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Centerview Tidings
The Centerview Tidings is
a publication of the church that is given out to the
members weekly and is mailed out to subscribers monthly.
It includes various articles about the work of the church
and reports on the work of the Centerview Congregation.
Selected articles will
appear online here, but if you would like to
subscribe to the full edition of the Centerview Tidings,
please email George Hutto at
george_hutto@bellsouth.net.
Previous Articles
Salvation eBay Style?
The Real Threat of Islam: It's
Religion
What Defines
Your Family?
The Scripture Cannot Be Broken
Comparing Ourselves by Ourselves
A Resented misunderstood Misunderstanding
Current Article
Cornelius And The Holy
Spirit
A seemingly new doctrine
denying the necessity of baptism has reared
its ugly head. It is the contention that since Cornelius
had the Holy
Spirit before he was baptized, he must have been saved
before he was
baptized. At least one advocate of the doctrine thinks
that it is the
death knell of what he calls “the cursed water gospel.”
Here’s how it was presented to me:
1. I John 4:13 says, “Hereby know we that we
dwell in him, and he in
us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.”
2. Acts 10:44 says, “ While Peter yet spake
these words, the Holy
Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.”
3. Therefore, if Cornelius received the Holy
Spirit, we know for sure
that he was saved already before he was baptized.
Well, it sounds good on the surface–how can a
person who has the
Spirit within him be lost? Nevertheless, none of the
three points above
hold up to the task of proof of this doctrine when
scrutinized.
First, how might an individual know that the
Spirit is indwelling him?
Certainly by examining the teaching of the Spirit one
will know. (Rom.
8:14-16) Further, if one had some miraculous gift, as
Cornelius did
when he spoke in tongues, one would know he had a gift.
However, the
age of miracles has passed, and therefore, one should
not expect to
receive some visible manifestation of the Spirit. (I Cor.
13: 8-10) If
there is no visible manifestation, one would never know
on that basis,
and that is exactly what we have in Cornelius, a visible
manifestation
of the Spirit.
Still, I John 4:13 does not apply to all
Christians. John is talking
about himself and the other apostles. In verse 1 he
challenges
Christians to “Try the spirits.” In verse 6 he says, “We
are of God: he
that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God
heareth not us.
Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of
error.” The
promise of the miraculous leading of the Holy Spirit was
to the
apostles (John 14:26; 16:13); not to all Christians.
Thus, proponents of this error have misapplied I
John 4:13.
On point number 2 the magnitude and purpose of
the event at Cornelius’
house are overlooked by our friends in error. Most
glaring is the
oversight of the various manifestations of the Spirit.
The baptism of
the Spirit is not miraculous gifts, which is not the
power to impart
gifts, which is not the indwelling of the Spirit. The
fact that
Cornelius received a particular measure of the Spirit
does not
necessarily translate into the conclusion that he was
saved from sin.
Cornelius was a devout man, full of good works,
but he was not yet
saved. His prayers were received up as a memorial before
God, but he
was yet lost in his sins. He was sent an angel with a
divine message,
but his sins were not yet forgiven. Even at the point of
baptism in the
Holy Spirit, he was not yet saved from his sins.
We come to this conclusion because the
instruction to Cornelius was “
Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is
Peter; Who
shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house
shall be saved.”
(Acts 11:13-14) When Peter saw that he received the
baptism of the Holy
Spirit, which was to be poured out on “all flesh,” Jew
and Gentile
(Acts 2:17), he THEN COMMANDED Cornelius and his friends
to be baptized
in water. (Acts 10:47) Those were the words whereby
salvation came.
(Mk. 16:15-16; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16)
Herein are the magnitude and the purpose of the
event: the gospel was
to be preached “in all the nations” (Mt. 28:18),
however, it was
preached only to the jews up until Cornelius. Everyone
got the message:
“Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance
unto life,”
(Acts 11:18)–everyone, that is, except our friends who
think that
Cornelius’ conversion has something to say to us about
receiving the
Holy Spirit BEFORE baptism for all converts.
To make this doctrine work, advocates assert that
after Pentecost only
saved people received the Holy Spirit in any measure.
Neither Caiaphas’
spirit-moved prophecy in John 11:51 nor Balaam’s
inspired blessing of
Israel (Neh. 13:2) mean that they were saved, but the
admittedly unique
event at Cornelius’ house means that HE was saved BEFORE
baptism, we’re
told. My friends, the event at Cornlelius’ house stands
on its own
merit as to the reason and import for God’s purposes. It
was a unique
event (as was the baptism of the apostles in the Spirit
on Pentecost)
for the purpose of showing the need to preach the gospel
to the
Gentiles.
Later, when the issue of Gentile converts arose,
Peter said this: “Ye
know how that a good while ago God made choice among us,
that the
Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel,
and believe.
And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness,
giving them the
Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no
difference between us
and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” (Acts
15:7-9)
Therefore, point number 3 is not true. Cornelius
did receive the
baptism of the Spirit, but not the indwelling of the
Spirit which all
Christians must have as assurance of salvation. (Rom.
8:9) That
indwelling, by the way, is not something that will be
accompanied by
miracles, a direct operation of the Spirit upon the
heart, or any other
miraculous manifestation. It is being led by the Spirit
through the
word. (Rom. 8:14-16; 10:17; Eph. 3:1-6)
The Holy Spirit brought Peter to Cornelius with a
command to be
baptized in water. (Acts 10:47-48) The same Spirit
brought Philip to
the Ethiopian with a command to be baptized in water.
(Acts 8:35-38)
Jesus Christ sent Saul of Tarsus to Ananias who told
him, “And now why
tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy
sins, calling
on the name of the Lord.” (Acts 22:16) The multitude of
Jews on
Pentecost heard the Spirit-inspired message from the
mouths of the
apostles, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in
the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:38)
It’s hard to miss the point that the
spirit-inspired message for us in
the Bible is that we should be baptized in water for
forgiveness of
sins. Calling the gospel message derogatory names or
ridiculing the
proponents of the gospel as “water-logged” does not
change the truth.
How blessed we are to be simple vessels of the glorious
gospel of
Christ.
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
(John 3:5)
George Hutto
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