ECF's and Post Conversion Reception of the Spirit

[mizpeh]

Tertullian and Post Conversion Reception of the Holy Spirit
Terullian, in his treatise On Baptism, states quite clearly that "in the water, under (the witness of) the angel, we are cleansed and prepared for the Holy Spirit" (chaps. 5 and 6). "Thus, too, does the angel, the witness of baptism, 'make the paths straight' for the Holy Spirit, who IS ABOUT TO COME UPON US..." (chap. 6). He makes it very clear that the reception of the Gift of the Holy Spirit is post conversion (and water baptism). He further clarifies this when he says "Not that in the waters we obtain the Holy Spirit" (chap 5), but that "we are cleansed and prepared for the Holy Spirit" (op cit).


Hippolytus and Post Conversion Reception of the Holy Spirit

Immediately after water baptism, Hippolytus says in "The Apostolic Tradition" “the Bishop shall lay his hand upon them invoking and saying: ‘0 Lord God, who didst count these [thy servants] worthy of deserving the forgiveness of sins by the laver of regeneration, make them worthy to be filled with thy Holy Spirit and send upon them Thy grace, that they may serve Thee according to Thy will’” (22).


Cyprian and the Post Coversion Reception of the Holy Spirit

Only brief reference need be made to Cyprian since he says essentially the same thing as Tertullian in reference to baptism and the reception of the Holy Spirit. Cyprian writes in his Epistles about the situation of the Samaritans (Acts 8) who had “believed with a true faith” and had been baptized, and afterwards “prayer being made for them and hands being imposed, the Holy Spirit was poured out.” He adds that the same thing “now too is done among us, so that they who are baptized in the Church are brought to the prelates of the Church, and by our prayers and by the imposition of hands obtain the Holy Spirit, and are perfected with the Lord's seal” (72, 9). [http://www.renewaltheology.net/]




Cyprian said:

“…that those who have been dipped abroad outside the Church, and have been stained among heretics and schismatics with the taint of profane water, when they come to us and to the Church which is one, ought to be baptized, for the reason that it is a small matter to "lay hands on them that they may receive the Holy Ghost," unless they receive also the baptism of the Church. For then finally can they be fully sanctified, and be the sons of God, if they be born of each sacrament; since it is written, "Except a man be born again of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." For we find also, in the Acts of the Apostles, that this is maintained by the apostles, and kept in the truth of the saving faith, so that when, in the house of Cornelius the centurion, the Holy Ghost had descended upon the Gentiles who were there, fervent in the warmth of their faith, and believing in the Lord with their whole heart; and when, filled with the Spirit, they blessed God in divers tongues, still none the less the blessed Apostle Peter, mindful of the divine precept and the Gospel, commanded that those same men should be baptized who had already been filled with the Holy Spirit, that nothing might seem to be neglected to the observance by the apostolic instruction in all things of the law of the divine precept and Gospel” (Epistle LXXI- To Stephen [Bishop of Rome] )