Stephen Jones — Pneumatology
b4 — The Laws of the Second Coming
Outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost — historical precision
Jones emphasizes that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost occurred not only on the right day but at the exact hour — the third hour, when the priest in the temple offered the Pentecostal offering:
“In Acts 2:1 we are told that the Holy Spirit was given to the Church on the day of Pentecost. It is described as a time when the Spirit came down as tongues of FIRE upon their heads. Even as God came down as fire upon the mount in the days of Moses, so now He came as fire upon the disciples. The main difference is that the fiery presence of God was no longer external upon a mountain, but now internalized in men. Furthermore, God did not accept the Pentecostal offering by fire in the temple. Instead, He accepted the disciples themselves and the offering on the altar of their hearts. This shows a change of temple that God would inhabit. He no longer inhabits temples of wood and stone, for we are now the temples of God (1 Cor. 3:16).”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 1 — Israel’s Prophetic Spring Feasts
“The third hour of the day was when the priest in the temple offered to God the Pentecostal offering of two loaves of wheat bread that had been baked with leaven (Lev. 23:17). The disciples no doubt would have wanted to receive the Holy Spirit earlier, but God made them wait to the appointed time — not just the right day, but even the precise hour of the day. This shows how important timing is to God Himself.”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 1 — Israel’s Prophetic Spring Feasts
Interpretation: Jones uses the feast-day structure to argue that God’s acts with the Spirit are bound to precisely appointed moadim (set times), undergirding his typological hermeneutic.
Personal Pentecost as sanctification by the Spirit
Jones distinguishes two applications of the feast days: the personal (experiential) and the historical (corporate). At the personal level, Pentecost represents sanctification through the indwelling of the Spirit:
“Men are also to experience Pentecost within their hearts in order to be sanctified by the Spirit. This, too, was true in both the Old Testament and the New. Yet this personal application did not negate the need for the historic occasion recorded in Acts 2. In fact, there would be no indwelling of the Spirit, if it were not for the historic fulfillment of Pentecost in Acts 2.”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 1 — Israel’s Prophetic Spring Feasts
Interpretation: Jones structurally links personal sanctification to the historical outpouring — the indwelling is only possible through the historical fulfillment.
Three baptisms: spirit, soul, body
In chapter 10, Jones introduces a threefold structure of washing/baptism (based on the cleansing of the leper in Lev. 14), which he develops pneumatologically:
“There are three baptisms (washings and sprinklings) in the cleansing of the leper. They involve oil (spirit), blood (soul), and water (body).”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 10 — The Two Works of Christ
Jones connects these three baptisms to the three main feasts of Israel: Passover (justification, blood/soul), Pentecost (sanctification, Spirit/spirit), and Tabernacles (glorification, water/body).
“But Pentecost also gives us the downpayment, or earnest, of the Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; and Eph. 1:14). We have been given an earnest of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession — that is, the redemption of the body (Rom. 8:23).”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 10 — The Two Works of Christ
Interpretation: The three-baptisms structure is Jones’s pneumatological backbone: the Spirit works in all three dimensions of the person, but the completed work (fullness) is reserved for the Feast of Tabernacles.
Pentecost as earnest — not the fullness
Jones explicitly emphasizes that the current Pentecostal experience is only a down payment on the future fullness:
“The Apostle Paul, of course, says we have received an earnest, or downpayment, of the Spirit only (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5).”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 10 — The Two Works of Christ
“The second stage of salvation is one’s Pentecostal experience, which commemorates the giving of the law at Horeb. Pentecost signifies the writing of the law upon our hearts through the hearing of the Word… Meanwhile, Pentecost begins at Mount Horeb and empowers us to be led by the Spirit through our wilderness wandering.”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 10 — The Two Works of Christ
Interpretation: The ‘earnest’ motif (already documented in b1 and b3) recurs here with explicit references to 2 Cor. 1:22 and 5:5, positioning Pentecost as the phase of being led by the Spirit in the wilderness — not the final destination.
Fullness of the Spirit at the Feast of Tabernacles
Jones structurally connects the fullness of the Spirit to the Feast of Tabernacles, not to Pentecost:
“Because the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) was the appointed time, it was the day the Spirit would be sent to the disciples in the upper room. Likewise, the Feast of Trumpets is the appointed time for the resurrection of the dead. The Day of Atonement is the appointed time for the Church to repent and mourn for its refusal to enter into the fullness of the Spirit, their ‘Promised Land.’ And finally, the Feast of Tabernacles is the appointed time for the change to take place in our bodies, where the overcomers will receive their tabernacle which is from heaven and not made with human hands (2 Cor. 5:1).”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 7 — The Feast of Tabernacles
Interpretation: Jones positions the fullness of the Spirit as the ‘Promised Land’ that the Church during the Pentecostal age has refused to enter — a sharp critique of the limitation of the Pentecostal experience.
The eighth day and the outpouring of oil
Chapter 10 develops the pneumatological significance of the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles:
“Pouring out the oil foreshadows the pouring out of the fullness of the Holy Spirit on the eighth day of Tabernacles, wherein we are transformed from death to life, made perfect, and brought fully into the divine presence of the Holy of Holies.”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 10 — The Two Works of Christ
“This will spark the last great revival and outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will not cease.”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 10 — The Two Works of Christ
Interpretation: The eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles is the typological climax of Jones’s pneumatology: a definitive, permanent outpouring that surpasses the provisional Pentecostal outpouring.
Work of the Spirit in the overcomers — the Manchild
In chapter 14, Jones develops the pneumatological function of the Spirit with respect to the overcomers (manchild):
“The Holy Spirit must overshadow us, our souls, and beget Christ in us. In the same manner also, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, a virgin, and she conceived a son that was called the Christ.”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 14 — The Law of the Manchild
“The Holy Spirit had come upon them to engender Christ in them, and Christ was now being ‘formed’ in them as they matured in Christ.”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 14 — The Law of the Manchild
“That is, they are mature enough to sustain the breath of the Holy Spirit in its fullness.”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 14 — The Law of the Manchild
“This is the birthing of the Manchild, who is ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col. 1:27). It is the moment when we are made fully in His image and likeness.”
— Jones, The Laws of the Second Coming, ch. 14 — The Law of the Manchild
Interpretation: Manchild pneumatology is the eschatological endpoint of the Spirit’s work in Jones: the Spirit begets and forms Christ in the overcomers until they can sustain the fullness, then births the mature, corporate Christ — the Manchild — into the world.