In Christian theology, baptism with the Holy Spirit, also called baptism in the Holy Spirit or baptism in the Holy Ghost, has been interpreted by different Christian denominations and traditions in a variety of ways due to differences in the doctrines of salvation and ecclesiology. It is frequently associated with incorporation into the Christian Church, the bestowal of spiritual gifts, and empowerment for Christian ministry. Spirit baptism has been variously defined as part of the sacraments of initiation into the church, as being synonymous with regeneration, or as being synonymous with Christian perfection. The term baptism with the Holy Spirit originates in the New Testament, and all Christian traditions accept it as a theological concept.
Prior to the 18th century, most denominations believed that Christians received the baptism with the Holy Spirit either upon conversion and regeneration or through rites of Christian initiation, such as water baptism and confirmation.
Methodism and the holiness movement, which began in the mid-18th century, teach that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the same as entire sanctification, which is believed to be a second work of grace.[1][2]
In the 20th century, Pentecostalism associated Spirit baptism with the gift of speaking in tongues (glossolalia) and spiritual empowerment, with Holiness Pentecostal fathers declaring it to be the third work of grace. As Pentecostalism continued to grow, the belief that Spirit baptism is distinct from entire sanctification became prevalent.[3][4][5]
The Methodists were also first to coin the phrase baptism of the Holy Spirit as applied to a second and sanctifying grace (experience) of God. (Cf. John Fletcher of Madeley, Methodism's earliest formal theologian.) The Methodists meant by their "baptism" something different from the Pentecostals, but the view that this is an experience of grace separate from and after salvation was the same.
PHC2000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Seymour's holiness background suggests that Pentecostalism had roots in the holiness movement of the late nineteenth century. The holiness movement embraced the Wesleyan doctrine of "sanctification" or the second work of grace, subsequent to conversion. Pentecostalism added a third work of grace, called the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is often accompanied by glossolalia.
Parham taught that the Holiness movements of the ninteenth century had ererd in regarding sanctification as synonymous with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The latter was a third blessing. Justification saved humankind from sin. Sanctification purified the believer while the third work of grace empowered the Christian for service.