It is absolutely clear from the Scriptures, and no sensible person who is able to read will deny it, that the baptism of the holy Ghost is the experience which places one into God’s family. When a person is baptized with the Spirit of God, he is then (not before, not sometime later) a member of the body of Jesus Christ. "For by one Spirit", Paul wrote, "are we all BAPTIZED INTO ONE BODY" (1Cor. 12:13). We were "BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST", Paul told the Romans. And to the early believers in Galatia Paul plainly taught, "For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). Paul would have been ridiculed by Christian ministers today, even most Pentecostal ones.

Long ago, Christianity claimed to be home to God's chosen ones and that one could be come a member of the body of Christ by joining it. Incredibly, God’s own people now go along with that basic doctrine of the Christian religion, a doctrine which would have us to believe that a person can "in Christ", be a member of the blood-washed, and born-again BEFORE he is baptized with the holy Ghost. Contrary to all that the Scriptures have to say on the matter, Christians–and the saints who are among them–believe that the holy Ghost baptism (with the evidence of speaking in tongues) is an experience reserved for the body of Christ, when the truth is that no one is a member of the body without it. And Christian ministers warn you not to listen to me?!? Friend, I warn you not to listen to them!!! They are blind leaders of the blind. This is the truth they will not tell you:

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST IS THE NEW BIRTH.

Non-Pentecostal Christians can see that Pentecostal doctrine on Spirit baptism is indefensible and that the Scriptures clearly say that the baptism of the holy Ghost is the experience of new birth. But, strangely, non-Pentecostals deny the reality of it, teaching that speaking in tongues is not for today. So, in Christianity, this is what you have (if you want it): non-Pentecostal denominations teach that one must receive the baptism of the holy Ghost, yet do not have it themselves, while Pentecostal denominations teach that one need not receive the holy Ghost baptism, yet they have it! Talk about confusion! Those with the holy Ghost deny it, and those without it preach its necessity! What could possibly be more bizarre than that? Christianity is a Babylon of contradictions.

THE NEW BIRTH IS THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST
WITH THE EVIDENCE OF SPEAKING IN OTHER TONGUES,
AS THE SPIRIT GIVES THE EVIDENCE.

This is really the issue. Does everyone who is baptized with the holy Ghost speak in tongues when he is baptized? I am persuaded by the Scriptures and by experience to believe that every person who receives the holy Ghost speaks in tongues when he receives it. In this regard, I stand with the Pentecostal/charismatic community. It has been a hallmark of Pentecostal teaching for much more than my life-time that the "initial evidence" of receiving the holy Ghost is speaking in other tongues, as the Spirit gives the utterance (cp. Acts 2:4). What I cannot comprehend is, why do Spirit-baptized people teach that a person is born again before being baptized with the Spirit? One friend of mine, an Assembly of God minister, finally admitted that, yes, the baptism was the new birth in the Bible. "But it's changed now", he added. Maybe I'm looking at it wrongly, but being told that God has changed his plan of conversion just isn't good enough for me. If conversion is not still just as Jesus described it to Nicodemus, if it's not the way that Paul described it to the early believers in Galatia, Corinth, and Rome, then where and who is the man to whom the new revelation came? Will the Overseer of the Church of God denomination please respond to this, if he ever sees it, and explain to me how it was revealed to him that we are NOT baptized by the holy Ghost into the body of Christ? Will the elder of the Pentecostal Holiness denomination please tell the body of believers when God changed the plan, and why He waited until after all the apostles were dead to do it? Will the leader of the Assemblies of God denomination please--please–reveal to us the name of the man who received the revelation which contradicts every sentence written in the Bible on the subject of the new birth? Help us!

Speaking of the precious, blood-bought baptism of the holy Ghost, wise Peter was inspired to write that "baptism doth also now save us" (1Pet.3:21). How is it, then, that my pentecostal brothers teach that a man "gets saved" before he is baptized with it? If the apostle Paul's sins were washed away, not on the Damascus Road, but when (by the laying on of Ananias's hands) he received the holy Ghost (Acts 9:17; 22:16), will someone–anyone!--in the pentecostal/charismatic movement please explain to me by what authority do you teach now that a man’s sins are washed away BEFORE receiving the holy Ghost? Will somebody out there please help me to understand your teaching? The separation of baptism from the new birth by modern pentecostals is one of the most puzzling and indefensible developments in the history of God's people. But who is questioning it? Who is asking why so many ministers in congregations now teach one thing and the Scriptures so very plainly teach another?

Where are the inquisitive minds? Where is the questioner? Where is the Bible student? Are they all robots, programmed to think only what Christian teachers tell them? Can they not see? Can they not read? Can they not think?

Where is the good spirit of my people, who once forsook the familiar haunts of sin to follow Christ? Who has taken away their life, so that they are like the dumb idols their fathers worshiped? Who is he that so boldly tells them lies in my name? I am the Lord.

Do I not know? Am I blind as you are? Do not I see? Do your delusions confuse me? Or am I another one of your slaves? Answer me!

Hallelujah! And thank you, Lord Jesus, for speaking through me to your precious, precious flock. Oh, friends, where is your first love? that love of seeing the truth? that first willingness to be wrong, to be corrected, to receive reproof, to hear the voice of the Spirit?

Don't be intimidated by a man's appearance. He is just one more helpless pilgrim, just like the rest of us. He, too, will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Don't be afraid to ask the hard questions. Your soul's destiny is far too important for you to fail to ask the hard questions or to fear to know a man's authority to teach the things he is teaching. Your eternal destination will be determined by who and what you believe. Clearly, then, we must study to know what the Bible says and to listen to see if what we are being taught is in harmony with the Scriptures. Please do that. By all means do that.

Those of you who have been with us now for a long time will want to know that my father, who founded The Pioneer Tract Society, is now (April, 1989), at 88 years old, in very poor health. Pray for us here. There are some in the congregation here in their 70's who have never had any other pastor but he. And a faithful pastor he has been to them.