BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

1. Introduction. This phrase is sometimes used today in the sense of a “second blessing,” an infilling of the Holy Spirit subsequent to, and quite distinct from, conversion, and usually regarded as a deeper spiritual experience, ushered in by spiritual phenomena, such as glossolalia. Without discussing the rightness or wrongness of the view in question, it would seem to be more proper to use the Biblical phrase, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” to describe such an experience or state (Acts 2:4, etc). In Biblical usage “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is more general and somehow different, as will be seen from the examination of the texts.

2. Origins of the phrase. These are prob. to be sought first in the saying of John the Baptist to his disciples, recorded in Luke 3:16 and parallels. John strongly contrasts his own preparatory rite of water baptism, a mere token of repentance, with the Spirit-baptism that will be given by the “mightier one” who is to succeed him. Water baptism was indeed long familiar to first-cent. Jews, from the practice of baptizing proselytes. The Qumran Community shows how widespread and manifold were ritual lustrations; and later heretical sects like the Mandaeans, centering around the Jordan Valley, seem to have continued many of these practices well into Christian days. Even on the fringes of the church, bare “water baptism” persisted until the days of Paul, as can be seen from the spiritless disciples at Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7). So unusual did Paul consider their case that he gave them re-baptism (a practice never recorded elsewhere in the NT), this time in the name of Jesus. He apparently did not consider them to have been Christians before; the manifestation of tongues and prophecy that follows would seem to have been the beginning of their Christian faith, not a later and higher stage.

Some critics have rejected this whole saying of John, as being a “back-projection” of the phenomena of Pentecost, which included “fire” as well as “Spirit” (Acts 2:3, 4); but this is impossible, since the saying is reported in all four gospels.

Since the baptism of Christ is the pattern of all Christian baptism, it is not surprising that Luke 3:21, 22 shows the “baptism of the Spirit” being fulfilled (doubtless in a very special sense) in the case of Jesus Himself, after His water baptism at the hands of John. This, coming after John’s testimony, was powerful confirmation of His words, and must have made a deep impression on His disciples.

If the first “root” is to be seen in the preaching of John the Baptist, and the second in the experience of Jesus at or after His baptism, then the third is in the express teaching of Jesus Himself. In John 3:5 Christ is recorded having said to Nicodemus “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” There has been much discussion of this v., for which see the standard commentaries; but the reference seems to be to Christian baptism in its two aspects of outward sign and experience signified. Nor does the Gr. text seem to indicate two separate occasions of “new birth”; the sole contrast is between “that which is born of the flesh” and “that which is born of the Spirit” (3:6).

3. Later usages. These are surprisingly few. It is clear from Acts 1:5 that the promise of “baptism of the Spirit” was to be fulfilled for the first disciples at Pentecost. In the account of that day, however, and on subsequent occasions in the NT, the phrase used is “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4, Pentecost; 9:17, Paul’s conversion). This was apparently something which could happen repeatedly to the same group (cf. Acts 2:5; 4:8, 31). One clear instance of the original metaphor is in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “By one Spirit we were all baptized.” Here Paul, by the wording, must be appealing to the universal spiritual experience of all true Christians, not something unusual belonging to a minority. Otherwise his argument would lose all its point, if deprived of its universality of application.

4. Conclusions. “Baptism with water” seems therefore to be John’s baptism, or any other similar purificatory rite. “Baptism with water and the Spirit” seems properly to refer to Christian baptism at its two levels, not, of course, in any mechanical or ritualistic sense.” “Baptism with the Spirit” was seen by the Early Church to be the gift of Christ, fulfilled for the first disciples at Pentecost, and subsequently the initial experience of every Christian (1 Cor 12:13) enjoyed when he believed on Christ (Acts 19:2; Rom 8:9). “Filling with the Spirit” by contrast, appears to be something that can take place repeatedly.

Bibliography O. Cullman, Baptism in the NT (1950); G. W. H. Lampe, The Seal of the Spirit (1951); G. S. Hendry, The Holy Spirit in Christian Theology (1957); J. D. G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (1970).