The Holy Spirit and Baptism

 Third Saturday of Advent

Thanks to Jennifer for her good word. Would love to hear from all of you.

Today we return to our Acts Bible Study. We're still on those very loaded verses, 44-48. After the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the crowd and they have spoken in tongues and extolled God, Peter instructs them to be baptized. Peter says, "Can anyone withhold water for baptizing this people?" The German New Testament scholar Oscar Cullmann noted that in numerous instances in the NT  words like "hinder," "withhold," and "prevent" are spoken by the baptizer right before baptism, cf. Acts 8:37). Cullmann thought this indicated a primitive (primitive in the sense of "early") baptismal formula, vaguely similar to the phrase in older wedding ceremonies, "...let him speak now or forever hold his peace."

When does the Holy Spirit come? Here in Acts 10 the Holy Spirit comes before baptism. If you look back to Acts 8:14-17, a crowd is baptized but has not yet received the Holy Spirit. Only after Peter and John lay hands on them subsequent to their being baptized do they receive they Holy Spirit. It appears that the spirit does not Act in formulaic ways. 

United Methodists are not a very dogmatic people? We'll baptize at any age and in any manner. I've baptized almost as many by immersion as by hands full of water on the head. Or to put it more colloquially, "I've dunked as many as I've sprinkled." Southern Baptists don't accept baptism of infants or baptism that was not by immersion (most Co-Operative Baptist Churches do). I have known several cases of people who would not join a Southern Baptist church because they did not want to be put under water backwards like that. 

Pentecostals can get very dogmatic over things that we would consider trivial. In Matthrew 28:19 Jesus instructs the disciples to baptize "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." In our text today Peter orders the crowd to be baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ." Pentecostals will split into new Pentecostal denominations over just about anything. There are over 200 separate Pentecostal denominations in the U.S., most of them very small. Some are "Jesus only." They do not allow our accept baptism in the name of the "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." They base this view on texts like Acts 10:44-48. Others "Trinitarian Pentecostals" do use the Trinitarian formula in baptism (based on Matthew 28:19). They don't accept the baptisms of "Jesus only" Pentecostals. Moreover, the "Jesus only" Pentecostals think that Trinitarian Pentecostals are going to hell (along with the rest of us). 

I love doing baptisms. It's always a joyful event. I love babies. I have baptized dozens of babies and have never had one cry. My secret. First, pray for the baby. Then, check the baptismal water temperature. Have it a little warmer than room temperature. Make sure you have not eaten garlic the night before. I have heard of pastors' asking the mother whether she drank coffee that morning. If so, it's good for the pastor to drink coffee. If not, don't. And of course speak to the baby in a very gentle voice. Babies don't understand words, but they understand feelings. A pastor who holds a baby stiffly and speaks with a "preacher voice" to be well heard by the congregation will often make a baby cry. A baby can't understand the words but can feel the love, the love of God through the love of the pastor. God's love is the meaning of baptism.

Next Bible study we will finally move on to Chapter 11.

Faithfully,

Christian