Excellent!
“I would start by saying that in the book of Acts, everywhere the receiving of the Holy Spirit is described, it is experiential. What I mean is that it’s not just a logical inference that you know has happened to you only because something else has happened. -704966.jpg)
Instead, it has effects that are clearly discernible. In the book of Acts a person knows when he receives the Holy Spirit. It is an experience with effects you can point to.
Let me illustrate this from Acts 19:2. The situation is that Paul has come to Ephesus and found there some disciples who, as it turns out, only know the baptism of John the Baptist and have not been baptized into the name of Jesus. Paul detects something wrong and breaks the whole thing open by asking a key question in verse 2: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
Now that is a remarkable question for contemporary American evangelicals who have been taught by and large that the way you know you have received the Holy Spirit is that you are a believer. We have been told that you can know that you have the Holy Spirit because all who believe have the Holy Spirit. It’s a logical inference. So if we want to know if someone has received the Holy Spirit, we would ask, “Have you believed on Jesus?” If the answer is yes, then we know the person received the Holy Spirit. Receiving the Holy Spirit is a logical inference, not an experience to point to.
But Paul’s question isn’t like that, is it? Paul says, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” We scratch our heads and say, “I don’t get it, Paul. If you assume we believed, why don’t you assume we received the Holy Spirit? We’ve been taught that all who believe receive the Holy Spirit. We’ve been taught to just believe that the Spirit is there whether there are any effects or not. But you talk as if there is a way to know we’ve received the Holy Spirit different from believing. You talk as if we could point to an experience of the Spirit apart from believing in order to answer your question.”
And that is, in fact, the way Paul talks. When he asks, “Did you receive the Spirit when you believed?” he expects that a person who has “received the Holy Spirit” knows it, not just because it’s an inference from his faith in Christ, but because it is an experience with effects that we can point to.
That is what runs all the way through this book of Acts. All the explicit descriptions of receiving the Holy Spirit are experiential (not inferential).”
— John Piper, 1991
What Does it Mean to Receive the Holy Spirit?
When did you receive Holy Spirit? when you have been baptism or when you accept Jesus in your heart?
You did not quote the full verse in Acts 19:2. The full scripture reads;
Act 19:2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
As the text shows they did not receive the Holy Ghost for they had not yet believed in the correct propositions. Notice how Paul then directs them to whom they should believe in to receive the Holy Ghost.
Act 19:3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.
Act 19:4 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
We receive the Holy ghost by believing Gods word.
I Jn 5:1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.”
I John 4:15, Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides In him, and he in God.”
Eph. 1:13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,”
Eph. 4:3And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
2 Cor. 1:21-22Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God 22who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
I Jn 2:26-27 “These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
So according your interpretation of the above scriptures, even satan is saved. He believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Also according to your interpretation, there is only good ground for the seed to fall on. No bad ground at all. And according to you there is no foolish virgin, for all are wise (saved).
Mans wisdom leads to death.
Don’t stop there, Ray. Verse 5 says they were then baptized (which is obedient to the command of Acts 2:38), and then in verse 6 they received the Spirit.
“5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.”