From the past messages in the last issue, we have seen what the baptism in the Holy Spirit is. It is simply Christ putting His Body into the Spirit, which means into Himself. He did this once for all. Of course, according to the record of the book of Acts, He did it in two parts. The first part was accomplished on the day of Pentecost to the Jewish believers, and the second part in the house of Cornelius to the Gentile believers. Only these two cases in the Bible are called the baptism in the Spirit. All the other cases are an experience of the baptism which was upon the Body already. They received it by the transmission from the Body through the representing members of the Body.
We have also seen that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is an accomplished fact. It was done once and for all, just as the other steps taken by Christ. The incarnation is an accomplished fact; likewise the crucifixion and resurrection. By reading 1 Peter 1:3, we see that the resurrection of Christ was accomplished once for all. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This word clearly tells us that all saints have been begotten by God through the resurrection of Christ. This does not mean that whenever a child of God is to be born again, Christ must be resurrected again. The one resurrection of Christ is sufficient. Regenerations are many, but the resurrection of Christ is only one. In the same way, the experiences of the baptism are many, but the baptism in the Holy Spirit was once for all. All the steps taken by Christ to accomplish God’s purpose were done once for all.
Another point we must see is that the Spirit baptism and the water baptism are two aspects of one thing. The Spirit baptism is the reality, and the water baptism is the expression. The expression without the reality means nothing. Romans 6 tells us clearly that we are baptized into Christ by being buried with Him in baptism. Some say that Romans 6 refers to water baptism; others say that it refers to the Spirit baptism. However, in the normal situation the water baptism should be the expression of the Spirit baptism. Comparatively speaking, the Spirit baptism is much, much more than the water baptism. One is the reality, the other is the expression. If the expression is just a form, it means nothing. We do believe that in the pure Word the reality of baptism is of the Spirit; but we do need an expression, as seen in water baptism, to express the reality of immersion in the Holy Spirit.
There are many concepts regarding the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and many divisions have been created by all these concepts. The biggest issue is caused by the so-called Pentecostal Christians. They are mainly of two schools. The first says that if you do not speak in tongues, you are not regenerated. Of course, this is altogether erroneous. We do know of a good number of spiritual giants who never spoke in tongues. The second school says that if you do not speak in tongues, you have not experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. To say this also neglects history. What about C. H. Spurgeon and D. L. Moody? Do you believe men like them did not have the baptism? Yet they never spoke in tongues.
The greatest revival in this century took place in Wales at the first of the century. The leader of this revival was a man by the name of Evan Roberts. The revival was so prevailing that all the people of Wales believed in the Lord. Yet there was no speaking in tongues. Does this mean that they did not have the baptism in the Spirit? Evan Roberts later worked with Jessie Penn-Lewis, who was absolutely against the so-called Pentecostal movement. There are many spiritual giants in history who had the impact, yet never spoke in tongues. This proves that the second school is also wrong.
Those in the Pentecostal movement insist that all have to speak in tongues. But according to the Bible, this is absolutely not so. Some speak in tongues, and some do not. This is the proper revelation we have from the Scriptures. To say that speaking in tongues is over is too much, but to say that everyone must speak in tongues is also too much. This forces people to bring forth an imitation of human manufacture. It is hard for people to believe that this kind of human-manufactured tongue is genuine. Speaking in tongues is supposed to be miraculous. If this is so, why do we have to learn to speak? If we must learn to speak, that is not miraculous. Balaam’s donkey in the Old Testament certainly did not learn to speak the human language. That was absolutely miraculous; it was the genuine tongue. Do you believe that Peter and John and all the others on the day of Pentecost learned to speak in tongues? So many tongue speakers say that you must turn your jaw and exercise your tongue, saying something like, “Praise Jesus,” very fast. Should the children of the Lord believe this kind of thing?
To say that everyone must speak in tongues will surely discourage and disappoint some of the saints. Some could never speak in tongues, even in a manufactured way. Yet they can believe in the Lord Jesus and they can praise the Lord. This is why the so-called Pentecostal movement has caused so much division. We must learn to be genuine. We are not opposing any genuine tongues. As long as they do not insist that everyone must speak in tongues, we must be open to them. We should not oppose, but they should not impose. Several times in the meetings of the churches some people have spoken in tongues and even gave the interpretation, but we did not stop them. We must take such a general outlook in order to include all the believers. A local church is all-inclusive. But we would ask the tongue-speaking saints not to impose and insist that tongue speaking is a must.