Baptism is the rite of Christian initiation. In Romans 6, Paul made it clear that it is the rite of justification by grace through faith. Baptism is not the enemy of repentance or faith or conversion - it is a partner. In the New Testament it is the covenant sign between God's grace and man's response (reaction). There is only ONE baptism (Eph. 4: 5).
There are three aspects of the introduction that must be present for the Christian introduction to be complete. All three aspects do not have to happen at the same time or in the same order. But all are necessary.
There are only 7 references to baptism with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. All these mentions describe - with no exceptions - how someone becomes a Christian. John baptized people to repent, but Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit. That's what God did at Pentecost and has always done since then. Nowhere in the New Testament does the phrase baptism in or with the Holy Spirit be used to describe the equipment of those with special power who are already Christians. It is always used as a figurative phrase of how to become a Christian at all.
The references are:
Mark. 1: 8 - parallel places are in Matth. 3: 11; Luk. 3: 16; Joh. 1: 33
Acts 1: 5 - where Jesus shows the contrast between John's pre-Christian baptism and his own baptism in the Holy Spirit, and promises a quick fulfillment that happened at Pentecost.
Acts 11:16 - this refers back to it (see above) and is again clearly introductory.
1. Corinthians 12:13 – makes it clear that it is the Spirit that first baptizes someone into Christ.
At every baptism, 4 has general principles that are effective:
The Christian conversion has three faces and they do not necessarily show up all at once.
Not only does conversion have three faces, it also has three phases:
This website contains a diverse selection of Christian literature in German. Translation of the website by Google Translate.