I just wanted to jump in on this. Let me say that i grew up in a baptist church. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior when i was 4 years old. I fully understood what it meant that I was a sinner separated from God...who needed Jesus Christ to pay the price for me. I was baptized as a baby originally(because my mom was lutheran)...and as a believer at 8 in the "name" of the father, son and holy ghost. It wasn't until years later after studying for a long time in my bible....as is my custom, when i was a teenager that i felt the Holy Ghost time and time again in prayer and i felt the physical manifestation when i was praying one night....it was amazing. Later i understood that the bible teaches baptism in Jesus' name. I had a pentecostal pastor friend who re-baptized me. They tried to convince me that i needed to speak in tongues to be saved...but i told them that i knew from the bible that i was saved already. I had even felt the Holy Ghost many times. A couple of years ago(i'm not 28) i got the baptism of the Holy Ghost while attending an AG church. I studied the issue out, and found that on that particular issue....i see the indwelling and baptism of the holy ghost as 2 separate events. Particularly because even many people could see the evidence of salvation in my life. There is no such requirement in scripture to speak in tongues in order to be saved. In some situations, people received the gospel, got baptized in Jesus' name...and had not received tongues. The apostles laid hands on them, and then they got it. So there isn't a consistent viewpoint of tongues as evidence of salvation. If you want evidence....look at what the bible says.
"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"-
Matthew 7:16
" But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."-
Galatians 5:22-23
" am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."-
John 15:1-5
You can't produce good fruit apart from God. It's the fruit that is evidence of salvation...not tongues. Tongues is the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
What did Jesus say about receiving the Holy Ghost?
"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."-
John 14:17
He was "with them". How? Through Jesus Christ, because Jesus is the Holy Ghost...and through the presence of the Spirit which is EVERYWHERE.
When did He go "in them"?
"And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost."-
John 20:22
This is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. So what is different between this and pentecost? This happened right after the resurrection. They couldn't have Him "in them" because they could not be "Holy" and "justified" before the crucifiction of Christ. Here, they "received Him".
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."-
Acts 1:8
Notice the wording here. "Ye shall receive POWER, after that the Holy Ghost is come UPON you."
Why is it worded this way? Because they already had the Holy Ghost "in them". The power of the Holy Ghost needed to come upon them in order to take the gospel to the world. Without the baptism, how could they receive the "gifts" of the Holy Ghost? I had never experienced healing before the baptism of the Holy Ghost. In ministry, i had received a commission to "teach"...but other spiritual gifts weren't really there. Now I understand why. Part of receiving the baptism is to tap into that power when we need to. That's one of the purposes of praying in tongues...to edify which means to "build up".
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