Election Week and the Gift of Tongues

It is 9:50 pm on Friday of election week; we still do not have a president-elect. However, I am honestly tired of all the conspiracy theories that are flying around. I am tired of all the judgment that is being welded against Christians who merely say "This needs to stop."

Yesterday I posted on my Facebook timeline "I understand holding prayer vigils and such for the president, but do you all not think that God already knows what is going to happen? Is He not already on the other side of history? What if a Biden presidency is a part of His ultimate plan? Do not despair." I wrote this to encourage my Trump-supporting friends, family, and people of faith who think they have it all figured out. The democrats are lying, they are cheating, there is voter fraud, etc. And then as I was speaking with my mom, I realized that "Yeah, God does have this figured out. This is a part of his plan, he really is already on the other side of this and He already knows that is going to happen." After all doesn't Jeremiah 29:11 not assure us that God has a plan? “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

In fact, when I posted this question, "And what if Biden is God's plan?" on several friends time lines it was well accepted that I was encouraging them, in fact, I had no issues with my question until a self-righteous cousin of mine posted her response "The HOLY GHOST will lead you into all truth." I am sorry, what truth do you have that I don't? She then posted "Once you receive the HOLY GHOST, with evidence of speaking in tongues, GOD will guide you into all TRUTH and you shall know that GOD put TRUMP in the white house in 2016 and He shall do it again, even this year, saith the Lord.

I have to laugh at this, not because I don't believe that God put Trump back in the office of president but the fact that my cousin thinks that I can't know God's truth without speaking in tongues. Pastor Raymond Goodlett says, "We see in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that baptism of the Holy Spirit is a common and initial experience of all Christians who are entering the body of Christ. However, we see later in chapter 12 that not all who have this experience speak in tongues."

Nowhere in scripture does it say that tongues are the only evidence of Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Goodlett goes on to say, "I don't want you to be ignorant of spiritual gifts and how these things work. There are lots of different gifts, lots of different workings, but it's all by the same Spirit." He goes through these different things, and he says one has faith by the same Spirit, another, tongues, by the same Spirit, another, healing, by the same Spirit. And his point is not to pick the gifts apart and say, "Which one do you have?" His point is all of these are the work of one in the same Spirit."

Luke Wayne of CARM says, "No, you don't have to speak in tongues if you receive the Holy Spirit. God gives different spiritual gifts to believers so that we will be able to bless and edify one another. " 

So from where does this teaching come? According to Stanley Frodsham's book entitled, "With Signs Following - The Latter Day Pentecostal Revival":

At 11:00 p.m. January 1, 1901, Agnes N.O. Ozman La Berge, who began attending Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas (Stone’s Folly or Mansion), requested that hands, most likely those of Charles Parham, be laid upon her so that she would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, while typically praying the benediction of Hebrews 13:20-21 "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." 

Frodsham’s book also states that Agnes Ozman-La Berge said: 

"It was common for me to pray the verses while praying, and it was as if hands were laid upon my head that the Holy Spirit fell upon me and I began to speak in tongues, glorifying God. I talked several languages, and it was clearly manifest when a new dialect was spoken. I had the added joy and glory my heart longed for, and a depth of the presence of the Lord within that I had never known before. It was as if rivers of living water were proceeding from my innermost being."

Later in her life, Agnes admitted that she had been wrong to believe that all people would speak in tongues when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. Writing in The Latter Rain Evangel of January 1909 she wrote, 

"Some time ago I tried but failed to have an article printed which I wrote calling attention to what I am sure God showed me was an error. The article maintained that tongues were not the only evidence of the Spirit’s Baptism. When that article was refused I was much tempted by Satan, but God again graciously showed me He had revealed it to me and satisfied my heart in praying that He might reveal this truth to others who would spread it abroad. For a while [sic] after the baptism I got into spiritual darkness, because I did as I see so many others are doing these days, rested and reveled in tongues and other demonstrations instead of resting alone in God."

R.C. Sproul, one of my favorite teachers, was involved in the Charismatic movement. He desired to speak in tongues and even pursued the gift, but he states, "The major obstacle I still faced was the question of whether what was happening in the contemporary charismatic movement was indeed a revival of the New Testament gifts. That is, was the modern outbreak of glossolalia the same thing that was practiced in the apostolic church?" Even though R.C. Sproul chose to practice tongues, he enjoyed being able to pray with understanding; but continue to research tongues. 

At this point, maybe you are a speaker of tongues. I am not saying all tongues are not a gift. It is the high view of tongues that is detrimental to the church. "This gift splits the church into two classes of Christians. Those who are baptized in the Spirit and those who are not. Those who were “spirit-filled” and those who were not. This dichotomy, I became convinced, not only was not taught in the New Testament but was contrary to what is taught there. I came to realize that the charismatic view of the Day of Pentecost represented a distortion of its Biblical significance. The charismatic view of Pentecost was a low one, not a high one." 

Do not despair dear brothers and sisters if you do not speak in tongues, my bible tells me there are many gifts of the spirit and each one is given by the same spirit; therefore are of equal proof of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:11 All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as he decides. The only other thing I know for certain, is that God's will, will be done in this election. He has a time, a place and a person for everything--including the end. And brothers and sisters, I tell you now, I know the ending, because I have read the book.