This lesson is just piggy-backing on another already posted on the same topic.


Speaking in Tongues


I would like to offer the following observations as far as speaking in tongues. This is just a little history to the Pentecostal movement. I find it very interesting, the timing of ‘speaking in tongues’ and the birth of the Church of God in Christ. Please read to the end. The last section sheds a little light on past cultures and "Speaking in Tongues".


"THE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST"

The Church of God in Christ (C.O.G.I.C.) is considered to be a member of the great Protestant body though it did not directly evolve from the European or English Reformation but had its origin within the General Association to the Baptist Church.

Elder Charles Harrison Mason, who later became the founder and organizer of the Church of God in Christ, was born September 8,1866, on the Prior Farm near Memphis, Tennessee.

A Young C.H. Mason

Elder Mason was converted in November, 1878, and baptized by his brother, I.S. Nelson, a Baptist Preacher.

He then experienced sanctification through the word of God and preached his first sermon in "Holiness" from II Timothy 2:1-3: "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

On November 1, 1893, Elder Mason matriculated into the Arkansas Baptist College, but withdrew after three months because of his dissatisfaction with the methods of teaching and the presentation of the Bible message.

In 1895, Bishop Mason met Elder C.P. Jones of Jackson, Mississippi; Elder J.E. Jeter, of Little Rock, Arkansas; and Elder W.S. Pleasant of Hazlehurst, Mississippi.

Jointly, these militant gospel preachers conducted a revival in 1896, in Jackson, Mississippi, which had far-reaching affects on the city. (Notice...no speaking in tongues!)

The turning point in Elder Mason's life came in March, 1907, when he journeyed to Los Angeles, California, to attend a great Pentecostal revival with Elder D.J. Young and Elder J.A. Jeter.

Now this is where is starts to get interesting. As you continue to read you will notice something that happened to the founding father of the C.O.G.I.C. that had NEVER happened before; enter the Azuza Street Revival!!! At this point we will look at what happened at this great revival in California.


Outbreak of Glossolalia, 1901 to 1906

The modern Christian practice of glossolalia is often said to have originated around the beginning of the twentieth century in the United States.

The city of Topeka, Kansas is often cited as the center of the Pentecostal movement and the resurgence of glossolalia in the Church. Charles Fox Parham, a holiness preacher and founder of Bethel Bible College in 1900, is given the credit to being the one who influenced modern Pentecostalism.

During what has been called a sermon by Parham, a bold student named Agnes Ozman asked him for prayer and the laying on of hands to specifically ask God to fill her with the Holy Spirit. This was the night of New Year's Eve, 1900. She became the first of many students to experience glossolalia, coincidentally in the first hours of the twentieth century.

Word of the outpouring of the Spirit spread to other Holiness congregations. Parham wrote, studied, traveled, preached, and taught about glossolalia for the next few years. Parham and others who believed in or manifested tongues were persecuted from both inside and outside of the church. In 1905, he opened a Bible school in Houston. It was there that William J. Seymour became indoctrinated. It is notable that Seymour did not speak in tongues while in Houston.

When Seymour was invited to speak in Los Angeles about the baptism of the Holy Spirit in February 1906, he accepted. His first speaking engagement was met with dispute, primarily because he preached about "tongues" being a primary indication of the baptism of the Spirit, yet he did not himself speak in tongues.

It was not until April that his preaching and teaching about glossolalia paid dividends, first to a man named Edward Lee, and later to Seymour. Similar to the experience of Parham in 1901, Seymour's students received the ability to speak in tongues a few days before he did.

By May 1906, indeed only one month after the Great San Francisco Earthquake which was seen as an "act of God", Seymour was leading a major movement of the Spirit known as the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles.

The following are excerpts from Elder Mason's personal testimony regarding his receiving the Holy Ghost.

"The first day in the meeting I sat to myself, away from those that went with me. I began to thank God in my heart for all things, for when I heard some speak in tongues, I knew it was right though I did not understand it. Nevertheless, it was sweet to me.”

“I also thank God for Elder Seymour who came and preached a wonderful sermon. His words were sweet and powerful and it seems that I hear them now while writing. When he closed his sermon, he said 'All of those that want to be sanctified or baptized with the Holy Ghost, go to the upper room; and all those that want to be justified, come to the altar.'“

“I said that is the place for me, for it may be that I am not converted and if not, God knows it and can convert me..."
"Glory!"

"The second night of prayer I saw a vision. I saw myself standing alone and had a dry roll of paper in my mouth trying to swallow it. Looking up towards the heavens, there appeared a man at my side. I turned my eyes at once, then I awoke and the interpretation came.”

“God had me swallowing the whole book and if I did not turn my eyes to anyone but God and Him only, He would baptize me. I said yes to Him, and at once in the morning when I arose, I could hear a voice in me saying, " I see..."


"I got a place at the altar and began to thank God. After that, I said Lord if I could only baptize myself, I would do so; for I wanted the baptism so bad I did not know what to do. I said, Lord, You will have to do the work for me; so I turned it over into His hands."

"Then, I began to ask for the baptism of the Holy Ghost according to Acts 2:41, which readeth thus: 'Then they that gladly received His word were baptized,' Then I saw that I had a right to be glad and not sad."

"The enemy said to me, there may be something wrong with you. Then a voice spoke to me saying, if there is anything wrong with you, Christ will find it and take it away and marry you...Someone said, 'Let us sing.' I arose and the first song that came to me was 'He brought me out of the Miry Clay.'

“The Spirit came upon the saints and upon me...Then I gave up for the Lord to have His way within me. So there came a wave of Glory into me and all of my being was filled with the Glory of the Lord.”

“So when He had gotten me straight on my feet, there came a light which enveloped my entire being above the brightness of the sun. When I opened my mouth to say Glory, a flame touched my tongue which ran down me. My language changed and no word could I speak in my own tongue. Oh! I was filled with the Glory of the Lord. My soul was then satisfied."


People from many denominations and races gathered daily to see and hear, to preach and pray, to sing and shout, and to speak in new tongues. Newspapers, clearly biased against the movement, reported the happenings as a wild and weird group of mostly "colored" people acting as if they were pretty disturbed, exhibiting behavior unheard of in most Protestant churches of the time: intense shouting, vigorous jerking, dancing, passing out, crying, howling, emotional outbursts, and speaking gibberish.

Many religious leaders in Los Angeles and other places were quick to disparage the goings on at Azusa Street, informing their flocks that the new Pentecostal movement was (at worst) sensational, Satanic, Spiritualism, and (at best) too overly focused on the Holy Spirit instead of Jesus Christ.


Witnesses at the Azusa Street Revival wrote of seeing fire resting on the heads of participants, miraculous healings in the meetings, and incidents of speaking in tongues being understood by native speakers of the language.


This new Pentecostal experience which Elder Mason found for himself, for he began to proclaim to others upon his return home to Memphis, Tennessee as a New Testament doctrine. A division, subsequently, became evident within the ranks of Elder Mason's contemporaries when Elder J. A. Jeter, the General Overseer, Elder C. P. Jones, and others regarded the new Holy Ghost experience of speaking in tongues as a delusion. Being unable to resolve their difference in the New Testament doctrine.

It is in the last paragraph above I hope the readers paid very close attention to. Elder Mason returned home and presented what happened to him as DOCTRINE!!!!! And in the end it was rejected by others because their actions could not be validated by scriptures.

But where are we to get ALL of our doctrine?

2 Tim. 3:[16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

I must ask, are any of the following actions...."...disturbed, exhibiting behavior unheard of...: intense shouting, vigorous jerking, dancing, passing out, crying, howling, emotional outbursts, and speaking gibberish....", ever mentioned as acts of the Holy Spirit? If so, please direct me to the book, chapter and verse so I can read it for myself.

Now let’s look and see what happened when the Holy Spirit was given to those in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks:

Acts 2
[4] And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So these men were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues. Now let’s see it these ‘tongues’ were understandable.

[5] And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
[6] Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

So all there were able to understand what was being said.

[7] And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
[8] And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

So God’s words were able to be understood, by everyone there. Notice there was no mention of violent movements or out breaks, no running, no confusion, no passing out, no vigorous uncontrollable jerking, just men speaking in different, understandable, languages .

Paul gives us further instructions for the conduct of the church, 1 Corth. 14:[27] If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret.

[28] But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.

[33] For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

You can not find one place in the bible where someone COULD NOT understand or edification did NOT take place when others were speaking in tongues .

I would like to offer this last bit of information. Please note how far back this practice goes.



Other religions

Aside from Christians, other religious groups also have been observed to practice some form of theopneustic glossolalia. It is perhaps most commonly in Paganism, Shamanism, and other mediumistic religious practices.

Glossolalia was exhibited by the renowned ancient Oracle of Delphi, whereby a priestess of the god Apollo (called the Pythia) speaks in unintelligible utterances, supposedly through the spirit of Apollo in her.

Certain Gnostic magical texts from the Roman period have written on them unintelligible syllables such as "t t t t n n n n d d d d d..." etc. It is conjectured that these may be transliterations of the sorts of sounds made during glossolalia.

The Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians also features a hymn of (mostly) unintelligible syllables which is thought to be an early example of Christian glossolalia.

I made this lesson to; 1. Bring to light the start of the present day ‘speaking in tongues’ verses what was observed in the bible; 2. Show that today’s practice of speaking in tongues started around the same time as the Pentecostal movement, and; 3. Show just how far back the practice began and what religions participated.


So where does your doctrine come from?

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The Word of God Acts 2:14-16

Since the charismatic demonstrations were necessary to help the early church to be successful in implementing the command of Christ, we therefore, believe that a Holy Ghost experience is for all men today.
I want to say as well that our founder was rejected by his peers, as was our Savior
It was not Eld. Mason that was rejected.....it was HIS Doctrine, "Elder Mason returned home and presented what happened to him as DOCTRINE!!!!! And in the end it was rejected by others because their actions could not be validated by scriptures."

But where are we to get ALL of our doctrine?

2 Tim. 3:[16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:


NOWHERE in the holy scriptures does it say that "speaking in tongues" is something that is required by, "ALL men today", as you say.
speaking in tongues is evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost according to Acts 2:4, now if their is no evidence not even unto yourself, and there are no fruits exhibited in your life, how do you know have it?
Evan,

How do I know I have the holy spirit? It is because I am obedient to Yehwah and his son through Torah. My gift is the gift of wisdom. Speaking in tongues is not the designated evidence for the indwelling spirit. Them that are obedient via Torah are born of Yehwah. Them that does not go on breaking Torah are born of Yehwah(1 John 3). :)
I AGREE JAME MY IS JUST GOD AND JESUS
THATS NOT IN THE BIBLE FUGETT
Evan,

One thing I do not like is when Apostolics, Pentecostals, and the likes of them, say that speaking in tongues is a must for every believer as the sign of the Spirit dwelling within them. The gift of tongues is not the only gift in the body of Yeshuah. Some groups go as far as to say that the gift of tongues is for salvation. That is not true at all. It is one gift of many to help the body of Yeshuah mature.
James if the group states it is for salvation, then I and my church disagree with that, the gift of tongues, and everybody does not recieve that gift, is just that a gift, and gifts come without repentence.

The Baptism of the Holy Ghost which is seperate, is also a consequence of salvation, that one according to Acts 2:4 comes to those who ask for it. It brings power to your witness
Evan,

I believe Baptism of the Ruach Hakodesh is no different than having him dwell in you at the moment of repentance of Torah-breaking.
Again James that is correct, my gift is Interpretation, and prophecy. We believe that you recieve the gift of the Holy Spirit at repentence, but not all recieve the Baptism, simply because they may not know of Him to recieve Him. That is why in study the word of God they will learn to ask for HIM, not the gift, but the Baptism.

Yes, I agree the fruits of the Spirits displayed in ones life is proof of being filled with the Holy Spirit,
why don't the charasmatics drink poison to prove this "holy ghost" experience?

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