Baptism

Broadcaster

Are You Born Again?

by John David Clark, Sr. - April, 1989

You have been warned by some of the biggest names in Christianity not to listen to this. You have been told that it isn't true, that it is the figment of someone's imagination. Whenever this truth is referred to by one of Christianity’s television ministers, it is disparaged as evil. You have been told that those of us who teach this are false prophets and deceivers. But I tell you that the false prophets and deceivers are those who will not tell you this truth for fear of losing their position and their prestige. The truth challenges. It corrects. It warns. And the proud will have no part of it.

It is absolutely clear from the Scriptures that the baptism of the holy Ghost is the experience which places one into God’s family. When a person is born of the Spirit of God, he is then (not before, not sometime later) a member of the body of Christ. "For by one Spirit", Paul wrote, "are we all BAPTIZED INTO ONE BODY" (1Cor. 12:13). We were "BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST", Paul told the Romans. And to the saints in Galatia Paul plainly taught, "For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). Paul would have been ridiculed by Christian ministers today, even most Pentecostal ones.

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST IS THE NEW BIRTH.

Non-Pentecostal Christians can see that Pentecostal doctrine on Spirit baptism is indefensible and that the Scriptures clearly say that the baptism of the holy Ghost is the experience of new birth. But, strangely, non-Pentecostals deny the reality of it, teaching that speaking in tongues is not for today. So, in Christianity, this is what you have (if you want it): non-Pentecostal denominations teach that one must receive the baptism of the holy Ghost, yet do not have it themselves, while Pentecostal denominations teach that one need not receive the holy Ghost baptism, yet they have it! Talk about confusion! Those with the holy Ghost deny it, and those without it preaching its necessity! What could possibly be more bizarre than that? Christianity is a Babylon of contradictions.

THE NEW BIRTH IS THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST WITH THE EVIDENCE OF SPEAKING IN OTHER TONGUES, AS THE SPIRIT GIVES THE UTTERANCE.

This is really the issue. Does everyone who is baptized with the holy Ghost speak in tongues when he is baptized? I am persuaded by the Scriptures and by experience to believe that every person who receives the holy Ghost speaks in tongues when he receives it. In this regard, I stand with the Pentecostal/charismatic community. It has been a hallmark of Pentecostal teaching for much more than my life-time that the "initial evidence" of receiving the holy Ghost is speaking in other tongues, as the Spirit gives the utterance (cp. Acts 2:4). What I cannot comprehend is, why do Spirit-baptized people teach that a person is born again before being baptized with Spirit? One friend of mine, an Assembly of God minister, finally admitted that, yes, the baptism was the new birth in the Bible. "But it's changed now", he added. Maybe I'm looking at it wrongly, but being told that God has changed His plan of conversion just isn't good enough for me. If conversion is not still just as Jesus described it to Nicodemus, if it's not the way that Paul described it to the saints in Galatia, Corinth, and Rome, then where and who is the man to whom the new revelation came?

Speaking of the precious, blood-bought baptism of the holy Ghost, wise Peter was inspired to write that "baptism doth also now save us" (1Pet.3:21). How is it, then, that my pentecostal brothers teach that a man "gets saved" before he is baptized with it? If the apostle Paul's sins were washed away, not on the Damascus Road, but when by the laying on of Ananias' hands he received the holy Ghost (Acts 9:17; 22:16), will someone–anyone!--in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement please explain to me by what authority do you teach now that a man’s sins are washed away BEFORE receiving the holy Ghost? Will somebody out there please help me to understand your teaching? The separation of baptism from the new birth by modern Pentecostals is one of the most puzzling and indefensible developments in the history of religion. But who is questioning it? Who is asking why so many ministers of God's people now teach one thing and the Scriptures so very plainly teach another?

Where are the inquisitive minds? Where is the questioner? Where is the Bible student? Are they all robots, programmed to think only what Christian teachers tell them? Can they not see? Can they not read? Can they not think?

Where is the good spirit of my people, who once forsook the familiar haunts of sin to follow Christ? Who has taken away their life, so that they are like the dumb idols their fathers worshiped? Who is he that so boldly tells them lies in my name? I am the Lord.

Do I not know? Am I blind as you are? Do not I see? Do your delusions confuse me? Or am I another one of your slaves? Answer me!

Hallelujah! And thank you, Lord Jesus, for speaking through me to your precious, precious flock. Oh, friends, where is your first love? that love of seeing the truth? that first willingness to be wrong, to be corrected, to receive reproof, to hear the voice of the Spirit? Don't be intimidated by a man's appearance. He is just one more helpless pilgrim, just like the rest of us. He, too, will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Don't be afraid to ask the hard questions. Your soul's destiny is far too important for you to fail to ask the hard questions or to fear to know a man's authority to teach the things he is teaching. Your eternal destination will be determined by who and what you believe. Clearly, then, we must study to know what the Bible says and to listen to see if what we are being taught is in harmony with the Scriptures. Please do that. By all means do that.