In a Derek Prince video he expresses his belief that the 3,000 in Acts 2:41 were water baptized. I had always thought they were baptized by the Holy Spirit. Are there any existing 1st Century records or clues to whether or not the 3,000 were both water baptized and baptized by the Holy Spirit ? From your extensive research did you come to any consensus?
Abbalove, this section (still from Chapter 9) I believe will cover your questions on what Derek Prince believes, I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
9.6 Acts 2: The Promise of the Father
(See reasons 1–6, 11, and 12.)
The events in Acts 2 occurred at the second annual Feast of the Jews called Pentecost, where approximately 120 disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit of God (Acts 2:1–4). We spiritually fulfill the first feast—the Passover—when we receive the Messiah’s baptism; this is the washing that comes from believing in the Messiah’s shed blood and resurrection for forgiveness and salvation. Then we are ready to spiritually fulfill the second Feast—Pentecost—by being filled with God’s Spirit.
NAS Acts 2:4 And they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Peter says that this amazing event fulfilled what was prophesied by the prophet Joel—that a time was coming when God would pour out His spirit on all flesh (Acts 2:16–18). This was the promise of the Father. Prior to this event, God’s Holy Spirit was given at rare times to high-ranking men like kings and prophets (see Exodus 31:2–3; Micah 3:5–8; Luke 1:67), but now it was available to any Israelite (both men and women) and even to Gentiles, as would happen later in Acts 10.
Yet, this event in Acts 2 is a totally different situation than what occurred with the baptism in Acts 10, which specifically mentioned a
water baptism for those new Gentile believers. Here in Acts 2, no water is mentioned, possibly because Peter is now speaking to law-observant Jews who would have already been ritually clean to gather and appear at the Temple, as was required for this Feast day. Being ritually clean, they would have already had the necessary immersion/baptism in water that was required for gathering together at the Temple for Pentecost. Tradition has handed down to us that Acts 2:38 was another water baptism, but that does not necessarily make that belief correct.
Notice below that Peter says they need to be baptized in the name of Jesus “for the forgiveness of your sins.” And
water baptism is not what forgives sins. Believing in Jesus and the atonement that his shed blood provides (i.e., the Messiah’s Spirit baptism) does that—not when we are ritually dipped in water. It is very possible that Peter, under God’s anointing, was referring to the Messiah’s washing/baptism here:
NAS Acts 2:37–38 Now when they heard
this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” And Peter
said to them, “Repent, and
let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Peter had preached that Jesus was the promised son of David and what the religious leaders had done to him. These observant Jews were then pierced to the heart and wanted to know what to do. However, when Peter says to be washed/baptized in the name of Jesus for forgiveness, he may not be going backward to water baptism; it is at least possible that he is moving forward to the Spirit baptism the Messiah wanted. After all, Peter had just told them that Jesus received “from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit” and that this, just poured forth on the disciples, is what they now see and hear:
NAS Acts 2:33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father
the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has
poured forth this which
you both see and hear.
This verse above shows that Peter understands that this is a spiritual “pouring forth,” a spiritual baptism/washing and filling. So this may be speaking of believing in Jesus for cleansing and forgivingness and thus being spiritually baptized/washed. After believing in Jesus for salvation (the Spirit baptism), one is then prepared to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit:
NAS Acts 2:38 And Peter
said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
If Peter means you have to repent and be
water baptized for forgiveness (and to receive the Holy Spirit), then he would be wrong here, for God forgave and filled many with the Holy Spirit who were not water baptized (Acts 10:44–48). And God certainly does not fill unforgiven, unwashed, sin-burdened people with the Holy Spirit.
Peter says to repent and be baptized/washed in the name of Jesus and all that that name stood for (nothing says in water), and then you will receive the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus, those who believed Peter’s words concerning Jesus may have been spiritually washed (i.e., without water):
NAS Acts 2:41 So then,
those who had received his word were
baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
As we saw earlier in chapter 3, baptizing in the name of Jesus does not refer to a ritualistic mode of how to water baptize someone (i.e., “I now baptize you in the name of Jesus”) any more than “teaching in the name of Jesus” refers to someone who must ritually state before each sermon, “I now teach you in the name of Jesus.” That is not what Acts 2:38 or Acts 4:18 meant when they said “in the name of Jesus”:
NAS Acts 4:18 And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all
in the name of Jesus.
Teaching in the name of Jesus, speaking in the name of Jesus, and baptizing/washing/immersing in the name of Jesus can all refer to a teaching, speaking, or a washing (baptism) that has Christ as the source and subject of what is happening or being brought forth.
It must be remembered (as this book has shown) that first-century Jews did not have a Roman-style baptism in mind when they used this word. Peter says nothing of
water baptism here. There was no lake nearby, the Jordan River was over fifteen miles away, and nothing says that these 3,000 ritually clean new believers in Jesus all lined up at a nearby
mikveh.
Additionally, no proof exists that Jesus told the disciples that they would be bringing a new
water baptism. In fact, both he and John always contrasted the water baptism to the
Spirit baptism that he would bring in (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16). So if Peter is bringing in a water baptism here, then he is doing it of his own accord, not yet having the New Covenant revelation as Paul came into.
Although the disciples of course already believed before this day, they did not receive the Messiah’s baptism until Pentecost. For various reasons, the Messiah’s promised Spirit baptism did not begin immediately after the resurrection but at Pentecost, just as Jesus said several days earlier:
NAS Acts 1:5 for John baptized with water,
but you shall be
baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
The Messiah does
not say here, “Oh, and I almost forgot, be sure to bring the new water baptism, with the new formula in my name.” And as we have seen, that is not what Matthew 28:19 meant.
Those 120 gathered for Pentecost, including the apostles, not only received the baptism in the Holy Spirit (the Messiah’s baptism/washing) on this day, but they also received the infilling of the Spirit (Acts 2:4) at the same time, just like the Gentiles did later in Acts 10:44–46.
One reason that the Messiah’s baptism did not begin immediately after the resurrection is that he still walked among them in the flesh for 40 days. The scripture says that the Messiah became a life-giving spirit and this spiritual washing began at Pentecost, when they were also filled.
NAS 1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam
became a life-giving spirit.