Heresy Alert No.!

Over the next half dozen posts I am going to forewarn you about variations of the “adding to the Gospel” heresy that you may well encounter.

Of course depending on what sort of church you go to or Christian fellowship you have and books you read you may may come into contact any one of them, or none at all.

However immunization is better than running the risk of wrecking your faith, so I will go through each one in detail.

This week's topic is …...

“you are not a Spirit filled Christian unless you 'speak in tongues'.” …. Wrong!

Yes, some 'TV evangelists' even some whole churches do say this. They are quite wrong. Many of them are so insistent about it that they fall into the heresy of adding to the Gospel.

I think the best immunity comes from a better understanding of what the Holy Spirit does in a believer's life.

John's Gospel is a good place to start.

Read John 7:37-39. Jesus says that streams of living water will flow from the person who believes in him. John adds that Jesus meant the Holy Spirit “whom those who believed in him were later to receive” So the grounds for receiving the Holy Spirit are believing in Jesus.

Take a moment to read John Ch.14 and 16:5-15. Let me summarise some important things Jesus says:

a) The Holy Spirit will be given to those who love Jesus – this love being shown by obedience

b) The Holy Spirit will teach believers & remind them of Jesus words.

c) The Holy Spirit will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin, righteousness and judgement.

d) The Spirit will guide believers into all truth by taking what belongs to Jesus and making it known to them.

Luke in his Gospel and the book of Acts tells us more:

Luke 24: 48,49 tells us that Jesus told the disciples they would be his witnesses, and the Gospel would be preached to all nations – but they were to wait; “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” So, the coming of the Holy Spirit was a) a matter of promise and b) brought the power which was essential to proclaiming the Gospel.

This instruction is repeated in Acts 1:1-5. With the addition that Jesus uses the term “baptism” when he says “in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit. Reading on through Acts Ch.2 the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (a Jewish festival) is described. For our present discussion I want to highlight three things that we are told here:

a) the believers all “speak in other tongues” but these are foreign languages, and to their amazement visitors in Jerusalem from many different and distant countries hear the believers telling them the great things God has done in their own native languages. (when people are on about “speaking in tongues” these days they do not mean that, but rather speaking or praying in words that are unintelligible.)

b) One dramatic effect was that Peter got up and boldly and effectively proclaimed that Jesus was God's Messiah – and 2,000 people believed and were baptised that day!

c) Part of the message was : “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is to you and your children and to all that are afar off”

What I want to highlight is that the really dramatic work of the Holy Spirit here was to cause people to turn to Jesus in repentance and faith for the forgiveness of their sins. Also that the gift of the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the usual and expected follow on. So in Acts 8 where this does not happen when the Samaritans believe, it is taken to mean that something is wrong. Peter and John go there to pray for them and lay hands on them -with the result that the Samaritans then do receive the Holy Spirit. In a similar vein when Peter tells Cornelius and his gathering – who are all non-Jews about Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes on them while Peter is still speaking that is taken as a convincing sign from God and the Jewish Christians give praise that God has granted life-giving repentance to the gentiles also.

From these texts is clear that God did utilise this 'speaking in tongues' as an instant indication of his Holy Spirit coming into a believer's life. It is also clear that in these cases an instant sign was necessary. So at this stage we should be thinking: “Yes, where necessary to instantly demonstrate his gift of the Holy Spirit, God did use the phenomenon of 'tongues' – so he may do so whenever that need exists, but this does not mean hat he always does so.

Come now to Romans 8. It is a beautiful chapter. Notice as you read through that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit all work to save us. Even though we are looking especially to find out about what the Holy Spirit does, we must not lose sight of the balanced picture scripture is presenting.

Having done that, notice what is said about how the Holy Spirit helps us. We turned away from our old life as enemies of God, put our trust in Jesus and pledged to obey his teaching. But that is easier said than done! Our old fallen human nature is ever pulling us in the opposite direction. If we cannot prevail against this nature, we will slip back to our old way of life. The Holy Spirit, so long as we actively choose to “live by the Spirit”, works in us to help us cut loose from these chains of the past and of our fallen nature. This is important, big, totally huge!!! A line I heard once goes:

The Law bade me crawl but gave me neither arms nor legs : the Gospel bids me fly and gives me wings.

The Holy Spirit working in and with us to overcome our old nature and change us from the inside out to be ever more like Jesus – that is the being asked to fly and having wings to do it with.

If you are still doubting the importance of this read Galatians 5 from verse 13.

It lists the actions that come naturally to us through our fallen nature: sexual immorality, impurity & debauchery, idolatry & witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like.

Then it lists what the Holy Spirit wants to and will produce in us: Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control.

So the real evidence of being a “Spirit-filled Christian” is the extent to which our lives resemble the second list rather than the first one!

Last text for this post: read Paul's First letter to the Corinthians Chapters 12 -14. Here he is dealing with the Corinthian Christians problem of thinking that it is all about speaking in tongues. His first shot is that indeed the Holy Spirit works in miraculous ways through believers for the benefit of all God's people. But there is a whole list of different ways the Spirit does this and the Spirit chooses who he works what gift through. Second shot is that the body of believers is indeed like a body – a whole lot of different part are needed for a body to function. If it was just one body-part (ie one spiritual gift) it would not be a functioning body at all. This finishes pointing out that the Holy Spirit works in different ways through different people to build up the body of believers and does everyone speak in tongues? Of course not! (in the original Greek this verse uses is a grammatical construction know as “a question demanding the answer 'No!'.”)

Third Shot Chapter 13 : Love is the most excellent way of all: Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Fourth shot Chapter 14 : Yes tongues are a real gift – but a very inferior one to prophecy, so don't forbid it, but don't carry on over it like little kids with a new toy. Grow up!

My conclusion is this: If anyone has repented of their old life put their faith in Jesus and set their heart to obey him, then on the promise of God – who cannot lie – their sins are forgiven, they are adopted as children of God and they have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. From then on they must moment by moment to choose to “live by the Spirit” rather than live according to their old fallen nature. The change may be gradual, but it is the real evidence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Next Post : “our church is the only true Church” ….. Wrong!