In this engaging clip, Cy Kellett and Catholic apologist Karlo Broussard delve into the sacrament of confirmation and its foundation in scripture. Karlo clarifies the purpose of confirmation, explaining how it enhances the grace received at baptism and is not merely an add-on, but a vital step in the Christian journey.
Transcript:
Cy: What is confirmation and where is that in the Bible? It seems like an add-on. Is there any scriptural evidence for confirmation as distinct from baptism?
Karlo: And it’s interesting, you said it’s an add-on, and in a way that’s actually true. But it’s a good add-on in the sense that the sacrament of confirmation is ordered toward communicating a distinct outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the baptized in order to confirm and enhance, intensify, perfect, and even elevate, increase, go on and on and on with the different words, all of the graces received in baptism.
And this is why baptism and confirmation are done at the same time for an infant in some of the churches within the Christian tradition, because confirmation is ordered toward perfecting that which has already been received in baptism. And so it’s not about becoming an adult in the Christian life.
Cy: You’re saying then that would mean that we believe we don’t just need to be saved, we need to be perfected.
Karlo: Oh, that’s a precise way of putting it, Cy.
Cy: I’m killing it today.
Karlo: You are killing it. Now, with regard to the biblical evidence for this, I will admit that the biblical evidence for the sacrament of confirmation is not as, in your face and explicit formally as the sacrament of baptism is. But I do think there is sufficient evidence to show us that there is a distinct outpouring of the Holy Spirit separate from baptism that believers receive.
So in Acts, chapter 8, verses 14 through 20, we read there how Philip baptizes some people in Samaria. And we know, according to Peter’s teaching in Acts 2:38, which is another text we could appeal to, through baptism, we received the promise of the Holy Spirit. So we know that these believers in Samaria would have received the Holy Spirit initially when they were baptized.
But in verses 14 through 17, we read about how upon hearing that the people in Samaria received the word of God through baptism, the apostles in Jerusalem sent Peter and John to go and lay hands on them and pray that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
The implication being that there is some distinct outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands that needs to be communicated that was not given initially in baptism. And this outpouring of the Holy Spirit was one akin to the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
Because in verses 18 through 19 of that same text, when Simon saw that the Spirit had been given through the laying on of hands, he offers them some money and said, “Hey, give me this power, right? That anyone I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit too.”
So if you think about that, Cy, why would Simon want to pay for the power of the Spirit unless the only way he could know that such a power was given through the laying on of hands, such that he would want to pay for it, to have it so he could do it, is if there were some sort of visible manifestation of it? What sort of visible manifestation of the Spirit might that have been? The same kind as on the day of Pentecost?
So notice here, this distinct outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands is one that is akin to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And this is why the Church teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 1288, that the sacrament of Confirmation in a certain way perpetuates the grace of Pentecost in the Church.
What Pentecost was for the apostles, and that distinct outpouring of the Holy Spirit, is confirmation for us. So confirmation for us is our Pentecost experience. That’s what the sacrament of confirmation is.
And then we also have evidence in Acts 19:5-6, where believers in Ephesus were baptized in the name of the Lord, and then Paul lays hands on them and the Holy Spirit came to them. And guess what? Yet again, visible manifestations of the Spirit—they started speaking in tongues and they were prophesying.
So we see this model in Acts chapter 8 and in Acts chapter 19 in the early Church: baptism, which, given our prior exegesis of Scripture, we know communicates the Holy Spirit, and then a distinct giving of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. That’s akin to the day of Pentecost. And that is what we call the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Cy: That’s actually quite striking because I feel like we need a better catechism for just the average Catholic, because I don’t think many Catholics think about Acts 8 when they think about Pentecost. But Acts 8 is really, really clear that this is a distinct thing from the baptism that these people received.
Karlo: Samaria.
Cy: Yeah, yeah. Like the Samaritans would be the correct term, right?
Karlo: Yeah.
Cy: So the Samaritans, they are saved, but the apostles still go back to them.
Karlo: Yeah. And notice that this outpouring of the Holy Spirit for those in Samaria could not be given by Philip who baptized them. They had to send for the apostles Peter and John to come and lay hands. So this communication of the Spirit is something reserved only to the apostles at this time.
Baptism was able to be communicated by Philip, but not this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And of course, that’s what the Catholic Church teaches today, that the Sacrament of Confirmation requires an ordained priesthood, whereas the Sacrament of Baptism, the ordained priest is merely the ordinary minister of baptism, which implies that non-ordained people can communicate baptism in extraordinary circumstances.
So what you see here, Cy, is the Catholic Church is just being good old-fashioned Bible Christians.
Cy: Oh, I believe that, yes, I believe that.
Karlo: Taking the word of God, Sacred Scripture for what it tells us.
Cy: All right, so your association of the reception of the Spirit here, there is a Protestant objection to this and it comes from the third chapter of John’s Gospel, verse 8. I mean, excuse me, verse 8, the third chapter, verse 8. The Spirit is like the wind blowing where it wills. It’s not constrained or confined. It comes in unpredictable ways. So the confirmation is predictable, like we know the date; we give it a date, the date you were confirmed on. So confirmation would contradict this kind of free-flowing, blowing where it wills nature of the Holy Spirit’s action.
Karlo: Yeah. Yes. Several Protestant apologists will make this argument. One in particular, Todd Baker, in his book *Exodus from Rome*, Volume 1. I think he was actually a former priest, if I’m not mistaken or if my memory serves me correctly. But he makes this argument.
But here’s my response. The argument is presented as if the Spirit cannot be confined to come in predictable ways. But that’s not what John 3:8 says. Jesus merely compares the Holy Spirit with the blowing of the wind. So all that says and all that reveals is the affirmation that the Holy Spirit can come spontaneously.
It doesn’t follow from that that the Holy Spirit cannot come in predictable ways. So the mere affirmation that the Holy Spirit can come spontaneously like the wind—right, that’s true. But logically speaking, we can affirm that and at the same time affirm that the Holy Spirit can come in predictable ways, like in the Sacrament of Confirmation.
And the reason is because the logical content of thinking, “Well, the Holy Spirit can come spontaneously,” is not mutually exclusive from the Holy Spirit coming in predictable ways. So we can affirm both at the same time.
And so we have to be very careful with these sort of objections because again, the objection is stated as if the Holy Spirit cannot come in predictable ways, but that’s not what Jesus says.