This article contains one of the more balanced views of tongues and spiritual gifts. Pastor Don Walton is the founder of Time For Truth Ministries and a spiritual father to me. Please read on...

I can cause charismatics considerable distress by simply reading a question from 1 Corinthians 12:30, “Do all speak with tongues?” The obvious answer to this question is “no.” Likewise, I can prove to be quite bothersome to Baptists by simply reading a portion of 1 Corinthians 14:39, “…forbid not to speak with tongues.” Interestingly, all I’ve done in either case to incite such angst is read the Bible. Why, one wonders, are simple verses of Scripture so stressful to today’s saints.

I’m afraid many of us approach the Bible with entrenched, preconceived ideas. Therefore, when a verse of Scripture contradicts what we’ve already made up our minds to believe, our stomachs knot up. Rather than attempting to relieve our spiritual tummy aches by changing our beliefs to fit into what the Bible says, we try to change what the Bible says to fit into our beliefs. In our efforts to turn the meaning of Scripture more to our liking we often employ the well-worn maxims: “A better translation would be…,” “What the Greek actually means is…,” or the ever popular, “According to Dr. So and So, what this verse is really saying…”

Our International Mission Board’s recent decision to bar from board appointment missionaries who profess, as the board’s own president does, to having a “private prayer language,” serves as a good example of the unmanageable entanglements and untenable positions we paint ourselves into when we lay aside God’s Word for our traditions (Mark 7:1-13). Although I’m a proud Southern Baptist who believes ours is the greatest missionary enterprise in the world, I can’t help but be embarrassed by an IMB that bars missionaries with a “private prayer language” from the mission field while being presided over by a man with a “private prayer language.” Such duplicity is both inexcusable and inexplicable, not to mention detrimental to our mission work. It forbids God-called men and women from serving as Southern Baptist missionaries, as well as fosters to a lost and dying world an image of our convention as incomprehensibly conflicted.

Like IMB president, Dr. Jerry Rankin, I am no cessationist. I do not adhere to B. B. Warfield’s contention that the sign or miracle gifts passed away with the Apostolic Age. In all honesty, I’ve always suspected that the reason for the popularity of Warfield’s contention within our convention is due to the fact that it provides us with an excuse for the absence of the miraculous from our midst. If Warfield was right, then we are justified in replacing God’s power with church programs and spiritual gifts with human ingenuity; after all, there’s nothing else we can do in this present dispensation.

Although many Southern Baptists believe that anyone refusing to walk in lockstep with Benjamin Warfield is walking in lockstep with Benny Hinn; the truth is: one can refuse to warm his feet at the cessationist fire and still remain outside the charismatic camp. I wish all Southern Baptists would learn not to let someone’s abuse of the truth cause them to refuse the truth. Normally, when a truth is abused everyone reacts by moving across town to the opposite extreme. For instance, when charismatics insist that speaking in tongues is the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, cessationists react by moving across town and insisting that there’s no such thing as tongues. In the end, both extremes are wrong and the devil has pulled the rug out from under everybody.

Truth is always found in the middle of the two extremes. From the middle, let’s pick apart the charismatic and cessationist’s extremes. First, the charismatic proof texts for their belief that glossolalia is proof of the baptism of the Holy Ghost are all found in the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts tells us about the birth and infancy of the church. It is a book of transitions: from shadows (types of Christ) to substance (Christ Himself), from an Old Covenant to a New Covenant, from the law to grace, from a Levitical priesthood to a spiritual (royal) priesthood, and from the old Israel (the physical seed of Abraham, the church in the wilderness, and the wife of Jehovah) to the new Israel (the spiritual seed of Abraham, the church of God, and the bride of Christ).

Each incident cited by charismatics in Acts as proof that believers receive the Holy Spirit subsequent to salvation is actually a unique and unparalleled historical event. For instance, the second chapter of Acts tells us about the Day of Pentecost. On this once and for all historical occasion, the foretold promise of the Father is given to the church. The church is born! The people of God transition from an Old Testament people to a New Testament people. Obviously, the 120 believers gathered in the upper room on this most eventful day could not have possibly received the promise of the Father prior to Pentecost, since the promise had not yet been given. Furthermore, the tongues spoken on this occasion are not unknown tongues, as the charismatics allege, but other known languages, as is proven by the fact that everyone heard “the wonderful works of God” in their own language (Acts 2:1-11). Far from being the norm for every believer, this passage of Scripture tells us about a unique event in the history of the world that is never to be repeated.

In Acts 8, the Gospel goes for the first time to someone other than Jews—the half-breed Samaritans. These “dogs,” as they were called by the Jews, were so hated and despised that no Jewish believer could have possibly imagined God’s inclusion of them in the church of Christ. Thus, it was imperative that apostles from Jerusalem be present when the Spirit first fell in Samaria; otherwise, the Jews would have never accepted the Samaritans as their brothers and sisters in Christ. Interestingly, and much to the charismatics’ dismay, glossolalia is not mentioned at all in this entire passage.

In Acts 10, Peter takes the Gospel to Cornelius’ house. For the first time the Gospel goes to Gentiles. These Gentiles receive the Gospel and the Holy Spirit simultaneously; there is no lapse of time between the two. As the gift of the Holy Spirit is poured out on these believing Gentiles, Peter and his Jewish companions hear them “speak with tongues, and magnify God” (Acts 10:44-48). This outward sign of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the Gentiles’ salvation was proof positive that God is “no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34). While Peter and his fellow-Jews may have attributed the salvation of Samaritans to the fact that they had some Jewish blood, the only explanation for the salvation of Gentiles was: “Whosoever will, may come!”

In Acts 19, Paul runs across some disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus. Upon learning of their total unfamiliarity with the Holy Spirit and their baptism by John the Baptist, the apostle ascertains that these Old Testament saints needed to transition into the New Testament. Paul leads them to do so by leading them to Christ and into the waters of believer’s baptism. Afterward, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they “spoke with tongues, and prophesied” (Acts 19:1-7). I find it interesting that charismatics pull tongues from this passage as the lone proof of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Why is prophecy not equally acclaimed by them as proof positive of Spirit baptism? Why elevate the least of the gifts at the expense of the most important? It is, after all, “by the foolishness of preaching [prophecy],” that God is pleased “to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).

The Bible plainly teaches that all believers have been baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). John the Baptist preached that all men would be baptized by Christ, either with the fire of the Holy Spirit or the “unquenchable” fire of judgment (Matthew 3:10-12; Luke 3:16-17) And the Apostle Paul proclaims in no uncertain terms, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). When coupled with the charismatics’ attempt to turn unique, historical events in the Book of Acts into everyday, common occurrences in the lives of modern-day believers, these clear teachings of Scripture leave charismatics without a Scriptural leg to stand on in their argument for the baptism of the Holy Ghost as evidenced by speaking in tongues.

Now, let’s move across town and explore the problems with the cessationist’s reaction to charismatic error. First, many cessationists insist that there never was a gift of unknown tongues. According to them, the only gift of tongues spoken of in the New Testament was a miraculous ability to speak in other known languages previously unknown to the speaker. They cite the Day of Pentecost as a case in point. Although the tongues spoken on Pentecost were undoubtedly other known languages, there was also a spiritual gift of unknown tongues, as is plainly taught by the Apostle Paul in the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians.

In 1 Corinthians 14:2, the Apostle Paul writes, “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.” Paul cannot possibly be speaking in this verse of the kind of tongues spoken on the Day of Pentecost, since they were spoken in prophesy (“unto men”) and not in prayer (“unto God”). Furthermore, the tongues spoken on Pentecost were not “mysteries” spoken “in the spirit” that no man could understand, but clearly understood by men who heard “the wonderful works of God” in their own languages.

What’s more, there was no need of interpreters on the Day of Pentecost. Each man heard the Gospel in his own language. Yet, the Apostle Paul speaks of the spiritual gift of “interpretation of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:10, 30; 14:5, 13, 26-28). Obviously, this gift is not the natural ability of someone to understand their own language or other learned languages. For example, one would not say that a Brazilian had the spiritual gift of interpretation because of their ability to understand Portuguese, their native tongue. This leads us, much to the cessationist’s chagrin, to an inevitable conclusion. The only explanation for the spiritual gift of interpretation of tongues is the existence of a spiritual gift of unknown tongues, since it is the gift of unknown tongues alone that necessitates interpretation.

The good cessationist will argue at this point that whether or not there was a gift of unknown tongues is irrelevant, since tongues, along with all the other sign or miracle gifts, ceased long ago with the Apostolic Age. Although the cessationist’s argument that the miracle gifts were temporarily given to confirm the message of the Gospel until the canon of Scripture was completed is easily found in today’s Southern Baptist’s circles, it is impossible to find in God’s Word. Oh, I know about the transitive and intransitive Greek verbs in 1 Corinthians 13:8, as well as Paul’s teaching that tongues was a sign to unbelieving Jews of God’s impending judgment (see: 1 Corinthians 14:21-22 and Isaiah 28:11-12). Still, neither of these justifies the cessationists’ swipe at all things miraculous in today’s church or their assertion that the gift of tongues ceased with the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus the Roman in A.D. 70. Whereas it is easy to shoot holes in the charismatics’ proof texts, it is extremely difficult for cessationists to come up with any proof texts. They simply don’t have a single Scriptural peg to hang their hats on.

To be true to the Scripture, we must acknowledge that all the spiritual gifts still exist today. Moreover, we must come to realize the importance of discovering, developing and deploying our spiritual gifts in the body of Christ. The church will never be all that it can be for Christ in this world until each believer is ministering in and through the church according to his or her spiritual gifting. While spiritual gifts are given and operated in accordance with the Spirit’s will (1 Corinthians 12:7-11), not ours, each Spirit-given gift is vital to the church’s ministry and none should be forbidden as long as they are being operated under the Spirit’s anointing. This includes the gifts of unknown tongues and the interpretation of tongues.

Perhaps, the best way to explain the gift of unknown tongues is to call it the bypass ministry of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever been burdened to pray for someone or about something but didn’t know how or what to pray? If you have, you know how frustrating this can be. Those who possess the gift of unknown tongues often find the Holy Spirit bypassing them when they come to such a standstill in their intercessory prayers. When they don’t “know” how to “pray as [they] ought,” the Spirit kicks in and prays a perfect prayer of intercession “with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). Although they do not know what the Spirit has prayed (1 Corinthians 14:14), they know He has prayed a perfect prayer of intercession through them.

Labels: Bible, Spiritual Gifts

Labels: Bible, Sermon Outlines

Labels: Bible, Sermon Outlines

I have no respect for "The Message" bible. It continually waters-down the message of God. A prime example is the rendering of Hebrews 10.31. I will compare:
From the King James: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
From the New King James: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
From the New Century Version: "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
From the World English Bible: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
From the New American Standard Bible: "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
From the New International Version: "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
From the New Living Translation: "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Even the heretical New World Translation says: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of [the] living God." (Which many Jehovah's Witnesses will do if they do not repent from their cult)

Now for "The Message" rendering of Hebrews 10.31: "Nobody's getting by with anything, believe me."

What is wrong with that version? It totally takes out any hint of God's Judgment. The people who came up with the trash they pass off as a Bible (The Message) need to repent for their mishandling of God's Word!

Labels: Bible

I would rather have people read any translation of the Bible—no matter how weak—than to read no translation of the Bible. If there could be only one translation in English, I would rather it be my least favorite than that there be none. God uses every version to bless people and save people.

Labels: Bible

Iesus saith vnto him, Thou hast saide: Neuerthelesse I say vnto you, Hereafter shall yee see the Sonne of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heauen. (KJV 1611)

Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. (KJV "Authorized")

Labels: Bible

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Ephesians 5.1-5 NASB)

Sede pois imitadores de Deus, como filhos amados; e andai em amor, como Cristo também vos amou, e se entregou a si mesmo por nós, como oferta e sacrifício a Deus, em cheiro suave.
Mas a prostituição, e toda sorte de impureza ou cobiça, nem sequer se nomeie entre vós, como convém a santos, nem baixeza, nem conversa tola, nem gracejos indecentes, coisas essas que não convêm; mas antes ações de graças.
Porque bem sabeis isto: que nenhum devasso, ou impuro, ou avarento, o qual é idólatra, tem herança no reino de Cristo e de Deus. (Efésios 5.1-5 AA)

Labels: Bible

There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Proverbs 14.12 NASB

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Há um caminho que ao homem parece direito, mas o fim dele conduz ã morte. Provérbios 14:12 AA

Labels: Bible

Eia agora, vós que dizeis: Hoje ou amanhã iremos a tal cidade, lá passaremos um ano, negociaremos e ganharemos. No entanto, não sabeis o que sucederá amanhã. Que é a vossa vida? Sois um vapor que aparece por um pouco, e logo se desvanece. Em lugar disso, devíeis dizer: Se o Senhor quiser, viveremos e faremos isto ou aquilo. (Tiago 4.13-15 AA)

Labels: Bible

Carolyn Arends: Seize The Day

I know a girl who was schooled in Manhattan
She reads dusty books and learns phrases in Latin
She is an author, or maybe a poet
A genius but it's just this world doesn't know it
She works on her novel most every day
If you laugh she will say


chorus:
Seize the day, seize whatever you can
'Cause life slips away just like hourglass sand
Seize the day, pray for grace from God's hand
Then nothing will stand in your way
Seize the day


Well I know a doctor, a fine young physician
Left his six-figure job for a mission position
He's healing the sick in an African clinic
He works in the dirt and writes home to the cynics
He says "We work through the night so most every day
As we watch the sun rise we can say

chorus

Well I know a man who's been doing some thinking
He's as bitter and cold as the whiskey he's drinking
He's talking 'bout fear, about chances not taken
If you listen to him you can hear his heart breaking
He says "One day you're a boy and the next day you're dead
I wish way back when someone had said

chorus

Well one thing I've noticed, wherever I wander
Everyone's got a dream he can follow or squander
You can do what you will with the days you are given
I'm trying to spend mine on the business of living
So I'm singing my songs off of any old stage
You can laugh if you want, I'll still say

chorus

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6.33-34 NASB)

Labels: Bible

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, "Because I bore him with pain."
Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!" And God granted him what he requested. (1 Chronicles 4.9-10 NASB)

You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4.2-4 NASB)

Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED."
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!
For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."
So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH."
So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?
Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? (Romans 9.13-21 NASB)

Labels: Bible

Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. (Ezekiel 28.13 KJV)

Labels: Bible

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD,
And He delights in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down;
For the LORD upholds him with His hand.

I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.
He is ever merciful, and lends;
And his descendants are blessed. -Psalm 37.23-26 NKJV

Labels: Bible