Is the Holy Spirit given by Laying on of Hands

The Bible tells us the Holy Ghost is given to Christians at the moment of salvation. I have made this very clear in a previous study on the subject. Yet there are many who believe the Holy Ghost was given by the apostles as they laid their hands on people. It’s important that we look into this subject to see if that is true.

At first glance, this passage may seem to support the idea that the laying on of hands was how the Holy Ghost was transmitted from person to person. But there are a few details that show this is not what the passage actually teaches.

The people of Samaria had heard the gospel, believed it, and been water baptized. But that isn’t everything required for salvation. The requirement listed elsewhere in Scripture that is not mentioned here is repentance. It is only assumed that these people had repented because they participated in water baptism.

In reality, they had a head knowledge of salvation but had not yet become true Christians. They believed (as even the devil believes), and they confessed that belief publicly through baptism, but they had not genuinely repented.

Simon is an example of what was happening among the people. We read that he also believed and was baptized, just like everyone else. But when Peter came, he revealed why Simon—and by extension, the others—had not yet received the Holy Ghost.

The text says they received the Holy Ghost when the apostles laid their hands on them—but not because they did.

Simon, like the Samaritans, had believed and confessed through baptism, but his heart was not right before God because he had not repented. This was also true of the people in Samaria that had not yet received the Holy Ghost.

When Peter and John arrived, they preached the full gospel, including repentance. As the people repented, they received the Holy Ghost—while the apostles were laying hands on them, but not because the hands were laid on them.

Simon, like many today, assumed the Holy Ghost was being transferred by touch rather than by the work of God in the heart of a repentant believer.

Philip had already preached the gospel, but it’s possible the Samaritans either didn’t hear about their need for repentance in his message, or they didn’t understand it until Peter and John preached it again.

It may seem strange that Philip would omit repentance, but we see a similar pattern later in the same chapter:

Philip didn’t explicitly tell him to repent here. It’s possible he did, but Scripture leaves it unrecorded. The absence itself teaches us something: many Christians today likewise present salvation as merely believing the gospel, while overlooking repentance.

People then—and now—often make that same mistake. That’s why God sends others to preach and fill in what was previously missed. We work together, each believer contributing what another may have left out.

Samaria is not an example of believers receiving the Holy Ghost after salvation. It is an example of people receiving the Holy Ghost at the moment of salvation—which happened as the apostles were laying hands on them, not because of it.

Often, when a person comes forward in church asking how to be saved, the preacher may place his hands on them and pray with them. At that moment, they are praying for forgiveness and pledging to follow Jesus (repenting). While the preacher’s hands are on them, they are receiving salvation and the Holy Ghost—but not because of the hands.

That’s why the mistake Simon made—believing the Holy Ghost was given through human touch—is still made by many today. In reality, correlation does not equal causation.

The same misunderstanding appears in how some interpret Paul’s words to Timothy.

This verse is often misunderstood. Some assume it means the Holy Ghost was given through the laying on of hands. However, it does not say that. Timothy received a prophecy as the presbytery laid hands on him. The text never says the Holy Ghost was the gift being given.

Paul clarifies the nature of this gift in his second letter:

The gift given to Timothy was the gift of faith, not the Holy Ghost Himself. One of the gifts given by the Holy Ghost is the gift of faith. As we studied previously, the laying on of hands was often a way to strengthen someone’s faith, but the power to give it was not in the hands themselves. The power to give has always been in the Holy Ghost alone.

The point is clear: no man can give the Holy Ghost to another. It is not a transferable power, as Simon assumed. No man owns or controls the Holy Ghost, nor does He require physical touch to move. It is God alone who imparts the Spirit.

The apostles’ hands—like a preacher’s today—were a visible expression of blessing and unity. What Simon mistook for a transferable power was actually the invisible work of God in repentant hearts. The laying on of hands may coincide with the moment of receiving the Spirit, but it never causes it.

There is not a single verse in Scripture that supports the idea that the Holy Ghost can be given by men when read in context. Everywhere else in the Bible, it is God alone who sends the Spirit to dwell in a person.

The apostles’ touch was never required. We see the Holy Ghost given many times in Acts without it. The Spirit did not have to “wait” for human contact. To say the apostles had the power to give or withhold the Holy Ghost would be to place them in authority over God.

Instead, what we see are people hearing the gospel, understanding it, and receiving the Holy Ghost as they repent and believe—sometimes while hands are laid on them, but always as a direct act of God. It is not a transfer of the Holy Ghost; it is the filling of the Holy Ghost by God alone.

The next subject we will examine is the giving of a blessing. This, too, can be done with or without the laying on of hands. Remember: touch is simply an expression of closeness and care—it doesn’t actually transfer anything.

Continue To Unit 5:3 – Giving a Blessing to Someone OR

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