Morning Moments

SO FAR!

In our consideration of ONLY ONE PENTECOST, we have made several observations from the Acts 2 text and have come to the following conclusions so far:

1. The Baptism of (in, with) the Holy Spirit did occur at Pentecost, just as John the Baptist had prophesied and Jesus had promised.
2. That Baptism placed all believers INTO the Body of Christ, which is The Church, of which He is the Head.
3. Those who were Baptized into the Body of Christ were also "filled" with the Holy Spirit.
4. The text indicates that they (apparently those filled) began to speak with other languages AS GOD GAVE THE UTTERANCE.
• There are some legitimate questions at this point that we may or may not be able to answer.
• They were ALL filled - does that indicate that who were Baptized?  I believe the answer to be yes and here is why - Paul teaches that "No man can confess Jesus as LORD, save by the Holy Spirit" and that, "If we confess Jesus as LORD, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the grave, we shall be saved".
• THAT indicates what has been called "LORDSHIP SALVATION", which is what the Bible teaches!  It is the LORDSHIP of Jesus Christ that is the issue throughout the New Testament.  (You may think I am putting the noose around my own neck here, but just keep reading:)  I think we can all agree, IF we approach the subject and follow the OBJECT together.
5. The questions that arise at this point are:
• Did everybody that was Baptized and filled speak in tongues?  We KNOW that they were ALL Baptized and ALL filled!
• The TEXT says, "...as the Spirit gave them utterance".  So, once again I ask, Did ALL who were Baptized and Filled speak?  In other words, Does the text emphasize that ALL were Baptized and Filled and/or that ALL spoke in other languages?  DON'T LET YOUR EXPERIENCE OF PRE-CONCEIVED IDEAS GET IN YOUR WAY HERE!
• THEN, did they all speak at the same time or only as "the Spirit gave them utterance"?  The text does say "as the Spirit gave them utterance" but does NOT say they all spoke at once.
• Did the Spirit give them ALL (120 or all that believed or only the Apostles, who were considered Galileans?) utterance (which indicates that the tongues were intelligible, rather that some ecstatic speech. 
• THINK ABOUT IT!  Regardless of the number speaking, whether 11, 120 or more, being able to understand anyone when everyone is speaking at the same time would be practically impossible (I KNOW that God could and can do the impossible)!  I am simply seeking to provoke thought here.
• WHAT was it that those who heard - HEARD?  They heard those who spoke SPEAK of the Mighty works of God - no some gibberish, not some prayer, and not some prophecy.  THAT is very important if we are going to understand that there was but ONE PENTECOST!
6. AGAIN, please understand that I am not questioning the spiritual gift of tongues of which Paul wrote, but I am questioning the use of the Pentecostal Experience phrase and theology by those who have neither had the experience nor have taken time to examine their experience in the light of the TEXT.  We shall get to the other later.  I am saying DO NOT USE PENTECOST TO JUSTIFY YOUR TONGUES EXPERIENCE UNLESS YOU HAVE HAD THE SAME AS WAS EXPERIENCED AT PENTECOST or you will confuse, divide, and disrupt the BODY OF CHRIST!
7. So, by isolating the Acts 2 text, we can only understand that what John Baptist prophesied and what Jesus had promised came true - The Baptism of (in, with because the Greek preposition is epsilon nu or ev), and that those who were so baptized were also filled with the Spirit.  We DO NOT know that ALL spoke, but we DO KNOW that ALL WHO SPOKE only spoke as the Sprit gave them utterance, not because someone had taught them to do it or because they read someone's instructions, which is the most absurd and ridiculous thing I have ever heard of.

Again, we shall continue!

BLESSINGS!