Category Holy Spirit

Feb 11 2012

Thinking Out loud about Pentecost


Pentecost was very familiar to every Jew in the first century. It was instituted long ago by Moses (Exodus 23:16;34:22; Leviticus 23:15-21; Numbers 28:26-31; Deuteronomy 16:) The feast day is referred to in Scripture by several names including, the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22), the Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16), the Day of First Fruits (Numbers 28:26), and the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1, 20:16; 1 Corinthians 16:8) I will not try here to talk about the purpose of the feast, nor even how Christ fulfilled what was a shadow, or type of the coming Messiah.

The Day of Pentecost and the associated events recorded in the early part of the Acts is what I want to focus on for now. This is not the first time I have written about this subject so for some of you who have been reading Gracedigest for some time will find at least some of this repetition, but that’s OK. There is so much of what in my view is mistaken teaching about the significance of Pentecost and how, or if, it effects us today, I think it is worthwhile to say it once more.

THE PROMISES OF PENTECOST

Actually there are two distinct promises that are very important to anyone who wants to know the “why” of Pentecost. The first is the promise Peter mentioned in his sermon in Acts 2 following the tongues of fire, the rushing sound like wind, and many hearing the gospel in their own native tongue in a miraculous way.

1. This is a Promise made by God the Father Fulfilled

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

17“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

This was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel that God would pour out his Spirit on everyone (without regard to ethnicity or gender…it is quite clear) and the result would be “that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”. (sinner’s prayer may be Biblical after all)

God made a promise many years before by the mouth of Joel and the promise was kept on the Day of Pentecost in the first century. Nothing could be more clear.

2. This is a Promise made by God the Son Fulfilled.

After giving the disciples their marching orders (Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 24:44-49) and promising them Holy Spirit power he instructed them to go to Jerusalem and wait.

“And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:49

It’s hard to mistake this if you only read the text. Jesus said He was sending the promise of the Father and the result would be “power from on high” Don’t miss this simple truth. The result of the promise given by Joel and fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost would be power for witness so that everyone who calls upon the Lord will be saved. The result of the promise of Jesus that He was sending Holy Spirit power on them for gospel witness is on display for all to see in the following chapters of the Acts and the other books of the New Testament. The people of God preached the good news about Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and thousands were saved!

We are always off track when we try to make the Bible say what we want it to say. It is best to read it and believe what it actually says. Here there can be little doubt about the principal purpose of Pentecost, Holy Spirit power for gospel witness. Joel said it, Peter said it, and Jesus said it!

THE CHURCH STARTED AT PENTECOST DIDN’T IT?

NO! The church, the One body of Christ comprised of all the saved, did not start at Pentecost. Over 30 years ago it dawned on me that I had been taught something that wasn’t true. I was shocked when I started to try to prove up the birth of the church at Pentecost. It was not there in my Bible! What I did find is what I just covered in the first part of this post. If anyone can show me the teaching that confirms the church had it’s beginning at Pentecost I’ll quickly admit I’m wrong.

One of the first clues is right after the grand story of Peter’s great sermon after which those who received his word were baptized, the number was about 3,000! That is quite a response to a gospel sermon! In Acts 2:49 “and there were added that day about three thousand souls”.

Added? It’s the same word used later in Acts, 2:47 “And the Lord added to their number…”, 5:14  “..believers were added to the Lord”, and 11:24 “a great many people were added to the Lord”. The usual meaning of the word “added” is that some number is combined with a previous number. Or, as the Free Dictionary puts it.

To combine (a column of figures, for example) to form a sum. 2. To join or unite so as to increase in size, quantity, quality, or scope: added 12 inches to the deck…

You only add to what already exists! Elementary school children understand this concept. This is the first reason the church did not start at Pentecost. Another problem for the mistaken theory concerns the 120 who waited together for the promise of Jesus to be fulfilled. What about them?

Now some will argue that they and the disciples were indwelt by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost so they, along with the others were all included in the infant body, the church. There is a giant problem with that approach. It just isn’t true. Again, guide me to the passage that teaches that idea.

BELIEVERS FIRST INDWELT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT ON THE DAY OF JESUS RESURRECTION

Consider these passages. Jesus is preparing his disciples for his ensuing death and final departure from earth.

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39)

The passage is very specific about what Jesus was talking about, “Now this he said about the Spirit, who those who believed in him were to receive…”. OK, got it. Those who believe upon Jesus are to receive the Holy Spirit. But, not yet! Why? “Because Jesus was not yet glorified“.

Later in John Jesus again taught about the Holy Spirit but even more specifically.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18)

Those two small words have important meaning. “You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you”. This change from “with” to “in” was tied to Jesus being glorified as mentioned above. Jesus’ glorification began with his arrest and death, burial, and would be final when he was raised from the dead.  (John 12:23, John 13:31)

On the very day of his resurrection Jesus appeared to the disciples in a locked room where they were hiding out for fear of the Jews. He said to them “Peace be with you” and he showed them his hands and feet, there was absolutely no doubt Jesus had been raised from the dead. He continued speaking to them saying,

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

In my best judgement I can’t think of one tiny reason why I should believe those disciples did not receive the Spirit just as Jesus commanded. I have been teaching this for decades and some folks believe it just as I do once they have seen it, others insist the disciples only received the Spirit for a short time because it doesn’t fit the template they have been taught. But it is so plain that its hard to ignore.

The Disciples Fully Believe When they See the Resurrected, Glorified Jesus!

You might ask “How do you know Royce?”. Let’s look at one disciple, the impulsive, sometimes on and sometimes off Peter. Only a few nights ago Peter was swearing he didn’t have anything to do with Jesus. Just as Jesus said he would Peter denied the Lord three times that night. Now a few weeks later Peter is as bold as they get. He not only preaches the first sermon after the resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the promised power of the Holy Spirit, he accuses the Jews of murder, the same Jews by the way he was hiding from when Jesus appeared in the locked room on the day he was raised from the dead. The difference was the resurrection of Jesus, Peter had no doubt now and in the face of threats he continued to preach boldly with power the resurrection of Jesus.

Not only from this observation but from Peter’s own words we can learn when the disciples were first indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Peter has seen the vision of a sheet let down and understood that God intends to save Gentiles as well as Jews. Cornelius has sent for Peter, he has gone and preached to him and his household (family and servants..), they believed as Peter preached, the Holy Spirit was given to them and they were baptized by Peter’s consent. Peter, after seeing they had received the Holy Spirit said, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have“?

If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:17)

Oh my, Peter said these Gentiles, just like “us” received the gift of the Spirit when “when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ“. This is in your Bible too! I didn’t make it up.

There was quite a stir because God was saving Gentiles so Peter reported to the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. He was very specific.

“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If then God gave them the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:15-17)

Paul agrees. In Ephesians 1:13 he says “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Finally, the 120 souls who waited in an upper room for the promise of power from on high for witness to Jesus were not waiting to be indwelt, they had already received the indwelling of the Spirit, they were there to receive the power to share the good news about Jesus as he promised.

Royce Ogle

May 10 2010

Indwelt and Empowered by the Holy Spirit


Among our churches of Christ there is lively, and decades old debate, concerning the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Some deny He is a person, others deny that He indwells Christians, and still others disagree about the extent of His work in the life of a modern day believer.

This post is not an attempt to fix any of this, but is an attempt to encourage us to carefully look at what the Bible actually says. There are some statements by Peter in the book of Acts that raise some questions that we should at least acknowledge and I believe they beg for an answer.

The Holy Spirit indwells Christians

For those of us who do believe that the Holy Spirit indwells believers today there is broad agreement that He comes to be “in” us at the point of our conversion. Jesus said of Him,

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers ofliving water.'” Now this he said about the Spirit,whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39)

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16,17)

Jesus gives this comforting promise of the Spirit’s presence “in” His followers and then even indicates that the Holy Spirit is actually Him indwelling them. He continues by saying to them,

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18)

Paul confirms this idea in Colossians 1:27 using the phrase “Christ in you”. There are many other passages that make it very clear that the Holy Spirit resides “in” believers.

Does the Holy Spirit come to the believer when he is baptized?

Of those in churches of Christ who believe in the indwelling of the Spirit, the answer to this question is a resounding YES! Peter’s words in Acts 2 were,

“Repent and be baptized every one of youin the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:38,39)

It is this passage that ties the reception of the Holy Spirit to the point of one’s baptism. How could it be more clear? It is after all Peter’s own words! But, there is a problem, this is not all Peter had to say on the subject.

Peter has more to say…

Peter has preached the good news to a Gentile audience in obedience to God’s command and they believed, received the Holy Spirit and were then baptized. (Acts 10) The order was not what we would expect if we take the Acts 2 verses at face value. Peter said of those new believers,

“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.” (Acts 10:47,48b)

“As we have…”? That is what he asked. In the next chapter Peter visits the Jewish brothers in Jerusalem and defends baptizing Gentiles. I encourage you to read the whole chapter but this part of Peter’s defense is striking.

“If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:17)

Now according to Peter’s words the receiving of the Holy Spirit is tied to “believing”, not baptism. In fact, just before the Gentiles received the gift of the Holy Spirit when they believed, and before they were baptized Peter made this statement.

“And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he (Jesus) is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:42,43)

How do we reconcile Peter’s clear statements? He received the Holy Spirit when he believed just as the Gentiles did when they believed. How does this mesh with the traditional teaching of coc brothers about when one receives the Holy Spirit, and further at what point is one saved?

The question then is when did Peter believe?

  • Did Peter believe at the moment he was baptized? This would have to be the correct answer if we believe it is only at the moment of immersion that the Holy Spirit is given. But, this is not a logical conclusion. The only reason a person would want to be baptized is because they already believe, not to believe. We are right I believe to assume Peter was baptized but we have no record of it.
  • Did Peter believe when he saw the resurrected Christ? I believe it was only after Peter and the others saw for themselves that Jesus had been raised from the dead that they truly put their trust in him. After they witnessed the risen Lord there was never again any of the doubting and fear that characterized them up to that point.

In the passages in John chapters 7 and 14 Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would come to be “in” believers when he was “glorified” (John 7:39) later in John’s gospel we can read when that event took place. Jesus had been crucified, he has been buried, and now he is clearly alive. On the evening of the day he rose from the dead he appeared to the disciples in a room with the doors closed. The disciples certainly were expressing unbelief and fear. Here is John’s account.

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:19-22)

It was when they saw his hands and his side that their fears vanished and their faith was firm. Thomas was absent at the event and only after he too had seen the evidence did he believe.

I can’t think of any reason, any evidence from the scriptures, that should make me doubt that the disciples received the Holy Spirit on that exact moment. Was Jesus speaking in vain? Hardly! Peter’s defense to the elders about baptizing the Gentiles was that they had received the Spirit just as he did when he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

What about Pentecost?

Again I’ll use Jesus and Peter as expert witnesses. Jesus said of Pentecost, in fact his very last words before his ascension,

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Pentecost was not about people being first indwelt by the Spirit but rather it was about Holy Spirit empowered witness. (Luke 24:49) Peter said this in his address right after this power had fallen upon them.

“But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,and your sons andyour daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ (Acts 2:16-21)

It takes this sort of Holy Spirit power and authority to snatch men and women from the clutches of the evil one. Remember when Jesus gave the marching orders to the disciples? “I have all power (authority) in heaven and in earth, therefore go….” (Matthew 28:18)  The purpose was to receive Holy Spirit power. (Luke 24:49)

This Pentecost power was not a one time event never to be repeated. We can read later in the Acts that they were again and again filled with the Spirit for power to witness to the claims of Jesus.

You and I are too commanded to be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)  We too need his power to present the claims of Christ to hopeless and helpless sinners. If we humans know how to give good things to our children how much more does our heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit’s power for witness to those who ask and keep on asking him? In Acts 4:31 when the Apostles needed a fresh anointing of Holy Spirit power they prayed for it just like they did earlier in Acts.

God’s work must be done by God’s power. That is Jesus’ plan, not mine. Every person who puts his trust in Jesus is indwelt and those who want to win the lost to Christ need the filling of Spirit as well.

What about water baptism?

The Bible pattern for water baptism is perhaps best illustrated by the man from Ethiopia. After Phillip had preached Christ to him he requested to be baptized. Phillip replied “If you believe with all your heart you may…” Water baptism in the Bible is always believers baptism and is almost always immediately after one has professed faith in Christ. The act alone neither saves or imparts the Holy Spirit but is the God designed gospel symbol of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It is one moment in the life of a person when they are completely surrendered to another, “self” is not in control. Baptism in the public identification of a person with Christ and Christ’s people.

I can’t find any account in the Bible of Christians who rejected baptism. Rather they at once hurried to be immersed. They knew it was their coming out for Christ, that it would separate them from the word at large and set them apart them as God’s own.

There is no Bible precedent that I can find for baptizing anyone who did not in public,  acknowledge his faith in Jesus Christ. Sinners are not candidates for baptism, believers are. And, the clear teaching is that those who trust Christ are saved. This view agrees with Peter’s statements although it goes against our traditional view.

I repeat often that I might be wrong, I am not infallible. But, I might be right too. What do you think?

Agape’,

Royce


Dec 28 2009

The Holy Spirit. When, Who, How?


“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:8-10)

Here Paul is contrasting the believer and the unbeliever. The terminology is flesh vs. Spirit, a reoccurring theme in the New Testament.  It is unmistakable, if you do not have the Spirit of God you are not His. If you do have the Spirit of God you have life. There is no life (eternal) without the Spirit of God. Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 2 Timothy 1:14 all teach the same truth that the Holy Spirit dwells in every believer. How anyone can deny this plain truth is difficult for me to understand.

The question then arises, “When does the Holy Spirit come to dwell in a believer”? Or, “When did the Holy Spirit first indwell believers?” Following are some passages that should point us in the right direction.

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39)

This is a very important text concerning this topic. These truths are readily evident.

  1. The Holy Spirit will be given to those who believe in or upon the Lord Jesus Christ. “Whoever believes in me…” and “those who believed in me were to receive...”
  2. The coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell believers was tied to the glorification of Jesus. “The Spirit had not been given…”, “Jesus was not yet glorified“.

Yet another important passage is also found in John’s gospel.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18)

That the Holy Spirit would come to be “in” the believer is without question. He who is the “Spirit of Truth” (“I am the way, the Truth…), “will be in you“, “I will come to you“. So Christ himself would live in the believer by means of the Holy Spirit. (“Christ in you the hope of glory”)

The “If” is clearly answered. What about the “When”? Jesus himself said it would not happen until he was glorified (John 7:39). So we ask ourselves “When was Jesus glorified?”. The answer is when He died and was raised from the dead.  (John 12:23, John 13:31)

Jesus’ glorified body was one that was recognizable, it bore the scars of his crucifixion, he ate and drank with his followers, walked with them, and yet could just appear in a closed room at will. He came out of the grave in the same glorified body in which he would ascend to the Father and now sits at this right hand. It is a different body, but a body. And, we who trust him are promised a body like his.

Not many days after his resurrection from the dead John recorded this event.

“Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:21-22)

I can find no reason to believe the disciples did not receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at that moment. If the one who spoke things into existence said “Receive the Holy Spirit” how can I doubt it happened?

Notice also that it was only after the Lord had risen from the dead that the disciples really believed and understood that He was indeed Lord. Peter, who was fearful and denied the Lord was never the same, becoming a fearless preacher of the good news about Jesus and His resurrection.

So, against conventional wisdom and common teaching, I believe those who believed on Jesus were first indwelt after his resurrection and before Pentecost. There is a difference between the Holy Spirit being “in” and “upon” a believer. Jesus said of the events leading up to, and including Pentecost and beyond, these words.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

The purpose of Pentecost was Holy Spirit power for witness, not so believes could be indwelt. He said “You will receive POWER”, that the Holy Spirit would “come upon” them, and they “Will be my witnesses…”. At Pentecost they were “filled” with the Spirit and then were filled again and again after that. In Ephesians, believers, those already indwelt by the Spirit, are commanded to be “filled” with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

Peter himself gives clear testimony as to when he first received the Holy Spirit. First in Acts 11 when he made his defense of baptizing Gentiles he declared:

If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:17)

Peter says here that he received the gift of the Holy Spirit, not at Pentecost, not when he was baptized, but when he believed.

Then when Peter was opposing the believing Pharisees who were demanding that Gentile believers be circumcised he said to the elders of the church in Jerusalem these words:

“And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.” (Acts 15:8,9)

Peter was very, very clear. He gave the Gentile believers the Holy Spirit “just as he did to us“, “He made no distinction between us and them“, he treated them all exactly alike, He “cleansed their hearts by faith” and they like Peter received the Holy Spirit when they believed.

I know this goes against the grain of common teaching but it is what it is and I didn’t make it up. Peter should be as good an authority on the matter as you could want.

In some sense the people of God, from time to time had the presence  of God “in them” for purposes of revelation or some other task. Peter gives us  the record of one of those instances in 1 Peter 1 where he recorded:

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.  It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10-12)

It was the “Spirit of Christ” in them who was unfolding revelation about the wonderful grace that would be ours.

The conclusion of this post is that the promised Holy Spirit lives in every person who puts their trust in Jesus and is ready to empower us for witness when we meet the conditions of complete surrender to His will to reach the lost and are willing to wait upon Him in prayer.

“the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (Colossians 1:26-28)

for Jesus,

Royce

May 30 2009

Power from on High, Pentecost.


“Almost 2,000 years ago, following the atoning sacrifice made by Jesus Christ and his exaltation in heaven, God poured out his Spirit on Jesus’ followers on the earth. Those events marked the beginning of the Last Days — a time of salvation and messianic blessings to believers in all nations. This era, foretold by the prophets, will continue until Jesus returns to judge the world and to bring about the consummation of God’s everlasting Kingdom. During the interim, Jesus is present with his people through the Holy Spirit – and he immerses them in his personal Presence and power.”

These are the words of my friend Edward Fudge. There are many, many questions about the work of the Holy Spirit in today’s world and about what really happend on that first Pentecost after the birth of Jesus and the story of Acts 2 in the Bible.

Brother Fudge has written an excellent, outlined, study of this subject and you can read it here on his website. “

POWER FROM ON HIGH

The baptism of the Holy Spirit

I have long held these exact views and have written extensively about them but not nearly as well as Edward Fudge. Our people need to know these great Bible truths today.

Please leave a comment after reading.

For truth,
Royce