Two Classes Of Christians In The Pentecostal View Of Spirit Baptism -- By: David Q. Santos

Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 21:63 (Autumn 2017)
Article: Two Classes Of Christians In The Pentecostal View Of Spirit Baptism
Author: David Q. Santos


Two Classes Of Christians In The Pentecostal View Of Spirit Baptism

David Q. Santos

* David Q. Santos, M.A., M.T.S., Ph.D., advising professor, Tyndale Theological Seminary and Biblical Institute; and, teacher, Langell Valley Community Church, Bonanza, Oregon

First Corinthians 12:12–13 (NKJV) — 12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

The aim of this article is to provide an exegetical and theological study of Spirit baptism, and also to critique Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave’s Foundations of Pentecostal Theology.1 The book of 1 Corinthians is a corrective letter to a divided church. In this epistle, Paul sought to correct error that had arisen in the church. Key to his effort was to bring unity to the believers there. He was not seeking an ecumenical “anything goes” unity for the sake of getting along; rather, he wanted those followers to be united on the important things of the faith.

He spent many chapters defining their error and pointing them to love for one another and maintaining a pure faith and fellowship based upon what they have been taught (4:6). In chapter twelve, verses twelve and thirteen are an appeal to unity by using the analogy of a single body that has many parts, which is a picture that Paul used in other books as well (cf. Rom 12:3–6). The other theme used here is that of there being no classes among Christians (Gal 3:28; Col 3:11). In Galatians and Colossians it is clear that being a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free man, even man or woman is not relevant to one’s position in the body of Christ.

The first epistle to the church of Corinth brings in a unique aspect to the unity of having no classes; it is explained here that each believer is baptized by the Spirit as a function that brings the believer into the body of Christ. As each one enters into the body of Christ, being part of the church,

they are unified with every other believer as part of that new creation. As one examines all the Scriptural references to the phenomena of being baptized by the Spirit, it becomes apparent that the New Testament uses the same grammat...

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