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

(2) Through Spirit baptism we are incorporated into the Church.

(a) 1 Cor. 12.13

(b) Eph. 2.19-22

(c) 1 Cor. 3.16-17, Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? [17] If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. {Note- the word “you” is plural in the Greek. The meaning is “all of you” are God’s temple}.

III. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit: Understanding the Areas of Disagreement

A. Two different ways of understanding how the Holy Spirit comes to us

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1. The single-stage view of Spirit baptism believes that all of the person and work of the Holy Spirit is received at the moment of salvation and that the rest of the Christian life is an outworking (or a growing up into) what was received at that moment. In this view, the work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life after salvation is primarily gradual and progressive. 2. Multiple-stage views of Spirit baptism are those which believe the Holy Spirit is received in two or more stages and which include a distinct experience after salvation which imparts “the fullness of the Spirit.” In other words, while the person of the Holy Spirit is received at salvation, there are specific works of the Holy Spirit that are received later. In these theologies, the term “baptism in the Holy Spirit” is often reserved for the experiences (the specific works of empowerment for ministry or victory over sin) that come later rather than to describe the initial coming of the person of the Spirit at salvation.