Galatians 3 and Cornelius - when do we receive The Holy Spirit?

[twf]

To elaborate I don’t see it as either/or. There are different modes of receiving the Spirit. We receive the Spirit at both baptism and confirmation and both leave an indelible mark. Yet clearly the Spirit draws the non baptized to reptenance in the first place. The Acts doesn’t get into the moment of justification as Trent does.

In summary of my last few posts… Acts doesn’t use theologically precise language. It hadn’t developed yet. The Holy Spirit is involved every step of the process…initial conversion, baptism, confirmation… but the bottom line is that baptism is when we definitively, objectively know that we receive sanctifying grace (the abiding indwelling of the Spirit). It can happen apart from the sacrament, but we can’t be certain apart from special revelation. Regardless, for most Christians, baptism comes prior to personal conversion as most are baptized as infants.
Another example from the Acts… when Saul repents he is told to “arise and be baptized and wash away your sins…”. He clearly repented when he saw the Lord on the road to Damascus, yet his sins weren’t washed away until he was baptized. See Acts 22.

 

[Reuben_J]

In summary of my last few posts… Acts doesn’t use theologically precise language. It hadn’t developed yet. The Holy Spirit is involved every step of the process…initial conversion, baptism, confirmation… but the bottom line is that baptism is when we definitively, objectively know that we receive sanctifying grace (the abiding indwelling of the Spirit). It can happen apart from the sacrament, but we can’t be certain apart from special revelation. Regardless, for most Christians, **baptism comes prior to personal conversion as most are baptized as infants. **
Another example from the Acts… when Saul repents he is told to “arise and be baptized and wash away your sins…”. He clearly repented when he saw the Lord on the road to Damascus, yet his sins weren’t washed away until he was baptized. See Acts 22.

Since you mentioned it, a small matter about infant baptism … . Perhaps that’s one reason why we should baptize our infants so that they receive the Holy Spirit.

 

[ericc]

Acts 8 would actually work against the position that The Holy Spirit is given in Baptism since they were already Baptized and still had not received The Holy Spirit until the Apostles came later on and placed hands on them and prayed for them

Acts 8:16 appears to have some sort of defect in their baptism. Apparently they were “but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” missing out Father and Holy Spirit. Possibly Peter and John were sent to rectify that defect.