Chapter 1.
Are Healing, Tongues, Miracles for Us Today?
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works that these shall he do; because I go unto My Father” (John 14:12).
CHARISMATIC, pronounced like the char in character, comes from the word charisma, “a divinely conferred gift of power.” In Biblical terms it refers to the special miraculous gift of the Pentecostal era, such as healing and speaking in tongues.
Let us first of all be clear about one thing: there was, indeed, a real, genuine, God given, charismatic era. It lasted some thirty-five years. There has never been, before or since, such a display of the mighty power of God in the everyday lives of men and women in physical matters. The sick were healed, demons were cast out, people spoke in new tongues, both in Israel and in the far outlying regions.
Are we now witnessing a renewal of these miraculous signs gifts? The Pentecostalist followings have, of course, professed to experience these gifts for years, but what we have today is something else, something that has been changing the face of all the world’s major denominations. For instance, about a decade ago, among the fundamental Baptist, a new movement emerged, called “Back to the power of Pentecost.” Soon the fundamental Lutherans in many cities were claming it, and then many of the other Protestant bodies, even to the Episcopalians. “The Roman Catholics have claimed these powers for years, but the bent toward miraculous signs has vastly increased among them. It is sometimes referred to as “The Charismatic Revival.”
For many years denominational Christendom shied away from the apparent fanaticism of the Pentecostal followings. What, then, is the reason for the present upsurge toward what once was held to be sheer fanaticism? The answer seems to be that preachers and church leaders have realized their lack of power and reality. Young people especially have become unenchanted with what they termed “the flat tire of cold, formalism” but wary of the other extreme – wildfire fanaticism. What the preachers yearned for was the power that the Pentecostalists seemed to have, but without the fanaticism. So we read of preachers of all religious backgrounds today seeking the gift of tongues, and still others trying to make “divine healing” work.
What we have today, especially among the young people, is an ardent emphasis upon empiricism – that is, that experience is the big thing, that all knowledge springs from experience. Had the preachers learned to teach the Word of God to their people, they would have had power, God’s power, and the joy of the Lord. But lacking this, they and their followers have given way to the natural human desire for esthetic feelings and experiences, for spiritual adventure. As with the old Pentecostal movement, it is the question of “experience versus sound Bible truth, rightly divided.”
The Charismatic Era
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
This has long been a puzzling verse. It is usually explained as referring to spiritual works, that the Lord’s believers would convert more people than He did. But our Lord made no such intimation here. He had just said to Philip and any other skeptics, “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works sake.” He was simply saying that in the coming Acts period His believing Jewish servants would perform even greater works in signs and miracles than He did. Not greater in quality or importance, but greater in quantity and scope. For one thing, the Lord never spoke in tongues, but His servants would do so to authenticate the coming of the Holy Spirit, and three thousand people would be saved in one day as a result.
For further details on the prophecy in John 14:12, we must turn next to Mark’s Gospel, chapter 16 and verse 14 to 20. The risen Lord had appeared to the eleven and said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Then in verse 17 He said, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In My name shall they cast out demons; 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.”
Here were five gifts of a miraculous nature. And remember, there was no condition of spirituality mentioned. It was just simply that these signs would follow “them that believe.” And in verse 20 we read that “they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following.”
Now if you will look up all of the miracles worked by the Apostles in the Book of Acts, you will find every one of these Mark 16 promises fulfilled except drinking poison. And even this gift may well have been used at times. For these gifts were for a practical reason as well as for signs to the unsaved. The Lord was sending them forth with the gospel of repentance (Mark 1:4, Acts 2:38,11:18). Some of them would be traveling among dangers, poisonous snakes in desert places, murderous enemies in others. In those days poisoning was a favorite way of doing away with an enemy. But they were not to fear either of these perils.
Because Bible believing Christians could not relate these Mark 16 signs to the Church after the Acts period, and because these signs did not work after the first century, they long ago began to doubt the inspiration of this passage. Some Bible scholars still believe Mark 16:9-20 is not part of the inspired Word. But this view is now widely discredited. The Syriac and Latin versions all have it, and it is quoted by so many of the early writers. But positive proof that the passage is inspired lies in the fact that it was fulfilled in Acts.
Before and After the Cross
During His earthly ministry, our Lord’s miracles were signs to the unbelieving Jews that they might believe that He was the Son of God. “And many other signs truly did Jesus…But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:30-31). After the cross, the risen Lord gave this power to work miracles to His Apostles, again for signs to the unbelieving Jews to give divine authority to the message of the Apostles—2. Corinthians 12:12.
Israel the Sign People
“For the Jews require a sign” (1. Corinthians 1:22), “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign” (Matthew 12:39). “They said therefore unto Him, “What sign shewest Thou then, that we may see, and believe thee?” (John 6:30). “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (John 4:48).
In His dealings with His earthly people, Israel, God gave them three notable signs: (1) The sign of the virgin birth of His Son –Isiah 7:14; (2) Sign of the resurrection of Christ Matthew 12:39; (3) Speaking in tongues during the period from Pentecost to 70 A.D. Tongues were a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers—1. Corinthians 14:22. These were not Gentiles, but unbelieving Jews, “this people”—Isiah 28:11 and 1. Corinthians 14:21.
End of the Sign Era
Sign gifts had two purposes: (1) to authenticate the inspired revelations of the Apostles; (2) to prove to unbelieving Jews that “that same Jesus whom ye have crucified” is the true Messiah. But God does not continue to give signs when their message is rejected. As Isiah said (Isiah 28:12). “yet they would not hear.” When Israel as a nation was cast off at Acts 28:28, the sign gifts discontinued, not to return during the present age of grace.
Three of the temporary gifts were to cease—1. Corinthians 13:8. The total absence of tongues, healings and other signs gifts in Paul’s later, or Prison Epistles shows that they had all passed off the scene. Paul wrote in 1. Corinthians 13:9-10, “ For we know in part, and we prophecy in part. But when that which is perfect is comes then that which is in part shall be done away.” That expression “that which is perfect” does not refer to when we get to heaven, as so many think. It means that when Paul’s full revelations are all given, when the New Testament is finished, then there would be no more use of the temporary gifts. The New Testament WAS finished, and the temporary gifts DID cease.
Today’s “Charismatic” Movement
All saved people are baptized of the Holy Spirit into the One Body of Christ at the time they receive Him as Saviour. The Word never speaks of any second baptism of the Spirit, or any special sensational experience. The present so-called charismatic movement is embraced by many unsaved people of all religious backgrounds, which proves that God is not in it. Further, it is ecumenical in character, even embracing great numbers of Catholics and their leaders, all working toward the great “one world church” of the Tribulation time. This movement today is Satanically inspired, and energized by demon spirits. It is but one more proof that we are in the last days of this dying age.
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons” (1. Timothy 4:1).
Chapter 2.
“Speaking in Tongues” Is This for Us Today?
“For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people. To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear” (Isiah 28:11-12).
“In the law it is written, With men of other tongues will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear Me, saith the Lord” (1. Corinthians 14:21).
“Wherefore tongues are for a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not” (1. Corinthians 14:22).
There are some who are guided by, and trusting in, their experiences or the experiences of someone close to them, and are not interested in what the Word of God has to say about this subject. To such, we have nothing to say. For there is no subject that cries out more loudly for obedience to the command of 2. Timothy 2:15, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”
In the Scriptures quoted above, there are important points that we should carefully note. They are:
1. “Tongues are for a sign” (1. Corinthians 14:22). In general, signs were temporary; they were to show God’s approval of a message or the messenger.”…The Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following” (Mark 16:20)..”Jesus of Nazareth a Man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs” (Acts 2:22). “God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders” (Hebrews 2:4).
2. A sign to the Jewish nation—Isiah 28:11, “this people.” The phrase always refers to the Jewish nation, especially when it is connected with the statement that “they will not hear Me.” In spite of the signs, Israel refused to hear.
3. Tongues were a sign to unbelievers, not to believers (1, Corinthians 14:22). And these unbelievers were the unbelieving Jews of that time, not the Gentiles, and certainly not the church of today.
The History of Tongues
“Glossolalia” (tongues, or speaking in tongues) is found only in five passages in the New Testament. It is used only once in the Four Gospels, in Mark 16:17. Here it is among the prophesied charismatic gifts to be fulfilled during the apostolic era, or the Acts period, after which signs gifts all went off the scene. Speaking in tongues is only found in three passages in Acts, in Chapter 2, 10 and 19. It is found for the last time in 1. Corinthians, chapter 12 to 14. Of the 21 epistles in the New Testament, tongues are only in this one. Let us now look at the gift of tongues in the following passages:
1. In Acts Chapter 2 –
Pentecost means fifty. In fulfillment of the type in the Wave Loves in Leviticus 23:15-22, the Holy Spirit descended on the fiftieth day after the resurrection of Christ. But how were the people of Israel to know this? God gave them three signs to show that this great event was taking place, right on schedule!
Sign Number 1. “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind” (v2). And “it filled all the house.” We are reminded of the time when Solomon had finished building the first temple (2. Chronicles 7:1-3). “Fire came down from heaven,” and the Holy Spirit, in the form of the Shekinah glory cloud (Exodus 40:34) filled the Lord’s house.
Sign Number 2. The appearance of “clove tongues like as of fire.” Some strange doctrines have been built upon the supposition that this was literal fire. It was not. It was “like as” of fire, another sign to signify the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Sign Number 3. “and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to Speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” What were these tongues? Just what the text says, “other tongues,” or other languages. Jews from many nations were there for the feasts of Jehovah. See the list in verse 9 to 11. These were all known, national languages. The Scriptures know nothing of an “unknown” tongue. The word “unknown” is used in our authorized Bible, in several places in 1. Corinthians 14, but always in Italics. That means that it was not in the original, but supplied by the translators. Also the Word of God knows nothing of speaking in a strange “gibberish.” This always comes from some source other than God.
Speaking in tongues, then, on the day of Pentecost, was for a sign to the unbelieving Jews.” It was to be of short duration. Had it been something permanent, to run through the whole dispensation of grace, every believer could have had it. Instead, only a few had it, mainly the Apostles. God knew that the authority of the Apostles, and their message of the coming of the Holy Spirit, would be challenged. So He backed them up with mighty signs.
There is no mention of any Gentile at Pentecost. They were all “Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven” (v 5). The tongues were for the benefit of the unbelieving Jews who looked on. “And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?’ (v. 12).
2. In Acts Chapter 10—-
This was in the house of Cornelius, the Gentile army captain. Peter was preaching the risen Lord to them. All of a sudden, he was interrupted. “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the Word.” Peter had six Jewish brethren with him (v. 45 with 11:12). How were these six Jews to know that the Holy Spirit had came upon the Gentile converts? By the fact that the latter began to speak in other languages or tongues. (See verses 46 in chapter 10). The tongues were not for the benefit of the Gentile converts who did the speaking. They didn’t need this sign; they aready believed, just as many a Gentile has done since, without any sign. Just the Word of God.
But verse 45 says, “And they of the circumcision (the six Jews) which believed were astonished.” The sign was working. These Jews were professed believers in Christ. They were “unbelieving” only in the sense that up to this point practically all Jews had refused to believe that the Gentiles were to be saved and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Even Peter had his apprehensions at first (see verse 14, 15 and 28). But thanks to the “tongues sign,” Peter now has six Jewish brethren to back him up when he tries to explain these Gentile converts to the Jewish assembly back home in Jerusalem.
3. In Acts Chapter 19—-
At Ephesus Paul had met 12 men (either Jews or Jewish proselytes). They had received John’s baptism, but seemed to know nothing of Christ’s redemptive work on the cross, nor of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Paul spoke to them of believing on Christ, in verse 4. They believed, and when Paul laid his hands on them (another gift for the apostolic era only, from Deut. 34:9), the Holy Spiriy came on them and they spoke with tongues.
We see then, that this speaking in tongues was again a sign to the Jews. Not only a sign to the twelve Jews that Paul had met, but also to all the Jews in the synagogue at Ephesus, where Paul next takes his ministry (v. 8).
4. In 1. Cor. 12 – 14—15—-
To get the background here we must go back to Acts 18, the founding of the church at Corinth. In verse 4 Paul reasoned in the synagogue at Corinth, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. He “testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.” The results of that was that they (the Jews) “opposed themselves, and blasphemed,” and Paul said, “from henceforth I will go to the Gentiles.”
Corinth was a center of world commerce. Many Jews resided there, and many languages were spoken in the city. Among the believers, no doubt there were both Jews and Gentiles who could speak in other languages besides their own. Paul continued his gospel work in Corinth for a year and six months (Acts 18:11). Meanwhile, the Jews refused and opposed the message that Paul brought, and he left the synagogue and began holding meetings in a house right next door to the synagogue! (see Acts 18:7). Although Paul could no longer speak directly to the Jews in the synagogue, his message next door did somehow filter into the synagogue. So much that Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, heard the Word and got saved! And some others with him—Acts 18:8.
For the benefit of those unbelieving Jews in the synagogue at Corinth, God confirmed His Apostle’s message with a sign. What sign? The gift of tongues given to the believers in the new Corinthian assembly. At first, no doubt, this was the pure gift from the Holy Spirit bestowed upon certain men in the Corinthian assembly for the purpose of authenticating the Apostle and his message to the unbelieving Jews next door, and throughout the city.
But the Corinthians began to misuse this gift, and perhaps confused it with the ability of some of their numbers to speak in some of the foreign languages they had learned down at the docks, or in some other way. The ability to speak in another language has always appealed to the pride of our carnal old nature. And the Corinthians were carnal! (1. Cor. 3:3). In any case, Paul wrote chapter 12, 13 and 14 to them to de-emphasize the tongues gift, and to increase emphasis upon what he called “a more excellent way.” That was the way of love, described in chapter 13.
Down – graded 2,000 to 1.
Paul down-graded the importance of the gift of tongues 2,000 to one. He would rather speak meaningfully in five words than use ten thousand words that others could not understand (1 Cor. 14:19).
Inn Summary
1. Tongues in the Bible were known languages, not gibberish.
2. Tongues were a sign to unbelieving Jews, never to convince Gentiles or the Church. The Jews are a sign people – 1. Cor. 1:22.
3. Tongues were to cease when their need as a sign was fulfilled – 1. 13:8.
4. Not every believer spoke in tongues, only specially gifted ones – 1. Cor 12:30.
5. Never a sign of spirituality, but rather lack of it. Never practiced in any of the spiritual assemblies, only in carnal Corinth.
6. In the Bible, no woman ever spoke in tongues. Think what this would do to the modern tongues movement! In Acts 1:14, “These all” is in the masculine gender in the Greek, showing that only the men prayed, although women were present. in the big chapter on tongues, 1. Cor. 14, the women are explicitly forbidden to speak, in verse 34.
7. Our Lord Jesus Christ never spoke in tongues! Nor did the Apostle Paul at the time of his conversion. Tongues had nothing to do with salvation.
Chapter 3.
What is Behind the Modern Charismatic Movement?
“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” 1. Corinthians 12:13.
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, Whom we have not preached, or if ye received, another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him” (“11 Corinthians 11:3-3).
ONE SUMMER morning as I was washing my gospel car, two lady preachers stopped to talk. They soon got to the inevitable question. “Brother, have you received the baptism of the Holy Ghost? With 1. Corinthians 12:12 in mind, I answered in the affirmative, But I knew this wasn’t what they had in mind. Then I turned it around and asked, “Have you ladies received it yet?
“Oh, no,” they both answered. “We have been tarrying for it, but it hasn’s come yet.” “Are you sure,” I asked, “that you have tarried according to the Scriptures” Have you gone to Jerusalem to do your tarrying , as Luke 29:49 says?” “Of course not,” one of them answered, “when it says Jerusalem it means Portland, or wherever you are.” “Not in MY Bible,” I replied. “My Bible says exactly what it means, and means what it says, and it does not tell any one to tarry in Portland. But you will never make it anyhow,” I added, because you are nearly 2,000 years too late to obey that Scripture.
Spirit Baptism and Tongues
One of the most flagrant errors in the so-called charismatic movement is the assumption that speaking in tongues is related to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is necessary in order to speak in tongues. Others turn it around and say that speaking in tongues is evidence or proof that one has obtained the baptism of the Spirit. Both of these assumption are gross errors.
As we saw in our study last time, the receiving of the Spirit in Acts chapter 2, 10, and 19 were special occasions, for a sign to the nation Israel, and never repeated again. Nowhere in Scripture is there any statement or indication that believers today are to seek the baptism by, in, or with the Holy Spirit. Before Pentecost, the apostles were to wait for the coming of the Spirit, and to tarry in Jerusalem until He came. He did come, and is in the world today. There is no waiting for Him now. nor tarrying for Him.
In 1. Corinthians 12:13, quoted above, we find that ALL believers have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the one body of Christ. This took place the moment we received the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. At that time each one of us was also “born of the Spirit,” “ indwelt by the Spirit,” and “sealed by the Spirit.” The baptism of the Spirit, then, is part of our great salvation. It is not some ecstatic, sensational experience, but an act which placed us in the one body of Christ. Speaking in tongues has nothing whatever to do with it.
A Mark of False Movements
There is a tell-tale mark by which believers with spiritual understanding can usually spot a false movement. It is their constant use of the name “Jesus.” It is always “Jesus” this and “Jesus” that. This always reveals a sad ignorance of “present truth” as revealed in Paul’s Epistles, and worse yet, a sad ignorance of the Lordship of Christ as revealed in Paul’s revelations. It has always been the mark of the Pentecostal movement, and now it is also a common mark of the charismatic followings.
Suffice to say here that the Lordship of Christ is very precious to God the Father. For He “hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name:…And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). Let us give Him His proper title and office – the Lord Jesus Christ!
As we saw in our last study, the gifts and signs and miracles were temporary demonstrations to the nation Israel during the Acts period. Their purpose was to authenticate the apostles and their message. These gifts went off the scene at the close of the Acts period, when God set the rebellious nation aside for the duration of the present age, and turned to the Gentiles – Acts 28:28.
You find these sign gifts in three places: Romans 12:6-8, 1. Corinthians 12:8-10, and 12:28. You find another list of gifts in Ephesians 4:8-11, but there are no sign gifts there. You will search Paul’s later, or Prison Epistles, in vain for any gifts of healing or speaking in tongues. The miracle gifts had gone off the scene by that time.
“That Which Is Perfect”
“Love 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.
“For we know in part, and we prophecy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1. Corinthians 13:8-10).
Here were three things that were to disappear from the scene – prophecies, tongues and divine knowledge. These prophecies were not what we usually think of as Bible prophecies. They were given by the Acts period prophets (as in Acts 11:27, 13:1, 21:10) through whom the Holy Spirit could give the early believers temporary oral instructions while the New Testament was in the making. Remember that they had only the Old Testament Scriptures then. Knowledge is in the same category, temporary knowledge from God until the New Testament was finished. These two gifts obviously would be discontinued when they were no longer needed.
Speaking in tongues would also cease when God stopped dealing with the nation Israel at Acts 28:28. Until the whole Bible was completed, even Paul had to say, “We know in part.” But all of these temporary gifts would cease “when that which is perfect is come.”
What is, “that which is perfect” here? It is not “when we get to heaven,” as so many think. Nor does it refer to the coming of the Lord. “That which is perfect” is the completed, Spirit-breathed, flawless Word of God! It is what we have in our hands today, and why should anyone want to trade it for the old, temporary expedients?
The Tongues Movement Today
What is behind the speaking in tongues movement today? There probably is no simple answer to that question. Doubtless much of it is pure fake. But some of it appears real, and unexplainable. And of course, most of its proponents judge it by experience, rather than by the Word of God rightly divided. One thing we know from the Word of God, the power behind it today could not be God. There is some other source of power behind it. There is also weakness of human emotions. Regarding this latter, we quote the following from a paper on the subject by Mr. John, of Blenheim, New Zealand:
“Tongues and Hypnosis. In the modern Pentecostal movement, “speaking in tongues” is brought on by a process of mental fatigue through the continual repetition of one or more words like “Hallelujah” or “Precious Jesus.” Moderate revivalists receive this experience by laying on of hands and concentration. This also produces emotion and mental fatigue of the conscious mind. When the conscious mind reaches collapse under either method, the sub-conscious mind takes over, and any suggestions made at that time, such as tongues, healings, etc, are accepted as correct for they have by-passed the conscious mind.”
The people who are led into these movements are seeking relief from unsatisfied spiritual experience. Not being well established in the Word of God, they are easy prey for Satan and his demon spirits. We must expect more and more of these pseudo miraculous movements as the age comes to an end. For when the Antichrist Beast of the Tribulation time arrives on the scene, he will come, “after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders” (2. Thessalonians 2:9).
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons” (1. Timothy 4:1). Let us who are children of light, beware of Satan’s traps and be always guided by “Nevertheless what saith the Scriptures?” And remember that Paul tried to tell the Corinthians that there is a better way – the way of love. Even faith and hope will no longer be needed when we arrive in glory, but love will last forever.
Rightly Dividing The Word (Chart)
How
God Saves Men
Believing
Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing
Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
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Acts 16L31 Romans 1:16, and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4
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