Christian Living

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As I was watching a worship service on television a pastor got up and started talking about several people getting saved, then speaking in tongues. Should tongues be
directly connected with salvation? Not according to its original purpose in Acts 2:1-11.

The context of this passage is Pentecost soon after Jesus ascended to the Father. The disciples were gathered together. It says "And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance." (3-4) It goes on to say that people from many nations and languages were also present, and that each one was "hearing them speak in his own language." (6) In verse 8 they ask the question, "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?" Now go to verse 11 where we read, "...we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God."

The original purpose of speaking in tongues was evangelism. A present day example would be if I went to a foreign country to do missionary work. Suppose the Holy Spirit gave me supernatural utterance to speak the native language without learning it. My mouth and lips just spoke. That is what happened at Pentecost.

I Corinthians 14, a common passage that people use for justifying tongues, reiterates what it says in Acts 2. Read this chapter carefully and you will see what I mean. So, no matter how a church or individual uses, or misuses, speaking in tongues, the original intent must be kept in focus.

When it says in Acts 2:4 that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues, it does not mean that tongues is an evidence of salvation. Nor does it mean that every believer will speak in tongues. What it does clearly mean is that the Holy Spirit was manifested this way for the specific purpose of evangelizing the multitudes gathered at Pentecost, at this particular moment in time.

This pastor on television was making it an evidence of salvation. Scripture does not teach that, period! "By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

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