Book Review: Allan Norling, Jesus the Baptiser with
the Holy

Spirit, published by the author, (Box 219, Beecroft,
Australia

2119), 1994.

Debates about the Holy Spirit still rage (mainly
in Western

contexts: the rest of the world generally gets on
with living the

Christian life rather than debating about it). Seventy
percent of

all church growth is among Pentecostal and Charismatic
groups (C.

Peter Wagner), and historical Protestantism is declining…
(Why?)

What is ‘baptism with the Holy Spirit’? Is it something
that

happens only at conversion (most conservative Evangelicals)?
Or

subsequent to conversion (many Pentecostals)? Once
or many times?

Should we seek this experience? How do we know when
we’ve ‘got

it’? What is the relationship between Jesus and the
Spirit? Or the

fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit?

Allan Norling, an Australian Churches of Christ minister,
tries to

steer a course through these and other questions,
towards what he

calls a ‘new understanding’.

From a pretty thorough study of the N.T. texts, aided
by insights

from evangelical, Pentecostal, charismatic and ‘Third
Wave’

writers (but not more mainline scholars, except perhaps
an

occasional reference to the Interpreters Bible) some
of his key

‘understandings’ are:

* (As Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to say), in every NT
reference it’s

Jesus who baptizes with the Holy Spirit

* Jesus does this each time he elects to use us in
ministry, so

* The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not simply
a once only

experience, but a repeated ongoing work of Jesus
in our lives

* However, each baptism with the Holy Spirit is a
complete and

final event, fulfilling its own immediate purpose

* Whereas the initial experience of baptism with
the Holy Spirit

may take place at conversion (eg. the household of
Cornelius Acts

10), our awareness may take place later (eg. the
Samaritans)

* Spiritual gifts to not belong to us to use as we
will, but are

manifested in us by the Holy Spirit, when Jesus wishes
to use them

in ministry through us (so we mustn’t use the possessive
pronoun

‘my’ of such gifts)

* To pray to the Holy Spirit is by-passing Jesus:
he is our only

mediator

* All true prayer is ‘praying in the Spirit’, whether
it’s praying

in tongues or not

* Theologians often tend to rationalize the whole
thing to justify

their own lack of experience of the miraculous.

As he wrestles with the relevant NT passages, there
are

discussions of the ending of Mark, slaying in the
Spirit, tongues-

as-evidence etc. Norling has read Conservative Evangelical
John

Stott (Baptism and Fullness); he’s studied the life
of Smith

Wigglesworth (now there’s an amazing man, sorry,
an ordinary man

with amazing spiritual power, generally unknown outside

Pentecostalism); he’s acquainted the ‘Third Wave’
(Wagner,

Vineyard) understandings…

I notice Hummell’s Fire in the Fireplace isn’t in
his

bibliography: Hummell says this whole discussion
ignores the fact

that Paul and Luke/Acts are asking and answering
different

questions (see my home page article on charismatic
renewal).

Then we have to relate experience to theology. Pentecostals
seem

to major on experience and attempt to theologize
it (though they

generally deny that’s what they’re doing). Conservatives
don’t

have too much experience so they justify their spiritual
aridity

with various rationalizations (miracles ended with
the apostles

etc.).

One important issue is whether an experience like,
say, slaying in

the Spirit, can be valid today even though the biblical
evidence

for such manifestations is slight. Missionaries in
Papua New

Guinea had similar difficulties explaining ‘pointing
the stick’

when a word of knowledge about someone was manifested
in

revivalist contexts. (I remember endless debates
in my childhood

Brethren assembly about whether we should have Sunday
Schools,

seeing they aren’t in the Bible).

This is a good book for Evangelicals, Pentecostals,
Charismatics,

Third Wavers and others whose mind is already made
up on these

issues. It will help you become a little more humble/tentative

about some of your assertions. There is mystery –
and power –

here. Perhaps the Spirit, like the wind, can’t be
easily

bottled…

Rowland Croucher