Kolten Turner Discussion Questions

1. What do you think was Bird's strongest point in his explanation of the "baptism of the Holy Spirit"? What was Anderson's?
Bird declares, "As to being filled with the Spirit, I maintain that whereas Spirit baptism is a singular, initiatory, and unrepeatable event, filling with the Spirit is a secondary and repeatable experience in the Christian life." He explains Spirit baptism as the "initial experience of the Holy Spirit that denotes the rushing and uncontrollable divine power falling on a person at their conversion." He quotes Paul in saying, "For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body--whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink". He then goes on to explain that Paul says this to a group where not everyone spoke in tongues. He continues on to exclaim that for Paul, "it is the Spirit who marks the beginning of the Christian life, and the Spirit makes a person a child of God." I agree with Bird's assessment of the Holy Spirit baptism. I've never truly understood the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and always thought that within Pentecostals circles it was referred to very flippantly. It only makes sense to me that the Spirit would descend upon every believer at conversion just as He did Jesus during His baptism, but He can choose when, where, and who to continuously fill for the purpose of His work.

2. What have been the blessings/drawbacks of the Pentecostal/charismatic movement?
I grew up in an Assemblies of God church. Although not near as charismatic as some others that I've seen, there is definitely Pentecostal background at the foundation of the church. Because of this charismatic movement, I believe the church has learned how to communicate with God again on a personal level. The charismatic movement focused largely on the hearing, seeing, and feeling God while other denominations may have lacked in their understanding of the presence of Holy Spirit. However, because of the rapid and enormous amount of focus put on feeling God and seeing His work through the Holy Spirit, the charismatic church has long forgotten the role of theology in their faith. It's been enough for them to feel God and see Him work, and they've forgotten that it's extremely important to learn about history, theology, and tradition within the church. The charismatic church relies much to heavily of the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal to them what they need to know about God and gospel, when in reality, God has given us the material and resources to understand what He would allow us to understand and they've squandered that blessing.

1. Anderson's strongest argument.
I forgot this portion of the question, but I believe his most significant argument is summed up in this passage, "All that is needed to clarify the Pentecostal understanding of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and its relationship to other schools of thought is the fact Pentecostals do not believe all power and gifting for ministry occur only after the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Non-pentecostals are certainly spiritually enabled for ministry. But the baptism in the Holy Spirit confers dramatically more power for ministry, especially in the supernatural realm of miracles, signs and wonders; ministries that promote the apostolic missionary call to plant the church and minister in the supernatural. This additional power, enablement through spiritual gifts and passion, is added along with the miraculous and spiritually profitable practice of speaking in tongues; first for personal edification, and when interpreted, for public edification."