Filled or Baptized

What's the Difference?

Confusion brings Discord

There has been great confusion between the phrases, being filled and being baptized with the Holy Spirit. From one denomination and doctrine to another, opposing views and positions have brought great discord and disagreement. I hope from this short article to argue successfully for the position that, being filled and being baptized with the Holy Spirit must be viewed as two separate and distinct teachings of Scripture.

In the upper room 120 persons gathered to await the promise of the Father, the comforter that had been pledged by Jesus in Jn. 14:16.

Jn 14:15-18
16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you. 18 "When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you
TEV

It was as Jesus was enthroned and the Holy Spirit was poured out that the words of Christ were fulfilled. "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues... (Acts 2:4)". From this verse and others of similar content many have tried to build the case for a second experience in the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:46 ; 19:6).

Ac 10:46
46 For they heard them speaking in strange tongues and praising God's greatness.
TEV

Ac 19:6
6 Paul placed his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came upon them; they spoke in strange tongues and also proclaimed God's message.
TEV

From this view it is argued that we are to see the receiving of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues as separate and distinct from the initial phenomenon of being "born again". This, it is argued, is what we are to see as being baptized in the Holy Spirit.