Dr. David Murray, is the Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He lives in Grand Rapids with his wife, Shona, and four children.

I found the following articles by Dr. Murray to be very helpful concerning the question “did the Holy Spirit indwell believers in Old Testament times?” He wrote four short articles on this theme and I will put them all together here. That makes this a lengthy post, but I think its best to have all the information in the one place. You can find the original articles at his blog site here.

Did the Holy Spirit indwell OT believers? By David Murray

A huge amount of ink and electrons have been devoted to answering that question. Personally, I can’t understand why this is deemed such a complex issue. It all really depends on our answer to this simple question: Were Old Testament believers believers?

If the Old Testament believers were real believers, the Holy Spirit indwelt them. No one can be born again, believe, or repent without the inward work of the Holy Spirit. And no one can stay a believer for one second without the ongoing internal work of the Holy Spirit – neither in the OT nor the NT. Without the Holy Spirit constantly in and at work in our hearts, we will immediately apostatize.

So, here are the options:

1. Old Testament “believers” were not real believers.

2. Old Testament “believers” believed by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit but kept believing without the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit.

3. Old Testament believers, like New Testament believers, believed and kept on believing as a result of the Holy Spirit’s initial and ongoing indwelling work in their hearts.

If #1 is true, then the Bible is not true (Jn. 8:56; Heb 11).

If #2 is true, then Old Testament believers were not as depraved as we are, as they did not need the ongoing indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. (And in some ways, this debate really is a debate about the nature of human depravity in the Old Testament. Could anything less or other than the indwelling of the Holy Spirit keep a believer believing, repenting, hoping, obeying, etc?)

If #3 is true, then the question that’s left is: “In what ways did the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit differ in the Old Testament compared to the New, especially post-Pentecost?” Everyone accepts there was a difference. But what was it?
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I was just asked what material I recommend regarding the exegesis of 1 Cor 12-14. That’s an easy question to answer. I highly recommend D. A. Carson’s book “Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14.”

You will also find six messages by Dr. Carson at this link – The first five below were the basis for Carson’s book:

1. The Unity of the Body and the Diversity of Gifts (1 Cor. 12)
2. The Most Excellent Way: When Does Perfection Come? (1 Cor. 13)
3. Prophecy and Tongues: Pursuing What Is Best (1 Cor. 14:1-15)
4. Order and Authority: Restraining Spiritual Gifts (1 Cor. 14:26-40)
5. Unleashed Power and the Constraints of Discipline: Toward a Theology of Spiritual Gifts
6. Praying for Power (Eph. 3:14-21)

Someone (whom I will not name) wrote to me today the following:

I’m a Cessationist all the way, John. I think it’s a very slippery slope once a person starts down that Charismatic path. And I see tremendous arrogance in the Reformed Charismatic camp. I believe this comes from the piety that results from thinking that one is a “super Christian” with a special blessing, and deeper connection to God, that others don’t have. Piety, piety, piety… It’s just another mystical encounter, and serves only to (1) get people hooked into getting their little mystical “hit” (instead of perhaps studying Scripture?) and (2) it promotes the aforementioned self-focused and sinful pietism.

There’s a good deal I could write in the way of a response, but here was my brief reply:

If you were to allow for a response I would point to the fact that reformed cessationist people have an equally repulsive reputation in the church world when it comes to pride – pride lurks in all of us. Yet it is poor argumentation to just say that because there are elements of pride in a camp, their arguments are invalid. That is a logical fallacy. A math teacher can be very prideful, even when he correctly tells people 2 + 2 = 4. So where does this leave us? where should we go? To the law and to the testimony (Isaiah 8:20) – to the God breathed Scriptures.

Then I would point out that you are ASSUMING a non-cessationist approach to 1 Cor 12-14 and yet, IF you were to put yourself in time of the first century when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians (when you believe the gifts were still functioning) and allow for continued use, ALL the arguments you make against contemporary reformed charismatics could be said of the Corinthian Church people too. In fact the Apostle Paul wrote about the issues better than you or I ever could, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Corinthians were arrogant, carnal, self focused and far from piety.

Paul’s very reason for writing to the Corinthians was to STOP the focus on self and to exhort them to “pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts” (1 Cor 14:1). Your arguments against reformed charismatics in our time amount to the very same things Paul sought to eliminate at Corinth. We have the exact same issues to deal with in our day because the human heart has not changed in 2,000 years – such is our depravity, and such is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in addressing it.

However, lets remember, even though he was fully aware of the abuse of the gifts, Paul did not stop their use. Instead, he stopped the abuse and then directed their use. As he wrote elsewhere, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thess 5:19-21) I for one am not prepared to class Paul’s apostolic instruction as putting the saints on some sort of “slippery slope.”