Where In The Bible Will I Find:

The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit?

Just ten days after His ascension back to heaven, on the day of Pentecost (A.D. 35), Jesus, from the right hand of the Father's throne, personally sent down the Holy Spirit upon the twelve, as Peter affirmed that day, "…hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear" (Acts 2:33). This was not to make them His apostles, for He had done that already (Luke 6:13ef.; Acts 1:21-26).

It was in order for the Holy Spirit to teach them, "all things" of God: to bring to their "remembrance all things," which Christ had said to them (John 14:26), to "guide them into all truth" (John 16:13); and to provide them "power" (Acts 1:8); through which "power" they were to do many "signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit" which was to confirm the Word of God (Heb. 2:3-4ef., Mark 16:17-20).

This was the baptism of the twelve in the Holy Spirit, which Christ had promised to them (Acts 1:4-6). Not all the 120 spoken of in Acts 1:15 were baptized in the Holy Spirit, but only the apostles, as the reading of Acts 1:26; 2:1, 14, 37, 40, 43 shows. When the twelve received the power from on high they did not string together a babel of nonsense or speak a few Hebrew words in vain repetition as those who claim the power of "Pentecost" do today.

The apostles spoke real tongues, or languages, of real people, even as those who heard that day affirmed, "...we hear, each in our own language in which we were born” (Acts 2:8). According to the inspired record, baptism of the Holy Spirit occurred only one other time, about ten years later on the first Gentile converts in the house of Cornelius at Caesarea (Acts 10:44-48). It was not to make them apostles, nor did they receive this special gift in order to guide them into all truth, that, as noted, had been promised only to the apostles: but these Gentiles did have "...the gift of the Holy Spirit…poured out on... (them) also" Acts 10:45), in a miraculous way, directly from the hand of Christ Jesus.

This was done in order to prove to the Jews that the Gentiles, as well as they, were to have the gospel. Later, Peter gave a detailed account to the church at Jerusalem how the gospel came to the Gentiles and that they had been commanded to be immersed in water even after they had received Holy Spirit baptism (Acts 10:47-48). Not only this, but Peter did not indicate in any way that such a miraculous gift, or the Holy Spirit from Jesus, was a common occurrence. In fact, he did the opposite, for he had to go all the way back to Pentecost, approximately ten years before, to find a like example. He said, "...the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning" (Acts 11:15j). He did not say, as on us "last night," or "last week” or even "last year," as modem Pentecostals claim. Holy Spirit baptism was a promise, NOT a command. It served its purpose and is no longer promised today.