Interesting Questions-88
On glossolalia or speaking in tongues
(Acts 2:4)
Letter to the Editor:
PASUGO, October 1997, p.2
I WOULD LIKE to know if your religion believes in
baptism in the Holy Spirit and in speaking in tongues
upon receiving the Holy Ghost. The early Christians spoke in tongues
when they received the promised Holy Spirit on the day of the
Pentecost (Acts 2:4).
Jenny Villareal
Mindoro, Oriental, Philippines
Editor's reply:
The
Lord instructed that a person must be taught His commandments,
believe in them, and be baptized in the name of the Father, of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit for him to become His disciple (cf. Mk.
16:15-16). Those who receive this baptism receive the forgiveness of
their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts
2:38).
A person who receives the true baptism
also receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The true baptism is also called by the
apostles as baptism into death because those who are baptized share
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Rom. 6:3-5). Those who have received
this are found in the one body or Church which is the Church
of Christ (cf. I
Cor. 12:13; Col. 1:18; Rom. 16:16).
On the day of the Pentecost, the
disciples, who were mostly Jews, received the Holy Spirit as
promised by the Lord Jesus Christ, through which they were able to
speak in tongues (cf. Acts 2:4). But this happened during the time
of the apostles since the apostles were the ones who were personally
instructed and promised by Christ to receive such gift (cf. Mk.
16:15-18). However, the language uttered by the apostles when they
spoke in tongues was not unintelligible. Instead, the message they
spoke came to the ears of the listeners as if the words were
articulated in the hearers’ native languages (cf. Acts 2:7-11).
This occurrence in the apostolic era was
the fulfillment of God’s prophecy that His sons and daughters would
prophesy, see visions, and dreams as they have received God’s
Spirit, the Holy Spirit that He has poured out (cf. Joel 2:28-29;
Acts 2:16-18).
On the other hand, preachers of
different religious denominations who claim to speak in tongues, as
they have allegedly invoked the Holy Spirit, admit that they utter
sounds which no one has ever heard before nor understood (cf. The
Protestant Churches of America, p. 171). They themselves concede
that these ecstatic utterances may have come from the devil as no
one could readily distinguish which is from God or from the devil:
“Speaking in tongues is the most
dramatic of the nine gifts listed by Paul, and the one whose
genuineness is most readily suspect, for the gift is not difficult
to simulate. Such simulation may be conscious or unconscious, and
there is the further possibility, admitted by Pentecostalists, that
ecstatic utterance may be of the devil as well as of God, and that
one may not be readily distinguished from the other.” (Sects and
Society, p. 20)
But such a demonstration is likened by
Apostle Paul to speaking into the air as if one is out of his mind:
“So it is with you. Unless you speak
intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you
are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.
“So if the whole church comes together
and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or
some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your
mind?” (I Cor. 14:9, 23, NIV)
Like what the early Christians did,
there is anyone among the congregation who does not understand the
language spoken by the preacher during a worship service, then there
should be an interpreter so as for the message to be understood (cf.
I Cor. 14:27).
___________________
Bible Study
Suggestion: If you have further questions, please feel free
to visit the
Iglesia ni Cristo congregation nearest you. A minister or
an evangelical worker would be happy to answer any biblical question
you have in mind. For the latest Worship Service Directory of
Iglesia ni Cristo Locales and Congregations outside the Philippines,
please visit www.iglesianicristoworshipservice.com or just click
link at home page.