Remember I said I was going to ask the tough questions. :-)

Now this topic is the most divisive topic in all Christendom - and I don't believe this is a good place for debate.

So I'll state what the Bible says... and say this - I believe and I know that what took place in the book of Acts is still happening today. If it happened in the Book of Acts I have a story of it happening within the last 10 years, or I can connect you with someone who had it happened to them.

The following is from the FREE Spiritual House Cleaning Manual

Acts 2:38-39(KJV)

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

 

Acts 10:45-46(KJV)

And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

 

There is a promise here that if you will repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues as a sign that the Spirit is there.

 

What if I’ve already been baptized or sprinkled as an infant in the titles Father, Son and Holy Ghost?

 

The Bible teaches re-baptism for those who have not been baptized in Jesus name.

 

Let’s look at the salvation of 12 men…these men had already been baptized into John the Baptists, baptism of repentance for the remission of sins – so the only difference in the two baptisms mentioned in this story is the name of Jesus. Watch what happens as soon as they are baptized in Jesus name…

 

Acts 19:1-7(KJV)

And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.

Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

And all the men were about twelve.

 

 

Mark 1:4 (KJV)

John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

 

When these men were baptized unto John’s baptism the Holy Ghost had not yet been poured out.

 

They are believers, they love the Lord, but their experience is not up to date.

 

Paul immediately asks them if the have received the Holy Ghost; they hadn’t even heard about it, so Paul naturally asked how they were baptized. He then re-baptized them in Jesus name, and when he laid his hands on them the received the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues and prophesied. This was the beginning of the Church at Ephesus.

 

 

Notice the progression –

 

1.    A true preacher of the gospel finds believers

2.    Questions them as to where they are in their spiritual walk

3.    Preaches Jesus to them and informs them of where and how they can bring their experience in line with the Word of God and have more of Christ.

4.    Performs the water baptism in Jesus name

5.    Lays hands on them, they receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues.

6.    Continues to disciple them (in Paul’s case through letters)

 

 

This is the progression that each one of us must make;

       To become totally and completely saved from the devil his angles, the world, and our flesh.

       To be translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

       To be Biblically Born Again

 

Look at what Jesus told a gentleman named Nicodemus…

 

John 3:5(KJV)

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

 

It’s just that plain…It’s just that simple.

 

Birth of Water = water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ

Birth of Spirit = receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

 

I hope this has been helpful and has peeked your interest.

 

If you have comments please email me privately.

 

or if you want to ask questions head over to my blog -The Issues at 

http://www.freewebs.com/lmcquinn/blogtheissues.htm?

 and we can discuss this at length.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continued

 

So, from the above scriptures we can see that speaking in tongues is defiantly biblical; but the question was – Is speaking in tongues for today?

 

To truly answer that question we have to look at the purpose of speaking in tongues.

 

1)       First and for most speaking in tongues was a SIGN given by the Lord to the believer and those around the believer that the believer had received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Speaking in tongues was the evidence that God’s spirit dwelt with in the believer.

 

Acts 2:4

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

(KJV)

 

Acts 10:45-47

And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

        For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,

Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

(KJV)

 

Acts 19:6

And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

(KJV)

 

 

Speaking in tongues became the norm in the New Testament church, and was an expected sign to know that the person had the Spirit of God dwelling in them.

 

2)       New Testament believers then had this gift to speak in another language and it was used for SELF EDIFICATION. In other words speaking in tongues encouraged the New Testament Christian. This form of speaking in tongues was never interpreted! It was a private, intimate expression of worship and prayer between the believer and God spoken in a forgien language. A miracle.

 

 

1 Cor 14:4a

He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself;

 (KJV)

 

I want to expound on the fact that this type of speaking in tongues for “self edification” was never interpreted in the Bible.

 

On the Day of Pentecost when we first see the gift of the Holy Ghost poured out, there were 120 people that were filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost and all of them were speaking in tongues! But in the bible there is not one recorded instant of those tongues being interpreted.

 

A number of years ago missionaries to Peru were visiting our church and during the time of worship, a lady was speaking in tongues in Spanish. The missionaries of course completely understood all that she was saying, and the folks who had gathered around wanted to know what she was saying. The Missionaries were embarrassed and only said that she was worshipping God and that it was an intimate conversation between this lady and God. To give an interpretation of what was being said was an invasion of this ladies privacy!

 

3)       Speaking in tongues in a believers life could also be used to

Edify the Whole Church when used with the supernatural gift of interpretation.

This type of speaking in tongues is different from the normal prayer language of the believer. First it carries with it a message from God to the whole church; it is very loud when given in a church setting and carries a lot of authority which can be felt.

It is normal in a church setting that when one person gives a message in tongues that the congregation will become silent and wait for the interpretation of the message. The interpretation is then judged by all as to whether or not the message is from God.

The act of interpreting is also a miracle, a supernatural gift and the believer giving the intrepretation is under a powerful anointing of God’s spirit.

 

 

1 Cor 14:5

        I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

(KJV)

 

Paul is giving instruction here on how to conduct a church service. He is very clear that speaking in tongues used for edification in the church must be accompanied with the supernatural gift of interpretation in the language of the people so that all may be encouraged by the message.

 

This type of speaking in tongues is listed with the nine supernatural gifts of the Spirit of God.

 

 

 

1 Cor 12:4-11

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

(KJV)

 

So, in the Bible the Gift of the Holy Ghost is poured out on a believer and they speak in tongues for basically  three reasons:

1)       As evidence (to themselves and others around them) that they have received the spirit of God

2)       For personal edification (encouragement); by speaking in tongues during times of personal prayer and worship.

3)       To edify (encourage) the whole church when used in conjunction with the supernatural gift of interpretation.

 

The question then – Is speaking in tongues for today? 

This really does bring to mind more questions that need to be answered first…

1)       If speaking in tongues is not for today…when did it stop and why?

2)       Why would God gift his church with speaking in tongues 2000 years  ago only to remove the gift years later?

3)       Does the believer no longer need a concrete form of evidence to know that the Spirit of God indwells them?

4)       Does the believer no longer need self edification?

5)       Does the church no longer need edification?

6)       If God has removed speaking in tongues for edification within the church has he also removed the other eight supernatural gifts?

 

 

1)       If speaking in tongues is not for today…when did it stop and why?

 

When did it stop?

The bottom line is that it never has stopped and throughout every generation since the outpouring of the Holy Ghost until the present; people have spoken in tongues as a sign of God’s indwelling.

The topic is too vast to cover here, but many books have been written on this topic with solid historical evidence and eye witness accounts to prove this is so.

 

Why did it stop?

Now this is the deeper question! If you study the history of the Christian faith you will notice a paganization of the faith around 325 AD and before.

 

Christianity lost so much with this and of course people for centuries were not encouraged to read the Bible to find out for themselves the true doctrines of the early church.

 

The gospel was still going forward but stifled through “religiosity”. It was only after the average man could read for himself what the Bible said that we started to see a real shift in Christianity back to the original doctrines of the church.

 

Even today most people have never read the New Testament for themselves. Or if they have they were told to skip the book of Acts. I had the misfortune to read on biblical scholar who went so far as to say that the book of Acts had no doctrines concerning salvation in it. Apparently, he hadn’t bothered to read it for himself, as the book of Acts is the only place in the entire bible where we find word for word preaching to the lost and people being converted and where we can examine their conversion experience in depth.

 

The “why” then is basically politically motivated, certain people just didn’t want the public at large to know that the same salvation experience that is recorded in the book of Acts is available today.

 

2)Why would God gift his church with speaking in tongues 2000 years ago only to remove the gift years later.

 

This goes back to the purpose of speaking in tongues - The Lord would never remove the gift of the Holy Ghost from the Church, his bride.

The gift of the Holy Ghost is mentioned as being the “earnest of our inheritance”

 

 

Eph 1:13-14

        In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,

        Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

(KJV)

 

 

The word earnest here means

 

728  arrhabon-

 

an earnest

money which in purchases is given as a pledge or downpayment that the full amount will subsequently be paid.

 

 

The gift of the Holy Ghost is the down payment of our inheritance in Christ – Jesus would never, EVER take that from us! HE DOESN’T RENIG ON HIS DEBTS.

 

3) Does the believer no longer need a concrete form of evidence to know that the Spirit of God indwells them?

 

The answer to that is obvious to me – if we needed supernatural evidence in 34 AD how much more to we need supernatural evidence in 2006 AD.

 

4)       Does the believer no longer need self edification?

 

This question really answers itself – as a believer in 2006 - self edification is imperative to the Christian walk. In the early church the Christians faced sever persecution and physical death; now in 2006 Biblical Christians are just being squeezed out of society - we just don’t belong anymore and the physical persecution and death is still extremely heavy in some parts of the world, but the emotional and spiritual persecution is world wide and especially intense  in North America.

 

 

5)       Does the church no longer need edification?

See above.

 

6) If God has removed speaking in tongues for edification within the

      church has he also removed the other eight supernatural gifts?

 

The “Christian” groups that say that speaking in tongues are not for today usually have some errors in biblical interpretation. The most common error (used to say that the individual does not need to speak in tongues) says that on the day of Pentecost the 120 believers came storming out of the upper room speaking in many different languages and preaching to the lost. That is pure fantasy. Read the account for yourself in Acts 2 – first of all they were all speaking in tongues “the wonderful works of God” – they were accused of being drunk at 9:00 in the morning and only Peter stood up with the other 11 disciples backing him and spoke in a language that all could understand and explained what was happening.

 

The other error most commonly used is this

 

1 Cor 13:8

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

(KJV)

 

This scripture is often misquoted to say that tongues (used for any type of edifiaction) will cease.

But if the scripture is taken in context it is talking about the power of love. I always get a little cranky when someone wants to use this scripture as “evidence that God removed speaking in tongues”.

I usually get a tad “discourteous” and say… “Did knowledge vanish too?”

 

When someone says that God removed speaking in tongues what they are admitting to; is the fact THEY don’t speak with tongues and they are looking for an excuse as to why not. They really don’t understand the purpose behind speaking in tongues or they would never deny themselves this very normal, powerful and intimate experience with the Lord

 

I really love the 12 men of Ephesus – they were believers and they had the courage to admit that they didn’t speak in tongues and had the humility to bring their experience in line with the other believers. And the Lord blessed them for this!

 

So…Is speaking in tongues for today?

 

Absolutely!

 

 The gospel that the Apostles preached is still very much in action with the same biblical results and evidences in place.

 

 See my webpage to see the biblical gospel in action

 

http://www.freewebs.com/lmcquinn/whathappenedtothisman.htm

 

 

The final question that comes to mind is Paul’s question that he put to the 12 men of Ephesus…

 

Can you answer with as much courage, honesty and humility

as they did?

 

Do you speak in tongues as a sign that the Holy Ghost is indwelling you?

 

Or would the Apostle Paul himself, have to ask you…

 

 

Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?

Acts 19:2

 

 

 

Wow! I have been just blown away by the number of people who have checked out this topic.

With all of you reading this I know you must have some questions, so I really want to invite you over to my Blog site where we can discuss any aspect of this topic you like, the only rules...be kind :-)

The blog site is listed on my front page of my web site listed here below..and you'll find a warm welcome there.

Yes I do believe and know the assurance of keeping in the spirit with evidence of tongues...through Acts it was always possible.  It's is always effective because the mysteries that you speaking unto the FATHER is what matter.  I have been in many a debate about what is the purpose and my answer has always been if you can believe, cleave and rely on someone that can't see then you can follow everyone of HIS orders and become aquainted with speaking in tongues because that what the FATHER wants us to do.  It's just another way to become so much more initimately closer to HIM.

Intimacy - you are so right, it is all about being very intimate with the creator of the universe. No, doubt that scares some people, but it can also bring such comfort  knowing you are going to someone who deeply loves you and knows all about you - the good, the bad and the ugly. :-)

Thank you so much for your comments!