Promises Pt. 02

Mayotte again remained silent.

"Just a point of interest Pastor Mayotte; baptism is a Christian ritual, it is not a Jewish ritual, it is not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament. Now Jesus was a Jew, John the Baptist was a Jew, the disciples were all Jews, so I have to ask again, why on Earth would Jews be carrying out Christian rituals when the Christian church had not even been formed?"

"Are you trying to tell me that the Bible is lying, that this event didn't happen at all?"

"No, all that I'm saying is that baptism is a Christian and not Jewish ritual, I would have to question its scriptural validity. And why was Jesus baptized by full immersion, when that process is meant to symbolize, according to your church, an event that was yet to come?"

"The Bible is the true word of God and all in it is the truth. How can you question the truth?"

"And that is your only answer to any questioning of the Bible, isn't it Pastor Mayotte? You have given it no thought, have you Pastor Mayotte? Because this is an area of Scripture that you avoid, isn't that right Pastor Mayotte? I won't embarrass you by asking for an answer to these questions because you have no answer."

"Another thing, if I can just read you this from the list of what the Assemblies of God Church, and your church being a card carrying member of that organisation, believes; 'We believe that in order to live the holy and fruitful lives that God intends for us, we need to be baptized in water and be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to use Spiritual gifts, including speaking in tongues, which is the initial evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit.'. Your church believes that full immersion baptism symbolizes Jesus' death and resurrection and that a person is not a 'Born Again Christian' unless he or she is baptized by full immersion and comes up out of the water speaking in tongues, is this not correct?"

"Yes, it is done as the Bible tells us."

"Where does the Bible tell you that? I have read the New Testament from beginning to end and can find no reference to this practice. Nowhere does it spell out the method of baptism apart from it being with water, and nowhere does it say that you have to emerge speaking in tongues. Nowhere does it mention that speaking in tongues is 'evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. In fact nowhere in the bible is what your church calls tongues mentioned."

"That's a lie! There are one hundred and seventy references to tongue or tongues, give or take a few, in the Old and New Testaments!"

"You can count can you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I have heard that figure quoted on many occasions by the Pentecostal preachers, and recently by one of your 'awesome man of God' speakers and do you know what? I'll tell you what! That figure corresponds with the number of listings of 'tongue' and 'tongues' in this book." He held up a copy of Strong's Concise Concordance of the Bible. "There are a hundred and sixty six references to 'tongue' or 'tongues' in here and do you know what? Less than one percent of these listing are a direct reference in support of glossolalia or 'tongues'. But I'll be getting back to that shortly. Tell me Pastor Mayotte, when a person is baptized is that the very moment that he or she has given him or herself to God?"

"Yes, it is a very Spiritual moment."

"Really? I was always under the impression that the person had already made the decision before the baptism event, and that they have to attend baptism classes after they make that decision to prepare them for the occasion, and that this is not the earth shattering moment that you would have us believe, just a public affirmation of that previously made decision. In the case of the Pentecostal church the act of immersion and rising out of the water spouting tongues is merely the affirmation of obedience to the rules of the church, it has nothing whatever to do with God or obedience to God."

"No, that is wrong, it is confirmation of the receipt of the 'gifts of the Spirit."

"Must I explain it to you again? That is where you are wrong. You should throw your concordance away and actually study the Bible. None of the 'tongues' references in the Old Testament refer to glossolalia or speaking in tongues and nearly all of the New Testament references refer to speaking in other tongues or languages unknown to the speaker."

"That's a lie! In the book of Acts, Chapter 2 it clearly states that the disciple spoke in other tongues."

"So it does. Instant coffee again! Why do you stop at verse 4? Shall I tell you why? You stop there because to go further will reveal to you, if you were ever open to such revelation, that the other tongues or languages were so that the disciples could carry out the 'Great Commission' that Jesus charged them with, and spread the word of God to the four corners of the world. The gift at Pentecost could more accurately be described as speaking in a foreign language that they, the disciples that is, never knew before, were, up to that point in time unable to speak or understand, nothing whatever to do with glossolalia."

"As you should know, the disciples were nearly all illiterate Galilean fishermen who could only speak Aramaic or Galilean or whatever language they spoke. If they were to preach to a Greek for instance, the Greek person would not understand what they were saying. The gathering that they addressed at Pentecost included a whole bunch of people who wouldn't have understood them, so God gave the disciples the gift of speaking in a language that they didn't know, to interpret from their own language to the language of those present, so that those who didn't know the disciples' language could understand the word of God. That, Pastor Mayotte is the gift of 'tongues' given to the disciples at Pentecost, not the ability to speak in some unintelligible gibberish that you claim it was."

"But that's not the only time that 'tongues' is mentioned in the Bible!"

"You're right again!" Henderson's voice took on a sarcastic edge. "You are so right! Let us have a look at these references? Do you have any favourites Pastor Mayotte? I do believe that 1st Corinthians 14:4 is popular with the Pentecostal church and I don't even have to look it up because, listening to recordings of your church's messages, I have heard it used many, many times in your church, 'He who speaks in tongues edifies himself.' I was listening to a CD of one of your services and a Pastor, it wasn't you, used that passage, and then added 'let's all speak in tongues and be edified!' Can you see anything wrong with that, Pastor Mayotte?"

"I personally can't, but obviously you can, otherwise you wouldn't have brought it up."

"The very answer I expected. You, personally can't see anything wrong with it, but it is so very wrong! This is yet another example of your 'instant coffee theology'. Only a small fragment of the passage was used and, if the whole passage had been used, a completely different context would emerge, one that unfortunately doesn't agree with the fragment used. The practice of glossolalia is based on a fragment of Scripture taken out of context while Paul devotes four chapters of his first Letter to the Corinthians to explaining how they had got it wrong. I think that we should take a much closer look at these Chapters, don't you?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Objection!"

"Yes Mister Johansson?"

"Your Honour I fail to see the relevance of this line of questioning."

"Unfortunately for you and your client I feel that the relevance is perfectly clear, so I am going to allow it. Continue Mister Henderson."

"Pastor Mayotte, 1st Corinthians 12 through 15 deals with orderly worship practices in the church and is critical of egoistic and self indulgent practices because they edify no-one but the person practicing them. Paul starts by urging the people to follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. Do you believe that a tongue, or glossolalia, is a Spiritual gift?"

"Of course!"

"Where did you get that idea?"

"It was one of the gifts given to the disciples at Pentecost!"

"Not glossolalia. We've just been through this. Glossolalia was definitely not one of the gifts given to the disciples at Pentecost. The gift of the ability to speak in a language or languages unknown to the disciples was, but not to speak in some unintelligible gibberish and, if you were to look at the references to tongues in that light, when you read these chapters a much clearer picture emerges as to how we should carry out our worship."

"Unfortunately for me or anyone else who attempts to demonstrate that your teaching is false, you will have none of it. As soon as anyone points out that your interpretation of Scripture could be flawed, you refuse to listen. Because if you did listen, you would have to concede that you may have been wrong all along. The name of the Pentecostal movement, I won't call it a church, is derived from that small section of Scripture. Just because the 'charismatic utterances', that emerged from the Azusa Street church in the early part of the last century, looked and sounded spectacular, doesn't make it right. It is now an integral part of the show called church, but that still doesn't make it right."

"In Chapter 12 Paul discusses the gifts of the Spirit and there are a couple of salient points. One is that we are not all given all of the Spiritual gifts, or in fact all given one of the spiritual gifts, and the practice of everyone babbling away like a flock of squawking seagulls fighting over the last crumb at a picnic is not even one of them. However, the gift of speaking in another language and the interpretation of that language is. One person can speak the language while another interprets, or the same person can speak and interpret. Whatever way it is done, Paul goes to great length to tell the Corinthians that speaking in 'tongues' without interpretation is not a Spiritual gift, it edifies no-one other than the person speaking it, not the whole church, and it should not be a part of orderly worship."

"It would appear that someone from Corinth was there at Pentecost and saw what happened. He was probably one of those on the fringe of that event who thought that the disciples had been hitting the sauce bottle a little early and were just a little 'tired and emotional'. But didn't Peter deny that they were drunk? Anyway it would seem that the people in the Corinthian church had taken to 'speaking in an unknown tongue' thinking that to do so was showing that they were spiritual, and it escalated from there to the point where it was dominating the whole worship, not unlike your church, Pastor Mayotte?"

"He also says 'do not forbid the speaking of tongues!"

"You surprise me, again you are perfectly correct! But we'll deal with that in a few minutes. The gifts that Paul lists, in the order that he lists them are; the message of wisdom, the message of knowledge, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, to be able to distinguish between spirits, and last of all, the gift of speaking in different tongues and interpretation of tongues. All of these gifts are the work of the same Spirit who bestows them to each person as he determines. As the spirit determines, Pastor Mayotte, not as the church determines, and not all gifts to all people or one gift to all people, or even all gifts to one person, each gift is given to the person who can use that gift for the benefit of the work of God."

"So you see Pastor Mayotte, the practice of the Pentecostal church and the Charismatic movement of everyone babbling away in an unknown gibberish is directly contrary to this teaching of Paul, and the continued practice of this highlights your church's selective obedience to instant coffee theology, not, as you continue to claim, total obedience to Scripture."

Mayotte sat in stunned silence. He wished that inspiration hadn't deserted him in his hour of need. Every time he gave what he thought was the right answer to the question it was thrown back in his face.

"Continuing on with Chapter 12 for a while longer, Paul tells the Corinthians that the body is a unit made up of many parts which, when combined, form just one body and that to envy the position of other parts doesn't mean that your part is any the less important to the functioning of the body. What he means is that if we all did the same thing and neglected the other functions of the body, the body as a whole would not function. What that also means is that if we all speak in tongues and tithe, believing that this is all we need to do to be good Christians, we are deceiving ourselves and everyone else."

"Doesn't Paul say something about speaking in the tongues of men and angels? Doesn't that refer to speaking in tongues?"

"Please Pastor Mayotte, if you are going to throw Scripture at me, respect my intelligence and put it in context. What Paul was saying was 'I might be the most eloquent of speakers but if I speak without love I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. The sound of the gong is a hollow sound so your words are similarly hollow if they are spoken without love."

"In Chapter 14 he mentions the flute or harp, and that unless there is a distinction between notes no-one will know what is being played. Have you ever been to an orchestral recital and witnessed the members of the orchestra tuning their instruments prior to the performance. To the audience the sounds that are made have no real meaning but to the players they are most important. And when the conductor taps his baton on the lectern and brings everyone to order, the sounds that issue forth from the instruments combine with each other to form the exquisite body of work that the composer visualized when he wrote it."

"Paul also said that he thanked God that he 'spoke in tongues more than all of you.' I have heard that used to justify speaking in tongues but if you were to read on, a completely different context emerges. He goes on to say 'But in church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. In the law it is written: 'Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me,' says the Lord.' To me this means that if someone speaks to me in a 'language' that I do not understand, I will probably shut my mind to what is being said, and I will not profit from what may otherwise have been some very wise teaching. This could also mean that if you were to get up in your church and speak for an hour in, say, Swahili, you might speak with passion but, unless you or someone else translated your words the whole thing would have been a monumental waste of time. I speak to you in a language called truth, but you have shut your mind to the truth, and do not understand a word of it."

The members in the public gallery were curious as to how this person who was not a 'man of God' was able to corner Pastor Mayotte at every turn. Those who were so used to unquestioned acceptance of teachings were just now beginning to look on the Bible in a new light. It was no longer the black and white document that they had been led to believe it to be, but one that was open to interpretation and which their church, rather than literal application of the Scripture, was using selective interpretation, and not all that accurately.

"Moving on, Pastor Mayotte I am going to labour this point a little while longer. Paul tells the Corinthians, and I quote, 'So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? Undoubtedly there all sorts of languages in the world, yet none is without meaning. If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to me. So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church. For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says.' Pastor Mayotte that makes it pretty clear that speaking in tongues without interpretation does nothing to benefit the church."

"But he differentiates between speaking in tongues and praying in tongues." Mayotte had at last thought of a way out of his predicament.

"I'm glad you raised that point." Mayotte now had the feeling of someone who had just struggled to the top of the well, his hands were on the rim ready to pull himself out and Henderson had stamped on his fingers and he had found himself back at the bottom of the well, and it was cold and lonely down there.

Without even consulting his notes or a Bible, Henderson began. "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but will I also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but will I also sing with my mind. If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say 'Amen' to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified. I thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.' What Paul is saying is that you should pray with your spirit, and that you should also pray with your mind, in other words think about what you are praying for and about, so that those around you understand your prayer. That doesn't support your cause very much, does it?"

"If you say so." Mayotte mumbled.

"If I say so?" Henderson jabbed his finger onto the page of his open bible. "In here Paul says so and you are supposed to be obedient to what is written in this book." He turned the Bible around so that the printed page faced Mayotte. "What Paul is saying is that if you speak a language that no-one understands you are wasting your time, if you pray in a language that no-one understands you will get no support from those around you because they don't have a clue what you have just prayed for. In any case you really are wasting your time because, for one thing, how will you know that your prayers have even been answered if you don't know what you have prayed for?"

"God answers all prayers."

Henderson ignored the interruption. "And another thing, in Matthew we are told that God knows what we are praying for even before we pray, so why bother praying in tongues? It serves absolutely no useful purpose other than tell those around you that, according to the rules of the Pentecostal church, you believe that, by succumbing to the rules of the church and the pressure of your peers, you are a very spiritual person. But it does nothing to edify them and this is the whole point of this part of Paul's letter to the Corinthians, to do only those things in church that edify the whole body of the church, and if what you felt to do serves no useful purpose, then remain silent."

"It's all about an orderly worship, not a case of everyone doing their own thing. I read recently that the Southern Baptist church in the US was distancing itself from, as they termed it, 'private prayer language', which is, praying in tongues. Seems strange that they should do that if it is so scripturally correct, wouldn't you agree?"

"I don't know anything about that."

"If I can use one of Paul's analogies again; if the musicians in the symphony orchestra all decided to ignore the music and the conductor and do their own thing, all that would result would be a cacophony of sound, the beauty of the music would be lost."

"Have you finished your lecture?" Mayotte asked.