Theology Questions: Carson Bledsoe

1) What do you think was Bird’s strongest point in his explanation of “baptism in the Spirit”? What was Anderson’s strongest point?

Bird gives a thorough argument for why baptism of the Holy Spirit coincides with salvation in Evangelical Theology. I believe his most compelling argument is stated on page 636 in which he describes Paul’s meeting with John the Baptist’s disciples in Acts 19. Bird makes the claim that when the disciples here say they did not receive the Holy spirit after first believing, they had not yet been saved. According to Bird, this was because the baptism they knew of, John’s baptism, was for repentance and preparation for the coming of Jesus. Following this, Paul tells them to believe in Jesus after which they received the Holy Spirit. If John’s disciples were not properly saved before meeting Paul, this lends credence to baptism in the Spirit being coterminous with salvation.

Anderson, in his article, makes many great points related to the Pentecostal position on baptism of the Holy Spirit and its many fractured sides. I believe the strongest point made in this piece in regards to a subsequent baptism, as opposed to a baptism at salvation, is the effectiveness of the Pentecostal church at reaching people around the world. Towards the end of the article Anderson lists many statistics that show Pentecostal churches and people appear to have grown much more quickly than other Christian groups. This, I believe, is a strong case for a subsequent baptism, thought it is not straight from the Bible, as this is quantifiable and “scientific” data that shows the effectiveness of those empowered by a subsequent baptism in the Holy Spirit.

2)Do you think we should worship the Holy Spirit?

Absolutely. If we believe that God exists as a trinity, and we worship the Father and His son Jesus Christ, then why shouldn’t we also worship the third part of the trinity, the Holy Spirit? All three of persons of the trinity worked together to win our salvation. We worship Jesus because he took our punishment and rose from the grave so that we could not only be with God when we die, but have new life now. We worship the Father because he sent His son to die for us. We should then also worship the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, allowing us to have new life here. One of my newest and all time favorite quotes is from Bird in this chapter where he states “The Spirit is why we have a relationship with God and not simply a religion about God.” God’s Holy Spirit is what allows us to have a personal relationship with God, one of the crowning differences between Christianity and all other religions.

Great comments and discussion, Carson!

Concerning Bird and Anderson's differing views on Spirit Baptism I can see the "scientific data" argument concerning Pentecostal churches with missions. The numbers are quite amazing and it's likely to do with Spirit Baptism. I tend to see the strength of both cases yet I side with Anderson.

Concerning if we should worship the Holy Spirit it seems like the it is implicitly true. I feel like the bible doesn't mention explicit worship of Holy Spirit, but He does have the divine qualities of God. So by that line of logic we worship God, the Holy Spirit is God so we worship the Holy Spirit! I think this is a fun thing to talk about and fiddle with in Scripture.