Subject: Holy Spirit without evidence of tongues? |
Bible Note: Revised 11-23-2006 Most of my life since childhood, I have belonged to and attended a major Pentecostal local church and denomination. I am now a member of a church that is part of that denomination. At the age of 14, two years after God saved me, I was *filled* with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave utterance. Later in life, after years of studying the Bible, I could no longer go along with my denomination's doctrines of the "baptism of the Holy Spirit", being filled with the Spirit, and speaking in tongues, which somehow got all mixed in together. Was my experience valid? Yes, it was. Did I actually receive the gift of tongues at age 14? Yes, I did. Do I believe the initial physical evidence of being baptized by OR filled with the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues? No, I don't. A prominent Pentecostal writer (Ralph M. Riggs) wrote: "The BEST evidence of the fullness of the Spirit is A CHANGED LIFE" (emphasis added). Do all speak in tongues? The implied answer in 1 Cor 13 is no, not all speak in tongues. I now understand that I was baptized INTO the body of Christ BY the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:13) when I was saved (born again). At the same time, I began to be indwelt by the Spirit, as are ALL believers (Rom 8:9) On the night that I spoke in tongues, what happened? I was filled with (controlled and empowered by) the Holy Spirit, received the gift of tongues, and began to speak in tongues. Was I baptized by the Holy Spirit that night? No, that had taken place 2 years earlier when I first trusted Christ for salvation (2 Cor 2:13). My point is that I had an experience -- a valid experience -- in which I spoke in tongues for the first time. I continue to speak in tongues as I have for the last 42 years. But there are no exceptions to this principle: We don't prove the Bible by experience; we prove experience by the Bible. That is, we do not need experiences to prove that the Bible is true. We need the Bible to determine whether our experiences are true, whether they line up with the clear teaching of the Word of God. If they don't, then they are not of God. Even though I speak in tongues, I cannot ignore the clear Biblical teachings on being baptized by the Holy Spirit, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit (including tongues), and the proper use of the gifts according to 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14. I still believe tongues to be a valid, current gift of the Spirit. I do not believe that tongues have ceased, as some do. Yet I abhor some of the Pentecostal and charismatic excesses that are contrary to Scripture, the misuse of the gifts, and just plain bad doctrine about the gift of tongues and the baptism by the Holy Spirit. |