A key question in debates about the ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ is whether this describes a separate stage of salvation or not.

Some have argued in the affirmative.  For instance, Pentecostal leader Ralph Riggs asserted that:-

The baptism with the Spirit is a work of the Holy Spirit distinct from and subsequent and additional to His regeneration work. A man may be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and still not be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

(in Bruner, A Theology of the Holy Spirit, 46).

Michael Harper quotes R.A. Torrey with approval:-

A man may be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and still not be baptized with the Holy Spirit. In regeneration, there is the impartation of life by the Spirit’s power, and the one who receives it is saved: in the baptism with the Holy Spirit, there is the impartation of power, and the one who receives it is fitted for service.

(Power for the Body of Christ, 22).

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is often associated in Pentecostal teaching with the gift of tongues:-

If we only wish to perform the barest minimum essential for life everlasting, then once we have repented of our sins and accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, we may live and obtain life eternal. But how much more there is for the serious Christian! How much more rewarding is the life of commitment and service a dedicated child of God may participate in…For surely the unknown tongue is the initial, audible evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

(in Hollenweger, The Pentecostals, 10).

But the case for regarding the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as synonymous with regeneration/conversion is, to my mind, more convincing.

To be “baptized in the Holy Spirit” is simply another way of saying “to receive the Holy Spirit.” If we want to use the expression “Spirit baptism,” we can use it only to describe the reception of the Holy Spirit which occurs when a person is born again. Neither the particular accounts referred to in Acts nor the total witness of the New Testament support the doctrine of Spirit baptism as a second stage of salvation in the sense of an anointing for service or as the real, empowering experience of the Spirit.

(Grossmann, Stewards of God’s grace, 77).

Grossmann lists lists ‘the main negative results of a doctrine and practice of Spirit baptism as a separate stage in the way of salvation.

• • Concentration on Spirit baptism easily detracts from the central importance of regeneration. Often the recognition of sin is lacking in depth, because the fundamental event of forgiveness of sins on the basis of a personal and total confession of sin does not have the central place in a person’s experience.

• • Becasue the experience of a later baptism in the Sprit often goes much deeper than the experience of being born again…the central significance of the fundamental Christian experience with its many aspects (forgiveness, power, confession) is transferred to the signs accompanying the experience of the Spirit. Assurance of salvation is therefore based no longer on the acceptance of forgiveness at regeneration, but on charismatic signs.
  • In Spirit baptism the experience of power and ability becomes the central experience, while the areas of self-recognition, acceptance of salvation, forgiveness of sins and confession become secondary…
  • The reception of the Spirit takes on the character of a universal remedy. Preachers are apt to suggest: “If only you experience the baptism of the Spirit and break out into speaking in tongues, all your other problems will be solved.” This is applied to the problem of illness, to other problems of life, to the problem of doubt and to faults of character.
  • Because Spirit baptism generally takes place at an emotional level, it can easily be imitated by experiences which involve purely human feelings.

Grossman, Stewards of God’s Grace, 81f.

J.I. Packer asks:-

What should we say…of the often-heard view, based on Acts 2, that God means every Christian’s life to be a two-stage, two-level affair, in which conversion is followed by a second event (called Spirit baptism on the basis of Acts 1:5 or Spirit filling on the basis of Acts 2:4), which raises one’s spiritual life to new heights? We should say that though individual Christians need, and again and again are given, “second touches” of this kind (and third, and fourth, and any number more), the idea that this is God’s programme for all Christians as such is mistaken. God means all Christians as such to enjoy the full inward blessing of Pentecost (not the outward trimmings necessarily, but the communion of heart with Christ and all that flows from it) right from the moment of their conversion.

(Keep in step with the Spirit, 91).

A widely-held non-Pentecostalist view is that held by John Stott and other ‘main-stream’ conservative evangelicals. According to this view, all believers have been ‘baptised’ with the Spirit at the moment of the new birth:-

The ‘baptism’ of the Spirit is identical with the ‘gift’ of the Spirit,…it is one of the distinctive blessings of the new convenant, and, because it is an initial blessing, is also a universal blessing for members of the covenant…So then, whatever post-conversion experiences there may be…’baptism with the Spirit’ cannot be the right expression to use for them.

(Baptism and Fullness, 43f).