I Don’t Speak In Tongues, Am I A Christian?

            There are essential and fringe doctrines in Christianity. According to Dr. Norman Geisler, essential doctrines should be connected to our salvation and its connection to our salvation must be crucial, for without that connection, our salvation should be impossible.¹ Fringe doctrines are not connected to our salvation.

            We can agree to disagree on the fringe doctrines. But we cannot compromise on the essential doctrines.

            This is not as simple as it appears to be. The complication arises if and when fringe doctrines are interpreted as essential.

            Speaking in tongues (glossolalia) is considered as a fringe doctrine by some Christian denominations. These denominations consider the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues as a gift from God and not as a sign of God’s approval of the believer’s authenticity.

            Conversely, a few denominations consider speaking in tongues as an essential demonstration of salvation i.e. if a believer is saved, then he/she should speak in tongues, “WE BELIEVE... The Initial Physical Evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is ‘Speaking in Tongues,’ as experienced on the Day of Pentecost and referenced throughout Acts and the Epistles.”²

            This then is the problem to contend with. If a genuine Christian is defined as the one who speaks in tongues, then would those who do not speak in tongues be considered as not genuine? If they are not genuine, would they not gain salvation?

            Those who consider speaking in tongues as a mandatory manifestation of the Holy Spirit receive their affirmation from the Bible. But if the very same Bible stipulates that all Christians need not necessarily speak in tongues, then this problem could be resolved.

            So let us consider some verses from the Bible:

            1. The Holy Spirit sovereignly determines the recipients of the spiritual gifts (e.g. gift of tongues), “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines”(1 Corinthians 12: 11, NIV, Emphasis Mine). Spiritual gifts are not rewards to those who seek or qualify for them.

            2. No one gift is for everyone and no one person has every gift, “…God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts…” (1 Corinthians 12: 28-31, NIV). The implied answer to each of these questions, which includes the question on tongues, is “no.”

            3. Believers are to seek the spiritual gift of prophecy or that of interpreting the tongues than merely speaking in tongues, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy...For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say” (1 Corinthians 14: 1 & 13, NIV).

            Those that mandate speaking in tongues in public (during the worship service) encourage believers to seek that spiritual gift. There are curriculums to speak in tongues in some churches.

            Conversely, the Bible teaches that speaking in tongues but without interpreting it merely edifies the person who speaks in tongues. Instead, speaking in tongues and interpreting it is to be greatly desired in the worship service.

            4. Love is to be greatly desired than any spiritual gift, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3, NIV).

            5. Tongues without interpretation is not meant for the worship service, but meant for private prayer purposes only, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God” (1 Corinthians 14: 27-28, NIV).

            These verses certainly demonstrate that the Scripture does not command all Christians to exclusively seek the gift of speaking in tongues. Therefore, it is a perfectly acceptable scenario for Christians to not speak in tongues. Significantly, the Bible’s emphasis is on God who bestows these spiritual gifts than those who receive the spiritual gifts.

            It would be unwise to think that only a few speak in tongues. The Bible teaches that speaking in tongues edifies the person speaking in tongues. Therefore, it is possible that the Holy Spirit could have given the gift of speaking in tongues to many.

            A mandate to speak in tongues seems to provide an instance of Christian denominations jostling for spiritual superiority over their counterparts. Alternatively, these denominations may be incorrectly interpreting the Bible. This seems to be a minor concern in Christianity, for it is better to seek the spiritual gifts, than not.

            On a side note, it is wiser to not ridicule those who speak in tongues, although some instances of speaking in tongues appear as a fake - repetitive utterances of only a few syllables fall under this category. If we ridicule, we could run the risk of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit of God.

            Whatever the case may be, I personally reckon that an initiative to desire for the spiritual gifts is better than not desiring for spiritual gifts.  But the big question is do we eagerly desire the spiritual gifts?

Endnotes:

Websites referenced were last accessed on 1^st February 2016.

¹http://www.equip.org/article/the-essential-doctrines-of-the-christian-faith-part-two/#christian-books-1

² http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Statement_of_Fundamental_Truths/sft_short.cfm

Will Christian Denominations Ever Unite? (Was the Lord’s Prayer For Unity Ineffective?)

            Make no mistake; Christianity is not the only religion with divisions.

            Here is a cursory look at the denominations of the other three largest religions of the world. The Hindu denominations are Vaishnavas, Shaivas, Shaktas, Smartas etc. The Islamic denominations are Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Ahmadiyya, Ibadi, Mahdavia, Quranists etc. The Buddhist denominations are Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana etc.¹

            Although within the Christian perspective, the varied interpretation of the Bible contributes to these denominations, one cannot remain blind to the deeds of man’s pride and selfishness in the establishment and upkeep of these denominations.

            It’s not only about the differences between denominations. There are divisions within every church, or should I say most churches. Divisions within the churches largely explain the contemporary growth of churches.

            Sadly most new churches are born not as a result of new believers coming into the kingdom of God, but because those in the kingdom of God are unable to tolerate the ideas, practices or the doctrines of their fellow believers. Hence, they move out and start new churches.

            These divisions violate the Lord’s commandments, which is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and as Christ loved us (Mark 12: 31 & John 13: 34, 15: 12).

            Denominations existing to worship God in a variety of flavors are acceptable. These denominations would not contradict unity, for they would be united in their belief and theology.

            On the contrary, we observe denominations sharply divided on the basis of doctrines. Importantly, these denominations, while arguing for their own truthfulness demean the so-called errors of the other denominations (I am not referring to the heretics or the cults).

            Divisions are our focal point especially in the light of the high priestly prayer of our Lord where HE prays for the unity of Christians, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17: 20b-23, NIV).

            So our dilemma is not merely if the Christian denominations would unite, but the efficacy of Christ’s prayer could be suspected as follows:

            1. The Lord Jesus prayed for the unity of Christians.

            2. Christian denominations are not a portrayal of unity in any sense of thought or imagination. (Some denominations consider others as abominations, and I am not even referring to those termed cults or heretics.)

            3. If Christ prayed for the unity, and if unity isn’t exactly portrayed either in the denominations or within every church, was the prayer of the Lord Jesus ineffective?

            Obviously, Christ foreknew the impending divisions/denominations; else HE would not have prayed. In other words, if Christ knew that Christians would stay united, HE obviously would not have prayed for the unity of the Christians. Therefore, we reasonably posit Christ’s foreknowledge about the impending divisions among Christians.

            Then we wonder the delay in God’s answer to Christ’s prayer for unity. The answer remains rather simple to comprehend – the freewill of man. God has given man freedom to operate. As good as a man can be, he uses this freedom to believe in God, but as bad as he can be, he gives into sin when he uses the very same freedom to create divisions in the church.

            Because God loves the man, HE respects man’s freedom. Hence, God would not ruthlessly stamp HIS sovereignty to eliminate man’s freedom to achieve HIS purpose. This implies that the loving God would allow a man to disobey HIM. Therefore man’s failure to love his neighbor, which is his disobedience to the Lord Jesus, brings about divisions within Christianity and in the world at large.

            These divisions do not help the Christian cause because Christians are the most visible and the most read gospel - the fifth gospel. When a non-Christian observes the extent of internal strife among the Christians, he does wonder the relevance of the Lord Jesus, especially in the context of the Lord’s prayer in John 17, the Lord’s command to love the neighbor and the contrasting existence of divisions/denominations within Christianity.

            These painful divisions exist because Christians do not remain in the Lord in a perfect sense. This is amply clear in the Lord’s prayer, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17: 21b, NIV, Emphasis mine). The responsibility here, therefore, is on the believer and not on God.

            So the writing is large on the wall that these divisions are here to stay. As long as this world exists, sin will exist because of freewill. As long as sin exists, divisions will exist because man will not perfectly love his fellow man. 

            While we are on the subject, we could think of unifying situations that could motivate Christians to bury their differences and animosity towards each other. One such situation is persecution.

            In 2013 there was a meaningful endeavor by Christians in Egypt towards unity. In February 2013, the heads of the five largest denominations – Coptic Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, and Anglican – united to create Egypt's first Council of Churches.² From what I read on the internet this alliance seems to be doing well even to this day. This seems to be a legitimate first step towards unity.

            This unity endeavor was a consequence of the prominence gained by Muslim Brotherhood in 2012 as an elected political party in Egypt. Needless to say, Muslim Brotherhood is considered a terrorist outfit by Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Russia.

            Therefore persecution does play a vital role in uniting the otherwise battling Christian denominations. These persecutions are either ordained or allowed by the sovereign God. Hence it’s evident that God is active in bringing HIS people together even amidst the pain of persecution. If we don’t learn in good times, then it does seem that we learn well in bad times.

            Forming a council of churches a.k.a World Council of Churches with the active representation of denominations is merely the first step in ushering unity. Perfect unity will be achieved when individual denominations (such as Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, CSI, CNI etc) are invalidated and merged into one Christian entity. Forgive my pessimism, but this, I think, would never happen for the simple reasons of money and power.

            Some Christian denominations are so wealthy that they would render some secular businesses as insignificant. In this context, the poorer denominations may agree towards a merger but the wealthier denominations may think twice and negate any moves towards Christian unity.

            Moreover, those in the realms of power would refuse to quit their prominence to become an ordinary servant in the mold of the incarnate Lord Jesus. Therefore, I firmly believe that money and power would be the biggest impediments towards achieving Christian unity, although I wish and hope to be proven incorrect.

            God could still bring about the Christian unity through various forms of persecution such as a powerful government edict demanding merger of all individual denominations. But having said that, I believe the mainline denominations (and the sideline denominations too) would not think of a global merger during the peaceful era.  

            Therefore I conclude the following:

            First, the denominational differences and internal animosity will remain due to man’s freewill and until the Lord comes again.

            Second, the ecumenical movements such as the World Council of Churches is merely scratching the surface of unity, but are light-years away from achieving real unity. A merger of likeminded denominations is, according to my simple knowledge, the realistic method to achieve unity. This, I believe, will not happen because of Christians’ greed for money and power, but could happen because of persecutions.

            Last but not the least, the Lord’s prayer for Christian unity will not be rendered ineffective because of God’s ineffectiveness. The biggest impediment to that prayer is the Christian leaders, who refuse to humble themselves in the mold of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of God’s infinite love for man, HE allows a man to disobey HIM, and as a result, a perfect Christian unity remains far from fruition and that by the will of God. Amen. 

Endnotes:

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_schools_and_branches 

& 

http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/sects.htm 

& 

http://dabuddhabudda.weebly.com/buddhist-denominations.html 

& 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_denominations 

& 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schools_of_Buddhism

² http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2013/february/egypts-five-largest-denominations-unite-for-first-time.html?paging=off