Recently, I have had a lot of trepidation and internal agony over a doctrine that I have always kind of taken as truth, but looking at it now, with more clarification, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I have been attending and Assemblies of God (AG) church for the last 2 ½ years and this denomination is considered a Pentecostal denomination. First, I would like to define what separates Pentecostalism from other systems of the Christian faith, for lack of a better term. This is where some of my confusion and turmoil comes in. Previously, I always assumed that for one to believe in the speaking of tongues (contrary to many theologies that deny the Spirit's active role in modern day), but now I realize my previous understanding was false. For one to believe in the active role of the Spirit it would make them Charismatic. Now this is interesting, because I am familiar with most of the Fundamental Truths of the Assemblies of God, and the specific one that causes issue is the 7th one. Below is taken directly from the AG website.
7. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit
All believers are entitled to and should ardently expect and earnestly seek the promise of the Father, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire, according to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. This was the normal experience of all in the early Christian Church. With it comes the enduement of power for life and service, the bestowment of the gifts and their uses in the work of the ministry.
This experience is distinct from and subsequent to the experience of the new birth.
With the baptism in the Holy Spirit come such experiences as:
- an overflowing fullness of the Spirit, John 7:37-39 [KJV/NIV], Acts 4:8 [KJV/NIV]
- a deepened reverence for God, Acts 2:43 [KJV/NIV], Hebrews 12:28 [KJV/NIV]
- an intensified consecration to God and dedication to His work, Acts 2:42 [KJV/NIV]
- and a more active love for Christ, for His Word and for the lost, Mark 16:20 [KJV/NIV]
Having attended an AG church for 2/3 of my time as a Christian, I have never had much disagreement with anything taught by AG, but this very thing which gives the AG its identity as a Pentecostal church is causing friction in my life. I've looked at scripture, and I am fully convinced that the Spirit is still moving within the world today, and that speaking in tongues is an evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Personally, I do speak in tongues, but I do not think it is something given to everyone. It is a gift, and different gifts are given to different people. Every member of the body has a different purpose, 1 Corinthians 12 deals with this quite clearly (I think it's funny that this is used as a supporting scripture in the 7 fundamental truth) and so I think it's a false statement to say that every believer is entitled to speaking in tongues, let alone saying they should expect it. It isn't something that God throws into the deal when you follow him. It's not like he says, hey, here's my gift of eternal life, given freely to all people and for choosing me today (unless you are of a Reformed persuasion, but that's another discussion! ;)), I'll throw in the gift of tongues at no extra cost! God isn't Billy Mays *RIP* trying to entice us by throwing in free stuff; He gives gifts as just that, gifts. They are not for everyone. They are each for different parts of the body. The mouth doesn't have the same job as the feet. What good would feet have of speaking in tongues?
The 8th statement of faith says:
The Initial Physical Evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit
The baptism of believers in the Holy Spirit is witnessed by the initial physical sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives them utterance.
The speaking in tongues in this instance is the same in essence as the gift of tongues, but is different in purpose and use.
I believe fully in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, but I don't believe that the initial (pseudonym for ONLY) evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the Speaking in Tongues nor do I believe that it is the initial Physical evidence. Physical evidence isn’t a requirement of being baptized by the Holy Spirit. To me, this says, you aren’t a true believer if you haven’t spoken in tongues. Where does it say this in Scripture? Sola Scriptura- scripture as the highest authority, if you can prove to me that it's there, please do, I wish it was! I would love for AG to be proven correct... I feel I could be fully devoted then, but I'm not sure if I can even be ordained until I subscribe to all 16 of these beliefs, so I won't be able to teach in an AG church.
So, basically, I'm looking for someone to prove me wrong on this... haha... but I've seen people lose faith because they haven't spoken in tongues, because it's so stressed in a Pentecostal church. It honestly disgusts me that we put so much emphasis on only one of the Gifts, God has a lot more out there for everyone... ;) Plus the gifts so often are abused, because it's expected that everyone speak in tongues, I guarantee that a substantial portion of the church fakes it to fit in... I've known quite a few people who have admitted to this. There is this emphasis on tongues that says, the evidence for the Baptism of the Spirit--basically the recognition of one's salvation--is initially the speaking in tongues.(I say they might as well change it to only, because you can't have any evidence without the initial being taken care of; aka, unless the initial evidence is there, the rest of the evidence is basically useless... so if you don't speak in tongues, you can't genuinely have any of the other gifts, which is most definitely not talked about in 1 Corinthians 12) Maybe *hopefully* I'm just completely misinterpreting the meaning behind these fundamental beliefs, but I know that one can't be ordained without having spoken in tongues. I think the only reason that is, is because AG doesn’t believe one to be a true believer unless they have spoken in tongues. So. Thoughts, comments, slander (just kidding), disagreements, poking fun at my terrible sentence structure, either way, post it up. Thanks for taking time to read this. I do sincerely appreciate any comments or discussion left to me. (:
