From: allan-sv@algonet.se   
      
                 The Promise of the Spirit that Jesus "forgot"   
      
   The Pentecostalists have preached about the baptism with the Holy   
   Spirit and they are proud and mean that the Pentecost Revival has   
   conveyed this truth. Nevertheless, it was God's Spirit himself who   
   revealed this truth, and he did it before the Pentecost Movement   
   existed.   
      
   Please, observe what the apostle Peter says on the day of Pentecost.   
   He says that they would receive the Holy Spirit as a gift. Observe,   
   it is the Holy Spirit himself that is the gift. Accordingly, it is not   
   only the experience of the baptism with the Holy Spirit that is the   
   gift. Gal. 3:2. (Here is the Swedish Bible more plain).   
      
   Please, observe also when they received the gift, already the same   
   day! They were not needed to wait for the gift for several months or   
   years. And when they received the Spirit as a gift, what happened   
   then? Then they received the new life in Christ and were born again!   
   When you are born again, you are born of the Spirit. John 3:8.   
      
   Do you now understand what that implies? It implies that the truth   
   of the baptism with the Holy Spirit has been valid all the time ever   
   since the apostles received this gift! Many Christians think that the   
   baptism with the Holy Spirit was forgotten during a very long time,   
   and that it was not until the 20th century, that Jesus did resume this   
   activity to baptize the believers with the Holy Spirit.   
      
   Such an opinion is quite contrary to the Bible. The truth is, that   
   Jesus all the time has baptized his people with the Holy Spirit.   
   And we need not search in any old history books to find out it   
   because it is written clearly in the Bible! For the promise is unto   
   you, and your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many   
   as the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2:39.   
      
   Do you think that Jesus forgot this promise of God after any   
   hundreds of years, and right until the beginning of the 20th century?   
   In that case all the Christians who have lived during all these   
   centuries would have not got the Holy Spirit that God had promised.   
   Eph. 1:13. Yet, the promise of the Spirit was valid for those as well   
   as for us, and as well as for the first Christians! As many as the   
   Lord our God shall call. "And the purpose of it all was that the   
   blessing of Abraham should in Jesus Christ be extended to the   
   Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through   
   faith." Gal. 3:14. (The New English Bible).   
   Acts 2:33. Eph. 1:13.   
      
   What Peter told on the day of Pentecost has functioned all the   
   time since then. When people have done repent and been baptized   
   in the name of Jesus Christ, then they have also received the   
   promised Spirit as a gift. In John 14:16-17 Jesus says, "And I will   
   pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he   
   may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the   
   world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth   
   him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in   
   you " Ever since Jesus' first disciples received the Holy Spirit on   
   the day of Pentecost; the Holy Spirit has been present in the   
   Assembly of God all the   
   time.   
      
   They have preached that the gift to speak in tongues, is the only   
   sure "sign" of the baptism by the Holy Spirit. It is not true. Please,   
   read Acts the 2nd chapter. There we see that the first sign was,   
   a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled   
   all the house where they were sitting. This was a very clear sign   
   of the baptism by the Holy Spirit.   
      
   The second sign that is mentioned was, tongues like as of fire,   
   and it sat upon each of them. This was also a clear sign of the   
   baptism by the Holy Spirit. And the third sign was that they   
   began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them   
   utterance. It was usually earthly languages that the people   
   understood. As we can see in the Bible, there were people in   
   Jerusalem with several languages and each one heard them   
   speaking in his own native language. (All speaking in tongues   
   is not of this sort. Please, read 1 Cor. 14th Chapter).   
      
   Here we have three clear signs of baptism by the Holy Spirit.   
   Two signs that everyone heard; a sound from heaven as of a   
   rushing mighty wind, and speaking in tongues; and one sign   
   that they could see, tongues of fire. Why have many been so   
   fixed at just the speaking in tongues, as if this were the only   
   sure sign of the baptism by the Holy Spirit?   
      
   There is a doctrine that says that everyone who is baptized by   
   the Holy Spirit must speak in tongues. This doctrine cannot be   
   proved with help of the Bible because this doctrine is not   
   pronounced anywhere in the Bible. Those who stand up for   
   this doctrine, they do in the same way as those who stand up   
   for the so-called infant baptism. They take out some quotations   
   from the Bible and try to find out a proof of their own doctrine.   
      
   Both this doctrine and the doctrine about the so-called infant   
   baptism are like sleeping-tablets. These doctrines hinder people   
   to free thinking, and hinder them to study of the Bible.   
      
   Some Christians have written letters to me in defence of this   
   wrong doctrine. Of all their arguments, I have found no one that   
   stands before God's word. And of what I have written about the   
   baptism by the Holy Spirit, they have not been able to refute   
   anything.   
      
   The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's   
   children. Rom.8:16. This, that we experience the testifying   
   of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, is a sure sign that we have   
   received the promised Spirit. Gal. 3:14. I had this sign long   
   before I got the gift to speak in tongues. But while I was in   
   the Pentecostal Movement I heard repeatedly that I was not   
   baptized with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they said that I was   
   it, and sometimes they said I was not. When I had left the   
   Pentecostal Movement I also received the gift to speak in   
   tongues.   
      
      
      
   Do you want to read the continuation of this article   
   or if you have any questions   
   Please, visit my Web Site   
      
      
   http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/CONTENTS.HTM   
      
   (Article 24)   
      
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