sign of the truth of Paul’s message and as
another evidence to them and to other Jews that God
When Peter recounted the experience of Cornelius to was doing this new thing.
the Jewish church at Jerusalem he said: “The episode in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7), where twelve
“Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he men suddenly speak in tongues, is along the same
said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be lines. These Jews ... lived in communities or mini-
baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God colonies, guarding their Jewish cultural identity
gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed jealously in the midst of the pagan population.
on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could However, the gospel had started to penetrate these
withstand God?” (Acts 11:16-17). pagan masses and churches were already being formed
Thus Peter associated the event in Acts 10 directly among them. Faced with their natural refusal to
with that in Acts 2. In this manner the Holy Spirit believe that they could become ONE with these
showed conclusively that He was offering the gospel to surrounding peoples, the Holy Spirit seized hold of
all people and was placing both Jews (Acts 2) and their lips and made them praise, in the pagans’

Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity 119