The Misinterpretations of Pentecostals
(Part 1)
By Dillon Riecke
Pentecostalism
(or other sects of the Charismatic movement) is much like any other Christian
denomination, where its defining quirk focuses on personal modern-day experience
with God through the Holy Spirit and baptism. Pentecostals try to base their
worship on the worship of early Christians described in the book of Acts, but
mistakenly claim personal experiences with God also based on this time period.
This poses a major fallacy here. Pentecostals believe that God will (and does)
speak to us in modern days. They believe in things such as modern day prophesy,
speaking in tongues, and other various miracles (including calling upon God to
perform miracles such in the sense of religious healers), as well as other
things such as instrumental music performed in worship. When you focus on the
miracles themselves so much, therein lies the tendency of many to neglect to
realize the purpose of such miracles. The focus is also removed off of what is
being taught and who is teaching it.
I feel it's necessary to say that while I have never attended a Pentecostal
congregation, I do have some Pentecostal friends who've described to me in
detail (as well as with my research on the religion) what Pentecostalism really
practices and teaches, and for the most part I think it's legitimately from the
Bible except for a few quirks, mentioned above. Regarding modern day prophesy,
I've covered this topic before in my article about Mormonism and their beliefs
on the subject. In the same manner, we look to passages such as Revelation
22:18-19 “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy
of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the
plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the
words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book
of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this
book.” and Deuteronomy 4:2 “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command
you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments
of the LORD your God which I command you.” No one is able, nor has the
authority, to take away or add to what is already set as the word of God,
provided to us in the form of the Bible. The Bible is the COMPLETE word of God,
as made clear in 2 Peter 1:3
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that
pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called
us to glory and virtue.” as well as in Jude 3 “Beloved, when I gave all
diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to
write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints.” These passages plainly point out
that we as Christians have all that we need to know God's word, as the faith, or
the complete doctrine, has been delivered to the saints.
Also, we can look in Galatians 1:6-8 “I marvel that ye are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the
gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other
gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed.” It says we're not to teach anything other than Jesus' law that was
spoken by Jesus himself and also transcribed by prophets around that time. In a
very similar case, Pentecostals also believe that we as Christians can speak in
tongues as talked about in 1 Corinthians 14:4-5 “He that speaketh in an
unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. I
would that ye all spake with tongues but rather that ye prophesied: for greater
is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret,
that the church may receive edifying.” It's also believed by Pentecostals that
speaking in tongues refers to speaking in a language unknown to man (or a
language of the Angels). This is certainly not what is described in the Bible.
They try to back up this belief with 1 Corinthians 13:1 “Though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding
brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” The point Paul is making here is not that he is
speaking of a non-human language when he says “tongues of men and angels,”
but that speaking without love (“charity,” or “love” in the NKJV) is
meaningless. He is using metaphoric and hyperbolic speech to elocute his point
when he says “I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” It
becomes furthermore apparent that this is what he means in the next two verses,
where Paul explains that having all knowledge or all faith without also having
love does no good. The language of the “tongues” was that of humans.
I do not doubt that Christians at one time were able to speak in tongues
through the help of the Holy Spirit like described in Acts 2:4 “And they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit gave them utterance.” But some neglect to realize what 1 Corinthians
13:8-10 says. “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they
shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away.” It specifically talks about speaking in tongues and prophecies ending!
Now, we may ask, “but when are these things to end?” If we look at that
passage, we see that it says that it will end when we have the perfect word of
God. This undoubtedly refers to the Bible as we know it is the perfect word of
God, therefore there is no such thing as modern day prophecy, nor speaking in
tongues. Also, it's important to mention in that passage when it says
“knowledge” it's talking about pretty much the same thing as prophecy to
where you “know” something new of the word of God. We have the entire and
perfect word of God, the Bible. There is nothing more that can nor will be
prophesied, nor knowledge that will be given to Christians by God or speaking in
tongues by the utterance given to Christians by the Holy spirit. Some will argue
that where it says “perfect” it refers to Jesus coming, but we can look to
see that it refers to the Law of Christ when they use that word, as it also uses
it in James 1:25 “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and
continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,
this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
In an almost related belief, Pentecostals believe that Christians can
call upon God (acting as would a 'religious healer') to perform miracles upon
others. Let's put aside for a moment that miracles (like of the first century)
aren't something that happens in modern day. We'll talk about that, but to
further prove our point let's (for the sake of argument) say that it does.
Pentecostals are cleverly saying that it's not them actually preforming the
miracle, but God, through the avenue of prayer. But I feel that they're taking
this for granted. At the point where you can expect someone to be able to call
upon God to heal someone in an immediate way, it becomes a matter of undeserved
authority. We as humans do not have the power nor authority to perform miracles
ourselves or to call upon God to perform a miracle and take that for granted
(especially in a manner as immediate as something like faith healing). We are
unworthy to deserve the great mercy that our loving God continues to give us,
and certainly not fit to expect things of him like faith healing.
(Editor’s Note:
I appreciate the work Dillion Reicke did on this article.
Last summer Dillion worked on a number of articles and they were all
good. The second part will run in
next week’s bulletin.)
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