Why Does God Give the Baptism of the Holy Ghost?

[Jack Shephard]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

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.

I don't agree totally with both these things. First tongues are a sign to the unbeliever the Bible says so looking for a sign is not a bad thing, perhaps they are looking for a different sign. Second is the power comes from the same source. They had the same HG we do, but I believe that perhaps they were more sensitive to it. When God fills us with the HG that is all the power we will get, IMO. However the closer we continue to get to Him does the power work more. Kinda like the possitive side and a negative side of a battery. The negative side has all the power it will get but when combined with the possitive side the power increasesm but not cause the negative side gained power, but because it combined with something of similar or greater power.