Baptized in the Spirit : A Global Pentecostal Theology

by Frank D. Macchia

• ISBN13: 9780310252368
• ISBN10: 0310252369
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-01
• Publisher: Harpercollins Christian Pub

Summary

Baptized in the Spirit creatively examines the most recent trends in Pentecostal and charismatic theology, especially with regard to the displacement of Spirit baptism as Pentecostalism's central distinctive. The author begins by focusing on the significance of the Holy Spirit in reciprocal and mutual work with the Son in fulfilling the will of the Father. He also shows how the pneumatological emphases in Pentecostal and charismatic theology can help to correct the tendency in Western Christianity to subordinate the Spirit to the Word.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	9	(2)
Introduction: Framing the Issue	11	(8)
Spirit Baptism and Pentecostal Theology: Returning to Our Central Distinctive	19	(42)
Is Spirit Baptism the Central Pentecostal Distinctive?	20	(8)
From Sanctification to Spirit Baptism: Early Fragmentation	28	(5)
Spirit Baptism and Doctrinal Diversity: The Developing Challenge	33	(5)
From Spirit Baptism to Eschatology: Towards Coherence	38	(11)
From Spirit Baptism to Oral Theology: The Challenge of Theological Method	49	(8)
Postscript: The Unfinished Business of Pentecostal Theology	57	(4)
The Kingdom and the Power: Expanding the Boundaries of Spirit Baptism	61	(28)
Spirit Baptism and Regeneration	64	(8)
Spirit Baptism and Water Baptism	72	(3)
Spirit Baptism and Empowerment	75	(10)
Eschatological Framework	85	(4)
Christ as the King and the Spirit as the Kingdom: Spirit Baptism in Trinitarian Perspective	89	(66)
The Pentecost-Kingdom Connection	91	(16)
Spirit Baptism and the Church's Faith in Jesus	107	(6)
Spirit Baptism as a Trinitarian Act	113	(16)
Spirit Baptism and Elements of Life in the Kingdom	129	(24)
Spirit-Baptized Justification	129	(11)
Spirit-Baptized Sanctification	140	(5)
Spirit-Baptized Witness	145	(8)
In Sum	153	(2)
Signs of Grace in a Graceless World: Toward a Spirit-Baptized Ecclesiology	155	(102)
Spirit Baptism and Koinonia	156	(12)
Toward a Spirit-Baptized Anthropology	168	(10)
The Spirit-Baptized Church: The Pluralist Challenge	178	(12)
The Spirit-Baptized Church: Toward a Critical Dialectic	190	(9)
The Spirit-Baptized Church: Biblical Models	199	(5)
People of God	200	(1)
Body of Christ	201	(2)
Temple of the Spirit	203	(1)
The Marks of the Spirit-Baptized Church	204	(37)
Unity	211	(11)
Holiness	222	(2)
Catholicity	224	(5)
Apostolicity	229	(12)
``Marks'' of Preaching, Sacraments, and Charismatic Fullness	241	(15)
Preaching	244	(3)
Sacraments	247	(9)
In Sum	256	(1)
Baptized in Love: The Spirit-Baptized Life	257	(26)
Importance of Divine Love	259	(2)
Toward a Theology of Love	261	(4)
Faith and Love	265	(4)
Hope and Love	269	(11)
Spirit Baptism as Love's ``Second Conversion''	280	(3)
Scripture Index	283	(8)
Subject Index	291	(2)
Author Index	293

Excerpts

Baptized in the Spirit
Copyright © 2006 by Frank Macchia
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Macchia, Frank D.
Baptized in the Spirit : a global Pentecostal theology / Frank D. Macchia.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25236-8
ISBN-10: 0-310-25236-9
1. Baptism in the Holy Spirit. 2. Holy Spirit. 3. Pentecostal churches—Doctrines.
I. Title.
BT123.M151 2006
230'.994—dc22 2005031945
This edition printed on acid-free paper.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International
Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used
by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or
any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the
publisher.
Interior design by Nancy Wilson
Printed in the United States of America
06 07 08 09 10 11 12 • 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
I SUPPOSE I WAS A TYPICAL EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD, EXCEPT I WAS PERHAPS
more confused than most about the direction in which my life was
going. It was the year 1970, so my state of mind seemed to be shared by
many I knew at the time. I had spent most of my teen years trying to run
from God and was attempting to figure out where I might possibly run
without meeting God when I arrived. I experimented with drugs and
lived as though God were nothing more than a distant thought. There
were moments when I felt drawn away from my illusionary existence
toward the ultimate reality. But I resisted.
Then came that decisive evening shortly after my high school graduation.
I woke my father, an Assemblies of God minister, from a sound
sleep at about midnight to let him know that I wanted to leave home to
find myself. I had always admired him. He was strict but fair. His downto-
earth humility appealed to me. I especially liked the way the church
members affectionately called him “Brother Mike.” He seemed to relate
to them more as a brother than an authoritative pastor, though many
took him without question as a lifelong spiritual father. My mother, Elizabeth,
besides her crazy sense of humor, had conveyed her deep faith to
me by teaching me church choruses as a child. She persuaded me to sing
them in church before the congregation. My tenor voice made me a
favored choice for singing solos at our local church, an early experience
of ministry that was formative to my early spiritual development.
When I woke my father that night, I was far from the faith of my childhood.
But telling my father that I wanted to leave home gave him an opportunity
to reach out to me. What followed was an all-night conversation that
I will never forget. He spoke to me from the Bible and from many stories of
faith from my family’s history. I was moved deeply. It made me feel that I
could not possibly run from God. To do so would cause me to run from something
that was deep inside of me, something I could not deny without denying
an essential part of who I was.
Hours passed like minutes, but I held out. I would not yet give my heart
to Christ, so we both ended up going to bed exhausted. It was near dawn as
I entered my bedroom. I knelt next to my bed and wondered what I should
pray. I remember telling God that I did not know what to say. I said something
simple like, “I only know that I need you, Lord. I give you my life.” With that
brief prayer, I lay down to the most peaceful sleep I had enjoyed in a long
time.
The following day I told my parents what had happened and that I wanted
to leave for a Bible college in order to discover my future in God. Yes, I would
get my wish to leave home in order to find myself, but in a way that I had not
planned. Their joy was tempered by my felt need to leave the neighborhood
as soon as possible. There was a network of friends that was sure to tear away
at my fledgling faith. I needed time away with God to be grounded in the
faith. My father arranged for me to attend Central Bible College in Springfield,
Missouri.
My first day on campus contained all of the anxieties of a new experience.
I was not sure I wanted to stay. My father persuaded me to give it a month and
left me there with high hopes early in the afternoon of the second day.
Moments later I purchased a Bible at the bookstore and sat down to read from
it in my sparsely-furnished dorm room. The Bible was a large, plain study Bible
that I had bought for my classes. I remember turning to the book of Acts. I
began reading. Though I was familiar with several of the stories in that book,
they seemed to come alive before my eyes as never before. The text drew me
in. I was there when the disciples gathered around the risen Christ, and at Pentecost
when the Spirit fell on the disciples as they prayed in tongues surrounded
by flames of God’s holy presence. I was also there when Peter and John were
beaten for their faith but rejoiced at the privilege of suffering for Christ, and
when Peter witnessed the Gentiles being filled with the Spirit. I accompanied
Paul on his journeys and participated in his numerous adventures.
I read the entire book of Acts without moving from my chair. I was awe
struck. I opened the shade covering the window next to me and beheld the
sun setting. I saw shades of red and yellow across the sky and I could feel the
tears roll off of my cheeks. I remember thinking that I could not possibly be
the kind of Christian who merely “played church.” That certainly was not how
the Christians lived in the book of Acts. God was so real to them. They lived
daily in the awareness of God’s presence and guidance. Life was an adventure
in the Lord’s service and there were moments when God visited them with
undeniable signs of divine favor and power. They had a fire burning in their
hearts.
I determined in that moment that I wanted to be a Christian like them.
I felt a calling from God grip me—God was calling me to lifelong ministry.
My presence at that small Bible college in southwest Missouri was no accident.
At that very moment, a few of the new students I had met earlier came
to my room and invited me to pray with them at the dorm chapel. What timing!
The chapel was located on the third floor of the dorm, a small room with
benches along the walls and a plain wooden cross at the center of the wall
facing the door. No sooner had I entered the room that I fell to my knees and
began to pray. I began to cry and to search for words that I could not find.
Meanwhile, my schoolmates began to pray for me. I felt a fountain well up
within me. It grew stronger and stronger until it burst forth with great
strength. I began to pray in tongues. It was not forced, neither from me nor
from God. In fact, it seemed at the moment to be the most natural thing to
do. By now I lay there on the floor with my eyes fixed on that cross. I felt
God’

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Excerpted from Baptized in the Spirit: A Global Pentecostal Theology by Frank D. Macchia
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