There are three broad positions on the meaning of the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. Pentecostal scholars like Robert Menzies define the gift solely in terms of an added gift enabling and supporting the missionary work of the church.1 Non-Pentecostal scholars of a broader charismatic persuasion such as Max Turner extend the range of functions flowing from the gift to include building up the church;2 J.D.G. Dunn argues that the gift of the Spirit pertains also to conversion-initiation and salvation.3 These three positions define the current state of scholarship on this question.
The premise for Pentecostal scholars who present an empowerment view is that the gift of the Spirit is promised to those who are already Christians. This prior status is shown by Luke’s loose coupling of the reception of the Spirit and water baptism. Luke has examples of baptised believers without the Spirit (Acts 8, 19). The gift of the Spirit is therefore secondary and additional to the Christian life; its purpose is mission. Scholars who take this approach may further delimit the Spirit as essentially prophetic in the style of the Old Testament prophets preaching to the nation. Menzies offers the most detailed defence of this position.
Our contrary view of the Spirit is not one that is exclusively either missiological (Menzies) or soteriological (Turner and Dunn). If Pentecost is read in the context of “last days” of a Jewish age and in the light of the need to deliver the people from a coming judgment, it follows that Menzies’ missiological emphasis is correct. However, there is an implied restriction in this model that prevents the generalization that the gift of the Spirit is an added gift available for the Christian church and a Christian dispensation.
In his use of Joel, Luke places a temporal restriction on the gift as one pertaining to the “last days” (Acts 2:17). This restriction has major consequences for any assessment of the soteriological significance of the gift. Menzies, Dunn, and Turner implicitly assume that the gift of the Spirit is a permanent feature in the structure of both Christian life and the church. However, the argument that we will develop against this view is that Luke presents his account of Pentecost within the eschatological expectations of Luke 17 and 21. These do not allow for an enduring Christian dispensation, and therefore we cannot assume that the gift of the Spirit pertains to such an enduring institution as “the church”. The purpose of the bestowal of the Spirit relates to the requirements of the “last days”, which is to secure an escape from the wrath to come. The implication is that when this purpose has run its course, that gift of the Spirit comes to an end.
This view is a “cessationist” position. As a result of the influence of Pentecostalism upon the church since the beginning of the 20c., older catholic and reformed views of the cessation of the Spirit have fallen by the wayside. Generally speaking, if a scholar accepts that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit have ceased, he still nevertheless holds the view that the “graces” of the Spirit are present in the church today. The older reformed emphasis upon the Word of God in the life of the believer has lost its role to the presence of the Spirit in the life of the believer. This is a broadly charismatic view which can be considered a consensus. Pentecostalism, having pushed the Spirit onto the main agenda in the thinking of the church a century ago, is now no longer the driver in this area of church doctrine: its insistence on a narrower view of the Spirit as an added gift for mission has lost credibility to the broader charismatic view that says the Spirit is also involved in the conversion of a Christian and the maintenance of a Christian in his church life.
The strength of the cessationist view lies in an understanding of the OT. The declared purpose of God through the prophets, particularly Joel and Isaiah, shows that the Spirit is bestowed at a particular time in the scheme of things: this time is the “last days” before a crisis in the history of his people. In Isaiah (e.g. Isa 32:15), the Spirit is bestowed around the time of the Assyrian Crisis in 701; this is also the subject of Joel 2:28-32. The Spirit was not bestowed as a permanent endowment in 701 as shown by the subsequent history of Judah going into exile.
These texts about the Spirit in Joel and Isaiah are the basis for Luke’s explanation of Pentecost. Luke uses both Isa 32:15 and Joel 2:28-32. The bestowal of the Spirit is another fulfillment of the terms of original prophecies. However, just as those prophecies did not issue in the establishment of the kingdom, and the Jews were scattered throughout the nations, so too the Spirit was withdrawn once its purpose was completed – a purpose that had to do with the need to witness to the Jews.
[1] Robert P. Menzies, The Development of Early Christian Pneumatology: with special reference to Luke-Acts (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991).
[2] M. M. B. Turner, Power from on High: the Spirit in Israel’s Restoration and Witness in Luke-Acts (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000).
[3] J. D. G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (London: SCM Press, 1969); Jesus and the Spirit (London: SCM Press, 1975).
Is Pentecost Happening Today? (Part 7) – Tongues Shall Cease