The
basic cause of the entire realm of Arminian holiness error is a poor
beginning; and the further along this line one travels, the more advanced the
problems become. Capt. J.C.
Metcalfe points to the fact that "most of the frustrations, failures, and
errors which abound in 'Christendom,' can be traced to too low an estimate of
the marvel of the new birth, and the consequent insistence on another
reception of the Holy Spirit."
QUESTION
- "Is there a distinction between the reception of the Holy Spirit as a
Person, and the enduement of Pentecost?"
MRS.
J. PENN-LEWIS
- "I will say, Yes; not only from the light of Scripture, but from the
knowledge of experience, and the confirmation of facts around us on every
side. In John 20:22, we read that
the Lord Jesus said to the disciples on the first Easter Day: 'Receive ye the
Holy Ghost,' or, as in the Greek: 'Take ye the Holy Spirit.' And yet on the
Day of Pentecost there came a mighty influx of the Spirit of God into them, so
that they were 'filled' with the Holy Ghost.
"On
the Easter Day, there was an act of 'taking' the Holy Spirit, for when the
Lord Jesus said, 'Take ye,' there must have been a response and a reception.
But how different the description of the Pentecostal enduement of the
Spirit. 'He hath poured forth
this.' 'As I began to speak, the
Holy Ghost fell.' 'Ye shall
receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.'
"Until
a Christian receives the Holy Spirit, although he may be regenerated and born
of the Spirit, his Christian life is more mental than spiritual.
He may be out-and-out loyal to Christ, but it is mainly in the realm of
the will and of the mind. Then a
great change takes place when he is brought to receive the Holy Spirit, and he
becomes conscious of a life after the spirit, in more or less degree.
"But
still a greater change takes place when by the teaching of the indwelling
Spirit, the believer sees that there is still for him a fulness of the Spirit
for service, which will enable him to be an effective witness to the Risen
Lord, and equip him for aggressive warfare against the powers
of
darkness. The Baptism of the Spirit is, therefore, very clear to me, as a
greater influx of the Holy Spirit into a spirit already indwelt by Him.
The Lord Jesus said, 'I will give you another Comforter;' let me ask
you, Have you received the Holy Ghost?" (1912
Overcomer pp. 82-84.)
"The
reception of the Holy Spirit in its initial form requires certain conditions
which the believer should be able to quickly and simply fulfil.
The (1) putting away of every known sin in the life; (2) definite trust
in the power of the Blood of Christ to cleanse from all unrighteousness; (3)
obedience right up to the edge of light through the Word of God; (4) full
surrender to God as His entirely, with not one thing clung to and withheld
from Him; (5) the act of faith in which the believer, fulfilling these
conditions, takes the gift of the Holy Spirit, as simply as he received the
gift of eternal life through Christ.
"All
who receive Jesus as their Saviour, must also receive the Holy Spirit as a
Person -- the gift of Christ to make His saved ones, Christlike.
Have all who read this understood that just as you receive Jesus -- the
gift of God, so you must receive the Holy Spirit -- the gift of the Lord
Jesus. Jesus to save you -- the
Holy Spirit to make you like Jesus. Read John 20:22, and Gal. 3:13, 14, and you will see how you
are to 'receive the Holy Spirit'. "
- J. Penn-Lewis (1912 Overcomer, p. 29.)
A.
J. GORDON
- "It seems clear from Scripture that it is still the duty and privilege
of believers to receive the Holy Spirit by a conscious, definite act of
appropriating faith, just as they received Jesus Christ.
We base this conclusion on several grounds.
Presumably if the Paraclete is a person, coming down at a certain
definite time to make His abode in the Church, for guiding, teaching, and
sanctifying the Body of Christ, there is the same reason for our accepting Him
for His special ministry as for accepting the Lord Jesus for His special
ministry.
"To
say that in receiving Christ we necessarily receive in the same act the gift
of the Spirit, seems to confound what the Scriptures make distinct.
For it is as sinners that we accept Christ for our justification, but
it is as sons that we accept the Spirit for our sanctification: 'And because
ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father' (Gal. 4:6). Thus,
when Peter preached his first sermon to the multitude after the Spirit had
been given, he said: 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of
Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost' (Acts 2:38). This
passage shows that logically and chronologically the gift of the Spirit is
subsequent to repentance." (The
Ministry of the Spirit, p. 68.)
Dr.
Merrill F. Unger supplies us with a very interesting refutation of the error
set forth by these two well-known leaders.
"Our Lord, while on earth, taught that the Father in answer to
prayer would 'give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him' (Luke 11:13).
This promise, of course, was pre-Pentecost, and was spoken under the
Old Economy, when the Spirit of God came upon men, and departed according to
divine sovereign will. For a man
to ask for, much less receive, the Spirit was a staggering new thing to a Jew,
in advance of the fulfillment of Joel 2:28, 29, and there is no evidence that
any asked for the Spirit, claiming this promise.
"To
apply this teaching to the present age is erroneously to assume that the
ministry of the Holy Spirit is the same in every dispensation and to forget
Pentecost, ignoring the fact that every believer now, has the Indwelling
Spirit. It was the ascended
Christ who asked the Father for the Spirit as the Ascension Gift (John 14:16),
and no believer now, baptized and indwelt with the Spirit, as he is, need ever
ask for Him. He possesses Him,
and never because he has prayed or asked for Him, but because he has Him as a
free gift by virtue of simple faith in the crucified and risen Saviour.
"The
Lord Jesus, during His earthly life, instructed His disciples concerning an
amazing and revolutionary development that they might receive the Holy Spirit
by asking the Father (Luke 11:13). He
was, no doubt, preparing them for a more glorious unfolding of truth that He
would pray for the Comforter, who would come to abide permanently in each and
every one of them, without any asking whatever on their part (John 14:16, 17),
but in answer to simple faith in Him as the Redeemer.
"On
the evening of the day of His resurrection a further step was taken.
The Lord Jesus breathed on the disciples (John 20:22), and apparently
gave them the Holy Spirit, possibly to equip them to receive the teaching of
the forty days, and possibly in the sense in which they failed to ask for
themselves, according to the promise of Luke 11:13."
"When
the Lord Jesus 'breathed on His disciples' and said, 'Receive ye the Holy
Spirit' (John 20:22), it was a unique and special case to meet an exigency in
the transition from one dispensation to another, and in no sense formed them
into the mystical body of Christ (Acts 1:5).
It was a sovereign act of the risen Saviour upon a chosen few to
perform a special task (Acts 1:2, 3), and not upon the whole group to merge
them into a corporate body. That
could not take place until Christ had left the earth, and sent the Spirit to
regenerate, baptize, indwell, seal, and fill the whole
body of believers." (The
Baptizing Work of the Holy Spirit, pp. 45-53.)
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