Allow me to Think Abstractly for a Moment

[rgcraig]

don't think tongues is the HG....it is evidence of the HG...The HG is Christ in us....

This is exactly how I believe. I think many of you are taking this the wrong way.

What I'm asking is do you not feel that the Holy Ghost comes into your life/heart when you ask forgiveness of your sins and are baptized? When you speak in tongues IS the evidence that He abides within you.

I cannot read into any of that scripture that I'm not saved until I speak in tongues.

I'm instructed to REPENT and be BAPTIZED in Jesus' name. Then, I'm promised that I shall RECEIVE the Holy Ghost. When I repented and was baptized in Jesus' name you cannot tell me that HIS spirit didn't dwell in me.

The scripture says that if I do those two things, then I WILL receive the Holy Ghost. PERIOD. When I speak in tongues, it then is a witness and evidence that the Holy Ghost lives in me.

I cannot wrap my mind around a God that would send me to hell after I repented and was baptized in Jesus' name, but hadn't publically spoken in tongues yet.

The true faith is evidenced by action, the action is repenting and being baptized, then the gift is received. If I repent and have been baptized in Jesus' name, am I not one of His?

The only reason to feel there has to be evidence or initial evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost is the Scripture's testimony on the topic. Pentecostals have concluded that "other tongues" are the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost; most Baptists disagree with that conclusion.

We are also concluding that after we have followed Paul's instructions of repenting and being baptized, that if the gift that was promised to us is not received by speaking in tongues, we are still lost.