This book is a presentation of the Pentecostal position on Holy Spirit baptism. Not all those who are connected with the movement will agree with all that is in these pages; but the position taken does generally represent both the Pentecostal and Charismatic viewpoint. It probably hovers somewhere in the middle of the more extreme views taken by some on either side. The Pentecostal position on the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and on the gifts of the Spirit, depends on establishing four things
that there is available to every Christian an experience known (among other titles) as "Holy Spirit baptism"
that new birth (or regeneration) and the baptism in the Spirit are discrete; that is, they are separate and distinct happenings, though they may sometimes occur simultaneously
that "glossolalia" (speaking in tongues) is the usual initial evidence that a person has been baptised in the Spirit
that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit (the charismata) which existed in the early church are still available and should be occurring in the worship of the modern church.
The remainder of this book will try to establish those propositions.
