Baptism in the Holy Spirit?

[Rachaeld]

I’m reading Grudem’s Systematic Theology (p. 775-6) and he says “the RCC has long had not two but three categories [of differing levels of “spirit-filling”]: ordinary believers, priests, and saints.”

He has no source for this… but I’m curious of what the actual doctrine is. Do these different types of believers get “more” of the Holy Spirit than others?

 

[ZMystiCat]

I wish I had held onto my copy of Systematic Theology to get more context.

That said, I’m not even entirely sure where he’s coming from on saints. Saints are those who the Church has declared have certainly made it to heaven. By being in heaven, they are obviously closer to Christ than we are. Sure, we believe that they were very close to God here on Earth, but that probably came less from some greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit and more them being more receptive to it. So at least in that regard, he appears completely off.

It would take more context to understand what he’s saying about priests. Perhaps he’s referring to ordination or the fact that the priestly life is often considered more capable of orienting oneself to holiness than married life, but I’m not sure that that would lead to being more “spirit-filled” as Protestants understand it.

With all of that said, do bear in mind that Systematic Theology is less a definite guide to Biblical teachings and more an exercise in what Grudem believes and doesn’t understand. It’s perhaps one of the more complete looks at the totality of belief to come from a Protestant in modern times, but Protestantism being what it is means that’s it has plenty of detractors even from Protestantism. I know many Reformed Christians consider him a heretic for some stuff he said about the Trinity and the relationship between men and women.* I remember getting really infuriated by his gross misunderstandings of those who accept the theory of evolution. Basically, Grudem may understand a lot about what Calvinist-leaning, conservative Baptists believe, but from what I remember, he has very little understanding of what anyone else believes.

* Just to give a very brief overview of this controversy, some Reformed Christians have adopted a form of subordinationism, in that they say that women being subordinate to men is a reflection of Christ being subordinate to the Father. IIRC, Grudem supported it in the book. There’s obviously a lot to the whole debate, but in general, many Reformed Christians think Grudem and others have adopted the ancient heresy of subordinationism.

 

[ltwin]

I’m reading Grudem’s Systematic Theology (p. 775-6) and he says “the RCC has long had not two but three categories [of differing levels of “spirit-filling”]: ordinary believers, priests, and saints.”

You’ve put words in Grudem’s mouth–the bracketed part is not in the original. He does not say that ordinary believers, priests and saints are different levels of “spirit-filling”, only that the Catholic Church is an example of a Christian group that has divided Christians into two or three categories.

To understand what he’s talking about, you need to begin on page 775 where he says, “The previous sections have argued that ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ is not the term the New Testament authors would use to speak of a post-conversion work of the Spirit . . . the examples of ‘second experiences’ of receiving the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts are not patterns for us to imitate in our Christian lives.” However, as a charismatic Reformed Baptist, Grudem does believe that what people today call “Spirit baptism” is a genuine work of the Holy Spirit.

In the process of explaining why this is genuine, Grudem wants to challenge some classical Pentecostal beliefs about what we call baptism in the Holy Spirit. The first belief is that there are Christians who are Spirit-baptized and Christians who are not yet Spirit-baptized.

Grudem says this is teaching a “two-class Christianity” and that it is harmful. However, he also points out that other Christian groups have also at various times placed believers in different categories or classes.

This is why he mentions Catholicism. His reference to the Catholic Church has nothing to do with Spirit baptism. He’s simply saying that Catholics place priests and saints in a different category than they do ordinary believers.

Which is arguably true. Only priests can administer sacraments like the Eucharist and confession, etc. Saints are also in a different category due to their holiness, closeness to God and ability to intercede for the faithful.

 

[Vico]

I’m reading Grudem’s Systematic Theology (p. 775-6) and he says “the RCC has long had not two but three categories [of differing levels of “spirit-filling”]: ordinary believers, priests, and saints.”

He has no source for this… but I’m curious of what the actual doctrine is. Do these different types of believers get “more” of the Holy Spirit than others?

Not with regard to those statements in Grudem’s Systematic Theology, but there are degrees of accumulated merit and also glory in heaven, related to the degree of sanctifying grace.

Pohle, J. (1911). Merit. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10202b.htm

 

[Rachaeld]

Ooooooohhhhh! Yeah square brackets usually means it’s not from the author. I didn’t read it as that! But that makes more sense for his argument.