Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward Anglin
As an added conversation piece, let me ask this...
MissBrattified, you and I believe that repentance, baptism and Holy Ghost infilling are essential to the New Birth. Can we say that we are commanded to recieve the Holy Ghost?
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I don't know. The Bible says its a promise, a gift. I'm surprised when people don't receive the Holy Ghost. The biblical examples don't seem to leave anyone out or anyone at the altar frustrated because they haven't received the Holy Ghost--it leads me to believe that:
1. People are seeking signs instead of God (tongues), which has corrupted the authenticity of the process, and,
2. We are lacking the power of the first church.
Although, I know that there are a couple of places where people "tarried" until the Holy Ghost fell upon them. We can wonder and suppose and conjecture, would God have allowed them to be lost if they had all died before the Holy Ghost fell? And does that mean the Holy Ghost isn't essential? I believe God is more faithful than that.
I don't have all the answers. My husband didn't receive the Holy Ghost until well after he had been baptized, at home, by himself. Would I go so far as to say he would have been lost between baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost? I don't know. I think God is a just God, and judges people appropriately, even outside His own lines. He'll have mercy upon whom He will have mercy, but in the meantime, we should be following His commandments and the examples of the apostles to the best of our ability.
I don't believe we should look in the Bible and find loopholes for those who haven't received the Holy Ghost or been baptized, but rather, try to find out how we are to reach OUT to those who haven't received the Holy Ghost or been baptized.
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