Repentance and Baptism

"And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve" (Acts 19:1-7). Here we see one of the detailed accounts in the book of Acts where it is broken down to us how it was that certain people came to be born again. Jesus made it clear that the new birth was about receiving the Spirit of God, and Paul nailed it down really tight when he said, "Now if any man have NOT the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Jn. 3:5; Rom. 8:9). The Pentecostal community of today has largely adopted the school of thought that a person RECEIVES the Spirit when they "get saved," and that they "come into the fullness of it" when they are baptized with the Spirit and speak in tongues. It is also called "two works of the Spirit." Well, I agree that there are two works of the Spirit, but those two works are 'being conceived' of the Spirit, and then being 'born' of the Spirit; just like it is with the natural birth. Romans 1:20 tells us that the creation is made in the likeness of the spiritual realities of God, so it's no coincidence that there is a sowing of seed and conception of life before one is actually born into this world. But let's get back to these men at Ephesus. The scripture says that they were 'disciples,' which means that they were following the true God as well as they knew how. They acknowledged that they had not as much as heard about the holy Ghost, so it is evident that they had not 'received' the Spirit. The reason they had not heard of the holy Ghost is because it is also evident that they had been instructed by Apollos, who was at Ephesus in the previous chapter, and of whom the scripture tells us; "This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John" (Acts 18:25).

These men that Paul found said that they were baptized with John's baptism, but Paul perceived that they had not heard of Jesus, or of the baptism of the Spirit that Jesus died and rose to administer. Somehow Apollos knew of the baptism of John WITHOUT knowing what John preached WHEN he baptized those who came to him, which simply was as follows: "I indeed have baptized you with water: but he [Jesus] shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost" (Mk. 1:8). The scripture also tells us that Apollos did get upgraded to the knowledge of Jesus and the baptism of the Spirit: "And he [Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly [completely]" (Acts 18:26). These disciples at Ephesus had obviously been instructed by Apollos BEFORE he learned of Jesus and the holy Ghost baptism that he baptizes with. Paul discerned that they were men of faith, and that is why he asked them if they had received the holy Ghost since they had BELIEVED. He was certainly aware that receiving the Spirit was and is the new birth experience, and he didn't want these men to miss out on it. Anyway, after Paul had baptized them in the name of Jesus [as he was still baptizing in water at that point, though he did cease from it afterward - I Cor. 1:17; Eph. 4:5], and laid his hands on them in prayer, they RECEIVED the holy Ghost AND they spoke with other tongues. What this clearly shows us is that RECEIVING the Spirit and being BAPTIZED with the Spirit are one and the same. It was that way at Pentecost, as Jesus had told his followers that they COULD NOT receive the holy Ghost until AFTER he went away; and Pentecost was after he went away (Jn. 16:7; Acts 1:4,5; Acts 2:4). This incident at Ephesus was well after Pentecost, which only demonstrates to us that God is an unchanging God, even as the scriptures declare to us plainly (Mal. 3:6; Jas. 1:17). God did not implement the new birth as the baptism of the Spirit and then change it at some point to something BEFORE one is baptized with the Spirit. Neither did he furnish the supernatural sign of speaking with other tongues to EVERYONE who received the holy Ghost at Pentecost, and then change that sign to 'no sign' at some point.

There is a sowing of seed [faith] spiritually as there is with conception in the natural realm, and there is the reality of that seed coming forth to the birth; as with the natural process of birth. The men at Ephesus already had faith in the true God, and that faith came forth to the birth the day that they met the apostle Paul. Nobody "got saved" first. Nobody "accepted Jesus as their personal savior," and nobody made a verbal confession of Jesus being the Lord. They BELIEVED ON Jesus with all their heart and the result was receiving, or being baptized with God's Spirit; even as Jesus said it would be (Jn. 7:37,38). To cause people to believe that they are born again and have the remission of their sins by means of these modern 'Christian' teachings, is both false and seriously damaging across the board. Jesus did not teach those things, and neither did his apostles. A lot of folks today try to insert the modern Christian teachings of "getting saved," etc., into the passages in Acts where it says that someone or many someones believed on Jesus, but there is no mention of them speaking with other tongues. The fact that Luke did not detail and break down in every case the whole process of HOW people received the Spirit when they believed on Jesus, and that they spoke with other tongues; is simply because he and everyone that he was writing to ALREADY KNEW how the process went. It would have been ridiculously redundant for him to have done so every time that he made mention that people believed on Jesus. No my friend, there simply is no place in the scriptures where these modern 'Christian' teachings on being born again, can be found. They have been invented by man, and they declare that God IS a changing God. What IS in the Bible about the new birth that Jesus died and rose to provide, is what we have seen expounded accurately and honestly FROM the Bible here today. If we want to go where the holy Ghost is trying to lead God's people, we need to get on God's program; and OFF of Christianity's program (Jn. 16:13; Rom. 8:14). Of course if we decide that we "love the praise of men more than the praise of God," we do have the option of sticking with Christianity's erroneous program (Jn. 12:43). Amen.