No Spirit Baptism Today —part 3

by Tyler Young

 
We have pointed out that the Lord promised, not all Christians, but only the apostles, that he would baptize them in the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 16:13). Though many appeal to Acts chapter two as proof that Spirit baptism is available to all in the church, we showed a correct understanding of that chapter reveals that only the apostles received the miraculous filling of the Spirit. But there is another instance of Holy Spirit baptism in Acts chapter ten. Some argue that the baptism of the household of Cornelius in the Holy Spirit is proof that this phenomenon was not limited to the apostles.

A careful study of the book of Acts shows that this was a unique case in which God poured the Spirit on the Gentile family of Cornelius in order to prove to Peter and the rest of the Jews in the church that the gospel was not just for Jews, but also for the Gentiles. For ten years after the establishment of the church, the Jews thought Gentiles could be converted to Christ only if they first brought themselves under the law of Moses by being circumcised. It took a vision from the Lord showing Peter he should “not call any man unclean” (i.e., unfit to come into contact with; Acts 10:9ff, 28), a summons from an angel, and direct instruction from the Holy Spirit just to get Peter to go to the house of Cornelius, an uncircumcised Gentile. And once Peter arrived at his home in Caesarea, he still did not understand why he was there. It was not until the Holy Spirit was poured out on Cornelius and his companions that Peter understood Gentiles were to be received into the church on the same grounds as the Jews—on the basis of obedient faith in Christ, and not by first becoming proselytes to Judaism. After seeing the evidence that the Spirit was poured out on Cornelius, Peter concluded, rhetorically, “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized” (Acts 10:47-48; cf. 11:15-18).

There is not one shred of evidence that, aside from the unique case of the household of Cornelius, anyone other than the apostles has ever been baptized in the Holy Spirit. ›