All I am showing is what the Scriptures actually say & what happens when one is saved throughout the Bible. I am not here to debate either. I am just showing how the Bible harmonizes & some of the same experiences occurred in both the Old & the New Testaments. People were saved by grace through faith in the OT as well as the NT. People were filled with the Holy Spirit in the OT as well as the NT as Scripture actually says.
My belief rests upon the truth of Scripture, not what I was taught. Some of the things I was taught, I discovered later were not Scriptural.
Abraham was saved when hearing the gospel just like we do (Galatians 3:8) That is why he is called the 'father' of those who believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus talked personally with Abraham & called Abraham His friend.
If one is converted, they are born or regenerated by the Holy Spirit. One cannot be saved or converted apart from the Holy Spirit according to Scripture after Scripture. New life in Christ is by the Holy Spirit. No Holy Spirit no life of God; no Holy Spirit, a person is not Christ's & not saved.
Romans 8:9 And ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God doth dwell in you & if any one hath not the Spirit of Christ -- this one is not His.
Gal 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Rom 8:10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit gives you life because of righteousness.
Gal 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:14-16 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Jesus Himself taught that unless you are born of the Spirit, regenerated, you cannot see nor enter the kingdom of God in John 3. That is what Nicodemus had to understand in order to be saved.
I Cor 12:3 Therefore I make known to you that NO ONE speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and NO ONE can say, "Jesus is Lord,"EXCEPT by the Holy Spirit.
Mark 9:39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.
Romans 10:9 that if you CONFESS WITH YOUR MOUTH, "Jesus is Lord," & believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED. For with the heart one believes & is justified & with the mouth one confesses & IS SAVED.
Matthew 22:43 Jesus said to them, "How then does David IN THE SPIRIT call Him LORD?
Revelation 1:10 On the Lord's day I was IN THE SPIRIT & I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.
Joel 2:32 "Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”
I John 4:2 By this you will KNOW the Spirit of God: Every spirit that CONFESSES that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
I would agree with you that in the NT, there is a difference concerning what the Spirit does concerning the mystery of the gospel as Paul taught.
The mystery is that both Jew AND Gentile are made one in Christ, as one new man & all receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit by being baptized into the body of Christ. One cannot be in the body of Christ, be Christ's, unless one receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore remember that...you who are Gentiles...at that time were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel & strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope & without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one & has torn down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments & decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace & RECONCILING both of them to God IN ONE BODY--THROUGH THE CROSS--by which He extinguished their hostility.
For through Him we both have access to the Father IN ONE SPIRIT. In Him the whole building is fitted together & grows into a holy temple in the Lord...And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God IN HIS SPIRIT.
No Holy Spirit, no access to the Father for either Jew or Gentile. No baptism in the Spirit, no entrance into the body of Christ.
Acts 15:7-18 After much discussion, Peter got up & said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that THE GENTILES would hear from my lips the message of the gospel & believe. And God, who knows the heart, showed His approval by GIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THEM, JUST AS HE DID TO US. {Jews} He made NO DISTINCTION between us & them, for He CLEANSED THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH. {this is the 'washing' of regeneration & renewal in the Spirit--Titus 3:5}
Now then, why do you TEST GOD by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
11On the contrary, we believe it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we are saved, JUST AS THEY ARE.”
12The whole assembly fell silent as they listened to Barnabas & Paul describing the signs & wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. When they had finished speaking, James declared, “Brothers, listen to me! Simon has told us how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people TO BE HIS OWN. The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written: ‘After this I will return & rebuild the fallen tent of David. Its ruins I will REBUILD & I will RESTORE it, so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord & all the Gentiles who bear My name, says the Lord who does these things THAT HAVE BEEN KNOW FOR AGES.’
John 10:9-16 I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he WILL BE SAVED...The thief comes only to steal, kill & destroy. I have come that they may have life & have it IN ALL ITS FULLNESS.
I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep & My sheep know Me, just as the Father knows Me & I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep.
I HAVE SHEEP THAT ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD. I must bring them IN AS WELL & they will listen to My voice. Then there will be ONE FLOCK & ONE SHEPHERD.
So yes, there is this mystery of the gospel that wasn't manifested until long after Pentecost. (The one church at Jerusalem was Jewish for almost 15 years before acknowledgement of Gentiles was accepted, that they received the promised Holy Spirit just as the Jews had received Him.)
Yet all the prophets had spoken of the salvation of the Gentiles in Christ beforehand & all these OT verses are shown in the NT.
But it had to happen to the Jews FIRST because the promise of the Holy Spirit had to come to them first because of prophecy needing to be fulfilled. Salvation is of the Jews, Jesus taught the woman at the Samaritan well.
Galatians 3:1-9 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you RECEIVE THE SPIRIT by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? After STARTING IN THE SPIRIT, are you now finishing in the flesh? Does God LAVISH HIS SPIRIT ON YOU & work miracles among you because you practice the law, or because YOU HEAR & BELIEVE?
Understand, then, that those WHO HAVE FAITH ARE the sons of Abraham.
8The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith & foretold the gospel TO ABRAHAM: “All nations will be BLESSED through you.”
9So those who have faith are blessed ALONG WITH Abraham, the man of faith.
Gal 3:14,16 He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come TO the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that BY FAITH WE MIGHT RECEIVE THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. The promises were spoken to Abraham & to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “& to your seed,” meaning One, who is Christ.
Gal 3:22 But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ THE PROMISE might be given to those who BELIEVE.
Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land & currents on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on YOUR descendants & MY BLESSING on your offspring.
Proverbs 1:23 If you had repented at My rebuke, then surely I would have POURED OUT MY SPIRIT UPON YOU; I would have made My words known to you.
Acts 2:33 Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit & has poured out what you now see & hear.
Isaiah 12:3 With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation.
Isaiah 35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer & the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness & streams in the desert.
John 4:10-14 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God & who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him & He would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman replied, “You have nothing to draw with & the well is deep. Where then will You get this living water?..“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”
John 7:37-39 On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up & called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me & drink. ANYONE WHO BELIEVES IN ME may come & drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'" But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet GLORIFIED.
Rom 3:29,30 Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith & the uncircumcised through that same faith.
Romans 4:9ff Is this BLESSING only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised?
Charles Finney, an American evangelist, explains it very well:
This blessing then promised was not Christ HIMSELF, but some promise TO Christ & through Christ to all the nations of the earth.
The text informs us that THIS BLESSING PROMISED to Abraham & to his seed, & through Christ his seed, to all the nations of the earth, IS THE HOLY SPIRIT.
This is the grand thing upon which the prophets & the inspired writers seem to have had THEIR EYE ON ALL ALONG UNDER THE OLD DISPENSATION. And by a careful examination of the scriptures, it will be found that the promises are one unbroken chain from Abraham to Christ & even to the time when the canon of the scripture was complete, everywhere pointing out this particular blessing.
It was promised sometimes in figurative language, where the Spirit of God is represented as water. But in most instances the prophets have spoken without a figure & promised the Spirit by name. Isa. 32:15, "Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high...and Isa.44:3, "For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty & floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed & my blessing upon thine offspring."
And Scripture says, Isa.59:20,21, "The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those IN JACOB who turn from transgression. As for me, this is my covenant WITH THEM, saith the Lord; My Spirit that is upon thee & my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from this time forward & for ever."
Jer. 31:33, "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts & write it in their hearts & will be their God & they shall be My people."
Ezek.11:19, "And I will give them one heart & I will put a new spirit within you & I will take the stony heart out of their flesh & will give them an heart of flesh."
Ezek 36:27, "And I will put my Spirit within you & cause you to walk in My statutes & you shall keep My judgments & do them."
Acts 1:4, 5, "And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be BAPTIZED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT not many days hence."
John 16:7, 13: "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak & He will shew you things to come."
John 14:16, 17: "And I will pray the Father & He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you FOREVER--even the Spirit of truth; whom the world CANNOT RECEIVE, because it sees Him not, neither knows him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you & willl be in you."
A careful examination of these passages will show what the great blessing under the eye of inspiration was. The great thing promised to Abraham as affirmed in the text m& in these passages which I have now quoted, with numerous other passages that might be quoted, demonstrate that the great thing promised was the Holy Spirit. This was the SPIRITUAL BLESSING that belonged to all nations, while temporal Canaan belonged only to the Jews. In Eph. 1:13, the Holy Spirit is expressly called the "Holy Spirit of promise."
So I agree with you that the promised Holy Spirit first to the Jews was not fulfilled until Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit was not given to DWELL IN BELIEVERS FOREVER before Pentecost as Scripture has shown. They were not yet SEALED in the Spirit for the day of redemption. You may not agree with this but I am just showing what Scripture actually says in these verses. This is a topic for another thread.
Ephesians 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.
Eph 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed FOR THE DAY OF REDEMPTION.
2 Tim 2:19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing THIS SEAL: “The Lord knows those who are His” & “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
Rom 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, A SEAL OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE FAITH which
he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
But the Holy Spirit did dwell with various ones who believed in the promised Messiah in the OT & they could be filled with the Holy Spirit just as in the NT.
Isaiah 11:2 The Spirit of the LORD will REST ON HIM-- the Spirit of wisdom & of understanding, the Spirit of counsel & of might, the Spirit of the knowledge & fear of the LORD--