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NASB | Ephesians 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 1:13 In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and [as a result] believed in Him, were stamped with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit [the One promised by Christ] as owned and protected [by God]. [John 7:39; Acts 2:33] |
Subject: Automatic Holy Spirit? |
Bible Note: Charis: Thanks for your clarification! I do understand, and I do disagree (respectfully, I hope). Here's one thing: "My point is that I do not see any 'empirical' evidence that men are regenerated and baptized in the Holy Spirit the moment that they respond to the quickening of the Holy Spirit to confess Christ as Lord and Savior." If regeneration is the "new birth," how does one say that the Holy Spirit quickens someone to confess Christ as Lord and Savior and that at the same time they are not "born again"? Also, the seal of the Holy Spirit described in Ephesians 1 seems to be talking about all believers. Those with the view that there is a separate "Holy Spirit baptism" aside from post-Pentecost conversion argue that some people go through their entire lives without experiencing this "second blessing." Does that mean that there are genuine Christians who are never sealed with the Holy Spirit? That is something that I cannot accept in light of Paul's teaching. I agree that "all the work" in our lives is not done at conversion. That mistake is made due to a failure to properly distinguish between justification and sanctification. The question we seem to have is whether baptism in the Holy Spirit is concurrent with our justification that is a reality for all believers, or a step in our sanctification that many never climb in their spiritual growth. That leads us right back to that dreaded "two-tiered" Christianity that is so pervasive in Pentecostal circles: those who seem to manifest the more sensational gifts in the book of Acts are somehow at a "higher level" than those who are merely saved but unbaptized by the Holy Spirit. The biggest problem I have with this point of view is that the people God has used most powerfully in post-Apostolic church history were not individuals who held to this view that there was "something more to be had" after receiving Christ. Most even denied the very modern-day existence of the very gifts that people point to as THE evidence of Holy Spirit baptism. And yet, it was these "incomplete" Christians that God used to preserve His Word and use it to transform the world. --Joe! |