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Spirit-Baptism and Pentecostalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

James D. G. Dunn
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Extract

Within Christianity down through the centuries there has always been a strain of teaching which holds that salvation, so far as it may be known in this life, is experienced in two stages: first the event of becoming a Christian; then, as a later and distinct event, some special and distinctive operation or gift of the Holy Spirit. In the history of Christian thought this disjointedness was first clearly formulated in the Catholic sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. According to A. J. Macdonald, the idea that Confirmation confers the gift of the Spirit was held without question until the time of Wyclif. And today in anglo-catholic tradition, although the episcopal laying on of hands is commonly thought of as bestowing a strengthening gift of the Spirit, some continue to speak as though the Spirit is first received at that time. Indeed, since the question was reopened by F. W. Puller in 1880, it has been regularly argued, often with great weight, though not infrequently with greater ingenuity, that far greater significance (in terms of the Spirit) should be attributed to Confirmation than to Baptism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , November 1970 , pp. 397 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1970

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References

page 397 note 1 The Holy Spirit (1927), p. 138, citing Maclean, A. J., Confirmation or the Laying on of Hands (1926), vol. 1, p. 48.Google Scholar

page 397 note 2 Puller, F. W., What is the Distinctive Grace of Confirmation? (1880)Google Scholar; Mason, A. J., The Relation of Confirmation to Baptism (1891)Google Scholar; Dix, G., Confirmation or the Laying on of Hands (1936), also The Theology of Confirmation in Relation to Baptism (1946)Google Scholar; Thornton, L. S., Baptism and Confirmation (1924), also Confirmation Today (1946), also Confirmation and its place in the Baptismal Mystery (1954)Google Scholar.

page 397 note 3 See Packer, J. I., ‘The Witness of the Spirit: the Puritan Teaching’, The Wisdom of our Fathers (Puritan Conference 1956), pp. 14–25Google Scholar; Parratt, J. K., ‘The Witness of the Holy Spirit: Calvin, the Puritans and St. Paul’, Evangelical Quarterly, XLI (1969), p. 163Google Scholar; cf. The Westminster Confession, XVIII.

page 398 note 1 Wesley, John, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (reprinted 1952)Google Scholar; Flew, R. N, The Idea of Perfection in Christian Theology (1934), pp. 313–341Google Scholar; Chadwick, S.. The Call to Christian Perfection (1936)Google Scholar; Sangster, W. E., The Path to Perfection (1943)Google Scholar; Starkey, L. M., The Work of the Holy Spirit: A Study in Wesleyan Theology (1962), pp. 45–61Google Scholar.

page 398 note 2 A slightly skew line would pass through the ‘Oberlin School’. Oberlin College was founded in 1835 with Asa Mahan as President and Charles G. Finney as Professor of Theology (see B. B. Warfield, Perfectionism (1 vol. edition 1958), PP. 3–215.

page 398 note 3 Discourse on the Holy Ghost (1674), Works, III, pp. 408–11.

page 398 note 4 Barabas, S., So Great Salvation: The History and Message of the Keswick Convention (1952)Google Scholar.

page 398 note 5 See e.g. Brengle, S. L., The Way of Holiness (1955)Google Scholar, and Smith, A., The Ideal of Perfection (1963)Google Scholar.

page 399 note 1 See Drummond, A. L., Edward Irving and his Circle (1934), p. 164Google Scholar.

page 399 note 2 Works, vol. I, Sermons xv, xvi, especially pp. 237–8, 247–8, 251.

page 399 note 3 N. Bloch-Hoell, The Pentecostal Movement (E.T. 1964), p. 141.

page 399 note 4 Warfield, op. cit., p. 229 n. 39.

page 400 note 1 Barabas, op. cit., p. 131, quoting G. C. Morgan, The Spirit of God (1902), p. 169.

page 400 note 2 See Sanders, J. O., The Holy Spirit of Promise (1940), p. 66Google Scholar.

page 400 note 3 See especially, The Baptism with the Holy Spirit (1896); also The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit (1910), pp. 171–246.

page 400 note 4 Torrey, Baptism, p. 14.

page 400 note 5 See e.g. Arthur, W., The Tongue of Fire or the True Power of Christianity (1856)Google Scholar.

page 400 note 6 e.g. Smith, op. cit., p. 29f.

page 400 note 7 Barnhouse, D. G. in The Keswick Week (1948), p. 59f.Google Scholar

page 400 note 8 See especially Gordon's, The Ministry of the Spirit (1894)Google Scholar and Simpson's, The Holy Spirit or Power from on High (1896)Google Scholar.

page 400 note 9 Pentecostal histories make interesting reading, especially Frodsham, S. H., With Signs Following (1946)Google Scholar; see also e.g. D. Gee, The Pentecostal Movement (revised edition 1949) for the British history, and Brumback, C., Suddenly … From Heaven (1961)Google Scholar for the history of the largest Pentecostal Church, The Assemblies of God (U.S.A.). The most scholarly assessments by non-Pentecostals are the volume by Bloch-Hoell and the unpublished Hamburg dissertation of F. D. Bruner, The Doctrine and Experience of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecostal Movement and Correspondingly in the New Testament (1963). Much less weighty is D. Webster's Pentecostalism and Speaking with Tongues (1964). Most exhaustive is W. Hollenweger's mimeographed eight volume Handbuch der Pfingstbewegung (1965). Most recent is J. T. Nichol's uncritical Pentecostalism (1966.)

page 401 note 1 See Frank Bartleman's revealing diary, What Really Happened at Azusa Street (1925, reissued 1962).

page 401 note 2 Brumback, op. cit., p. 23.

page 401 note 3 See Brumback, op. cit., 98–106; Bloch-Hoell, op. cit., pp. 125–9.

page 401 note 4 Brumback, op. cit., p. 91.

page 402 note 1 Pentecostal literature on the gifts is extensive. The two most highly regarded writings are Gee's Concerning Spiritual Gifts (revised 1947) and H. Horton, The Gifts of the Spirit 1 (1962). The Charismatic Revival in Germany has produced a very useful commentary on 1 Cor. 12–14 in A. Bittlinger's Gifts and Graces (E.T. 1967).

page 402 note 2 Quoted by Dalton, R. C., Tongues Like As of Fire (1945) p. 76f.Google Scholar

page 402 note 3 See e.g. Christenson, L., Speaking in Tongues—A Gift for the Body of Christ (1963), p. 7.Google Scholar

page 402 note 4 This name covers a wide variety of different groups and churches (see Bloch-Hoell, op. cit., p. 58f). Pentecostals are notoriously divisive; see e.g. Calley, M. J. C., God's People: West Indian Pentecostal Sects in England (1965)Google Scholar.

page 402 note 5 This description was first used by Life magazine in 1958 (quoted by David J. du Plessis, The Spirit Bade Me Go (1963), p. 30).

page 403 note 1 See d'Epinay, C. L., Haven of the Masses: A Study of the Pentecostal Movement in Chile (1969)Google Scholar.

page 404 note 1 See e.g. Bittlinger, op. cit., p. 57.

page 404 note 2 For early descriptions of and reactions to the new Pentecostalism see BishopPike's, J. A.Pastoral Letter (Easter 1963)Google Scholar; the Report of the Diocese of California's Study Commission on Glossolalia (May 1963); Kelsey, M. T., Speaking with Tongues (1964)Google Scholar; Sherrill, J. L., They Speak with Other Tongues (1964)Google Scholar; Harper, M. C., The Third Force in the Body of Christ (1965)Google Scholar; also As at the Beginning: The Twentieth Century Pentecostal Revival (1965); Nichol, op. cit., pp. 240–4. See also e.g. the World Council of Churches evangelism journal Concept (March 1962); Hughes, P. E. in Christianity Today (11th May, 1962) and in The Churchman (September 1962)Google Scholar; the Lutheran journal Dialog (Spring 1963); Hitt, R. T. in Eternity (July 1963)Google Scholar; Farrell, F. in Christianity Today (13th September, 1963)Google Scholar; Journal of the Christian Brethren Research Fellowship (August 1965). F.G.B.M.F.I. has a series of five booklets giving testimonies of Spirit-baptism by Baptists (1963), Methodists (1963), Presbyterians (1963), Episcopalians (1964) and Attorneys (1965).

page 404 note 3 See my Baptism in the Holy Spirit (S.C.M. Press, 1970).

page 405 note 1 Lampe, G. W. H., The Seal of the Spirit 2 (1967), p. 306Google Scholar; cf. Ramsey, A. M., ‘The Doctrine of Confirmation’, Theology, 48 (1945), p. 194CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 405 note 2 ‘Once we have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a further step which is necessary to receive the full promise of God, and that is the acceptance of the Holy Spirit’ (Blessed Trinity Society pamphlet Why …).

page 405 note 3 See e.g. Robinson, H. W., The Christian Experience of the Holy Spirit (1928), p. 128Google Scholar.

page 405 note 4 Cf. Cullmann, O., Christ and Time (E.T.2 1962), p. 235fGoogle Scholar; Hamilton, N. Q., The Holy Spirit and Eschatology in Paul (1957), pp. 17–25.Google Scholar

page 406 note 1 Even in Acts 1.8 the context shows that the power is that of the Kingdom.

page 406 note 2 Torrey, Baptism, pp. 55ff; A. Murray, The Spirit of Christ (1888), p. 319f.

page 406 note 3 See e.g. Scott, E. F., The Spirit in the New Testament (1923)Google Scholar; Robinson, op. cit.; van Dusen, H. P., Spirit Son and Father (1960)Google Scholar; Hendry, G. S., The Holy Spirit in Christian Theology (revised edition 1965)Google Scholar; Younger, P, ‘A New Start Towards a Doctrine of the Spirit’, Canadian Journal of Theology, 13 (1967), pp. 123–133Google Scholar.

page 407 note 1 Christian Belief (1950), p. 56.

page 407 note 2 op. cit., p. 95.

page 407 note 3 TWNT, VI, p. 394.

page 407 note 4 See e.g. Brumback, op. cit., pp. 114, 191–203; Gee, The Pentecostal Movement, pp. 73f, 106f, 122; Kelsey, op. cit., p. 223f.