Tuesday, 24 April 2012

AG Articles of Faith Item 8: The initial evidence

In today's class, we were informed that some AG churches no longer hold to the entire AG statement of faith, one of them being the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit (HS). I followed with interest this matter for couple of years now and personally begin to question it myself. From my experience in Pentecostal church, I've seen many questionable occurrences of speaking in other tongue. One of it is that, when people were being prayed for to receive the Baptism of HS, they were asked to "desire it," to simply "speak it forth," sometimes with insistence from the minister. Worst, I've seen people were asked to "imitate" the other tongue speaker and even being whispered tongue-speaking into their ears. I'm certainly not a theologian or scholar or even have enough skill to do exegesis on Act 2, 8, 10 and 19 but apparently from my surface-value reading, I found in no condition that the first recipients of the baptism of HS were "thought" or even make any significant effort to speak in tongues. In Acts 2, 8, 10 and 19 it just happened spontaneously. Especially in Acts 10, the Gentiles and Peter himself were not even expecting anything to happen.Very interestingly, the NT records of baptism of HS occurred to particular groups of people, almost in logical sequence of redemptive history, starting with Jewish believers, Samaritan converts (half-Jewish), Gentiles converts and the "disciples" (of John the Baptist?) which seems to be "half-Christians" (was baptized for repentance but haven't heard of the HS...i.e, non-apostolic believers?). Should we take this as the sign of God's acceptance of particular groups into his Kingdom or as a normative pattern of experience for all individual believers?

From 1 Cor 12, when Paul speaks about the spiritual gifts, he told the Corinthians that God's Spirit distributed each (or should we say "different?") gifts to different people for the benefit of the body, in which different members function differently. In the end of that chapter he throws a rhetorical question: "Are all apostle? Do all work miracles? Do all speak in tongues?" The answer is obviously NO. Not all are apostles and not all speak in tongues. Moreover, in chapter 14 he goes on to talk about how the gifts, particularly prophecy and tongues, should be properly used in public worship. Paul said he was speaking in tongues more than others in Corinth but in the church he rather not speak something unintelligible like tongue that does not edify others but oneself.

I've heard some pastors trying to distinguish between "personal tongues" and "the gift of tongues" but I find no warrant in NT to make such categories. Perhaps they are drawing conclusion from the biblical account of Acts where all attendees were speaking in tongues when the Spirit falls on them thus making it "personal" tongues while in 1 Cor 12-14, Paul clearly speaking about the gifts of the HS which not all had. But precisely what biblical principle must be used to warrant such hermeneutics? Moreover, in any case, should tongue-speaking believers keep speaking in tongues in public prayer or worship meeting while clearly the speaking in tongue would not benefit others but individual speakers? Doesn't that violate the principle that Paul had laid in 1 Cor 14? Doesn't that appear to be "individualistic" corporate worship as opposed to the principle of mutual edification in 1 Cor 14 and also that is so cardinal in other Pauline letters?

4 comments:

  1. I can fully identify with the scene you witnessed. For long, i have been seeing people coming out to receive tongues during the services, and they were laid hands by others who prayed over their baptism. Everytime there would be someone who "observed" whether those who were prayed for were receiving thier tongues, by seeing if their mouths were open and started murmuring some words or producing some sounds. If not, they would be adviced to open their mouths and to start praising God or praying, until they felt that their tongues were loosen and they could speak freely. Are these called tongues? I also do not know. I received the so called tongues too through this practice. I guess many of the people receive our "tongues" without knowing the purpose of it. What is meant by filled with the Holy Spirit? The initial evidence might be tongues, but there are definitely more evidences to be seen.

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  2. Why will one wants to force someone to imitate the tongues to demonstrate the initial evidence that the person is baptized in the Holy Spirit? I can’t understand either. Acts 2:39 says that the promise is “for all whom the Lord our God will call.” We should not limit how the Holy Spirit works. His move is not limited to anyone control, or place and time (cf. John 3:8; Num 11:26-29). In a recent survey, on few local churches, done by our group in the Pneumatology class, the group found that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit has occurred in places such as church premise, church camp, in the cell group meeting, mission trips, an elder’s house, and kitchen. Some received the baptism in the Holy Spirit when prayed by others (including pastors, elders, brothers / sisters, and even parents), and others received the baptism in the Holy Spirit while worshipping, and praying to God.

    We would not be able to fully understand how God works, and there are still unresolved mysteries this part of our eternity. That’s why He is called God, and He works in unexpected ways, places, and time that we may not expect. What an exciting and adventurous journey we can have with our God! Seekers of baptism in the Holy Spirit must be encouraged to continue seeking God, not feel self condemned and not giving up, that in due time He will endow them with this promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit to empower them to be a witness of Jesus Christ. Remember that Seymour wasn’t the first one being baptized. He was having prayer meeting on April 9, 1906; and 15 people were filled with the Holy Spirit on that day, but he was only Spirit baptized few days later.

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  3. Interesting comments. Regarding Seymour's experience, did anyone ever thought why was the person who is instrumental to bring the Pentecost message to LA was thought to be not yet baptized in the HS since he couldn't yet speak in tongue few days earlier? If God used him to speak so boldly about Pentecost didn't that means that God had after all empowered him as His witness to do actually that? Could he not received the Spirit's endowment yet being instrumental to bring Pentecost to others? Does that make sense? Could we described him as being empowered by the HS but not yet baptize in the HS? Or is he actually already baptized/filled/empowered by the HS much earlier when God moved him to preach Pentecost message in LA but without any accompanying sign? Remember Acts 8?

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  4. Following up on Poh Kian's comment, I not sure if we should "assist" anyone to speak in tongue as we prayed for the baptism of the HS. The biblical witness is silent about it. In fact, the Acts account appeared to described speaking in tongues as spontaneous and even unexpected (as in Acts 2 and 10). For all we know, nobody is assisting or guiding anyone to speak in tongues. Poh Kian is right to say that baptism of the HS is more than just tongues. Biblical witness told us that the disciples were continuously filled with the Spirit and preach about Jesus boldly as the result.

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