Rodman Williams: The Gift of the Holy Spirit Today: Means
9. Reference might also be made to the account in Acts 8:28-39 of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The eunuch comes to faith, is baptized by Philip, and “When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip” (8:39). According to some early manuscripts the text reads: “And when they came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit fell upon the eunuch and an angel of the Lord caught up Philip.” The point of this reading is undoubtedly to emphasize that, as with the Samaritans, the eunuch’s baptism was followed by the gift of the Holy Spirit. (See F.F. Bruce’s statement to this effect in his commentary, The Acts of the Apostles [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1951], p. 195.) Thus, in addition to the accounts in Acts that specify the gift of the Spirit to follow water baptism, such may be implied in Acts 8:39.
10. Donald L. Gelpi. S.J. in his Pentecostalism: A Theological Viewpoint (New York: Paulist Press, 1971) suggests the case of a “Robert Z” who “a week before his sacramental baptism, while attending a prayer meeting …receives Spirit-baptism and immediately begins praying in tongues,” p. 178. Probably Father Gelpi had witnessed this, since he refers to such as “concretely possible.” However, the problem for Catholic theology is simply this: how does one relate such an experience to the traditional view that the Holy Spirit is received in baptism or confirmation? (In this case it does not help to speak of Spirit-baptism as the actualization of the gift of the Spirit received in the sacraments when there has been no sacramental participation!)
11. According to Matthew 28:19.
12. There are instances in the contemporary spiritual renewal of persons who received baptism as infants being baptized as adults. In some instances such adult baptism is sought because of a growing conviction of the invalidity of infant baptism; in other cases, adult baptism is viewed as not denying the validity of infant baptism, but as its fulfillment through personal, believing participation. Generally speaking, however, people in the renewal who have had prior baptism do not follow this pattern. I am referring, therefore, in the text above to those who have had no prior experience of baptism now becoming participants.
13. Possibly all—but the Scriptures give no certain information.
14. Not even the laying on of hands (to which we shall come shortly).
15. Faith alone prepares the way. So Schweizer writes (in specific response to the Caesarean account as interpreted by Peter in Acts 15:8): “Faith, not baptism, purifies for the reception of the Spirit” (article on πνευηα [pneuma] in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. VI, p. 414).
16. In the words of F.D. Bruner: “Baptism and the reception of the Spirit are so synonymous as to be identical. Christian baptism is spiritual baptism” (op. cit., p. 190). This view, fortunately, is not held by James Dunn who says, “Spirit-baptism and water baptism remain antithetical” (op. cit., p. 227).
17. E. Schweizer in his analysis of the Spirit in Acts writes that “the Spirit is not tied to baptism. Once He comes on men before baptism (10:44), once without it (2:1-4), once on a disciple who knew only John’s baptism (18:25)” (op. cit., p. 414).
18. For example, note the earlier use of eis in the same chapter, verse 25, where Peter prefaces a quotation from a Davidic psalm thus: “For David says concerning him [the Christ].” The word translated “concerning” (RSV and KJV) is eis. eis here clearly means “regarding,” “in reference to,” etc. For other similar use of eis cf. Romans 4:20 (eis translated as “concerning” in KJV).
19. Water baptism as immersion—the whole body covered—best symbolized this. However, the pouring of water over the person may likewise represent this totality. Sprinkling (in accordance with Ezekiel 36:25, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses”) is a third possibility.
20. E.g., see Romans 6:4—”We were buried …with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead …we too might walk in newness of life” (cf. Colossians 2:12 and Galatians 3:27). Water baptism by immersion most vividly demonstrates burial and resurrection.
21. This matter of baptism as sign and seal relates to what Paul says, in Romans 4:11, concerning how Abraham “received circumcision as a sign or seal (semeion elaben peritomes sphragida of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.” Water baptism is clearly the New Testament parallel, and thus no more than circumcision brings about righteousness or forgiveness, but is a sign and seal of it.
22. As earlier noted, water baptism is not so integral a part of forgiveness that it may not occur later. Particularly recall the account of the Caesareans in Acts 10:43-48. However, ordinarily the sequence is that of Acts 2:38-39.
23. Mention was made of this formula in footnote 3 above, but there was no elaboration of its significance.
24. The Greek word “in” (“baptizing them in …”) is eis which though it may simply mean “in” (see footnote 2) may also be translated “into.” As we have earlier noted, eis may also signify “with reference to,” hence “in relation to.”
25. For in him the whole fullness of deity [to pleroma tes theoetos—”the fullness of the Godhead” KJV] dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
26. The same thing is true about the Father—a new relationship to him: by adoption one becomes a son of God and is able to address God as “Father” (cf. Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5-6).
27. In my book, The Pentecostal Reality (Plainfield, NJ: Logos, 1972), chapter 6, “The Holy Trinity,” I wrote: “The purpose of that part of the Great Commission, ‘Go therefore …baptizing’ is not to make learners out of people in regard to God, but to introduce them into life lived in the reality of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (p. 102). On the matter of the Holy Spirit, later words are: “This means life claimed by God through Jesus Christ in a total kind of way, the Spirit of the living God probing the depths of the conscious and the unconscious, releasing …new powers to praise God, to witness compellingly in His name, to do mighty works that only He can do. Do we know this?” (p. 107).
28. There are other instances in Acts of the imposition of hands which are not directly concerned with the gift of the Holy Spirit: Acts 6:6—the dedication of seven “deacons”; 13:3—the commissioning of Barnabas and Saul; and 28:8—the healing of Publius’ father. While such instances of the laying on of hands are not for the gift of the Spirit, they obviously represent Spirit-inspired activities.
29. The earliest testimonies in Catholic Pentecostals, “Bearing Witness,” pp. 24-37, of students who were baptized in the Holy Spirit at the “Duquesne weekend” especially depict an unmediated happening. One participant testifies: “There were three other students with me when all of a sudden I became filled with the Holy Spirit and realized that ‘God is real’ … . The professors then laid hands on some of the students, but most of us received the ‘baptism in the Spirit’ while kneeling before the blessed sacrament in prayer” (pp. 34-35). The Acts of the Holy Spirit [among Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, etc.] contains a large number of testimonies of the Holy Spirit being given without the laying on of hands.
30. Or, as we have noted, through water baptism. Sometimes the view is entertained that there may be two gifts of the Holy Spirit: one at water baptism and the other with the imposition of hands.
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