The Baptism & Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Merrill Unger has clearly and scriptually expounded on the baptism and gifts iof the Holy Spirit and His ministry to gloriy Jesus Christ. I have heard and witnessed alot of scriptually twisted misgivings about the Holy Spirit and His ministry and gifting of believers in Christ. I also have witnessed and been bomb barted by way off base teachings about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I am glad for real expository teachers and writers like Dr.Merrill Unger and men like Dr.Charles Ryie and many others who go not only to the text of scripture but to the original and grammatically correct usage of the Bible's original language Hebrew, Aramaric and Greek. They also keep it in its proper context. Not pulling out a verse of a chapter and twisting it to say the wrong thing and building a mountain of emotional misguided fluff around it. Inorder to support something the Aposltes nor our Lord Jesus Christ never taught to be promoted as proof of true faith in Christ.

The late Dr. Merrill Unger's book, BAPTISM AND GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, was a well-read book on the subject of the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the charismatic gifts for many years. Alone with James Dunn's BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, the book served a generation of students within the dispensational, cessasionist camps. Dr. Unger was a professor at the dispensational Dallas Theological Seminary, a school long known to oppose the charismatic movement. The book is a study of the Holy Spirit's work in the life of the believer. Dr. Unger looked at all major passages about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and takes a brief look at the charismatic gifts of tongues and prophecy. As expected, Dr. Unger takes issue with the Pentecostal/Charismatic views and opposes them strongly. The positives of the book are that the book is written in fairly easy to understand language. Dr. Unger avoids delving into the Greek tenses or verbs. Further, the book advocates one baptism in the Spirit at the new birth (1 Cor. 12:13) and one baptism alone. Unger believes that the Christian need not seek anything more than our security and sufficiency in Jesus. The negatives of this book are that the book is somewhat dated. Many of Unger's arguments have been answered by Pentecostal/Charismatic apologist (see Anthony Palma's BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT and Howard Irvin's SPIRIT-BAPTISM: A BIBLICAL STUDY). The book also embraces a strong view of dispensationalism (as expected from a DTS professor) but in so doing Dr. Unger embraces an unbiblical view of eternal security much like Dr. Charles Ryrie or Dr. Charles Stanley (see Dan Conner's THE BELIEVERS CONDITIONAL SECURITY). Overall this is a good book to read in better understanding Dr. Merrill Unger's teaching about the work of the Holy Spirit. While somewhat dated the book is still found in many non-charismatic camps and much of the arguments can still be found today in like minded churches.

Dr. Unger does a great job of explaining what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is. First he presents the Pentecostal viewpoint of the Spirit-baptism, points out why it is deficient, and goes on to define and explain what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is. He deals with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Gospels, at Pentecost and Samaria, at Caesarea and Ephesus, in 1 Corinthians / Romans / Galatians, in Ephesians / Colossians / 1 Peter, and talks about how the Spirit-Baptism relates to spiritual gifts and to power. Dr. Unger adheres to the dispensationalist viewpoint and states that the baptism of the Holy Spirit applies only during the dispensation of the church age from Pentecost to the Second Coming. He believes that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs upon a believer's conversion and the Spirit-baptism is a separate event from the filling of the Spirit. I found this book to be a very helpful overview of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as presented in the Gospels, Acts, and the New Testament. Even if you don't agree in the dispensationalist viewpoint, I believe you will find this work to be quite informative. If you hold to a Pentecostal / Charismatic viewpoint on the Spirit-baptism, I would recommend Howard Ervin's book "Spirit-Baptism: A Biblical Investigation."