What do you think was the sin that Peter told them to repented of in Acts 2:38 on the Day of Pentecost?.

  I read your article on this subject on the Bible Truth Website, and I think you are drastically wrong. Below I’ve given the reasons why:
        Modern Christianity has come teaching a false doctrine of blind faith. It says: we are justified by the blood of Jesus. But we must not expect any evidence / confirmation. We must just believe that it is so, and it will be so whether we know for sure or not. This is deception, and also known as brain wash.
        Not so the first century Christians. The coming of the Holy Spirit was the evidence / confirmation that a person was indeed justified, if you read carefully. And the Holy Spirit was a down-payment of the Salvation which is yet future (Eph 1:14). I am AMAZED by your article. Do you read your Bible or something else?

  I have never really been exposed that much or aware of the charismatic movement until this last year. I go to a Baptist church that has always been Word centered. One of the verifications of the spirit by Charismatics is the “tingling sensation or a gentle vibration as if touched by an electric current.  Well, The tingling sensation that is mentioned here is something that I experienced for the first time (that I can remember) starting about a year ago. It happened while I was praying with a lady, who I now know is a very strong in her tongues practice and charismatic beliefs.  Can you explain this to me. I am not a tongues speaker or believe in modern tongues.   I read your info on the Holy Spirit. How do you deal with Paul in Corinthians when he tells the church how to use the gifts properly.

  Paul also says he prays in the spirit - was it just for him to pray in an unknown tongue.

   I prayed for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and I spoken in tongues in evidence that I received it. Why will you not accept this?

  You say modern tongues must have the sound of the mighty rushing wind and cloven tongues of fire. The tongues of fire and the rushing mighty wind are not mentioned in the other examples of people speaking in tongues either.

    I prayed and asked God for the gift and I begin to speak in tongues. Why do you not accept that I have the gift of tongues?

    (This was received as a response to my articles on the tongues movement). If we would battle the devil instead of each other, image how we could turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ. I don't agree with what you teach,but thats ok. I still consider you a brother and sisters in the Lord.Lets look at the real issue, which is Satan and not each other.

    I fail to see how I Cor 13:8-10 states that when the bible was complete tongues would cease...The passage is talking about Love.

   I am Pastor -------, age 85. In my early years of investigating and searching and at one time "Tarrying for tongues" Or waiting the holy spirit, my studies led me to the truth of God's holy Word. I was back to the Word, and became a minister for many years.... I have witnessed many believers follow their chosen leaders in seeking the gifts of the holy spirit, and watching them all fall on their backs. So what to do? The only thing is to ask of God, and He will revile His truth. The truth is that NO ONE IN THE BIBLE EVER FELL ON THEIR BACKS TO GOD. Never. Starting with the OT fathers, they always fell on their faces...Look it up, it an easy search. I could give you all the names and incidents, but you may be ahead of me. (I hope) A classic example is when the temple guards came with lanterns and swords and spears to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, and Jesus said, "I am He" they did what? They were there following leaders and man's will, not for the sake of Holy God the father, but after man. Those guards fell on their BACKS. All those that came to Lord Jesus requesting of Him fell on their faces, and there was NO ONE THERE to catch them. This catching of those who follow man today will fall on their back, knowing that someone is there to catch them. This is a PLANNED PROCEDURE. AND it is NOT the Lord's doing....it is man's doing and it is this minister prayer that somehow, someway, someone will be able to get this scriptural point across, and people will know it is not of the Lord, but of man.... Most of us have witnessed many occasions of groups supposedly receiving the holy spirit, but most of them are not to aware that collections and receiving of offerings ALWAYS accompanies these ceremonies. Amen? Old testament beliers and the New Testament believers ALWAYS fell on their face before the Lord. Amen... perhaps this little note will be of benefit to you and that you may point out the error of "Back Falling" Love in Lord Jesus....Pastor ----- (fundamental)

Answer:      You are correct in that the passage states emphatically that love will never cease.    Verse 8 illustrates that point by comparing love to things that will cease.    It is saying the need of the supernatural sign (miracle) gifts, which God gave to reveal Himself to the lost Jews would in time not be needed and would cease.  However, the exercise of biblical love is eternal in its nature.

     Lets read the passage again:

  1  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

     In chapter 12 Paul began this discussion of God giving the various sign gifts to the early Christians.  1 Cor. 12:1 says, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant."    This states context and subject of this discourse which is instruction about the sign gifts.  They were given to the early Christians by the Holy Spirit to those to whom He wanted use. [1 Cor. 12:18,28]   The sign gift of tongues is only one of the supernatural gifts the Holy Spirit gave to the early Christians.

     Please read the article at http://bible-truth.org/TonguesRevel.html, which addresses the various types of gifts mentioned and how they were used.  This is important to understand gifts and their purpose.

     So Paul in the middle of this discourse (1 Cor. 12-14) on the sign gifts mentions the eternity of love and compares this to the temporal nature of the sign gifts.  His point was that the gifts which were being misused by the Corinthians and were only important for a time and that they would cease when their function was completed and their goal accomplished.

     The Corinthians had elevated the gifts and equated them with spiritually.   Paul is says that true spirituality is based in love...not in temporal gifts used only for short period of time.   Paul says true spiritually is not based in the practice of the gifts but in the condition of one's heart.    Note what he says in verses 2 and 3. 

 

   2  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
   3  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 

   Twice he says that although he does all these noble things he is nothing....without it being done in love.    That makes the point clear....the Corinthians believed the practice of gift made them spiritual.   Paul explains not unless it was service to the Lord and came from a heart of love.   You see he was correcting their false idea and rebuking them for having a false spirituality.   The same thing is being done today.    Churches are teaching that the sign gifts equate spirituality and God in His word says they do not.   They were a supernatural gift or talent given to individual believers to witness and teach others that Jesus was truly the Messiah (Christ) and the Savior of the world.    The signs gifts were miracles that authenticated that the message taught by the Apostles and that their epistles were truly the word of God.  The sign gifts were given as a testimony to the lost.....never as a badge of spirituality or special standing with God.  

     Note 1 Cor. 14:22,  "Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe."     Do you see the point Paul is making?    The sign gifts...which were miracles....were given to speak to the hearts of the lost....not believers.  By the way...the Greek word translated in our Bible "miracle"   means "a sign." 

        The Pentecostal and Charismatic churches of today are teaching the same error.....tongues and the sign gifts were not given to edify or as a sign to believers, yet they is what they all teach.   It is a plain as day they the modern tongues movement is in gross doctrinal error and this verse clearly states so.

     1 Cor. 14 is a strong admonishment to the Corinthians rebuking them for falsely using the sign gifts and he implies they were being faked and instructs them on what is biblical tongues.

 

   4 ¶ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
   5  Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
   6  Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
   7  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
   8 ¶ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
   9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
   10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
   11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
   12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
   13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

     Paul then in verse 8-9 states, as we have stated before,  that love never fails.....but prophecies, tongues and knowledge would cease.   The question is not would they cease but when?

     Verse 10 answers the question.   It says that when that which is perfect is come they would cease.   That means that which was at that time in history which only partially existed would be done away with.    What then at that time in history was only partial?   Answer... the special gifts given to men by the Holy Spirit to write the New Testament.   The product of prophecies, tongues and knowledge would be the revelation of the Word of God.     By the way the Greek word for perfect is neuter and refers specifically to a "thing" not a person.   If this was a reference to Christ then the word would be masculine, which it is not.   Some have stated that which is perfect refers to the Second Coming of Christ.  Again the context is not about the Second Coming of Christ and again if it was a reference to Christ's return it would be masculine in gender.

     At the time of the writing of the Book of 1 Corinthians only the epistle of James had been written.  The other epistles would be written in the next approximate fourteen  years (AD 54 to 68).   The Jews had killed Jesus saying He was a false Messiah...yet on the day of Pentecost Peter preached that Jesus was the promised Christ and that He had come and born the sins of the world.   The gift of tongues ...which was a few believing Jews testifying that Jesus was the Messiah in languages they had not learned to the unbelieving Jews, was clearly a supernatural sign to Israel that Jesus was truly the Christ.     The miracles of healing that God did through the Apostles also authenticated that they were men of God and had the power and message of God.   The sign gift proved they were truly of God and Jesus was the Messiah and Savior. There is no example in the New Testament of tongues being done for personal edification.

     However, as time continued the Apostles and Paul inspired of God wrote the New Testament and John completed it in 90-95 AD.  Thus the word of God was complete and perfect....and the sign gifts and gifts associated with the inspiration and writing of the New Testament were no longer needed and they ceased.   In fact they ceased after 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed and Jews were dispersed all over the known world of that day.  Judaism ceased to exist as the Jews were taken from Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed.  They had rejected the Lord Jesus their Messiah and that ended the need of the sign gifts to authenticate that Jesus was the Messiah.   The Gospel went then to the Gentiles who did not seek signs as the Jews did, but knowledge (wisdom) ...meaning the written word of God.   1 Corinthians 1:22  "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom."

     What is being done today is learned psychological behavior which mimics the signs gifts, but are not supernatural gifts from God.    I believe honest God fearing people have been misled and therefore taught to do things that are clearly not biblical.  They have been misled into thinking that speaking in tongues is something spiritual, but it never was as exampled that way by the teachings of the New Testament.    I do not think that many of these people intend to do something wrong, but their leaders have been misled by the cunning lies of Satan and have been deceived.   The tricks and deception of the Devil is always to offer something false as a substitute for that which is real and of God.  True knowledgable prayer is that which is expresses one's heart to the Lord and communicates with Him has been substituted for some emotional unintelligible ecstatic speech.  They ignore Paul's plain statement that "I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."     Jesus gave us the model prayer in Matthew 6:9f ( "f" means "following" "the following verses) and if God wanted us to speak in unintelligible speech would not Jesus have mentioned it?   He did not and gave specific instruction of how we are to pray wording our prayers to honor the Lord and communicate with Him.

     Further the Bible clearly teaches that all who believe in Jesus Christ are indwelled by the Holy Spirit which is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit.   Yet, the Pentecostals and Charismatics falsely teach it is some "second blessing" given to only a few who seek it and speaking in tongues shows they have it.   They falsely teach that receiving the gift of tongues was a act of seeking it and of exercising one's faith.   Yet, nowhere in the Bible is that taught or found which makes it unbiblical.   See my article at http://bible-truth.org/bapt-hs.htm which explains what the Bible says about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.     Even on the Day of Pentecost when the gift of speaking unlearned languages was first practiced it was NOT a sign of receiving the Holy Spirit, but was the result of receiving the Holy Spirit and was a sign that Jesus was the Messiah.   These 120 believing Jews receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit as Christ said they would in Acts 1:5 and as 1:8 says they were empowered to be witnesses of the Lord to first Jerusalem and into all the world.    That is how God always used it, never as a sign to believers.

     It is from the believing heart of a true believer that true spirituality is demonstrated...not the practice of false gifts.  Further it is the word of God that tells us that we have the indwelling and power of the Holy Spirit...not some experience.   We do not get our knowledge from our experiences, but from the Word of God.   Our experiences are to be examined whether they be real by what God has said in His PERFECT word....not the other way around.    We have that which is "perfect"  to follow and that is the inspired written word of God.   It needs no authentication and stands on its own merits and it teaches us what true spirituality is...which as 1 Cor 13 clearly says is loving and serving others, not in the false practice and pride of the practice of a false gift.

     I hope this helps you understand this most important truth.     Please study it and carefully read what God has said.  My articles should help in your study.  The modern tongues movement has done great harm to believers and the cause of Christ in giving a many a false sense of spirituality directing them away from the Word of God, and towards seeking emotional experiences which do not edify.

     God bless you.   Believe me I know the struggle you are going through with this and so many others who have been misled.   Please believe God's word and what it says. It does not please God or edify us to be involved in false religious practices.

Answer:   There is nothing wrong in having a "tingling feeling" at times when praying and worshipping God.   However, we must understand it has nothing to do with the false practices of the Charismatic/Pentecostal movement which are in gross doctrinal error. God made us in his image....that means we have intelligence, a will and emotion.   These three attributes we got from God.   We are emotional beings and that means we feel things.    It is natural.  When I hear the National Anthem played the hair stands up on the back of my neck and I have a swelling of pride and love of country and I get a tingling sensation too.

But that does not mean that it came from God.   It is simply a natural response.    Often when praying with someone, preaching, witnessing to some there comes a great emotion to my heart.    Sometimes it brings me to tears.

Many times while setting here at my computer and working on a sermon or writing a lesson or commentary on the Bible I am overcome with the glorious truth I have read and of the greatness and wonderfulness of God grace and plan for us.

But it is not some special manifestation from God, but merely the Holy Spirit illuminating God's word and filling my soul...that that is emotional. I remember many years ago one Sunday morning, going by the hospital and visiting a elder dear saint of God. She was having heart problems and it was serious.   It was just she and I in the room and I kneeled beside her bed holding her hand and we prayed.    It was a sweet sweet and yes...I felt the very presence of the Lord.

I left and went to church and preached the message God had me prepare for that Sunday.  We had a visit that morning who was traveling through our little town.   After the service he came up and began to attack me because I was not a Pentecostal and saw the tongues movement is not biblical.   He said he had so much more than me because he "felt" the Holy Spirit and he described his emotional experiences all the while criticizing me for not having the "Holy Ghost."     What a foolish mislead men he was.  He really knew knowing of God's word.  I asked him if he could lose his salvation....and he said certainly if he did not continue to live for the Lord.    Do you see....he didn't even understand salvation.    All he had was some emotional experiences and no real biblical hope.

Well, I have rattled on too long.    You stand for God....and do not let people who know really nothing about God confuse and mislead you.    Their emotions are hollow....and most importantly....because they are not biblically based...are false and do not come from God.

  You also asked if this could be from seducing spirits.    In some cases I am sure they are.   Demons are powerful and they work to deceive us.     The cannot possess a Christian, but they can effect us in some ways.  On a number of occasions I strongly believe I sensed or felt the presence of demons.   The book of Jude is very clear that Satan sends false teachers into a church to destroy it from within (like Balaam in the Old Testament).  These people will appear as nice people and will be well liked.    But inwardly they are quite different.  

  Two years after I was saved our pastor resigned and took another church.   We had a man show up one Sunday named Gene and he started coming to every service.   He was a nice young man and everyone liked him. He was especially liked among our teens.   In a month he was taking them to a Charismatic coffee house where hard rock "christian" music was played.  He began to coach them into speaking in tongues.    He got some of our men into the "Full Gospel Business Men's Association" a tongues group.

I was at a lost...I felt it was wrong...and we had no pastor to lead us.  So I brought ever book I could find in the tongues movement both pro and con, but mostly I studied in depth every passage in the New Testament that dealt with biblical tongues and the sign gifts.     I soon found the whole thing was false and not biblical and began teaching it and standing against it before our congregation.    They too studied and when the guy saw he was not being followed he left and the matter was settled.   This man could have destroyed our church.

As a pastor....I realize that as God says...unless two be agreed they cannot walk together....and our church voted to state in our church constitution that we would not accept any tongues speaker...or anyone who believed in the false teaching of tongues into membership.      The first church I pastored and established in Utah, for several months before I took the church was an untrained man preaching for them.   He allowed a charismatic couple to join that church and they have been a thorn in the side of that church every since.   They are a nice and well to do couple with lots of money....but they have constantly caused confusion and misdirection in that church for now 19 long years.   They influence has robbed that church of God's blessing over and over.   I am absolutely convinced that the Devil sent them and has used them repeatedly.

  Well sorry this is so long.   I have seen so much confusing and seen so many lives destroyed by the tongues movement I cannot help but try to warn people against it.    You know.... I love God's people....and I try to protect them as best as I can.

 

---

Answer:    Respectfully, I do not know of any biblical church that teaches what you state in your email. Please note that I said biblical churches and that means those that believe and follow God's word. I do not know any biblical church that teaches blind faith as you refer too, nor that there will be no evidence of salvation once a person is truly saved. James clears up that misunderstanding saying "Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." (James 2:18)

           Biblical faith is based on believing and living the word of God...on accepting by faith the stated promises and teachings of God in His word the Bible. That is not blind faith. It is a belief that is based on God's imputable promises and God cannot lie. Nor does any biblical church teach that a saved person will not show evidence of their salvation.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10)

           You are correct in that all true believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, but that does not mean that all believers in the early church or today spoke in tongues. The New Testament records only tree times that believers received the sign gift of tongues. If you read my article you would have noted that. The New Testament never presents the idea that everyone in the early church had the sign gifts (tongues was just one). It is only mentioned once in Paul's epistles, in 1 Corinthians and he is correcting those who were abusing the gift and falsely using it. Paul in these three chapters corrected them. He did not promote tongues but instead said...."Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue" (1 Corinthians 14:19). If you read 1 Corinthians 12-14 you will see that. One statement Paul makes, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was that tongues was a sign...

"Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe." (1 Corinthians 14:22)

           You say tongues is a sign that a believer has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they do not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit after salvation and that tongues show they have received the indwelling. Yet, God says...that believers receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit when they are saved.... "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." (Romans 8:9) True believers show they are saved by the life they live following the Lord Jesus....not because they had a experience. Further a comparison of modern tongues compared to the biblical example found in the New Testament shows they are not the same...and not even close. Modern tongues is nothing like what is recorded in the New Testament and if you read my article...it will point this out clearly making the comparison.

           The above verses clearly teaches the opposite of what you teach. It was not a sign to believers, but to unbelievers, and specifically to unbelieving Jews who had not believed in Jesus as their Messiah. So, the Bible itself contradictions you assertion that it was a sign to believers of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So, Sir, as a child of God, saved by the shed blood of Jesus Christ...who am I to believe....the teaching of your church which actually contradicts God word...or the Word of God itself? I think you know the answer to that.

           An if you read the articles you would have seen that 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 clearly teaches states the sign gifts would cease when the Word of God was completed, and there was not longer any need for the sign gifts to authenticate that Jesus was the Christ.

           You refer to Ephesians 1:14.....have you read the passage and the what it truly says. "That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:12-14)

           Not sure where you got your interpretation of the verse, but whoever told you that was grossly mistaken. They failed to read the whole passage. Please note that the context of this verse is talking about a believer being sealed. A seal was used to denote that something was genuine, authentic, confirmed, or approved--as when a deed, compact, or agreement is sealed. A seal makes something sure; and confirmed, or established. Hence it is applied to believers, as denoting that they are saved and have the sure a inheritance and are approved of God.

           The point of the passage is believers are told in a similar manner they are said to be sealed; to be sealed by the Holy Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit is given to them when they were saved to confirm them as belonging to God. Further it gave them the new nature in which believers can obey and live a godly live and understand the word of God. Ephesians 1:13 says that after the person believed they were sealed by the holy Spirit of promise. Please read 1 Corinthians 2:12-14.

           Sir, it is important when reading God's word and seeking to understand it, that you read the context of the verse. I have an articles at http://bible-truth.org/bapt-hs.htm which explains the baptism of the Holy Spirit from the Scriptures and what the filling is. If you are truly interested in leaning God's word I suggest you read my article at http://bible-truth.org/Principles.htm which will help you understand the principles of interpreting the Bible....letting the Bible interpret itself. Many people have found it useful.

           This passage and many others also refute your belief that salvation can be lost. According to the Pentecostals Jesus only made the down payment on one's salvation, and to keep one's self saved he must remain faithful and do good works. Your doctrine teaches that if a person fails...God rejects him and that salvation is only good for those who do not fail. That too is gross error and shows a complete misunderstanding of salvation. I have an article that address that error too at http://bible-truth.org/assuran2.html

           Clearly you are very sincere in your beliefs and I do not question your sincerity. However, you are in a church that is in doctrinal error. You have been misled. If you will carefully and honestly study the articles, which your Bible open and seeking God's truth, you will find what is God's truth. Many people have written me such as you have, and I believe it was because God was working in their lives and seeking to bring them to the truth. God wants His children to live in truth. Some do the research and study and God leads them to the truth....others like all the emotion of the tongues movement and the feelings they get of experiencing what they are told is a spiritual experience and they remain in error.

           If you want to understand the gifts of the Spirit you can read the article at http://bible-truth.org/TonguesRevel.html . The article researches the gifts and explains in a scholarly and honest way what the New Testament teaches about the gifts.

           If you are serious about knowing the God's truth, believing and obeying God's word...you will research the matter thoroughly. It will take some time....but people who love the Lord "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15) I wonder what you will do?

           I sincerely hope you will study the matter and believe God's word. If I can help you...please write.