Speaking In Tongues Does Not Equal Salvation.

[Jason B]

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth

If you don't mind I would like to use this portion of your post to say something...

I had mentioned before that if our paradigm is that one has not received the Holy Ghost until they have spoken in tongues then this will be what we recall because each person who did not speak in tongues is deemed to have not received the Holy Ghost. It is a self fulfilling teaching.

But my thought is this. I have seen people go to the altar... mean people... hateful people... terribly sinful people.

I have seen them "receive a blessing" at the altar crying and repenting before God.
I have seen people get up from that altar changed.
I have seen an attitude in them and on their faces I had never seen before.
I have seen a grumpy and hateful person all of a sudden become a happy and loving person.
I have seen a person who smoked and drank and could never give it up quit that night.

But they didn't speak in tongues.

And people congratulated them on their "blessing" and told them... you keep praying and God will fill you with the Holy Ghost. They were dismayed at this because they thought they DID receive the Holy Ghost.

Oh no... they are told. You received a blessing but when you receive the Holy Ghost you will speak in tongues and it will be so much better than what you received tonight.

I have seen them try to receive this Holy Ghost and finally quit from such deep discouragement that they couldn't receive the Holy Ghost and when they attended for the last time the record still stood... nobody ever received the Holy Ghost without speaking in tongues.

I saw lots of signs... some even biblically explicit.

I saw love one to another.
I saw a miraculous ability to quit things that had held them captive for years.
I saw a change in spirit, attitude and nature.
I saw someone who was not the same as they used to be.
I saw someone who had received power after that this "blessing" had come upon them.

But since no one saw tongues doubt was planted in their heart and it destroyed them.
But... at the end of the day... it can still be said by those who are so fond of saying it... In all my years of living for God no one has ever received the Holy Ghost without speaking in tongues.

I think we really need to take another look at this doctrine.

Exactly. Which is why this doctrine not only needs to be exposed, but taught AGAINST.

3 steppers are fond of teaching about how damnable it is to teach people they are saved simply by "accepting the Lord", yet their doctrine does for the saint, what easy believism does for the sinner. The end result is both have been lied to.