A few months ago when I first joined Google+, I was silly enough to bother participating in a dialogue with a large cross section of believers, who were responding to a public statement someone posted in the form of a question. I can’t quote it exactly, but it had to do with “why do believers add things to the Gospel?” and he listed a few things, the last of which was speaking in tongues, and of course THAT was the main point the predominantly evangelical majority latched onto and “destroyed.” A couple of us pentecostals/charismatics did ask questions and try explaining ourselves, but as usual, I got told I don’t really think he (the brother who considers himself Baptist, and doesn’t speak in tongues) is really saved. Sigh.
One of the posters mentioned how an Assemblies of God church invited him to come preach, and then he visited their website, and found they believe in the Baptism in the Holy Spirit subsequent to salvation, including speaking in tongues, so he declined the invitation because, he deduced, this means they believe people aren’t saved unless they speak in tongues. Again, sigh. I tried showing him that HE was the one determining they believed that, but they probably didn’t if they were inviting him to come preach! He didn’t see how ridiculous and ironic his reason for rejecting a speaking invitation was on his part, and shutting a door God was probably opening for him to share something with that flock they wouldn’t have received through anybody else but him. But I digress, and plan on following today’s post with a few more thoughts on the “divisiveness” of non charismatics. Yes, you read that right. But for now, let’s stick to the tongues issues.
Why do so many non-charismatics peddle this untrue misconception that we allegedly believe this about them?
Do We ACTUALLY Believe you’re Not Saved Unless You Speak in Tongues?
One time not long ago, I watched a video of a guy going on and on (and on and on…) to his church or youth group (I couldn’t tell who) teaching them “if you’re ever around a charismatic who teaches you need to speak in tongues in order to saved, get the heck away from them”, and it made me think of different misconceptions I used to have about charismatics–such as they allegedly believe us evangelicals were not truly saved unless one speaks in tongues–that I used to be spoon-fed by various evangelicals in my life with an ‘us versus them’ mentality towards Pentecostals.
Frankly, whenever I hear weird accusations like that I always wonder if these people have ever actually met a charismatic? In fact, recently I found myself visiting an evangelical blog and message board dedicated completely to the charismata, and you guessed it, not a single commenter or poster was actually pentecostal or charismatic, but “knew someone who was” or “used to be a part of a church like that”. It always led me to wonder where such churches were, since I keep learning just what it was I supposedly believe and practice. I would have been more than happy to be consulted about it if they really wanted an objective insight from on the inside.
You see, I grew up in an evangelical Plymouth Brethren church. Don’t ask me what that means, because when I was a part of it I didn’t know either–I just knew we were “us” (whatever that was) and not “them” (charismatic/pentecostal). This particular fellowship is a lot more open and progressive now as the years have passed, and I maintain some VERY close friendships still as a result of not burning any kind of bridges with them, but that doesn’t stop some of the things dear saints have told me over the years.
I also used to work with a lot of Pentecostal Bible college students at a drop-in center back home in my hometown in Canada, and many people from the rival Brethren Bible college in town taught me “those pentecostals believe you need to speak in tongues in order to be saved“. So what did I do? I asked the pentecostal students myself! I was only 17 or 18 years old, but I’ve always had a desire to get to the bottom of things. Usually the pentecostals would tell me “of course (!) you’re still saved even if you don’t speak in tongues.” And, I have never in 13 years of being a believer actually come across ANY charismatic–or someone who’d call themselves one–say or believe that I or anybody else was not saved while I was unable to speak in tongues.
So why do so many non-charismatics peddle this untrue misconception?
Tongues Are Of The Devil?
In closing for today, the tongues-being-of-the-devil thing always got me confused too, because in the Bible they didn’t seem to be getting filled with demons when they spoke in tongues. Even though it’s not specifically about tongues, Luke 11:9-13 makes it pretty clear if you’re seeking God for something, you’re not going to get something evil instead. I’ve also never once heard of some heathen rebels, standing on a street corner outside a Pentecostal church while all the congregants exited and were speaking in tongues, and one of the heathen say to the other “what is that thing they’re saying?“.
The other responds, “oh, they’re speaking in tongues–it’s of the devil.” Then the other unsaved guy scratches his head, and says to him “Well, if it were of the devil, wouldn’t we be doing it, too?”
Sigh.
See, it doesn’t phase me so much if someone wants to reject the truth of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the tongues they could pray in and build themselves up through edification. If they don’t want it, that’s fine. If they want to teach others against it, then that’s their problem, but please, AT LEAST represent what we charismatics actually teach and preach. Where I come from, building arguments that your opponent does not actually believe is called ‘straw man arguments’. For some reason that’s the majority of what I hear when I come across writings or hear sermons from people teaching against us.
Next post I’ll try following up with something else that troubles me as much, but of a more broad scale. In the meantime, for more on this subject, check out some podcast episodes I’ve done over the years at Fire On Your Head, specifically these recent ones.
Check out this podcast episode:
Is Speaking in Tongues The Initial Evidence of Spirit Baptism?
Download this episode (right click and save)
And to my Canadian friends, happy Thanksgiving Monday!
Related Posts:
Is Tongues the Initial Evidence? (from Fire Press)
Speaking in Tongues – Is it Really the “least” of the Spiritual Gifts?
The Walk of the Spirit, The Walk of Power – by Dave Roberson
Why Every Believer Should Speak in Tongues
The Spirit of Truth
Related Topics: bible study podcast charismatic holy spirit speaking in tongues
