As for the claim in your OP that this was the view up until the Reformation, you'll need to back that one up a bit. The Pentecostal belief that baptism with the Holy Spirit is a subsequent experience, a receiving of the Spirit, after regeneration isn't the historic belief of the Christian Church, prior nor after the Reformation.
-CryptoLutheran
Hey Brother,
Here is another piece of evidence supporting my claim from a Church Father.
Are you still holding your breath? Here is the next Church Father that taught that the Gift of the Holy Spirit is received AFTER believing or water baptism.
Tertullian (ca. 155-225)
Tertullian writes of how man now "receives again that Spirit of God," which had been lost through sin, but immediately adds:
"NOT that
in the waters we obtain the Holy Spirit; but in the water, under (the witness of) the angel, we are cleansed and PREPARED FOR the Holy Spirit" (chaps. 5 and 6).
Then, seeing an analogy between John the Baptist and the angel, Tertullian adds:
"Thus, too, does the angel, the witness of baptism, 'make the paths straight' for the Holy Spirit, who is about to come upon us, by the washing away of sins, which faith, sealed in (the name of) the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, obtains" (chap. 6).
Therefore, it is easy to see that for Tertullian, one needs to be cleansed of their sins first before receiving one can receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Tertullian adds the idea from the Old Testament, anointing oil:
"After this, when we have issued from the font [water baptism], we are thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction" (chap. 7)…. then… "In the next place the hand is (laid upon us), invoking and inviting the Holy Spirit through benediction," and… "Then, over our cleansed and blessed bodies willingly descends from heaven that Holiest Spirit." Thereby "to our flesh as it emerges from the font, after its old sins, flies the dove of the Spirit, bring the peace of God" (chap. 8).
Thus, in his treatise on Baptism, it is evident that Tertullian distinguishes between the activity of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and the reception of the Spirit through the subsequent laying on of hands. The Holy Spirit is active in Baptism, sanctifying the waters and cleansing body and soul, but it is only after both unction and the laying on of hands that the Spirit is obtained. Tertullian views the whole sequence of acts—Baptism, unction, imposition of hands—as constituting a progressive movement.
Regarding this latter point, we might reference Tertullian's treatise,
On the Resurrection of the Flesh, wherein stressing the unity of soul and body, he shows a movement beginning in Baptism and climaxing with the Eucharist.
"The flesh indeed is washed [in baptism], in order that the soul might be cleansed; the flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated; the flesh is signed (with the cross) that the soul too may be fortified; the flesh is shadowed with the imposition of hands that the soul may also be illuminated by the Spirit [by reception of the Holy Spirit]; the flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ that the soul likewise may fatten on its God" (chap. 8).
There is, for Tertullian, clearly a sequence, however differently worded, that, begun in Baptism, includes the reception or illumination of the Spirit.
Finally, regarding the gifts of the Spirit, Tertullian views asking for them as the climax to all that he has described in his
On Baptism. Several chapters after those on Baptism, anointing, and laying on of hands, Tertullian concludes:
"Therefore, blessed
ones, whom the grace of God awaits, when you ascend from that most sacred font of your new birth [water baptism], and spread your hands [in prayer] for the first time in the house of your mother [the church], together with your brethren, ask from the Father, ask from the Lord, that His own specialties of grace
and distributions of gifts may be supplied you [through receiving the Gift of the Holy Spirit]. 'Ask' saith He, 'and ye shall receive'" (chap. 20).
Tertullian himself was not unaware of the presence of gifts of the Spirit at first. In his treatise,
Against Marcion, one argument Tertullian uses is that Marcion cannot exhibit such gifts:
"Let Marcion exhibit, as gifts of his God, some prophets, such as have not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God, such as have both predicted things to come and have made manifest the secrets of the heart; let him produce a psalm, a vision, a prayer—only let it be by the Spirit, in an ecstasy, that is, in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred to him... [but he came to experience many spiritual gifts later] …Now all these signs (of spiritual gifts) are forthcoming from my side without any difficulty" (Bk. 5, 8).
Blessings... I hope I am not causing you to hyper-ventilate... *smile*
