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

you cannot objectively get “more” of the Holy Spirit than you do at salvation! Reformed theology would not call Spirit baptism the “filling of the Holy Spirit” as many Pentecostals do, but rather save that term for subjective experiences with the Holy Spirit which are viewed as an appropriation of Spirit baptism: Baptism and Filling: The distinction between these words is of vital importance for much hinges on it. Actually the words ‘baptism’ and ‘filling’ far from being synonymous, are opposite in meaning. By the baptismwe are put into the element. By the filling the element is put into us. By the baptism, we are in the Spirit. By the filling the Spirit is in us. This Spirit-baptism, as in water baptism is initial, and so far as clear Scripture statement is concerned, is never repeated. On the other hand, the filling may be repeated or may never be experienced. The baptism is the historical event . The filling is the human experience . On the day of Pentecost, both took place simultaneously. Ideally, the same can be, and sometimes is true today, and the believer may be filled with the Spirit from the moment of conversion. But though the ideal, this is far from being the actual. Either through ignorance of the truth or a failure in appropriation, the filling of the Spirit is often experienced some time after conversion.”

~ J. Oswald Sanders. The Holy Spirit and His Gifts . Revised and Enlarged Edition. Contemporary Evangelical Perspectives Series. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970. p. 65.

All the fullness of the Spirit is received at conversion, but the appropriation of that fulness may come progressively.

J. Rodman Williams is an example of this approach when he writes:

12 Page 104 Outline Point III-C-3-b

A further word about “baptism in the Holy Spirit”: The meaning of this expression is best understood in the light of Jesus’ own use of it: “John baptized in water, but before many days you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1.5). If we had only the earlier words of John the Baptist, baptism in the Holy Spirit might seem to refer to regeneration, namely that John’s baptism in water was the outward preparation in water for the inner experience of new life, or regeneration, that Jesus’ act of baptizing in the Spirit brings. Similarly Calvin in commenting on Matthew 3.11, says, “Christ