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3.2 ACOP’s Response to the Schisms
Respond to ONE of the following questions in a paragraph:
- The ACOP Statement of Faith indicates that the initial evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. Jesus spoke of other signs of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in Mark 16 and Acts 1. What are some of those signs and why are they important to the Pentecostal Movement?
- Some early Pentecostals believed that the proper formula for water baptism was "in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ". Why did these early Pentecostals also change their beliefs about the Godhead?
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21 Replies
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Jesus spoke of other signs of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, not just that which we consider the initial evidence (speaking in tongues). These would include empowered witness, casting out demons, picking up serpents, healing of the sick, protection from poisoning. These are important as the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not given just to be a gimmicky experience whereby we identify ourselves, but on ongoing experience of empowerment to do the works he did and thus be His witness. These evidences are thus ongoing signs or perpetual evidence that the Spirit is in fact present and at work in an ongoing way through the believer who has received this baptism.
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The signs mentioned in Mark are casting out demons’ speaking in new tongues, not getting hurt, and healing the sick by the laying on of hands. As Pentecostals, we have too often hung out hats on the speaking in tongues at the expense of the other signs. In the book of Acts, boldness was a sign of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and I would suggest that unless we see the evidence of boldness, all else is useless. Speaking in tongues was and is used as a way to share the gospel with the world around us. Laying on of hands, casting out demons, boldness, walking in the power and freedom of knowing we will not get hurt as we share the Gospel, to me, are greater signs of the power of Holy Spirit working in us than speaking in tongues.
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The signs that follow the baptism of the Holy Spirit usually ,
1 . Speaking in tongues.
2. Casting out devils
3. The Empowerment to preach the Gospel and healing the sick.
These are some evidence of the miracle and signs of the Holy Spirit power operating within a person. To demonstrate, the tangible evidence of the power of Jesus Christ ( Trinue God Head).
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One of the other signs of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was healing the sick, this is an important sign as it is something that cannot logically be explained outside of a miraculous intervention. This is one of the ways that people who have yet to know the Lord can tangibly see and experience his power
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