When Paul asked the Ephesians, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” in Acts 19:2, was he referring to the gift of Acts 2:38? And is that the same as the\u00a0Spirit given in Acts 5:32.<\/p>\n
Thanks.<\/p>\n\t
“And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus<\/em>” (Acts 19:1-5).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Everyone who believes, repents, and is baptized receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the promise of salvation (Acts 2:38-39; Ephesians 1:13-14). That would be a given for all Christians, so if Paul was speaking of the Holy Spirit’s promise, it would seem to be an odd question to ask people who thought they were believers.<\/p>\n
However, the miraculous gifts of the Spirit were not a given. These had to be passed on by the laying on of the apostles’ hands. “Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit<\/em>” (Acts 8:14-17). Thus the apostle Paul’s question would be a natural one for him to ask a group of believers he had not been in contact with before.<\/p>\n
The response Paul got demonstrated a problem. They did not know about the Holy Spirit; yet, since the Spirit is the guarantee of our salvation, it should not be possible to be baptized into Christ and not know of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the follow-on question and the discovery that they only knew of John’s baptism and did not know of Christ’s baptism. This problem was straightened out and then … “And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied<\/em>” (Acts 19:6). Therefore, Paul by his actions shows that he was speaking of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: When Paul asked the Ephesians, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” in Acts 19:2, was he referring to the gift of Acts 2:38? And is that the same as the\u00a0Spirit given in Acts 5:32. Thanks. Answer: “And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[144,86],"class_list":["post-25657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-acts","tag-holy-spirit"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23453,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-jesus-receive-the-holy-spirit-when-he-was-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":25657,"position":0},"title":"Did Jesus receive the Holy Spirit when he was baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My question is about Jesus and him being baptized. Did he receive the Holy Spirit during his baptism? Answer: When Peter said, \"Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14618,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-paul-really-receive-the-holy-spirit-before-his-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":25657,"position":1},"title":"Did Paul really receive the Holy Spirit before his baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was just reading your answer to\u00a01\/24\/2008's question\u00a0about Paul receiving the spirit before he was baptized. I could be mistaken, but I have never gotten from that passage that Paul received the Spirit before baptism.\u00a0 Ananias told Paul that he would receive his sight and then be filled with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16535,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-you-need-to-receive-the-gift-of-the-spirit-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":25657,"position":2},"title":"Why do you need to receive the gift of the Spirit again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, In Ephesians 1, Paul says we are marked with a seal, the Holy Spirit, on believing the gospel. \"In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13667,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/paul-was-filled-with-the-spirit-before-he-was-baptized-so-wasnt-he-saved-before-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":25657,"position":3},"title":"Paul was filled with the Spirit before he was baptized, so wasn’t he saved before baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I figured I would just point out two significant points in the Bible. Acts 10:43-48 clearly illustrates that one can have the Holy Spirit before baptism.\u00a0\u00a0The passage also says \"whoever believes in shall have remission of sins.\"\u00a0\u00a0Once you have the Holy Spirit in your life you are saved.\u00a0\u00a0Also, you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92363,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-baptism-only-for-the-jews-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":25657,"position":4},"title":"Was baptism only for the Jews? (3)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day. Does I Corinthians 12:13 refer to Holy Spirit baptism? Was water baptism only for the Jews? Did it stop when Paul got his assignment to the Gentiles? Thanks. Answer: I Corinthians 12:13 tells us who was behind the means by which we can be saved. The Holy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22011,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-one-receive-the-holy-spirit-without-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":25657,"position":5},"title":"Can one receive the Holy Spirit without baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can one receive the Holy Spirit without baptism? Answer: The clear answer to this is \"yes.\" Baptism is a command found in the New Testament, yet people had received the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In addition: \"While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}