The Baptism of Fire in the Early Church

 

                                                                     Introduction: 

Somewhat related to my previous discussions on water baptism, many Pentecostal Christians affirm that after we convert to Christianity, we must still receive the Holy Spirit. The modern Pentecostal movement which originated in modern times (as did Evangelicalism for the record), seeks to understand the role of the Holy Spirit in Christian's lives. Nevertheless, is this view Biblical? 

While the modern Pentecostal movement largely originated only as late as the early twentieth century, elements of their beliefs have been shared by both the ancient Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Thus, the issue is not so much that the Pentecostal movement is a modern one, but rather if its teachings originated later in history. Indeed, evangelicalism was largely a movement that followed the Great Awakening. While some evangelicals may wish to think otherwise, every historian knows well that evangelicalism cannot be traced back to the ancient church, while both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions can be. 

John the Baptist was aware of the distinction between his baptism and the one that would follow from the Holy Spirit (John 1:33, Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8). In Matthew 3:11, along with Luke 3:16, the bold evangelist calls the forthcoming baptism of the Spirit to be one of fire. Acts 1:5 and Acts 11:6 further confirm that the early Christians now received a different baptism than the one performed by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. 

The Holy Spirit changed the formation of believers at Pentecost. Before this great event, believers in Christ were still part of the old Jewish religion. However, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit. forever separated Christianity from Judaism. Indeed, Acts 2 informs us that the Spirit of God was poured out upon the believers in Jerusalem. Likewise, after receiving the baptism of the Spirit, the early believers began to speak in tongues (more on that later). For now, it is important for us to understand the great significance between John's Baptism and the Holy Spirit's Baptism. The former preached of repentance. However, it was the latter that gave the Paraclete friend promised by Jesus (John 15:26). 

The work of the Holy Spirit hardly ended with the first twelve apostles. Later, in 1 Corinthians 12:13, Paul the Apostle speaks of Christians being baptized into the Spirit. The context of the passage is clear, Paul is affirming that we receive the Holy Spirit after water baptism. In short, this provides a problem for the Pentecostal view that both conversion and water baptism are not enough to receive the Holy Spirit. Nothing in scripture confirms their view that we must speak in tongues to receive the benefits of the Holy Spirit. That said, it is still an open discussion in these posts on whether or not such gifts ceased in the early church. 

As I have formerly explained, the baptism of John the Baptist was a unique event from Holy Spirit Baptism. The former ended (Acts 19), while the latter (Acts 2), shall remain with the church until Jesus's return (Revelation 19). In the following posts, I will set out to discuss what parts of the New Testament gits still remain relevant to us today. In the second part of this post, I wish to simply demonstrate historical problems with the Cessationist point of view. 

                                             Signs and Sensations in the Early Church

Although many Cessationists love to think of themselves as orthodox Christians, the roots of the rejection of miracles and visions originated with both Martin Luther and John Calvin. Calvin came to reject all of these concepts as he felt that the Roman Catholic Church used them to support its institution as being the one true church. Reacting to abuse by making another abuse, however, is not the way to go. In short, those who propose Cessationism are saying that it took until the sixteenth century for the church to get its doctrine right in this regard. Considering this, it is extremely arrogant that anyone would be a Cessationist. Are they so arrogant as to believe that for 1500 years no one understood the passages of scripture in relation to tongues, visions, and prophecy better than them? 

Today, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, many Anglicans, and some Presbyterians affirm Contnuinaist principles. Throughout history, both Catholics and Orthodox affirmed some of the principles of the Holy Spirit taught by Pentecostals long before the rise of the modern pentecostal movement. 

From the earliest of times, Christians believed in unique divine visions. In The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, Perpetua had visions of both her and her companions joining Christ after martyrdom. Likewise, she also had a vision of her dead brother being in a place of suffering. After praying for him, she later had another vision that he went to be with the Lord. Justin Martyr (second century) once said in his Dialogue with Trypho, ''For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to the present time.'' 

But were Perpetua and Justin Martyr unique examples of early Christianity to the belief that the New Testament gifts were still relevant after the apostles. Hardly, indeed they were not the only Christians who bore witness to both miracles and special signs after the original apostles had deceased. 

During the night before the battle at Milvian Bridge, the future Roman emperor, Constantine, claimed to have seen a cross in the sky. To his soldiers, this was a sign from God of their upcoming victory. 

John Chrysostom, the famous Greek church father, believed that tongues had ceased by his time. He seemed to have been, at the least, a partial cessationist. * 

While believing that tongues no longer existed in his time, Augustine did believe that miracles still happened as he expounded in chapters eight and nine of Book XII in The City of God. For example, he believed that God miraculously healed people of illnesses. In these passages from The City of God, Augustine reports a cross that appeared over a sick person.  Throughout his sermons on Perpetua, he was never critical of her visions, and never insinuated that they were either fake or mere dreams. According to Michael Green, a scholar of early Christianity, Augustine was a Cessationist until the composition of The City of God. 

While many of the later medievals, did not believe that they had the unique practice of speaking in tongues that the early church had, they did not believe that the power of tongues had ceased. Rather, they now understood it to be when Christians speak in known languages, as Aquinas expounded upon in his writings. Likewise, many of the medieval mystics claimed to have divine visions of the Virgin Mary, of future eschatological events, and warnings of judgment. 

Part of the problem is that John Macarthur and his cult followers think that his interpretation of scripture is essentially the only one that matters. To them, he overrides all past church councils, ancient fathers, medieval fathers, and early Christian literature. Ironically, Macarthur is not a Greek scholar. He never received an education in Biblical languages besides a few courses in his Mdiv. Likewise, his doctorate is a fake one. Furthermore, he has never demonstrated knowledge of either church history or the historical contexts of the first century in any of his writings. While denying that anyone can be infallible, many of his followers have made him their ''pope'', even if they lack the use of that word. They arrogantly preach that Catholics aren't Christians, they arrogantly preach that the Pentecostal movement is akin to ''strange fire'' and they arrogantly conclude that they alone have it right. 

This post on Baptism of Fire is an introduction to my upcoming series on the Gifts of the Spirit in the New Testament, and whether or not those gifts were taught in scripture to still be relevant for us. 

*As would be expected, some Cessationists are less extreme than others. Augustine of Hippo was hardly a Pentecostal Christian, yet he was not quick to reject all perceived miracles as the later John Calvin was.