In order to obtain all the blessings promised Christians by Pentecostalism, we need to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:15-17). This is the portal through which we must enter if we would have the power and the blessing of God. The grand hallmark of the movement and the evidence that one has actually received this baptism of the Holy Spirit is the ability to speak in tongues. (Acts 19-4-7). Not all Pentecostals have the gift of healing, not all can prophesy, not all can deliver words of wisdom or words of knowledge (1 Cor 12:4-11), but all can speak in tongues, as Pentecostals understand this gift. It is the great sign which assures those who have it that they have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.
This “charismatic” gift of tongues-speaking is called a prayer language because it is usually acknowledged that it is not the gift of tongues given in Acts chapter 2; it is, they claim, that which the apostle Paul wrote about: “For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understand them since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit” (1 Cor 14:2). It is also regarded by them as tongues of angels (1 Cor 13:1).
These two verses are a face-saver for Pentecostals they deliver them from having to explain why their gift of tongues is useless for speaking to real people in real languages whilst unknown to the speaker, because they can hide behind the above verses and claim to be speaking to God alone; and it is a mystery, so who could challenge that? But despite its being a “prayer language” which should therefore be spoken privately to God, it is publicly exercised in every Pentecostal meeting, worship or otherwise, and this despite Paul’s restriction of the exercise of tongues in public meetings unless the message is interpreted.
Tongues under Suspicion
I was at a Men’s Convention with the pastor and some men from my church on one occasion; the convention was an annual event sponsored by a Christian City Church, with an open invitation to men from other churches. During one of the worship breaks between talks, the leader shouted “everybody, speak in tongues”; and everybody who had been baptized in the Spirit – which was nearly every person there – started speaking in tongues. It was pandemonium. Then the leader told them to stop. And they stopped. There was no call for somebody to interpret, no attempt to restrict the tongues speakers to two or three, no attempt whatsoever to edify anybody there with a message from God that should have been made intelligible, according to Paul’s instructions for speaking in tongues at a public gathering. It was just a meaningless activity and done against the tenor and teaching of scripture.
On another occasion, a missionary and pastor in a local Presbyterian church and lecturer of Hebrew and New Testament Greek in the college, attended a Pentecostal meeting, and when the opportunity arose, he recited Psalm 23 in Hebrew. It was “interpreted” by somebody there but, as this pastor expected, the interpretation had nothing to do with Psalm 23. On yet another occasion he did the same thing, only he spoke the Lord’s Prayer in NT Greek; again, it was “interpreted” but had no connection with the Lord’s Prayer whatsoever. I’ve heard of others doing this same thing.
An unsaved acquaintance of mine was walking past a building where some Pentecostals were having their meeting. He asked a man standing outside the front door what was going on. The man told my friend it was a church meeting and asked him if he’d like to speak in tongues. My friend agreed and the man laid hands on him and he spoke in tongues. The man didn’t tell him the Gospel, didn’t even ask him if he was saved. My friend told me about it later and thought it was a laugh; and he still isn’t saved.
At a “Holy Spirit seminar” my fiancée was speaking to a young man who was visiting the church from a church in another state to be part of this seminar; he said he had been “learning” to speak in tongues. My wife sensed that something was wrong so she asked him if he knew Jesus as his personal Lord and Saviour. He was taken aback by this question but nevertheless answered truthfully, admitting he hadn’t got to that stage yet. He spoke in tongues but didn’t know Jesus?
The Book of Mormon
It may surprise some to discover that Mormons speak in tongues. This “gift” is recorded in the Book of Mormon, and therefore has been in that (oc)cult since its beginning and has a permanent place in Mormonism. We read, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ by baptism – yea, by following your Lord and your Saviour down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel. But, behold, my beloved brethren, thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: “After ye have repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should deny me, it would have been better for you that ye had not known me” (2 Nephi 31:13-14).
And again: “Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost? Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things that ye should do” (2 Nephi 32:2-3).
Is this not chilling? If an average Pentecostal believer heard these words without knowing where they came from, he/she would assume without doubt or question that they were spoken by a modern-day televangelist or Pentecostal leader or prophet, and therefore receive them trustingly as being from God. Yet we know they are from Satan. These words are enshrined in the Book of Mormon, the bible of a false religion which denies the Trinity even as it speaks of the three Persons of a trinity. How can this be? Shouldn’t these things make us at least a little bit suspicious?
Lying Spirits
Scripture tells us that there are such beings as lying spirits (1 Kings 22:19-23, 37; 2 Thess 2:8-12); and in these two references, they were sent by God with the intention to deceive the hearer to ensure their destruction. But it is not always that God sends them. He also allows people to be deceived by them because they’ve asked amiss or vainly wanting power for its own sake; so God allows them to be subdued, dominated, and enslaved by evil spirits, either in judgment or discipline. And I’ve shown that unbelievers and cults can also speak in tongues. No wonder the apostle John urges Christians to test the spirits to see whether they are from God (1 Jn 4:1-3).
If the tongues that Christians speak in Pentecostal meetings is exercised unbiblically, being both audible and without interpretation (1 Cor 14:28); and if an interpretation is given that is wrong (and who in the congregation would know if it was wrong?); and if the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the subsequent speaking in tongues is required in Mormonism; and if there are such beings as lying spirits and we are to test the spirits to see if they’re from God……shouldn’t such a gift be regarded with caution?
Unless we know for sure that it is from the Holy Spirit, we really need to test it first. If it is given from a hostile source, it is not given for our good but to harm us, and therefore such a gift is very dangerous.
The apostle Paul urged all Christians to speak in tongues (1 Cor 14:5), but he preferred that they prophesy because this edifies the church (1 Cor 14:1). So tongues is a legitimate and genuine gift of the Holy Spirit, but it is fenced around with restrictions so that it isn’t abused or misused (1 Cor 14); and those who have the gift need to be discerning with it.
So how can you be sure it is of God if you can’t understand what you’re saying? How do you know that the “tongues” you’re speaking but can’t understand isn’t given to you by a demon and is in reality vile blasphemy against Jesus? You don’t. You can’t. Unless you test it, that is. But how can it be tested? There is only one sure way. We compare it to what the bible says about it. If it differs from what the bible says, it is suspect, at best, and should be avoided and repented of.
And the simple fact is that the supernatural gift of speaking in tongues (spoken languages) was given to the Church so that believers could spread the Gospel in the native languages of those to whom they spoke (Acts 2:4). So, when the Holy Spirit came on the Church at Pentecost, all the languages of the known world were represented in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost, and the assembled believers were amazed because they each heard those who had received the Spirit, proclaiming: “…we hear them speaking of God’s deeds of power. All were amazed and perplexed” (Acts 2:11-12).
The supernatural gift of tongues was given as a sign for unbelievers (1 Cor 14:22), and was not allowed to be spoken in the church’s worship meetings unless there was another who had the gift of interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 14:5, 27-28); or else that the speaker was also able to interpret his own message spoken in tongues (1 Cor 14:13). But while this gift of miraculously speaking in a known human language to unbelievers still occurs, particularly on the mission field, in the main, the tongues spoken by modern-day Pentecostals can only be, at best, a prayer language, or, as Paul describes it “mysteries in the Spirit” spoken only to God in private prayer (1 Cor 14:2).
“New Revised Standard Version Bible, Catholic Edition, copyright 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches in the United States of America, and are used by permission”.