Speaking in Tongues - What is the Point? (Part One)

 I am writing this on Pentecost Sunday because I find a lot of ignorance and misunderstanding about the Holy Spirit - even in contemporary Charismatic churches.  The challenge I find, as I start to write, is how to be concise but sufficiently thorough.  You will have to decide whether or not I have achieved that.

Early in the 20th Century many Christians became aware of something new taking place in many churches.  It became known as the Pentecostal Revival and seemed to happen simulateouly in the UK, USA and Sweden.  No doubt it was experienced in many other coutries.  In the UK, among other leaders at that time, were two Welsh Christians, the brothers Stephen and George Jeffreys.  I understand that both were teenagers during the Welsh Revival of 1904, and both became popular speakers at Christian events.

Stephen became significant in establishing the Assemblies of God in the UK, while George was the main person in setting up the Elim Church.  George later left Elim and started the Bible Pattern Fellowship.  When I became aware of Pentecostalism in 1963, there was also another significant denomination, the Apostolic Church with headquarters and Bible School in Penygroes, Wales.  There was also a previously related denomination, the Apostolic Faith Church, though there were fewer churches.  The mission organisation I joined in 1963 undertook missional activity and took services for all these denominations as well as other historically established churches such as Baptist, Methodist and Congregational.

As a passionate teenage Christian I found myself excited by Pentecostalism, which at that time existed outside other mainline denominations.  The emphasis on revival and the teaching about a personal experience of being filled or baptised in or with the Holy Spirit to empower evangelism found a welcome response in my heart.  The term 'baptism in/with the Holy Spirit' comes from the Bible (Matthew 3:11) and it might help to differentiate the three forms of baptism.

The Greek word translated baptise in English is βαπτίζω.  It means to immerse, and the two accounts of an individual baptism in scripture (Jesus and the Ethiopian Eunoch) both are clear that they went into the water.  To understand the difference between the three bapisms we need to not, who is baptising and into what we are baptised.  They are clearly not referring to one experience described in three different ways.

Baptism into the body of Christ.  This is a sovereign act of the Holy Spirit by which all beliecers in Christ, together, form one body.  See 1 Corinthians 12:13.  Some transalations state, "In one Spirit" but it is clear that what we are baptise - or immersed into- is the body of Christ.

Baptism into water.  This is something done by another Christian (possibly a priest, pastor or church leader).  It is usually done to a new believer.  The Greek word for baptism means immerse but some denomination sprinkle or apply some water rather than immersing. (See Matthew 3:16; Acts 8:38,39)

Baptism in or with the Holy Spirit. (See Matthew 3:11).  Here it is Jesus who is the baptiser.  The medium is the Holy Spirit.

The promise of the baptism in the Holy Spirit was clearly fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost and associated with speaking in tongues.  But this was not a once for all experience.  There are at least three identical occasions involving other people at other times.  In Acts 8 Peter and John lay hands on belivers at Samaria who have previously been baptised in water.  There is no reference to speaking in tongues but Simon's desire to be able to emulate Peter and John implies something significant was heard or seen to happen.   In Acts 19 Paul lays hands on Christians after they have been baptised in water and they recive the Holy Spirit and speaak in tongues and prophesied.

A thrird occasion takes place in the home of Cornelius, a Roman Cnturion.  This is the first unambiguous occasion that gentiles welcomed the gospel.  Even as Peter was still preaching they experienced exactly what had happened at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost with speaking in tongues (See Acts 10:46 and Acts 11:15-17).    These believers were baptised in water after they were baptised in the Holy Spirit.  The record of three occasions when tongues are mention when people were baptised in the Holy Spirit led to many 20th Century Pentostals referring to speaking in tongues as "the initial evidence" of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

(More to follow)