15. Three Views of Pentecost
THREE VIEWS OF PENTECOST What is the distinctive and essential feature of Pentecost? What meaning has Pentecost for Christians today? I believe that the experience of holiness is inseparable from the experience of Pentecost. There can be no riches of holiness apart from the riches of the fullness of the Pentecostal Spirit. It is very important that Christians should be clear on this. There are differences of opinion, however, among Christians regarding Pentecost and holiness. These differences have become apparent to me as I have had the privilege from time to time of ministering the Word to Christians associated with three different movements, namely, the Brethren, the Holiness, and the Pentecostal movements. These differences of viewpoint are, after all, probably due to a special emphasis made by each movement on a particular aspect which each sees in the wonderful full-orbed truth of God. I have received spiritual blessing from these movements and I feel it will be profitable to consider the aspects of truth which each emphasizes. 1. THE BRETHREN MOVEMENT The Brethren emphasize the dispensational and collective aspect of Pentecost. Their key words are “the Church” and “the body of Christ.”
They stress that the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost marked a very important dispensational boundary in God’s dealings, that something entirely new was inaugurated when the Spirit came as the Spirit of the risen Christ and baptized believers into a collective whole, the one body and Church of Christ. By this Baptism of the Spirit all believers collectively constitute the Church of Christ and are joined to one another as the different members of a body and all are united to their one risen Head, the Lord Jesus in heaven. This coming of the Spirit is a once-for-all coming, and all believers by virtue of the new birth automatically are baptized by the Spirit into the one body of Christ. There is undoubtedly precious truth in this conception as far as it goes. I have found, however, in some quarters that where this view is overemphasized to the exclusion of other aspects of the truth, Pentecost is regarded as something purely historical, so that, provided you are converted, there is nothing further for the individual believer to seek or enter into as far as Pentecost is concerned. Those who see only this limited view of Pentecost tend to oppose any ministry urging believers to enter into any further experience as “the full blessing of Pentecost.” They generally strongly object to anything in the nature of “second blessing” teaching. As an illustration of this attitude I quote a letter I received from the leaders of a company of Christians after ministering the Word among them.
You have given tracts or books on these lines [i.e., “Second Blessing”] to members of the assembly. One such book is The Way to Pentecost, by Samuel Chadwick, in which the writer states that “there are many who have believed of whom the words of Paul are still true,” the words referred to being “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?’ The writ says that what is needed is “the blessing of Pentecostal fullness,” the formula for obtaining such blessing being to “repent, ask, receive, obey.”
He also says, “Suppose we try Petecost.” This is impossible. There is no need for Pentecost to be re-enacted, as the Holy Spirit has never departed; and if there were such need, we could not do it by repenting, asking, etc., as it was the Holy Spirit’s work. Pentecost, in fact, simply marked the commencement of the bestowal of the Comforter on believers nineteen hundred years ago; and if the way to Pentecost were sought, the movement would appear to be a backward one….. Your position is that any believer who has not experience “the blessing,” “entire sanctification,” or whatever else the supposed experience may be called, is in need of something to make his spiritual condition complete. With this we cannot agree. For every experience of spiritual nearness to the Lord and consciousness of His indwelling and guidance we rejoice greatly; but any idea of a second, third, or subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit must be rejected. THE SPIRIT AND THE “SECOND BLESSING” The above extract is interesting, as it shows that some Christians have a rather narrow view of the wonderful operations of the Holy Spirit. They seem to take it for granted that, provided one is born again and has the Spirit, that is quite sufficient; there is nothing further to be expected or received from God which might be regarded as “a subsequent gift of the Spirit.” We need not, however, be stumbled by the thought of a “second or subsequent gift of the Spirit.” A believer may “have the Spirit” in the blessed work of God in regeneration and yet not be “filled with the Spirit.”
Now the Acts of the Apostles clearly teaches, and the experience of thousands of Christians confirms, that the “filling of the Spirit” may be received as a definite, instantaneous gift of God’s grace subsequent to the new birth. Dr. Andrew Murray well says: — God has not given His Spirit to believers, in the sense of parting with Him: or as if, by once giving, He did not now need any more to give….It is, therefore, consistent with the fullest acknowledgment of the Spirit dwelling in us that the believer calls for more.
Bishop Moule also says: — We are not to think of the “giving” of the Spirit as an isolated deposit of what, once given, is now locally in possession. The first “gift” is, as it were, the first point in a series of actions, of which each one may also be expressed as a “gift.” In this sense, the Apostle Paul, in his prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19, prays that the Ephesian believers might receive, in effect, “a subsequent gift of God,” or “gift of the Spirit.”
Bishop Moule says: — “The coming of Christ to reside in the heart by faith” is presented as a definite thing in itself: a blessing, a gift, an experience, not to be confused with the Christian life in general, but which the truly living Christian may yet greatly need to seek…It was a definite blessing, and it was a blessing urgently to be sought for by them all.
What applies to the Ephesian believers applies equally to Christians today. The Apostle Paul fully recognized that the Ephesian believers already had the Spirit dwelling in them, and yet his prayer shows that they still needed a further “definite blessing” to “make their spiritual blessing complete.” When the Holy Spirit revealed to me the vileness of indwelling sin and created a deep longing for deliverance from it and for the fullness of the Spirit, all objections to a second blessing were swept away like cobwebs before a mighty wind; and those four steps, “repent,” “ask,” “receive,” and “obey,” which the letter asserted were impossible, were the very steps by which I entered into blessing. I believe thousands of Christian could testify likewise. The holy fire of Pentecost is not something which burned once and for all in the hearts of the 120 over nineteen hundred years ago. Our risen Lord is still the One who baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire; and if we fulfill the conditions, that same fire can be kindled by the Holy Ghost in our hearts today. Let us be on our guard that wrong views of Pentecost do not rob us of our share in the scriptural riches of holiness. 2. THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT The Pentecostal Movement emphasizes the “power” aspect of Pentecost, especially the supernatural gifts o the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. Their key word are “power” and “gifts.” They regard the baptism wit the Spirit as the initial work which introduces the believer into that realm of the Spirit’s power in which the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 operate. A very common manifestation is the gift of tongues, and many Pentecostalist regard the speaking in tongues as the essential initial sign of the baptism with the Spirit. Although I do not agree with this view, I have had happy fellowship with Christians in the movement and have enjoyed the spiritual warmth and spontaneity of worship in their meetings. I have also had the privilege of ministering the Word among them.
SPEAKING IN TONGUES On the question of tongues and the baptism with the Spirit, an experience I had while seeking the truth more clearly on this matter may, perhaps, be of interest, especially to Christians connected with the Pentecostal an Holiness movements. When I came into contact wit the Pentecostal Movement I was greatly impressed b the joyful testimony of Christians who had spoken in tongues in connection with the baptism with the Holy Spirit. One such testimony specially arrested me. It was contained in a little booklet entitled How I Came into Pentecost. The author, a Pentecostalist, stated that he had regularly attended holiness conventions for years, but never came into bedrock satisfaction until one day he had an experience which he described in lengthy and glowing terms. I quote one short passage as a sample. For me to describe what I realized on that memorable Saturday night in November, 1907, is utterly impossible. It was such as I need not attempt to describe to those who have felt and tasted it, and such as I cannot describe to the comprehension of those whose hearts have never realized. it. …. Jesus, there and then — all glory to His name! — sweetly, completely, and most powerfully baptized me in the Spirit. He melted, cleansed, filled, and thrilled my poor unworthy soul with holy, sin-consuming fire.
He then went on to say that for a considerable time he was praising and magnifying God in strange languages. This testimony, and others like it, caused me to ask the question, “Does this testimony prove that there is a special inward blessing of the Holy Spirit of which the essential sin is the speaking in tongues?” I made this a matter of special prayer and searching of the Scriptures and Christian experience. The conclusion I came to was that, although speaking in tongues was one of the outward manifestations at Pentecost and is also in evidence today, it is not the abiding nor the essentially initial feature of the baptism with the Spirit. I do not propose to go into the arguments for and against this conclusion, but I do want to mention one matter because it weighed with me more than many arguments. It concerns an interesting discovery I made regarding the testimony in the booklet I have quoted above. This is what I discovered. AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY One day while reading the book, Perfect Love, by the Rev. J. A. Wood, a well-known author in the Holiness Movement in the years 1860 and onwards, I turned to his testimony on his entrance into a wonderful experience of blessing which he terms “entire sanctification.” This experience occurred in 1858, nearly fifty years before the commencement of the modern Pentecostal Movement, and there is nothing whatever about tongues in connection with his experience. On comparing the book, Perfect Love, published in 1880, with the booklet, How I Came into Pentecost, published in 1907, I made a surprising discovery. I found that whole passages of the testimony in Perfect Love were repeated word for word in the testimony of the author of How I Came into Pentecost, the main difference being that in Perfect Love there is nothing about tongues. There are slight verbal differences but very significant as, for instance, where the Rev. Wood says, “Jesus sanctified my soul and body,” the corresponding words in the booklet are, “Jesus baptized me in the Spirit.” Otherwise, it is perfectly clear that the Pentecostalist writer in seeking to describe the inner glory of what he calls being “baptized in the Spirit” accompanied with tongues can find no better words to describe that blessing than the glowing words used by a holiness writer nearly fifty years before to describe what he terms “entire sanctification” but without tongues. THE LESSON OF THE DISCOVERY As both authors have died, it is not now possible to explain this strange coincidence in phraseology. But whatever may be the explanation, the book and the booklet remain and, assuming the equal integrity of both authors, they demonstrate two facts. Firstly, the testimony of the Pentecostalist shows that you can have wonderful experience of the infilling of the Spirit accompanied with tongues. Secondly, the testimony of the Rev. Wood in Perfect Love shows that you can have the identical inward experience of the Spirit’s fullness without speaking in tongues at all. I conclude, therefore, that speaking in tongues is not the essential initial sign of the Spirit’s fullness. And I am glad to say that our Pentecostalist friend comes to the same conclusion. The fact that he himself did speak in tongues makes his following statement all the more significant: — The chief characteristic of the Pentecostal baptism was never the gift of tongues….If they had been, as some have tried to make them, Pentecost would long ago have been defunct and as dead as the first Pentecost. The chief and indispensable characteristic of the baptism is the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit.
TRUE PENTECOST TRULY SATISFIES There are some, however, who divorce sanctification from the Pentecostal baptism and limit it to the reception of the Spirit in a special manner, namely, with the sign of speaking in tongues and the accompaniment of supernatural gifts, and insist that unless you have a least once in your life spoken in tongues you have not received the baptism with the Spirit. But this is an unscriptural view of the essence of the baptism. Much a the supernatural gifts of the Spirit are to be valued an coveted, I must say that, even if I had a wonderful emotional experience of the Spirit’s presence accompanied with tongues and possessed the gift of interpretation an other gifts, and yet lacked the sanctifying work of the Spirit in the cleansing of the heart from sin and filling with divine love, I should still remain dissatisfied. There would still be a void within. I should still want some thing more. But I believe that Pentecost in its essence does bring complete heart rest, satisfaction, and victory in the life whether tongues are manifested as a sign or not. (I hope to make this clear in the next section of the chapter.) 3. THE HOLINESS MOVEMENT The Holiness Movement emphasizes the mighty sanctifying effect of Pentecost on the individual believer. The key words are “holiness,” “fire,” and “power.” They love the phrase, “baptize with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” They delight to stress the glorious sanctifying work of grace within each individual believer on the Day of Pentecost accomplished by that fiery baptism, a work which they regard as purifying the heart from all sin and perfecting it in love by the infilling of the Holy Ghost. Further, as a result of this baptism, they believe that the believer is empowered to live a victorious life, to witness to the Lord, to serve Him, to do all the will of God, and to endure with long-suffering and joyfulness. Thus the power of Pentecost is the power to live a holy and Christlike life. This fullness of sanctifying grace bestowed at Pentecost is regarded as a sample of what God intends every believer to experience. They do not, however, believe that this Pentecostal fullness is entered into at the new birth, and believers are exhorted to seek and receive by faith their share in that fullness of blessing as a second definite work of grace. Various terms are used to describe this fullness of blessing, such as “entire sanctification,” “full consecration,” “the clean heart,” “perfection,” etc. There is no need for me at this point to enlarge on the truth which the Holiness Movement emphasizes, as I hope I have made that clear in other portions of this book. It is the testimony of this movement which has been used by God to establish my soul in the liberty and joy of faith in Christ. Let us now try to balance the viewpoints of the Holiness and Pentecostal movements regarding Pentecost. In doing so it will be found very helpful if we recognize two kinds of “power” connected with the Holy Spirit. For convenience and brevity, we may refer to them as “spectacular power” and “sanctifying power.” The Pentecostal Movement emphasizes the first; the Holiness Movement, the second. These two kinds of power” are mentioned in Romans 15:1-33. THE TWOFOLD POWER OF THE SPIRIT 1. Spectacular Power (Romans 15:18-19). Paul refers to making “the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.” In this category we might also include healings, prophecy, tongues, and the other gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:1-31. All this order of power may, for convenience, be referred to as “spectacular,” because it is an outward manifestation of Holy Ghost power which can be seen and heard and, therefore, arrests attention either inside or outside the Church, according to whether it is in operation for the edification of believers or the conversion of the unsaved. This order of “power” was manifest at Pentecost in the sound of a rushing mighty wind, the cloven tongues of fire, and the speaking in other languages. 2. Sanctifying Power (Romans 15:13). Paul says: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” Now this kind of Holy Ghost power is not something spectacular as in (1). This power which results in fullness of peace and joy in believing is something very deep and blessed within the believer and clearly has to do with the sanctifying work of the Spirit. But this sanctifying work of the Spirit is also associated with the fullness of the Pentecostal blessing. Let me make this clear. What is it that evokes that prayer of Paul for believers to experience such fullness of blessing? Notice the context of the verse. The verse is part of a passage which states: Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision [i.e., Israel] for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (Romans 15:8-9). What are these promises which our Lord confirms? I believe there are promises concerning literal Israel yet to be fulfilled in the promised land in the earthly branch of the future Messianic kingdom, but the promises referred to in this passage are not confined to that future aspect of the Kingdom. The promises are primarily of a spiritual character in which Israel and the Gentiles can equally share even now because a preliminary fulfillment has already taken place. It is here that Pentecost comes in. Let us consider why this is so.
PENTECOST AND SANCTIFICATION INSEPARABLE: The “promises of the fathers” in the Old Testament relating to His first coming were confirmed when our Lord appeared. There were also glorious “promises to the fathers” relating to the spiritual blessings contained in the promise of the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34) and the promise of the Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25-27). Our Lord confirmed the promise of the new covenant (Matthew 26:28) by shedding His own blood. He confirmed the promise of the Spirit when He sent the Spirit at Pentecost.
Now the promises of the new covenant and the Spirit are indissolubly linked. The promises of the new covenant of the writing of the law in the heart car be fulfilled only by the promised Spirit. The promise of the Spirit in Ezekiel involves the taking away of “the stony heart” and the doing of the will of God from the heart, thus fulfilling the promise of the new covenant. In the light of the foregoing it is evident, surely, that when our Lord confirmed the promise to the fathers of the Spirit by baptizing the 120 with the Holy Ghost and fire at Pentecost, a mighty sanctifying and transforming work within their hearts was accomplished. Peter definitely testified to this fact when he said that the baptism purified their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). And it is this inward, sanctifying work of the Spirit and His indwelling, abiding presence which produce the fullness of joy and peace in believing and the abounding in hope of Romans 15:13. Hence Paul’s prayer in that verse for fullness and overflow has in view the fullness of the blessing of Pentecost. It is an error, therefore, to dissociate sanctification from the baptism with the Spirit. THE GRACE AND THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT I trust I have made it clear that at Pentecost there was the exercise of both the spectacular and the sanctifying power of the Spirit of God. We need to be clear, however, on another point, namely, that it is possible to experience an abundance of; one of these kinds of Holy Ghost power and yet experience little of the other. The Corinthians had an abundance of the spectacular power of the Spirit because “they came behind in no gift” (1 Corinthians 1:7), and yet they were sadly lacking in the sanctifying power of the Spirit because many were not spiritual but carnal and “babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1). They are not samples, therefore, of what God intends should be effected by the full blessing of Pentecost.
Conversely, what multitudes of Christians all down the age have experienced the fullness of the Spirit’s sanctifying power, many being effective soul winners, but have not spoken in tongues or manifested other spectacular gift Shall we assert that these have never been baptized with the Spirit and have never entered into what God means by Pentecost? This brings me to the final question: What really constitutes the distinctive, vital, and essential feature of Pentecost? THE ESSENTIAL FEATURE OF PENTECOST I answer, “Not the spectacular power or gifts of the Spirit.” We should certainly highly value these precious gifts and are exhorted to “covet earnestly the best” (1 Corinthians 12:31); but they are not, by themselves alone, the infallible criteria of Pentecost. Why? Because the manifestation of even these gifts of the Spirit is no evidence of a sanctified heart. The Spirit of God came upon Saul and he prophesied, although at the time he was hunting David and had hatred in his heart against him.
Balaam uttered wonderful prophecies (Numbers 24:1-25) but he had a covetous heart (2 Peter 2:15). And our Lord warns that, in the Day of Judgment, many will plead that they have done wonderful spectacular works, even in His name, but He will disown them as workers of iniquity Moreover, the spectacular power of the Spirit was often in evidence in Old Testament times; but the experience of the full, glorious, sanctifying power of the indwelling Spirit could not be known until after Jesus was glorified It is this latter which constitutes the distinctive and vital glory of Pentecost. The gifts are temporary (1 Corinthians 13:8) but love is eternal, and this is poured forth in the heart by the Holy Ghost. The gifts are not all intended for every believer, but are distributed as God wills; the fullness of divine love is intended for all believers without discrimination.
We may all claim our share in the full blessing of Pentecost. The crowning glory of Pentecost and its essential and eternal feature is the mighty work of the Spirit as the Sanctifier and Indweller applying the victory of the Cross to the believer, setting him free from indwelling sin, perfecting in love and uniting him in a bond of blessed oneness with the Father and the Son, in accordance with our Lord’s promises in John 14:1-31, and His prayer in John 17:1-26. Yes, Pentecost is the door which opens to us the riches of holiness, even the “unsearchable riches of Christ.” Has that door been opened to us?