For some context, this is the premise behind the UCG-cult’s claim to fame (DouglasKC is a member), since they believe that they alone are the true church of God on Earth, and therefore one must be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit from them, otherwise you don’t get to join the ‘God family’ along with them.
But to address the claims of this article:
“Scripture has numerous examples of laying on of hands. In general there are 3 purposes as seen in scripture:
1. To impart the holy spirit to a fellow believer in Christ.
2. To heal.
3. To ordain to a Godly office.”
There is no mandate in scripture that requires the laying on of hands to receive the Spirit, who is the third person of the Trinity (which the UCG denies). The Spirit is specifically described as sovereign, moving where He wills and how He pleases:
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Salvation is by grace alone, which itself is an event initiated by the Holy Spirit, who comes upon a man and informs Him that Jesus is the Christ.
1Co_12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
Laying on of hands is not necessary for healing. For example, Christ here heals without even being in the same location as the other individual:
“The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.”
(Joh 4:49-53)
In the case of the infilling of the Spirit, Cornelius and his family are filled with the Spirit prior to having any one place hands on them, or water baptism, but only at the words of the Apostles:
“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.”
(Act 10:44-48)
Similarly, the Thief is saved prior to Baptism, and without anyone laying hands on him. The Spirit is promised to all those who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and even that confession is itself the work of the Spirit on the soul of the man:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
(Joh 3:14-15)
“no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.” (Joh 6:65)
While the Apostles did lay hands on men, these Baptisms of the Spirit were immediatelly followed up with signs and wonders of a very visible nature, which do not occur whenever the UCG lays hands on people. Nor were they done by any virtue in their own hands, but according to the purpose of God to demonstrate the truth and power of Christianity.
But at LEAST you are attempting to discuss though it is chock full of insults. Why don't we attempt a reasonable discussion?
There is no mandate in scripture that requires the laying on of hands to receive the Spirit,
Oh, yes, only that Christ taught it as a basic foundation of Christianity and that all the disciples practiced it. Other than that not a word.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Those verse talk about the nature of the spirit...it's paranormal...and not how it comes to indwell in believers.
“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Addressed in the article.
Nice try, but your response is based on many suppositions and traditional beliefs.