New Testament Roots

The phenomenon of "speaking in tongues" is mentioned several times in the Bible, but Baptists and other Christians disagree on whether such speech is spirit-filled in modern times.

The Bible in Acts 2, for example, describes the followers of Jesus Christ gathering on Pentecost after Christ ascended to heaven, when:

"...suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

Most Southern Baptists believe that speaking in tongues also called glossolalia was a unique phenomenon bringing revelations to Christians during biblical times when written revelations didn't exist, says Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.

The New Testament now serves to bring Christians that full revelation instead, he said.

Southern Baptist pastors including Ron Phillips, pastor of Baptist-affiliated Abba House in Chattanooga, Tenn., disagree.

At 41, Phillips says he first experienced speaking in tongues in his sleep at a time in his life when he was discouraged and ready to quit the ministry.

"My wife woke me up and said, 'what in the world were you saying?'" he says. "I didn't know it, but I'd fallen asleep and the spirit started praying."

The spirit-filled language comes out in his private prayers to God, says Phillips, 58.

The Bible, Phillips says, "never says anywhere that the gifts of spirit, tongues or prophesy stops."

"I believe that God's alive and there's a spiritual world we can't see," he says. "It's kind of like a TV set that you've got to tune in to the right channel."

Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, says Southern Baptists who don't believe in the practice view those who do with some discomfort.

"Those who do not believe in speaking in tongues view those who practice speaking in tongues as babbling incoherently and expressing too much emotion."

-- Anita Wadhiwani, The Tennesseean

Did Our Baptist Pastor Speak In Tongues? Listen and Decide! (Satire)

Did Our Baptist Pastor Speak In Tongues? Listen and Decide!

An Important Message to Church Members

Freehold, Iowa - Landover Baptist Church Members were officially alerted today that Pastor Deacon Fred remains in stable condition at Landover Baptist's Center for Creation Science Research.

Pastor Deacon Fred was hospitalized after a troubling incident during last Sunday's sermon which involved an audibly manifested gift of the Holy Spirit, thought by intelligent Baptists to have been dormant since the close of the Apostolic Age. Landover Baptist Church security officers rushed Pastor to the Landover Baptist Memorial Hospital so that doctors could perform an emergency all night prayer vigil and the laying on of hands.

Evidential clip: Portion of sermon in question (property of Landover Baptist Center for Creation Science Research until further notice).

Church Secretary, Ida Mae Denkins, reports that her phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from church members who witnessed Pastor's episode last Sunday. "They are extremely concerned about his condition, and that we might be going 'tongues,'" she stated. "Most of the folks calling in were there to witness first hand, what I consider to be the Holy Spirit of God Almighty at work through the sweet, precious lips of Pastor Deacon Fred." Mrs. Denkins further stated (off the record) that she can prove with secular scientific DNA evidence that Pastor has the gift of tongues.

Dr. Jonathan Edwards reports that his team of Creation Scientists will not stop investigating the incident until they find a way to make it fit into their theology. Church members are encouraged to pass the transcript and audio available through this public web-page to family members and friends in hopes that someone in our extended True Christian™ Baptist family has experienced such an event before and may offer some advice.

Please contact Dr. Edwards at the Landover Baptist Center for Creation Science Research if you have any information that may be of assistance. Thank You!

Southern Baptists Debate Over Speaking in Tongues

By
Audrey Barrick
Christian Post Reporter

Southern Baptist pastors opened debate on speaking in tongues at a weekend conference where a charismatic Baptist sought to educate his fellow believers on the Holy Spirit.

Hundreds of Christians, mainly Southern Baptists, attended "A Baptist Conference on the Holy Spirit" in Arlington, Texas, as either skeptics of charismatic practices or as supporters.

After affirming his own conviction that he has been gifted with a private prayer language, Pastor Dwight McKissic of Cornerstone Baptist Church said Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit it celebrates, are largely overlooked in Baptist churches, according to the Associated Baptist Press. And the lack of awareness is a loss for Baptists, he added.

McKissic had triggered the controversial debate within the Southern Baptist Convention on the gifts of the Holy Spirit last year when he spoke of experiencing private prayer language during a chapel service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

While the majority of Southern Baptist leaders do not practice or accept charismatic practices, Baptists are split on the issue and SBC president Frank Page also recognized and let stand the varying interpretations within the denomination.

"[B]ecause I do believe there are varying interpretations, I believe it is okay to believe one way or the other," said Page, months after the chapel sermon.

The Apr. 27-29 conference presented charismatic, continualist, semi-cessationist, and cessationist viewpoints of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

One skeptic of speaking in tongues said exegesis cannot answer the question of the current-day validity of the use of tongues or a private prayer language.
"Two people using the same methods of interpretation can look at the same text and come to completely opposite conclusions. When someone says, 'I'm speaking in tongues and it is from the Holy Spirit,' some people believe them and other people don't, and there's the difference," said Bart Barber of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, as he presented the semi-cessationist viewpoint (belief that some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased with the early church), according to Baptist Press.

He went further to address the bans on some charismatic practices at the domestic and international mission agencies of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Arguing that the mission boards have not wronged people who practice private prayer language by not funding their missions, Barber explained, "In the process of reviewing a candidate's background, they can come to the conclusion, 'That's not Baptist missions but Pentecostal. If they choose not to fund that, they have not denied anyone's liberty," Baptist Press reported.
The Rev. Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist in Enid, Okla., challenged Barber, saying the International Mission Board policies are too restrictive.

Burleson indicated in his latest blog post that he has seen all spiritual gifts in operation and experienced them first-hand. And although experience, "in isolation from the biblical text, proves little," it still "must be noted, especially if it illustrates or embodies what we see in the biblical text," he wrote.

Amid varying viewpoints, McKissic, who hosted the conference, stressed that the conference was not about indoctrination but about education and fostering understanding between people with different opinions.

"I have a dream that the Baptist family will come together – not as black, Hispanic, Asian and white [nor] as tongue-speakers and not-tongue-speakers,” he said, according to ABP. “I have a dream that we will come together as Christians.”

So. Baptist to Debate Speaking in Tongues

So. Baptist to Debate Speaking in Tongues

CBN News June 7, 2007

CBNNews.com - Researchers say half of Southern Baptist pastors believe the Holy Spirit gives some Christians the ability to pray in a private prayer language.

The polling was done by Lifeway, the church's own research company.

Lifeway Research Director Ed Stetzer calls that finding "very surprising." The convention's leaders remain split over whether the gift of speaking in tongues exists.

The issue is expected to be debated at next week's southern Baptist convention in San Antonio. Southern Baptists prohibit their missionaries from speaking in tongues.

Watch Low Band

Proposed ban on 'tongues' prayer divides Baptists

By Anita Wadhiwani, The Tennessean

A move by Southern Baptists to bar enlistment of missionaries who profess to speak in tongues as they pray is stirring some controversy within the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention's international missionary branch say their vote in November to ban the private practice of speaking in tongues — which they call "private prayer language" — is in line with Baptist traditions and the beliefs of most Baptists.

Southern Baptist ministers opposed to the new directive include those who say they or other Baptist church members have been taken over during prayer by the Holy Spirit and made to utter words in languages they often do not understand.

"Are we now going to set a policy that says if God in his sovereignty gives someone a prayer language, we are now going to disqualify them?" says Rick White, pastor of the 6,000 member Baptist-affiliated People's Church in Franklin, Tenn. "My concern is, who's next?"

The ministers opposing it say the measure stifles free spiritual expression among missionaries in the field and sends a message to Baptists at home that the denomination is dictating how people can pray.

It's a message that potentially alienates Baptists drawn to more spirited expressions of faith at a time when growth among Southern Baptist ranks is stagnating, they say.

"It seems like the denomination is drawing lines more and more narrowly all the time at who can participate in the Southern Baptist Convention, and I think that is going to impact younger generations who want more diversity," White says.

White says he has never had the experience of speaking in tongues but members of his staff and congregation have.

It's the first time speaking in tongues has emerged as such a public controversy among conservative members of the Southern Baptist Convention, who have worked together for years to prevail over liberals to firmly establish the doctrine that the Bible is literally true, according to Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics.

The controversy points to a small but growing tension among Southern Baptists over whether spirited expressions of faith — increasingly popular among Christians here and abroad — are really Baptist.

Southern Baptist worship styles traditionally involve less expression and emotional participation by people in the pews, according to Vanderbilt Divinity School Assistant Dean James Byrd Jr.
There also is disagreement about what the Bible says about speaking in tongues really means.
Those opposed to the notion of modern-day speaking in tongues say that its mention in the New Testament was a unique phenomenon.

Baptists who defend the practice say the gift remains alive in some today, but they also say it's something that people experience in private prayer rather than during church services.

Baptist experts say openly speaking in tongues from the pews is a rare phenomenon that is frowned upon by most in the denomination.

Last month, the chairman of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, which creates policies for the denomination's overseas missionary arm, issued a public letter to all Baptist pastors and laity explaining the policy decision to bar the private practice of speaking in tongues among foreign missionaries.

Acknowledging the controversy, chairman Tom Hatley said he would ask an internal group to review the decision and he invited pastors to e-mail him suggestions on possible revisions.
Hatley said the decision is designed to ensure uniform spiritual practices among Southern Baptist missionaries, a 5,200-strong international evangelical force that represents the denomination in faraway places as they seek to convert future Baptists.

The policies, he wrote, were in response to concerns about "charismatic problems that could intrude on our mission work."

Charismatic practices include speaking in tongues and are a hallmark of Pentecostal churches, with rapidly growing popularity in nations where Baptist missionaries are at work, as well as within the United States.

While pastors weigh in, the controversy divides Southern Baptist leaders. The president of the International Mission Board says he speaks in tongues during private prayers.

President Jerry Rankin, who works closely with the board that voted to ban the practice that has been part of his spiritual life for 30 years, has not openly criticized the board's decision.
But a dissenting board trustee — Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson — has done so openly and prolifically on his Internet blog.

Burleson's fellow trustees first moved to oust him from his leadership position, citing "broken trust and resistance to accountability," but later backed away from that.

In March, the board adopted new guidelines for all trustees to "refrain from public criticism" and from "speaking in disparaging terms" of any decision they make.

What is praying in the Spirit?

Answer: Praying in the Spirit is mentioned three times in Scripture. 1 Corinthians 14:15 says, “So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.” Ephesians 6:18 says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Jude 20 says, “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” Some Christians understand these Scriptures to be referring to praying in tongues, a view which is not supportable scripturally.

The Greek word translated for “pray in the Spirit” can have several different meanings. It can mean “by means of,” “with the help of,” “in the sphere of,” and “in connection to.” Praying in the Spirit does not refer to the words we are saying. Rather, it refers to how we are praying. Praying in the Spirit is praying according to the Spirit’s leading. It is praying for things that the Spirit leads us to pray for. Romans 8:26 tells us, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”

Perhaps the primary reason praying in the Spirit is linked with tongues is 1 Corinthians 14:15. In the context of discussing the gift of tongues, Paul mentions “pray with my spirit.” 1 Corinthians chapter 14 repeatedly states that when a person speaks in tongues, while he/she knows what he/she is saying, since it is spoken in a language he/she does not know, no one can understand what he/she is saying…unless someone interprets for him/her. In Ephesians 6:18, Paul instructs us to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” How are we to pray with all kinds of prayers and requests and pray for the saints if no one understands what is being said? Therefore, praying in the Spirit should be understood as praying in the power of the Spirit and according to His will, not as praying in tongues.

The truth about speaking in tongues

By KARAN MINNIS, Guardian Staff Reporter
karan@nasguard.com

Although outlined by scripture and ordained as a gift by God, speaking in tongues, also known as "glossolalia," a now popular practice within the Christian community, is currently becoming so common that persons are wondering if the blessing truly exists.

This phenomenon, which can be traced to the days of the Apostles, was once usually encountered in Pentecostal Churches, revival meetings, Quaker gatherings and some Methodist groups. However, today, glossolalia is also found in some Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, and can be considered one of the most talked about phenomenas in Christianity as many people around the world are developing their "given gifts."

And according to Archdeacon Keith Cartwright of St Christopher's Anglican Church in Lyford Cay, the gift of speaking in tongues is a true gift from God that should not be abused or misused.
Explaining that those who receive the gift will always have an interpreter, Archdeacon Cartwright said that "it's no use speaking in tongues if there is not an interpreter, who will be able to translate and repeat what the person is saying.

"The other thing that is most important is that we must emphasize that speaking in tongues is a gift and not everyone has that gift. In fact most people don't. And so what we have to do is, recognize that most people who are believers, those people who practice their Christianity, aren't able to speak in tongues. However, that doesn't mean they don't have any other spiritual gifts."

The Anglican priest said that he has found that some people that do have the gift, have an attitude that it is special, and assume that others are not as special as they are. But he said that they shouldn't.

"People must realize that speaking in tongues is not any more special of a gift than someone who can organize the keeping of the church's yard, or someone who can arrange flowers in the church," the archdeacon said. "Everybody is given certain gifts and that's what I really want people to understand."

In the New Testament, the book of Acts recounts how "tongues of fire" descended upon the heads of the Apostles, accompanied by the miraculous occurrence of speaking in languages unknown to them, but recognizable to others present as their own native language. This phenomenon is variously interpreted either as religious xenoglossia, the speaking of an actual foreign language, or as the gift of interpretation being given to those present: the ability to understand the tongues, each person in his own language.

Some of the Orthodox hymns sung at the Feast of Pentecost, which commemorates this event in Acts, describe it as a reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel as described in Genesis 11. In other words, the languages of humanity were differentiated at the Tower of Babel leading to confusion, but were reunited at Pentecost, resulting in the immediate proclamation of the Gospel to people who were gathered in Jerusalem from many different countries.

Also in the New Testament some scholars say Paul describes the experience as speaking in an "unknown tongue." Some also say that there are many who believe that all believers have the ability to speak in tongues (Mark 16:16-17) as a form of prayer, based on 1 Corinthians 14:14, Eph 6:18 and Jude 20. However, while occurrences of glossolalia are widespread and well documented, there is considerable debate within religious communities, principally Christian, as to both its status and the extent to which glossolalic utterances can be considered to form language. People are also said to debate its source, in terms of whether glossolalia is a natural, supernatural, or spiritual phenomenon.

According to Rev. Ulric Smith of Zion Baptist Church Shirley Street, the Baptist faith believes in every gift that the Bible declares.

"For us, speaking in tongues is listed as one of the gifts that we recognize," he said. "When I say we, I mean our brand of Baptist.

"Baptist can be found in varying contexts, as they may vary on certain matters of dogma, but not the essentials of Christianity. For example the worship expressions may vary. However, for us, we are not at grievance with speaking in tongues, as we view it as an operation for the Holy Spirit."

Highlighting 1 Cor. 12, Rev. Smith said that when used in corporate worship glossolalia is suppose to be edifying.

The Baptist minister puts it this way: "If it is something that is voiced in such as way that it is drawing the attention of the entire community of faith, not just used by people in their personal prayer, I am referring to if it is done in a way that is calling the entire community of faith, then they will be accompanied by an interrupter to edify."

Stating that this gift has been expressed throughout his church amongst leadership and membership, Rev Smith said that there have been some persons who have been turned off by the gift because of the way it is exercised.

"However, I have found that there is nothing wrong with the gift, but the problem may be in the person's way of exercising the gift that may be the problem," he said.

It is said that some Christians practice glossolalia as a part of their private devotions and that some sections of Christianity also accept and sometimes promote the use of glossolalia within corporate worship. This is particularly true within the Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions, as both Pentecostals and Charismatics believe that the ability to speak in tongues, and sometimes the utterance itself, is a supernatural gift from God.

Adding that the gift of tongues is available to all believers, Apostle Lee Watson of Trinity Assembly 'City of Praise,' said that the gift is just what it is, a "gift."

"According to the scripture, all those who received baptism in the Holy Spirit they spoke with other tongue, with the Spirit of the apostle," she said. "And so we believe that everyone can be blessed with the gift, however, not everyone is. It is a gift and Jesus is the distributor, so everybody can be blessed with such a gift. He [Jesus] says that in the last days I will pour my spirit upon all flesh, and so the gift of the Holy Spirit is for everybody."

Calling it a doorway to receiving the other eight gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, and the interpretation of tongues, Apostle Lee said that when a person is filled with the Holy Ghost they will speak with God and speak in tongues.

Acknowledging that there are some who do not believe in the gift, she said, "I'm not going to argue with them, but if they receive him [Jesus], if they receive the gift of tongues they will see."

It is said that Christians who practice glossolalia typically describe their experience as a regular and even mundane aspect of private prayer that tends to be associated with calm and pleasant emotions. However, this is in contrast to the perception of glossolalia amongst Christians who witness but do not practice glossolalia, and those who have no experience of glossolalia at all.