God the Holy Spirit, Mentor's Guide, MG14

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G O D T H E H O L Y S P I R I T

Myron Augsburger tells the story of a white evangelist who went and did crusade evangelism among white people in the South during a time when the society was segregated both legally and socially. He preached a simple Gospel message but when the time came for the altar call where people were invited to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, he asked people to come up the aisle to the front. Standing there at the front was a black pastor from one of the black churches in that city. The evangelist told the people that the pastor would put his arm around them and pray with them a prayer inviting Jesus into their lives. Why did he do it? (He wanted them to understand that salvation involves coming into a family. The person who wants to avoid hell but not be adopted is not taking salvation on the terms that it is offered). You can agree or disagree with that evangelist’s methods but I bet that every convert he got was genuine. Adoption is part of the package that comes with salvation. It is not something that every person experiences or even wants to experience. Adoption is wonderful language because it is the language of family. Thomas C. Oden likes to call baptism and the Lord’s Supper “the bath” and “the meal.” It is almost inevitable that the two things most needed by a homeless person are a bath and a meal. When we are adopted into the family of God we are offered both of those things by our new household. We are washed in baptism and fed in communion. Adoption captures the essence of the Spirit’s work in making us into a family which is composed of God as our Father, Christ as our elder brother, and all of God’s people as our brothers and sisters. Our course readings reflect this basic disagreement. Millard Erickson’s theology on the baptism in the Holy Spirit represents the traditional Reformed/Baptistic approach while Craig Keener (although ministering in a “black” baptist denomination) writes with an openness to, and experience of, the Pentcostal/Charismatic tradition. Point out to students that we read from both because there is something to be learned from both. In fact, we potentially have the most to learn from the writer

6 Page 89 Outline Point III-C-2

7 Page 90 Outline Point III-C-3

8 Page 93 Outline Point I-A