It seems that you are confusing the receiving of the Holy Spirit with the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Biblically, I don’t see these events to be the one and the same event. Can you explain\u00a0yourself? In the book of Acts, apostle Peter says to the listeners to repent, to be baptized and then they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This tells me that it will happen in the future, the verb is at the future tense – you WILL receive. It is a\u00a0succession of events. This principle is also supported by other passages from the book of Acts such as the Christians from Samaria, the house of Cornelius, the disciples of John the Baptist from Ephesus. When I read these texts, I understand that the receiving of the Holy Spirit occurs after repentance, after the new birth.<\/em><\/p>\n Though, the man is baptized with the Holy Spirit when he receives Him, he is also then born above, the new birth being a birth of the Spirit (John 3). Therefore, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the receiving of the Holy Spirit and the new birth are events that coincide in time. The confusion, in my opinion, is because of the\u00a0misunderstanding of the word “baptism” used in the book of Acts.<\/p>\n We have to mention that in this text, the apostle Peter speaks to the people who, during the three and a half years were\u00a0witnesses of\u00a0everything the Lord Jesus did and spoke. But they did not receive His message and did not believe in Him. After the apostle Peter’s sermon, these people were\u00a0pierced to the heart and believed in the Lord Jesus, whom they\u00a0condemned to death 50 days before (it was an obligation for all Jews to come to Jerusalem to worship God three times a year: at the Passover, at the day of Pentecost and at\u00a0the Feast of Booths). Peter specifies to them that they have to repent and “to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ\u00a0for the forgiveness of their sins”<\/strong>\u00a0and then they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Also the apostle Peter in his first epistle (1 Peter 3:21) writes that the baptism is not\u00a0a\u00a0\u00a0removal of dirt from the flesh, but\u00a0an appeal to God\u00a0for a\u00a0good conscience, i.e. the man testifies that through repentance he has cleaned his conscience. If we return to the text from Acts 2:38-41, it says that, in that day, there\u00a0were added about three thousand\u00a0souls.<\/p>\n Peter\u00a0said\u00a0to them, \u201cRepent, and each of you be\u00a0baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0For\u00a0the promise is for you and your children and for all who are\u00a0far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0And with many other words he solemnly\u00a0testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, \u201cBe saved from this\u00a0perverse generation!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand\u00a0souls. Acts 2:38-41 During those times, there was a cult of public baths in Israel. We have returned from Israel recently. Being there, you begin to understand differently many things. In all the old towns (the fortress ruins) there are many public baths. After they went to the market, the Jews would bathe lest they touched something unclean in the market without realizing and not to remain unclean. There was a bath at the basement of the Temple, and people who came to worship at the Temple, would\u00a0go downstairs and after having taken a\u00a0bath and changed their clothes, they would\u00a0climb another set of stairs (to avoid touching people who did not clean yet). In this way, the Hebrew principle of cleaning by water was formed. That’s why the Apostle Peter mentions that the baptism with water is not a removal of dirt from the flesh.<\/p>\n If we look at the Samaritans’ case (Acts 8) and at the case of the disciples of John the Baptist from Ephesus (Acts 9), we see that those who believed, were first baptized in water in the name of the Lord Jesus and then the Holy Spirit fell upon them. In the case of the house of Cornelius the things went\u00a0conversely: they believed first the message of the Gospel, received the Holy Spirit and then were baptized with water.<\/p>\n While Peter was still speaking these words,\u00a0the Holy Spirit fell <\/strong>upon all those who were listening to the\u00a0message.\u00a0All the\u00a0circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out<\/strong> on the Gentiles also.\u00a0For they were hearing them\u00a0speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, \u201cSurely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who\u00a0have received the Holy Spirit<\/strong> just as we\u00a0did, can he?\u201d The events described in Acts chapter 10 happened about 10 years after the death and the\u00a0resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Till then, the Jews thought that the salvation is just for them, the God’s chosen people (Exodus 19). Cornelius and his house were the first from the Gentiles who received the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n Because the Jews were looking at the Gentiles like at something unclean and did not have any connection with them, Peter, when he returned to Jerusalem, had to give an explanation to the Jews why he entered the house of Cornelius. Apostle Peter makes a conclusion to what happened there, and\u00a0it is clear that the receiving of the Holy Spirit, the falling of the Holy Spirit and the baptism with the Holy Spirit are different ways of\u00a0expression the one and the same event:<\/p>\n \u00a0And as I began to speak,\u00a0the Holy Spirit fell<\/strong> upon them just\u00a0as\u00a0He did\u00a0upon us at the beginning.\u00a0And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say,\u00a0\u2018John baptized with water, but you will be baptized\u00a0with the Holy Spirit<\/strong>.\u2019\u00a0Therefore if\u00a0God gave to them the same gift<\/strong> as\u00a0He gave\u00a0to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ,\u00a0who was I that I could\u00a0stand in God\u2019s way?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0When they heard this, they\u00a0quieted down and\u00a0glorified God, saying, \u201cWell then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the\u00a0repentance\u00a0that leads\u00a0to life.\u201d<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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<\/em><\/p>\nIn Acts 2:38-41 the apostle Peter refers to the baptism with water, not to the baptism with the Holy Spirit<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nActs 10:44-47<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nActs 11:15-18<\/p><\/blockquote>\n