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

(whether Erickson or Keener) who is outside of our own tradition because we will be hearing insights from them that may not normally be presented to us in our usual church setting. Encourage students to give each writer a fair hearing and to at least answer their basic points in formulating and defending their own convictions about a theology of Spirit baptism.

The greatest emphasis in the Bible, and the most prominent aspect of our Reformed tradition, is to be found in the work of the Spirit in bestowing upon man all the benefits of God which come to him in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ is the way whereby all benefits are received such as justification, sanctification, and eternal life, and through the Holy Spirit this salvation is a reality.

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~ “The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit with Special Reference to Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” [From a report adopted by the General Assembly of the former

Presbyterian Church, U.S. (Southern) in 1971] at http://home.regent.edu/rodmwil/tp04.html

The work of Christ was not finished when He had merited salvation for His people and had obtained actual possession of the blessings of salvation. In the counsel of redemption He took it upon Himself to put all His people in possession of these blessings and He does this through the operation of the Holy Spirit, who takes all things out of Christ, and gives them unto us. . . . [Faith] enables us to appropriate on our part what is given unto us in Christ, and to enter ever-increasingly into conscious enjoyment of the blessed union with Christ, which is the source of all spiritual riches.

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~ Lewis Berkhof. Systematic Theology . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1941. p. 449.

While the Reformed tradition would affirm that the “fullness of the Holy Spirit” (if by that we mean a believer decisively receives the Spirit who rested on Christ and becomes fully connected to Christ through this event) is received at conversion and is the “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” They would very much want to emphasize that

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