The origin, development and a brief appraisal of the doctrine of the baptism in the Holy Spirit in Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria

George O Folarin

doi:10.4102/hts.v69i1.1333

Abstract

This article traces the development of the Christ Apostolic Church’s (CAC) doctrine of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, its current official stance and the church ministers’ interpretations of the doctrine. To gather data for this work, focus-group discussions were held with groups of CAC ministers in 1992 and 2012. Data gathered were analysed. Selected leaders of CAC were interviewed, and the data from the two sources were compared, interpreted and discussed in terms of related literature. A theological appraisal concluded the work. The findings are that, whilst CAC tenets appear to conform to the Classical Pentecostal model, the opinions of the church’s ministers are divided along Pentecostal and Evangelical lines. The official view of the CAC is that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is distinct from the initial work of salvation and that the visible signs of receiving this baptism are multiple, but there are significant disagreements amongst the church ministers to this. The appraisal reveals that the tenet of the church needs to be reworked to conform to the teaching of the Scripture.

Highlights

A brief introduction to Pentecostalism is important because the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) claims to be Pentecostal (Christ Apostolic Church Constitution 1998:15, 18; cf. Oshun 2008:75)
The third is that the purpose of baptism in the Holy Spirit is not for salvation the Wesleyan and the Keswick movements disagree on the nature of that purpose
We discovered that there were other doctrines embraced and taught by The Apostolic Church of Great Britain which we found to be scripturally sound but were not taught and practiced by Faith Tabernacle congregation of America ... one of their doctrines which we embraced was the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with signs following

Summary

Introduction

A brief introduction to Pentecostalism is important because the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) claims to be Pentecostal (Christ Apostolic Church Constitution 1998:15, 18; cf. Oshun 2008:75). One key teaching of the CAC is that ‘believers’ are to be baptised in the Holy Spirit and that the experience is distinct from the initial salvation experience (Christ Apostolic Church Constitution and Doctrine 1968:13).

Results

Conclusion