THE VICIOUS TONGUES ATTACK
ON THE HANDICAPPED
AND ALL OTHER CHRISTIANS
The vicious tongues promoters have gone too far when they slam poor, handicapped people, 19 centuries of God’s finest servants and all other Christians in the world who don’t mutter the childish noises they call “tongues.”
Christian tolerance cannot be stretched to overlook their vicious attacks. They are running up and down the country crying they are the only ones who have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Everyone else is outside the fence. The tongues people claim their group has it all, no one else. It reminds you of a man splashing around in his bath tub and screaming, “This is the whole ocean!”
The Tongues People Claim They Are the Only Ones
That Have the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
In 1948 the Pentecostal Fellowship voted to adopt a statement of their beliefs which stated, “the full gospel Includes holiness of heart and life, healing for the, body and the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues as the Spirit gives utterance.”
When the Pentecostals say the initial evidence is speaking in tongues they mean the first thing that happens to everyone who is baptized by the Holy Spirit is they speak in tongues. This clearly says only those who speak in tongues have the baptism.
Carl Brumback, in his book setting forth Assembly of God doctrine – “What Meaneth This,” says, “one evidence uniformly accompanies the experience – the witness of the Spirit … in other tongues.”
Oral Roberts writes that first of all there is the tongue of “evidence” that you ” immediately” speak in when you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
This criminal doctrine is the one that launched the modern tongues movement. The first modern “tongues church” was started by a Negro Holiness preacher, William J. Seymour. He learned his tongue doctrine in Parham’s Houston school. In his first sermon as associate pastor of a Nazarene Church in Los Angeles he preached that glossolalia was the proof of the Spirit- baptism. The Nazarene congregation fired him immediately for teaching this heresy. Seymour continued teaching his error and the day after the San Francisco earthquake opened America’s first “tongues church,” the Azusa Street Mission. In 1906 he began the publication of “The Apostolic Faith,” a paper to promote sanctification, non-denominationalism and speaking in tongues.
And in this way a teaching was born that says everyone who does not speak in “tongues” does not have the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The Tongues Doctrine is a Cruel, Mean
Abuse of Handicapped People
There is the meanest kind of brutality in the charismatic doctrine. It is harsh enough to break my heart. These tongues people kick handicapped people in the most brutal of all ways. They say a man cannot receive the Holy Spirit without speaking in tongues. Imagine how this sounds to a handicapped person who cannot speak at all. It says to him, “you cannot have the Holy Spirit. The Comforter Jesus promise is not for you.” I wonder how a tongues preacher would teach his doctrine in a school for the “deaf and mute.”
My son, Paul, spent 12 years in a special school where a speech therapist helped him learn to talk. Many of his friends in this school for children with brain damage were not so fortunate. They will never be able to speak until Jesus return and their bodies are transformed. I have a friend, the Judge in Clinton, Louisiana, who has just had his vocal cords removed because of cancer. He can’t talk. Now the tongues leaders are saying the “initial evidence of the Holy Spirit entering ones life is speaking in tongues.” So they declare the poor handicapped who need the Comforter more than anyone can never have Him because they cannot speak in tongues. How can Christians tolerate this kind of thoughtless abuse of our suffering, afflicted friends?
The Tongues Teaching’s Outrageous Slam Against
16 Centuries of Martyrs and Heroes of the Faith
The tongues teaching says that all of the outstanding Christians since the days of the apostles, rebelled against God’s will, lived in disobedience, did their great works in the flesh and never pleased God.
It is the will of God that all Christians be filled with the Holy Spirit. Gal. 5:18 says, “be filled with the Spirit.” If tongues are the “initial evidence” of the filling of the Spirit then all who have not spoken in tongues have not been filled and have therefore lived their lives outside of God’s will.
The doctrine accuses all who have not spoken in tongues of living in disobedience, Christ plainly commanded, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). Again, if tongues are the “initial evidence,” those who have not spoken in them are living in disobedience to this command.
Romans 8:8,9 says, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. .. .” Now if tongues is the initial evidence, those who do not speak in tongues are in the flesh. And God says, “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” The tongues doctrine says not one of the great Christians who didn’t speak in tongues ever pleased God!
John Wycliff did not speak in tongues but died a martyrs death. His body was burned and his ashes were scattered on a river. John Wycliff loved Jesus enough to give his life to translate the words of Jesus into the language of the people. He died that the common people, including our tongues friends could have the very scripture the tongues leaders twist to say John Wycliff lived in disobedience and died without the Holy Ghost! That is gratitude!
John Wesley told of his experience with the Holy Spirit at Aldersgate. But what evidence does he have? He blazed a fire for God on two continents. Historians say he saved England from the fate of France. He slept only five hours a night. Wesley wrote his great theological works while riding on horseback and in wagons from town to town preaching the gospel. But Wesley never spoke in tongues. So the tongues leaders want you and I to believe Wesley never received the Holy Spirit; never obeyed God.
Then they turn around and say Pat Boone, who charges churches $4,000 plus expenses, plus first class accommodations to come and say he loves Jesus, has the baptism. Boone’s credentials— he utters some sounds no one understands! This, so the doctrine says, proves Boone has attained the acme of Christian experience. He has reached the hallmark of spiritual prestige Wesley and Wycliff never attained!
This is an outrage against Billy Sunday, R. A. Torrey, Dwight L. Moody, Charles Finney and millions of other honorable servants of God. The tongues doctrine dishonors all these faithful saints whose only crime was not jabbering in some weird sounds!
The tragic thing is tongues people would never have even heard of the Holy Spirit if 19 centuries of faithful Christians who never thought of speaking in tongues had not suffered, worked and died to preserve the faith. How could we dishonor these great servants of God? Any man with an ounce of gratitude and good reason who has ever taught this doctrine would be compelled to repent with tears.
Either Pick Up the Serpent Or Put Down Your Tongue
President Nixon was forced from the Office of President because of deception. One of the evidences of his alleged deceit wasp the “gaps” in the tape recordings of his conversations regarding the Watergate break in. But if you think deceit was evidenced by the Watergate tape gaps just wail until you examine the “gaps” in the tongues teachings.
When night club entertainer Pat Boone quotes Mark 16:17 in his book “A New Song” it comes out like this, “In My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues.”
But when we examine the original we discover Mr. Boone left out something very, very important. “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:19)
Charles and Francis Hunter have the same gap. They write the verse, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues….”
Oral Roberts not only has the gap (“They shall speak with new tongues!”) but with a boldness the others do not possess, “rewrites” the Bible. Mr. Roberts says that when the Bible says, “take up serpents” it does not mean “take up serpents.” What God really means the authoritative Mr. Roberts says is that we will have power to overcome those who would “impede” our spiritual progress? I do hope Mr. Roberts will excuse Apostle Mark’s error in using the word “serpent.”
One of the most astonishing things the tongues leaders have ever done is use Mark 16 in the first place. Here they wade into far deeper problems that those of Acts 2. First of all, the verse does not say what they say. It says, “These signs will follow those that BELIEVE.” They say, “‘these signs will follow those that ARE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.” The difference is vast. The chapter in Mark has nothing whatever to do with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, only signs of believers.
If tongues are a sign of every believer in all ages then all who don’t speak in tongues are not believers. And all who are not believers go to hell; “he that believeth not shall be danmned” (Mark 16:16). This, of course, is the teaching of the United Pentecostals and some other groups. Everyone who doesn’t speak in tongues does So to hell! This, however, is much too strong a position for the leaders of the mass, modern, tongues movement. Bat they keep using this verse and hope we won’t notice.
But some have noticed. One West Virginia snake handler said, “The biggest hypocrites are these tongues people who won’t pick up a snake or drink poison but they run around speaking in tongues and saying they have the signs of Mark 16.
That brings us to the second problem with their use of this verse for proof. If you take the tongues how can you leave the rest? If this verse teaches that everyone who has the Holy Spirit must speak in tongues, it also teaches that everyone who has the Holy Spirit must handle snakes and must drink poison without harm!
But the minute you say this, somebody will surely say, “show me.” “Prove it.” “Do It.” This could be embarrassing. It could be deadly, And worse yet it could prove there wasn’t a word of truth in what a fellow had been saying when he claimed to have the signs of Mark 16. 17.
The true meaning of Mark 16:17 is obvious. The signs would follow “them” that believe; not “him” that believeth. It would be a mark of the church corporately, not a mark of every church, nor every believer. It is not said that ALL the signs would follow ALL, believers.
It says believers would “cast out devils.” This was fulfilled at Thyatira according to Acts, 16:18.
It says believers would “speak with new tongues.” This was fulfilled at Pentecost when they spoke 16 new languages they had never known before according to Acts 2:2-8.
It says believers would “take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them” The serpent prophecy was fulfilled on the Island of Melita when a viper bit Paul and he survived, according to Acts 28:3-5. Church tradition tells us of miraculous deliverance’s from poison.
Certainly nothing in the passage comes close to saying that “every” Christian that receives the Holy Spirit will have the initial evidence of speaking in tongues.
Three Thousand Years Ago Pagan Religious Leaders
Used Ecstatic “Experiences” as Evidence That
A God Had Entered Their Body
The records of history show that religious leaders have used “ecstatic experiences” for over 3,000 years in deceiving innocent people.
Adolphe Lods, in his book “Israel” (page 102), records it happening in Phoenicia. While the pagan king was sacrificing to his gods one of his servants fell to the ground. He had what was described as an “ecstatic” seizure. The people accepted this as a sign that a god had entered his body.
Three thousand years later “religious leaders” are still using such ecstatic experiences to convince people that “god has entered their bodies.”
If Tongues are the Evidence of Receiving the Holy Spirit Why Doesn’t the Bible Say So?
If I say that love, joy and peace are evidences of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life, I can give you a scripture for what I am saying. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith” (Gal. 5:22).
But if I were to stand up and say speaking in tongues is an evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life, I could not give you a single scripture for it. No where in all of God’s word does it ever say tongues is an evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit.
Now it did so happen that at Pentecost they received the Holy Spirit and they spoke in tongues, or other languages. But that was not all that happened. They not only heard the other languages, but also felt the mighty wind and saw tongues of fire on their heads. And the “initial” or first evidence was not the tongues. The order in scripture places the wind and fire first!
Now if you are going to say that Pentecost is the pattern for all Christians you have got a problem. First, the Bible doesn’t say that. Second, what are you going to do about the wind and the fire?
You can’t be honest and leave this out. Tongues were not “the” evidence at Pentecost. There were “three” evidences at Pentecost? Wind, fire and unknown languages. If some minister tried to deceive his people by putting fans in the church attic and igniting lighter fluid in the members hair, we could respect him for at least being a “consistent” deceiver. But when some one pretends to duplicate Pentecost without the wind and fire he is advertising to the world that he is inconsistent.
Temple Prostitutes Practiced Glossolalia
Long Before Pentecost
Encyclopaedia Britannica, in their essay on tongues says, “In the intertestamental writings (of. I Macc. 4:46 and II Csdras 14:40-41) there are references to such a gift. Outside the Judaeo-Christian literature, references to ecstatic speech and oracular pronouncements can be found, for example… before the Christian period the phrase lolein heterais glossois referred to glossolalia. The utterances of the Pythein priestess of Apollo at Delphi may be considered examples of it.”
Long before Jesus, long before Pentecost, long before the Holy Spirit was given to the church, idolatrous pagans were practicing glossolalia!
Tongues people would say these were satanic “counterfeits.” But how can you possibly say tongues are the “initial” evidence when you admit it is commonly counterfeited? Obviously the counterfeit is any tongue that is not praising God in a clear human language you have never learned as they did at Pentecost (Acts 2:8).
How Can Tongues Be the Initial Evidence of the Baptism
of the Holy Spirit When the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
is for Everyone–While Tongues was Only for a Select Group
Christians who speak in ecstatic tongues and those who do not, agree perfectly on one point: it is God’s will for all to have the Holy Spirit. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my hand maidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit” (Acts 2:17, 18 quoting Joel 2:28-32).
The Bible makes no exceptions when it commands us to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). It is a command we are all to follow.
However, the Biblical gift of tongues was avowed to be only for a certain group which the Holy Spirit chose. The whole point of I Cor. 12 is that the Spirit gives different gifts to different people. The same Holy Spirit gives different gifts. “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (I Cor. 12:4). Only some, not all, received the gift of tongues. “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom … to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues” (I Cor. 12:8,10).
God said to the Corinthians that it was very obvious that tongues was not for all people. “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” (I Cor. 12:29-30).
Now God did not leave it to the members of the church to decide which gifts they wanted. “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will” (I Cor. 12:11). This is the point, the Holy Spirit distributes the gifts exactly as He pleases. The Corinthians had all experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body … and have all been made to drink into one Spirit” (I Cor. 12:13) but all of them were not apostles, all did not have the gift of miracles, and all did not speak with tongues (I Cor. 12:29, 30).
Now if all people are to receive the Holy Spirit and all people cannot have the gift of tongues, it clearly follows that tongues could not possibly be the initial evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit.
God Does Not Have “Second Class” Christians
I have traveled so much on airlines I have grown accustomed to being put in the “second-class” section. But thank God the tongues people will never succeed in their efforts to shove all the rest of Christendom into any “second-class” section! The Bible says, “For-by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body …” (I Cor. 12:13). Every Christian-every single one has the baptism of the spirit. It is not just the experience of some exclusive group that utters weird sounds.
However, the tongues people have set about the task of making all other Christians “second-class.” Look at the name they selected for themselves, Full Gospel, “The Full Gospel Businessmen’s Committee” -Full Gospel ministers.
Is the “Full Gospel” their distinguishing mark? Then what kind of gospel have all the rest of the churches in the world been teaching? Perhaps one-half gospel or maybe only one-quarter gospel? This is the most asinine name any group has ever chosen for themselves in the history of the Christian church.
The arrogance of their “first-class” name -Full Gospel- is exceeded only by their doctrine that tongues are the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This shuts out all Christians who do not speak in tongues. It relegates us to a lower grade of Christianity.
One tongues writer made an attempt to cover this ‘”superior attitude” by saying speaking in tongues doesn’t make you better than others, only better than you use to be. This is a clever, cute way of saying that a person without the Holy Spirit could live better than someone with the Holy Spirit. To escape degrading other Christians the writer chose to degrade the Holy Spirit.
Prostitutes, Pagans, Witches and Heretics
Speak in the Same Tongues as the
Modern Tongues Christians
It seems that nearly everyone knows that non-Christians speak in ecstatic tongues, except Pentecostals. Encyclopaedia Britannica says of glossolalia, “This phenomenon, common to many ancient religious and pagan cults was the utterings of unintelligible sounds or babblings.”
Britannica did a kindly feature on tongues in their 1973 Book of the Year. In it they point to the fact that the same “ecstatic speech” is practiced among the pagans and the Pentecostals. This ecstatic speech that is usually unintelligible to the hearer has been viewed in various ways by anthropologist and psychologist. The former have taped-recorded and analyzed tongues-speaking (glossolalia) in both the Christian and non-Christian worlds. Almost all find that there is nothing distinctive in the Christian version.
Here is the fact that makes the tongues leaders claims so ridiculous. Non-Christians are also speaking in tongues. Anthropologists can’t tell the difference. Psychologist can’t tell the difference! Britannica says the tests show there is “nothing distinctive,” no difference between the pagan “tongues” and the Pentecostal tongues!
If some of the leaders in the tongues movement think their Christian tongues are different from the pagan tongues they could easily prove their point. Let him come listen to the tapes of pagan tongues and Christian tongues and show he can tell the difference.
If he fails to tell any difference perhaps he could be honest enough to admit his error.
Witches & Drug Addicts Speak in Ecstatic Tongues
Britannica continues the report on the tongues study.
“Psychologists have observed that, in some cases, tongue speaking bears parallel to hallucinations, trances, or conjured experiences.”
Now are we to believe that the tongues spoken by people hallucinating on drugs or witches during their conjured experience is the “initial evidence” they have been baptized?
There is no doubting they have the “initial evidence.” If
If Everyone Who Speaks in Tongues has had a
Pentecostal Experience, Why Doesn’t Everyone of
Them Have Pentecostal Power?
Wild claims are made for the growth of the tongues movement. Some place the number of tongues people as high as 16 million in the United States.
Now the question I would like to ask is this. “If only 120 Spirit-filled Christians in Jerusalem turned a pagan world upside down, wouldn’t 16,000,000 Spirit-filled Christians make some spiritual impact on our land?
Why does the glossolalia movement parallel the greatest spiritual decline in American history? If 16,000,000 have had a Pentecostal experience why don’t they have Pentecostal power?
Copyright, M.A.E.A.
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