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Choose Your Baptism (Endnotes)

1. There are about 50 places in Acts and the Epistles where there is no article “the” used before the words “holy spirit.” In nearly every such instance, the “holy spirit” referred to is the gift, not the Giver. Close

2. For a complete look at the relationship among the Church Epistles, see E. W. Bullinger, The Church Epistles. (Eyre and Spottiswoode, England, 1906). Close

3. The Greek text literally reads, “in one spirit.” This refers to the one gift of holy spirit into which each Christian has been fully immersed. However, most Bible versions read as does the NIV: “by one Spirit.” This is the common instrumental use of the dative case, and it is also a legitimate translation of this phrase. But if the word “Spirit” is capitalized and translated as referring to a person, that person is Jesus Christ, our baptizer. We can biblically document that Jesus is referred to as “the Spirit” in 2 Corinthians 3:17 (“Now the Lord [Jesus] is the Spirit…”) and in Revelation 2:7 (“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit [Jesus, as per 1:12-19] says to the churches.”). Technically, “in one spirit” and “by one spirit” are both correct, and one reading from the Greek text would see this. This is the figure of speech called Amphibologia, or double entendre, when one phrase has two meanings. Close

4. See our book, The Gift of Holy Spirit: The Power to be Like Christ, p. 34. Close

5. Many charismatic Christians properly recognize that there are times when they seem to be “tapped into” God’s power in a greater than average way. This often happens in witnessing, teaching, or ministering healing. Sadly, this genuine experience gets mislabeled as “the anointing.” Biblically speaking, each and every Christian is “anointed” with the gift of holy spirit at the moment of his new birth, and there is no further “anointing” mentioned in the Church Epistles. What then is the experience that is genuinely occurring in Christians’ lives when they are supernaturally empowered? 1 Corinthians 12:6 says: “There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” The words “working” and “works” are the Greek words energema (noun) and energeo (verb), which refer to the spiritual energizing each Christian can experience. The Lord Jesus does indeed “energize” Christians via the gift of holy spirit, and because that is the vocabulary God uses in His Word, our using the same vocabulary will help us become united in our beliefs. Close