How many times did you ask God for the Holy Ghost?

noeticknight · #10 05-30-2010, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mizpeh

I'm assuming that Philip preached the same things that Peter preached and therefore Philip would have taught on the baptism of the Spirit with the sign of speaking with other tongues. When the Spirit wasn't given they sent for the apostles who came to them, prayed for them with the laying on of hands, and then they received the Spirit.

Were the Apostles "tongue doctors," or were they just believing that God would pour out His Spirit if they ministered to the people? Yes, I believe it is complete and total assumption to assert that they were expecting them to speak in tongues as a universal sign.

Quote:

We don't just go by the smallest common denominator that we find in all of the conversions and preaching messages found in the book of Acts, which would be faith in Christ, and say "this is what we must do to be saved", but we have to take everything into account.

What do the epistles teach us of salvation? Shouldn't this doctrine of applying the "highest uncommon denominator" to all people for all time have another witness in the didactic portions of the Word?

Quote:

...14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: 15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: 16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) 17 Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

So you believe that it was the author's intent here to portray the Apostles as "spiritual scientists" conferring back and forth as to who was saved and who wasn't? Could it be a possibility that the author was parenthetically giving a narrative account from a perspective of recollection? Why assume that the Apostles "expected" a sign of tongues? And even if one reasons that they did expect some manifestation to occur, why assume the Samaritans unsaved?