Think on These
Things
by Tom McLemore
Question: Doesn’t Acts 8:15, 16 teach that every Christian is
supposed to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost?
Answer: (Please read
Acts 8:15, 16 [KJV]). “Fallen” here does not suggest the baptism of the Holy
Spirit as “fell” does in Acts 10:44, 11:15.
That what happened in Acts 10 was the baptism of the Holy Spirit is
explicitly stated, whereas in Acts 8:17-19 people are said to have received the
Holy Spirit through the laying on of the apostles’ hands. Also, we must resist thinking that “only they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” implies that they were also to
receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We
must not read into the language of Scripture what is not there. The language of Acts 8:15 assumes that any who
had been baptized up to this point in Acts could have had the apostles’ hands
laid upon them, but these had not, because apostles had been there as of
yet. Verse 16 suggests that there is
something besides the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that others who had been
baptized had received, but these had not yet received it. The rest of the story
tells what and why not. [More next week].
Address questions to tommclemore@juno.com
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