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The influence of the charismatic movement is so predominant in North America, that their churches have shown the fastest growth in the past fifty years. Pentacostal churches used to be in smaller scale, but now some have thousands of members in one church.
What is the attitude of the Chinese churches today towards this movement? Most Chinese churches, some very large ones, are holding a neutral attitude i.e. not against, nor for it. They are hoping that in time the charismatic movement will either prove itself or be disproved by others. Many churches are joining them. The charismatics movement is no longer a practice limited to the Pentacostal churches, churches from a variety of denominations are joining the charismatic ranks.
Christians drop their guard against this erroneous movement. The Chinese culture teaches that we should stay away from controversy at all possible. And it is not a good Christian conduct to have a skeptical attitude towards brothers and sisters in Christ. Christians that are not skilful in dividing the word of truth can easily be misled and depend on the ideas of those that are in authority. No many churches are willing to exercise the spiritual discernment and able to hold a firm attitude against charismatics movement.
However I would like to use the Bible, and Bible only to assess the practice of speaking in tongues in the charismatic churches. This examination is based on the authority of the Bible which is the Word of God and is infallible.
Acts 2 records tongues speaking at the first Pentecost after Christ's ascension, and in v.15ff Peter explained that these people were not drunk but were fulfilling that which was prophesied by Joel: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come". (Joel 3:28ff)
From this we learn that in the last days,which is the period between Christ's ascension and His second coming there will be signs. Sign of tongues belongs to "signs in the earth", which had its claim in the Apostolic church period. "Wonders in heaven"will be fulfilled during the Tribulation Period as described in the Book of Revelation. None of these are up to men to restore them.
The answer is no, this gift diminished promptly after the first century. There was a man Montanus(150A.D.), who tried to restore the gifts of the Spirit that died out in the post-apostolic age. The sect he developed was called Montanism or Montanists. They believed in the gift of prophecy, and claimed themselves to be the "prophets". They spoke in tongues even in conflict with the Bible. The whole game disappeared after Montanus' death. If these so-called spiritual gifts are important to God, they would be preserved for the benefits of men. We would not, and could not give up any gifts that have come from God.
If speaking in tongues is a biblical teaching, let's go for it. Yet the fact is how can you explain a sign which has ceased for nearly 1800 years and then has come back to life again in 1900AD, with Roman Catholicis promoting it? The working of signs has No place at all right now in the local new testament church. On the contrary, there were charismatic masters (Seventeen Reasons Why I Left The Tongues Movement: by Alfred H. Pohl) that have repented from the tongues movement, and admitted that it was but an error.
The New Testament part of the Bible was not canonized until the end of the third century. In the first century God used believers to prophesy to guide His own local new testament church. The word "prophesy has two meaning, which are to foretell, or tell forth. To foretell is a sign, to tell forth means to teach. Before 96 AD. there were only a few books (probably Galatians and 1 Thessalonians) circulating. Here are two evidences:
1 Corinthians 13:9-10 says, "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away."Prophesying is imperfect but something perfect will come to replace it. Many people may think that it is Christ's second coming that will replace prophesying. However, the word "perfect"here in its Greek text is a neutral gender, which means an object; and not in the masculine gender as it would be for Christ. What is this object? - the Holy Bible. In v.11 Paul even described prophesying as "childish things", which means immature in nature.
2 Peter 1:19 Peter described he that had seen the transformation of Christ and the witnessing of the Father for his Son, yet he said: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy". What is this sure word? The Scripture in vv20 -21. The transfiguration by sight was of no comparison to The True Word of God.
1 Corinthians 1:21- 22 "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, but the Greeks seek after wisdom."
Did God praise them when the Greeks sought after their philosophies, and Jew sought after the signs ? In Matthew 12:39 - 41 he said "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas."We can see that Christ will not encourage us to seek for signs in this generation to contradict the Bible. This verse is not only for the Jews, but also for us, and for those who seek after God by their eyes, or feelings and not by faith. Our feelings, our decisions or even our hearts could be extremely deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). We have to study to show ourselves approved unto God, we need to verify our decisions and our feelings with the Bible.
Signs never worked well in the Bible, their effects were superficial, and men were extremely forgetful. When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they had enough signs for their eyes to see, but that did not stop them from falling into sin. Signs cannot change heart attitude - God uses signs to cause people admire God and His mighty power, but eventually man has to put forth his faith to trust in God. Abraham refused the rich man's request to send the dead to witness to his family because "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead "(Luke 16:31). If Christ still teaches through visible signs then He contradicts Himself.
"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body "(1 Corinthians 12:13). So "baptized by the Holy Spirit"is a once-and-for-all event subsequent to the conversion, yet filling by the Holy Spirit can happen repeatedly after conversion (Ephesians 5:18, Galatians 5:25, Acts 4:31). Christians were even faithful unto death when being filled by the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:55). The Bible never teaches that all people will speak in tongues or all have the same gift after being filled by the Spirit: "And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues"(1 Corinthians 12:28). To insist that anyone of these gifts will definitely happen as a symbol of maturity is unbiblical.
Signs were only taught to the Church of Corinthians, because it was a very carnal church with multiple sins. God has to use men as his mouth piece to guide the church. Paul, in all his epistles gave no priority to tongues at all. The interpretation of tongues was put at the end of the list in I Corinthians 12:10. However, tongues have become the key emphasis of the Pentacostal - charismatic churches in the past 80 years.
Signs are not included in the qualifications of pastors in 1 Timothy and Titus, because Paul knew signs were only of temporary value. In the above pastoral epistles Paul taught many things, yet he did not teach his fellow pastors how to help the congregation to acquire such gift. God in His omniscience, has written down the full qualification of a pastor - signs is not one of them.
In Matthew 10:1 Christ called his twelve disciples and gave them power against demons, to heal all manner of sickness and disease as a token of His own chosen. Verse 2 gives the names of these twelve people, and later they were called apostles. These gifts were not meant to all Christians, because in 2 Corinthians 12:12 they are called "the signs of an apostle", and we are not apostles.
First Corinthians 14 describes how the tongues speaking was carried in the first century churches. Verse 6 tells us that the purpose of tongues is to reveal, to give knowledge, to foretell and to teach. The praising of God, which the charismatics always emphasizes, is not included. Tongues are used in public to convince the unbelievers, they were not meant for private use (vv.22 -23). The so-called "private tongue" by the charismatics i.e. to speak in tongues in private is not in the Bible.
By quoting Roman 8:26 "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered ", the charismatics followers want to justify the tongues that they utter has biblical foundation. When the very same Scripture teaches the intercession of the Holy Spirit is done by groanings which no men can utter, the charismatics claim that they can utter.
By studying 1 Corinthians 14, we can see when those believers in the churches were sure God would use them as a mouth piece to teach or foretell something to the congregation, they had to go to see the pastor before the beginning of the meeting to be examined. Once it was approved by the pastor, then they had to find out if there was anyone among the congregation who could interpret this foreign language. If there was, then he had to wait until the pastor gave them the time to speak to the public and it would be translated accordingly. He had to remain silent if no one could offer him the translation. Each time no more than three would be allowed to speak in tongues.
If anyone in the church, moved by the Holy Spirit, and wanted to speak to the congregation, then the first one had to hold his peace to let this second person speak. All these were carried out in order. There can only be one tounges-speaker at anytime, and no one should press on his speech and cause confusion (v.33), because this is the house of God.
It is very important that v.32 says: "And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets" - one has to exercise self-control, to give God the glory, no one can use the excuse that he was filled by the Spirit to be abrupt, to be offensive, to resist the pastor's authority, and to cause discord. Women were not allowed to teach whatsoever, whether in tongues or not (vv.34 - 36).
1. Nowadays, in the charismatic churches people "speak in tongues" at the same time, this is exactly what Paul reprimanded in 1 Corinthians 14:23 - "If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they nor say that ye are mad ? "
2. Saying "Hallelujah " repeatedly is not tongues, baby jargon type of noise is not tongues. Tongues is a foreign language which the speaker has absolutely no previous knowledge of, and it carries a message from God to men (1 Corinthians 14:6). Such a message functions the same as the Bible. Some charismatics claim they speak "angel language ", however in all the occasions that the angels spoke to man in the Bible, men could all understand them. Linguistics professor William Samarin in Toronto University spent five years in Holland, Italy, United States and Canada to record numerous occasions of people speaking in tongues, and then he studied these "languages ". His conclusion is that all these sounds are total nonsense (Charismatics, by John MacArthur Jr.).
3. In the Charismatic church services, men and women stand up and wave their arms and their bodies, in a half-sleeping status. This is not taught or recorded in the Bible. This is far from being "sober and vigilant to watch against the roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8)". On the contrary, They are, in fact, inviting an evil spirit to influence them. People are taught by their charismatic pastors to "let loose "their tongues to speak in tongues, when the Bible teaches us to "bridle our tongue"in James 1:26, and "the tongue is a world of iniquity" (James 3:6). To teach to let loose the control of the tongue to exercise a "spiritual gift "contradicts the Bible.
4. People, men and women, following this so-called speaking in tongues, start to lay on the ground, even rolling, and claim to be "slain in the spirit "- Is it in the Bible ? Is this sober-minded ? Is it for the glory of God ? There are charismatic churches where ladies are "slain in the spirit ", then some church workers will come and cover them with blankets to keep them decent. Is this the work of Holy Spirit to let people loose their decency ? The Bible teaches us "let all things be done decently and in order "1 Corinthians 14:40.
There were Spiritual giants and great evangelists of yesterday who were filled with the Holy Spirit, yet they never spoke in tongues: Dwight Moody, Charles Spurgeon, R. A. Torrey, Billy Sunday, George Whitefield, John Wesley and many more. They wrote and preached against tongues. The church, or denominations that these spiritual great men established, are now in the very errors that they once preached against.
The next step of this charismatic practice is spiritual healing, which again very deceptive. Yes, God does heal, so did the Apostles; but fortunately James 5:14-15 teaches the right way of healing the sick church member. To hold healing conferences is unbiblical. Trying to heal the unsaved in a church is full of errors. When the spiritual healing fails, the blame is put on the sick and their families, because their lack of faith. This leads to feelings of guilt. According to the Bible, the sick gets healed is because of "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much " (James 5:16b). God also uses sickness to deal with Christians's hidden sin, so the sick believers have to confess their faults to one another, and pray one for another (James 5:16 a). Healing miracles in the Bible did not always have much to do with the faith of the sick, it had more to do with the Healer and the prayer. God listens to our prayers yet he has his own time frame and his own way to accomplish whatever he desires.
All these erroneous practices in the charismatic movement are like climbing down a ladder into a pit. When one reaches the bottom, the Deceiver removes the ladder.
It is "a spirit ", yet not "the Spirit ". Even Satan can transform himself into the angel of light, giving people a delusion that they are serving God. Christians can be influenced by demons greatly and unknowingly. When one starts to speak in toungues, life as usual, if not better; and nothing really matters - there are just some changes in worshipping God. This is exactly what Satan wants you to think. Satan is the greatest deceiver and liar, and his only intention is to murder(John 8:44). The Charismatics would not lose their salvation, if they are indeed saved, but become weak vessels to God, stumbling blocks to men.
Many Chinese churches, with other churches all over the world, are in total openness to the charismatic influence. Fewer and fewer Christian churches would take a strong hold to cry out against it. Errors, and the tolerance and acceptance of them prevail before Christ's return.
- charismatics are looking for a new revelation from God. However, the ONLY revelation from God to men is the Bible. Believers are distracted from diligent studying of the Bible, instead they seek for the ecstasy of working miracles. Some Charismatics teach openly that the revelation from God to men is still continuing, and they have a new revelation which is not just limited to the Bible - what a blasphemy ! It promotes the delusion that the apostolic doctrines are obsolete, and we should have our own way of worship and our unique gifts.
- It promotes slothfulness in self-examination (2 Corinthians 13:5). They think if God loves me so much to give me the gift of speaking in tongues, I am probably acceptable in his sight. Without self-examination, believers will not repent from their sin.
- It creates pride: Charismatics denies that working miracles will create pride. However women pastors are ordained in their churches. The rationale is very simple: If God uses woman to speak in tongues as well as men, surely the women are spiritually mature enough to be in a leadership position as well as men. Through pride, they resist God's instruction that women are not to teach men (1 Timothy 2:11,12; 1 Corinthians 14:34-36). This is also a commandment which holds true forever, regardless of time, history, and culture(1 Timothy 2:13,14).
- It creates comparison among church members: then doubt, unsteadiness, and guilt feelings all follow. During all this confusion, the object of worship is no longer God, speaking in tongues occupies the heart, mind and body.
Neither tongues speaking, or working miracles can purify one from sin. Practicing the devil's tricks to deal with sins does not work. This kind of false teaching greatly destroys the purity and simplicity of Christianity.
- It removes our watchfulness against Cults, such as Roman Catholicism, Jehovah Witness, Mormonism, Buddhism etc. All these religions can come into unity because they have things in common i.e. speaking in tongues is one of them. They will imagine if god "loves" me and you to give us this ability, perhaps we should be at peace with each other and even work together. These so-called spiritual gifts removes the vigilance, the watchfulness; and there is no more need of separation from errors and from the world. King Constantine in the fourth century (Revelation 2:12-17) has created Roman Catholicism for the purpose of uniting all pagans with Christianity. And millions upon millions of soul have been led into eternal condemnation with the false hope that they would be in Heaven. Today, a new revision of such an old game is again very successful, except the last time Constantine did it in the name of CHRIST, and now in the charismatic movement it is done in the name of the HOLY SPIRIT.
- It places personal experience above the Bible. The charismatics think they have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and nothing can be wrong. They also think God loves everyone, and God will understand - so just follow the feeling, let loose the tongue, open wide one's mouth and God will fill it (misinterpret Psalms 81:6).
Being born again in the spirit, the judgment of a Christian can still be misguided. That is why we need to use the Bible to verify our experience, feeling, and perception. The joy and peace of Christians is an inner, steady, and unwavering experience, and they only belong to those who obey God and has a good fellowship with him. We should not seek after any spiritual "high", because this will result in hysteria, unsteadiness, pride, disappointment, and confusion. Afterwards one will have to seek for another peak in emotion to fill up the emptiness. The covenant is founded on the blood of the Lamb, not our emotions.
Although the errors in individual charismatic churches are different, many do have a heart to love our Lord Jesus Christ and they preach the gospel. However their main emphasis is unfortunately very mistaken. People who are involved in the charismatics movement need to confess their sin and repent, they need to depart from this erroneous church.
As a church which knows about the tricks of the Devil, we should have concern and pray for the faith of the charismatic churches. However, we should not be in fellowship with those who are not walking right with Lord (Romans 16:17, Ephesians 5:11, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 1 Timothy:3-5). We are taught to flee from the devil (James 4:7), flee these things (1 Timothy 6:11), flee fornication (1 Corinthians 6:18), flee from idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14), flee youthful lusts (2 Timothy 2:22) and not to open ourselves to temptation.
The charismatics movement will very likely last until the return of Christ, more and more false prophets will raise up and lead many astray as described in Matthew 24: 5,11,23,24. Also, more Christians will shake hands with false religions in the name of Christ and Holy Spirit. However, for those who have the discernment, we are commanded to fight a good fight. We have lost a lot outwardly and even will lose some more, but through the Blood of Christ, the warfare has already been won 2000 years ago, on a rugged cross at Calvary, by Christ Himself and Himself alone.
