The first mention of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is in Matthew 3. ![]() John’s prophecy of the baptism in the Holy Spirit This is the Lord Jesus baptizing his people in his Holy Spirit. Nor is this any individual Christian or even several Christians receiving a baptism. ![]() However, it’s definitely NOT valid to translate the word ἐν with the word “of.” (In fact, what I’ll do in this little tome is use the ESV translation, which is what I preach out of, but with the word “with” rendered as “in” wherever the Greek word ἐν appears.) The point, though, is that the Holy Spirit is not the one giving the baptism or doing the baptism. And then we’ll try to come to a conclusion about how God wants us to see it.īy the way, you may notice that I phrase it as “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” rather than “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” That’s because the Bible’s literal terminology is “baptism in ( ἐν) the Holy Spirit.” Whenever English translations speak of baptism “with” something, the actual word is ἐν, “in.” The Greek language uses the word “in” to carry several different meanings, including ”with” and quite a few more. Let’s consider what five people in the Bible had to say about the baptism in the Holy Spirit: John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, Luke, and Paul. So what that means is that we need to handle this with extreme care today: strictly by the Book, and as gently as we can, so there’ll be as little trouble or pain as possible. ![]() And if Bob says Joe has not really experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but rather experienced something else, when Joe knows he had an unforgettable, life-changing experience, then Joe is probably going to be seriously hurt. If Joe has had the experience, and he says Bob can’t really know the full presence and power of the Holy Spirit because Bob never has received Holy Spirit baptism, that’s probably going to be deeply troubling to Bob. If you think about it, things were bound to turn out like that. Over the years, I have heard story after story from person after person who have had an unforgettable, life-changing experience that they have called “the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” Sadly, I have also seen more than a little disagreement, confusion, and hurt feelings over the issue.
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