The Ignorance on the Subject of Tongues is Mind-Boggling

I’ve included a few of the many public comments from my last blog, Why Do So many Pentecostals and Charismatics Not Speak in Tongues Anymore, to expose the blatant ignorance there still exists in the church and among professing believers today on the subject of tongues.

1. I began the article by mentioning three pioneers of the faith who said that tongues was the making of their ministries, but that mention was met with great irreverence by one individual.

“John G Lake was a known fake healer who was also a financial huckster. His inability to heal led to [the] death of a girl named Hannah Anderson, and almost crippled another girl who had a fractured thigh.

“Oral Roberts: His shameful attempts to get rich off of his “ministry” are well known. Anyone remember him saying God would kill him if people didn’t send him 8 million dollars?

“Kenneth Hagin: Spread the Word of Faith heresy and plagiarized Kenyon.

“If these people are examples of what comes from speaking in tongues, I think I’ll stick with regular English, thanks.”

What can I say? Such disregard and disdain for some of God’s choice servants will utterly corrupt any life. It is difficult for me to understand such professing Christians. This is eerily equivalent to the Pharisees and religious leaders calling Jesus a devil and attributing His works to demons (Matt. 12:24).

2. 

“Tongues? You think it is the be all and end all. But really, it’s just laziness. God doesn’t want mindless drones – otherwise he wouldn’t have given us free will. I mean really – do you honestly believe that God (Who knows everything) would require some random person to babble things they don’t understand in order to save someone? Next time you pray – don’t take the easy way out. Actually talk to your Father.”

Wow! Just half a Scripture refutes this person’s statements: “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God…” (1 Cor. 14:2a).

3. 

“Paul said in the Bible that tongues was one of the least of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Yes, I believe some have that gift, but does one have to have it to be more spiritual than those that do have it, or does one have to have that gift to be saved? No, the Bible does not say that.”

This person missed the entire point of the article. He chose to fixate his thoughts and words on traditions instead of rightly dividing the word of God.

This person makes three errors in his brief statements. First of all, the devotional exercise of praying privately in other tongues is never called a gift in Scripture. The gift is the Holy Spirit, also called the promise of the Father, or the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which is available to every person in every generation (Acts 2:39).

The word gift is never associated with tongues until 1 Cor. 12 when it is called divers kinds of tongues. It is the public ministry gift of tongues that needs to be interpreted for the edification of the hearers.

Second, the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues is for personal edification which should add to our spirituality in the sense that it makes us more effective witnesses. How many Christians can you name who do not speak in tongues but move in the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Not many. Why? Because they’ve not received the baptism in the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent.

Third, the gift of the Holy Spirit with tongues is separate from salvation. They are two distinct experiences so we should not confuse the two. Jesus spoke of salvation as a “well of water” (John 4:14), and the baptism in the Holy Spirit as “rivers of living water” (John 7:38). Simple. If these individuals would stop trying to interpret Scripture through their traditionally colored glasses and listen, instead of speak, they would learn something. The problem with many of them is they’ve been religiously brainwashed instead of New Testament taught.

4. This next person makes the same mistake while adding another statement that increases his confusion:

“Speaking in tongues is not the only gift of the Holy Spirit. There are many others that are just as important if not more. I would think there would be a practical application of speaking in another language for guests who may not understand the local language quite as well.”

Once again, tongues, as in diverse kinds of tongues, is a gift, which is confused with the simple gift of the baptism in the Spirit with tongues for personal edification. This mix-up is the most common error among those who do not believe this experience is for every Christian.

Second, he confuses the sign at Pentecost, when the tongues they spoke were actual languages the nations at Jerusalem understood, with the private use of tongues for personal edification. There are different purposes and uses of tongues. Actually, there are at least four uses or purposes of tongues.

1. They are for personal edification (1 Cor. 14:4).

2. They are a gift for public use with interpretation (1 Cor. 14:27).

3. They are a means of prayer and intercession (Rom 8:26-28).

4. They are a sign to the unbeliever when understood in their own language (Acts 2:7-12).

5.

“Paul said tongues was the least, not the first, yet some people think tongues is the first and a must-have to be holy. I don’t agree, but it is one of the gifts, not a have-to-have, to be right with God and holy.”