The Baptism With the Holy Spirit: What R. A. Torrey Taught

Holy Spirit Christian Life Revival

R. A. Torrey taught that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience, separate from and in addition to the new birth, given chiefly to empower believers for testimony and service. Every Christian may have it and needs it. It is received by taking seven plain steps from Scripture, ending in simple faith in God's promise. After it, there must be fresh fillings for each new task, and the power can be lost.

He set this out in a short book, The Baptism with the Holy Spirit (1895), and again at greater length in chapter XX of The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. This article follows both, in his own words where possible. For his life, see Who Was R. A. Torrey?

What the baptism with the Spirit is

Torrey first shows that the Bible has several names for one experience. Jesus promised, "ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Acts 1:5). When it came, "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:4). It is also called "the promise of the Father," being "endued with power from on high," the Holy Ghost "falling on" people, and "the gift of the Holy Ghost."

A definite experience

Jesus told the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power. How would they know when to stop waiting, Torrey asks, unless the experience was definite? Paul asked the disciples at Ephesus, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" (Acts 19:2), and he expected a plain yes or no. Torrey says many who pray for the baptism would be dumbfounded if asked whether they got it.

Distinct from regeneration

The apostles were already clean through the word Christ had spoken to them (John 15:3), yet they had not yet been baptized with the Spirit. The Samaritan believers had been baptized in Jesus' name, but the Spirit "was fallen upon none of them" until Peter and John prayed (Acts 8:14-16). From this Torrey concludes that every true believer has the Spirit (Romans 8:9), but not every believer has been baptized with the Spirit.

As we have already seen every true believer has the Holy Spirit (Rom. viii. 9), but not every believer has the baptism with the Holy Spirit (though every believer may have as we have just seen).
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, chapter XX

With Cornelius the two came together, and Torrey thought that would be normal in a healthy church. But many believers today are where the Samaritans were.

For service, not the removal of the sinful nature

Torrey is firm here. He agrees there is a further blessing after regeneration, received at once, but rejects the teaching that it eradicates the sinful nature. Victory over sin is a daily walk in the Spirit, not something done once for all.

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is not for the purpose of cleansing from sin, but for the purpose of empowering for service.
The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, chapter I

He grants that it brings "a great moral uplift," and that the fire of John's promise searches and cleanses. But the main purpose is power to witness. In the later book he writes that he would rather never have one touch of ecstasy and have power to win souls, than have raptures every day and no such power.

What it does

The gifts differ from person to person. Torrey says he once assumed that everyone baptized with the Spirit would speak with tongues, until Paul's question settled it: "do all speak with tongues?" (1 Corinthians 12:30). He also warns against assuming everyone will get power as an evangelist. That error leads to disappointment, presumption and indifference. A mother of a large family may think the blessing is only for preachers, when she needs it to raise her children.

The Spirit decides which gift to give. Our part is to put ourselves at His disposal. But there will always be power.

The baptism with the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God coming upon the believer, filling his mind with a real apprehension of truths, especially of Christ, taking possession of his faculties, imparting to him gifts not otherwise his but which qualify him for the service to which God has called him.
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, chapter XX

In the longer book Torrey adds two more results: boldness in testimony, as when cowardly Peter faced the council, and a mind occupied with God, with Christ and with spiritual things.

Why every believer needs it

The apostles had walked with Christ for over three years, yet He told them not to begin their work until they were clothed with power (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5). Even Jesus did not begin His ministry until the Spirit came upon Him at the Jordan (Acts 10:38; Luke 3-4). So, Torrey says, any Christian worker who has not received this ought to stop and wait until he has. The world lost nothing in the ten days the disciples waited.

There is nothing more deadly than the gospel without the Spirit's power.
The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, chapter II

Is it for today?

A minister once told Torrey his church taught that the baptism with the Spirit was for the apostolic age. Torrey answered with Peter's words at Pentecost:

For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Acts 2:39

"The promise," he shows from Acts 1:4-5 and 2:33, is the promise of the Spirit. It reaches every generation. And he draws a solemn conclusion: if we may be baptized with the Spirit, we must be, because souls depend on it.

Seven steps to receive it

Torrey finds all seven steps in Acts 2:38, with other verses to fill them out.

Accept Jesus as Christ and Lord. To repent is to change one's mind about Christ.
Renounce all sin. Repentance is also a change of mind about sin. Ask God to search the heart (Psalm 139:23-24), and put away whatever He shows, however small.
Confess Christ openly. Peter said "be baptized." The baptism with the Spirit is for the open disciple, not the secret one.
Surrender absolutely to God. The Holy Ghost is given "to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32). Obedience is the surrender of the will, whatever and wherever God wills.
Desire it intensely, and for God's glory. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty" (Isaiah 44:3). Simon the sorcerer wanted the power for himself, and Peter rebuked him.
Ask definitely. "How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:13). Some say we should not pray for the Spirit since He was given at Pentecost. Torrey points to Acts 4:31 and Acts 8:15, both after Pentecost.
Believe. Mark 11:24 and 1 John 5:14-15: if we ask according to His will, we know we have the petition. Count it yours on God's Word, and the experience follows.

There is nothing to be feared in God's will.
The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, chapter III

Feelings, signs and waiting

How will we know we have it? The same way an inquirer knows he has eternal life: by God's Word first, then by experience.

I would believe God's word before my feelings any day.
The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, chapter III

Torrey does not deny the strong feelings Finney and others described, but every New Testament manifestation of the baptism was new power in service. Nor need we wait ten days. The apostles waited for the day of Pentecost; after it, no one in Acts waited.

In chapter XX Torrey tells how he resolved not to enter his pulpit again until he was baptized with the Spirit, and shut himself in his study to wait on God.

There was no particular ecstasy or emotion, simply the calm assurance that the blessing was mine.
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, chapter XX

A strong experience of joy came later, he says, but the calm hour was the moment he was baptized.

Fresh fillings

Peter was filled at Pentecost (Acts 2:4), again before the council (4:8), and again in the prayer meeting (4:31). So one baptism is not enough for a lifetime.

As new emergencies of service arise, there must be new fillings with the Spirit.
The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, chapter IV

Torrey prefers to keep the word "baptism" for the first experience and to call the later ones fillings, since Scripture never uses "baptized" of a second experience.

How power is lost

The last chapter of the short book takes Samson as its warning. Power once given can be withdrawn. Torrey names seven causes: giving up our separation to God, letting sin in, self-indulgence, greed for money, pride, neglect of prayer, and neglect of the Word.

The gratification of the flesh and the fullness of the Spirit do not go hand in hand.
The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, chapter V

We must meditate daily, prayerfully, profoundly upon the Word if we are to maintain power.
The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, chapter V

Read Torrey for yourself

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is five short chapters; start with chapter III, How the Baptism with the Holy Spirit Can Be Obtained. It shows Torrey's teaching early in his ministry; chapter XX of The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit is the fuller, later version. That book's opening chapters, on whether the Spirit is a Person and God, are covered in Is the Holy Spirit a Person?, and the whole book in our chapter-by-chapter summary. For other classics on the subject, see the best books on the Holy Spirit.