2. The Meaning of Sanctification - Enter His Rest

Ghost at their Baptism.” [60] This is all I contend for, because the other converts received
the Holy Ghost after their conversion, whether we believe with evangelical Protestants
that people are first converted and then baptized or with the Catholics that baptism effects
regeneration.
Even if “when” is used in this passage it still disproves the point it is used to support. It
stands on the face of the narrative here that the disciples at Ephesus actually did not
receive the Holy Ghost at the identical time of their believing, or conversion; for by his
language Paul admits that they are believers and at the same time he prayed for them that
they might receive the Holy Ghost — after he had admitted that they were believers.
For these reasons we may feel indifferent about the “when” translation; for it will bear a
loose construction, allowing for a passage of time between the action of the main verb
and the participle.
As one might say, “When I went to California I bought an orange grove.” Here the time is
indefinite.
Evidently very few people would buy an orange grove the first day they arrived; however,
such an expression is quite as common as “After I went to California I bought an orange
grove.” That this is the meaning of the passage in Acts 19:2 is one of the most certain
points in scriptural interpretation; if doubt arises as to the exact order of the time of the
reception of the Holy Ghost by the disciples at Ephesus that question is to be settled by
appeal to similar instances in the Book of Acts itself, and here the evidence is
overwhelmingly convincing to any unbiased reader who will accept the authority of the
book. “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4). In chapter 7 evidence
amounting to proof has been given that these people were and had been definite believers
long before this event. “When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the
kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
. . . Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the
word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down,
prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost” (8:12-15). Here it is plainly
stated that these people became believers and were baptized under the ministry of one
evangelist and later received the baptism of the Holy Ghost under the ministry of two
other evangelists. This was certainly after they believed or only in a very loose sense of
the word when they believed. When Peter was preaching in Cornelius’ house, while he
“yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word” (Acts
10:44). This gift of the Holy Ghost was given to people who already believed and knew
the word of God concerning salvation in Christ (10:36-37).
By reference to these three definite instances in which people received the Holy Ghost
after they believed, and by the clear evidence that the disciples at Ephesus actually did not
receive the Holy Ghost at the identical time when they believed, we have reached the
conclusion that the translation “Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed” is to be
understood as “Did ye receive the Holy Ghost at that season of your life when you began
your career of discipleship, that is, within a short time after your baptism?” That is the
time when the others received the Holy Ghost. To these same people the Apostle Paul
later wrote: “In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of
promise” (Eph. 1:13).
THE TENSE READINGS OF THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT [61]
By Dr. Daniel Steele, for many years professor of New Testament Greek in Boston University School of
Theology.
In this age of astonishing scientific progress, when the microscope applied to living
tissues reveals whole continents of evidences of design in bioplastic life, and marvelously