Let me start off by saying, as obnoxious as it sounds, that some of my best friends are Charismatics. I know it’s dumb. When White people tell me some of their best friends are Black, I can only roll my eyes. But, I mean it. I don’t doubt Charismatics’ sincerity of faith in God. I don’t doubt their good intentions. I’m not theoretically opposed to anyone speaking in tongues ever, but there is a problem with how the Charismatic movement has appeared to me through many people (mostly friends).
My only encounters with the Charismatic movement have all been scary, and they usually involve some person or people praying in “tongues” (translation: gibberish). One time, I even went on a retreat where, while someone was playing guitar continuously in the background, everyone else was rocking back and forth (sometimes on all fours), making animal noises, moaning, and just generally being scary. For a while, I stayed, hoping it would go away. Maybe I was too shocked to move. Eventually, though, I had to hide in my little bunk to get away from the insanity, but the noise still penetrated the walls. I thought to myself, “How could this be godly? What non-Christian would ever want to become a Christian after going to a retreat like this?”
Even though I’ve heard friends and acquaintances of mine pray “in tongues” on many occasions, I’ve never once heard anyone interpret tongues. I’ve also heard some people insinuate or say straight-out that having the gift of tongues is indicative of having a closer relationship with God. This is dangerous territory, folks. That would be like a situation in which a teacher tells another teacher, “I’m a better teacher because my students give me better Christmas gifts.”
What bothers me more is that there seem to be no bounds to what can be considered a “spiritual gift.” Tongues is clearly a spiritual gift outlined numerous times in the New Testament, but people will go to holy laughter, holy feeling each other up, holy whatever-I-feel-like-doing-but-am-usually-too-inhibited-to-do. Worship services dominated by a Charismatic ideology have an anything-goes and anything-is-valid feel to them, in which if someone says, “X is from God because I feel it,” there’s little room for any kind of validation or challenge.
What’s worse is that oftentimes participants in and proponents of the Charismatic movement do not even follow scriptural guidelines for gifts. The most appropriate scripture (which Charismatics conveniently ignore in sermons, Bible studies, and general conversations) is I Corinthians 14, where Paul urges people to conduct an orderly worship (no animal noises and such, I’m assuming) in order to bear good witness. Paul also encourages those who speak in tongues to do so in private or to ask God for the gift of the interpretation of tongues. I’ve never seen any Charismatic be at all concerned with how Charismatic manifestations, however “godly” or “spiritual,” may turn off seekers, nor have I seen Charismatics express to me any sentiment similar to “I know I’ve been blessed a lot in my times alone with God to be able to pray in tongues, but I have asked God to give me the gift of the interpretation of tongues so that others, too, can be edified when I pray in tongues.”
I have, however, seen a lot of Charismatics flaunt, in direct opposition to Paul’s admonishments, their “spiritual gifts” in extremely unedifying and haughty ways.
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with gifts, healing, or “feeling” God, but when an Evangelical Christian movement becomes too experienced-centered and not scripturally centered, it must be called into question. It must be made accountable.
Especially enjoyed this post.
I grew up with my sundays split between a Pentecostal Church and a Gospel Hall, and my mother late in life became an ordained minister within the Pentecostal Holiness church. Now my mother to my knowledge never resorted to praying in toungues, and always discouraged that within the assembly. I was somewhat amazed one day to hear mom talking in clear Spanish with a guest in her church, even though she had never studied it.
When a member of her congregation remarked that she was being inconsistent, discouraging praying in tounges but using tounges herself, however she owned up that she had been watching Spanish videos, and practicing with a computer language lab.
She explained that learning other languages is a gift the we can give to those who need to communicate with us. Refusal to learn other languages by contrast does not demonstrate that one is confident that one will be given the gift of tounges when one needs it. It merely means that one is unwilling to make the effort.
Omygosh, I too have been scared spitless by Charismatic stuff. I too have never heard “tongues” interpreted other than “Dadadadadadahhhh” being interpreted as a string of sentences in King James English. But according to 1st Corinthians 14, it’s a sign to UNBELIVERS… and no Charismatic I know has ever heard an unbeliever interpret one of those “messages” in “tongues.”
I spent a few years of my childhood in the movement, and played my little role as best I could, but I knew all along, despite all attempts to deny it (because Charismatics re-define FAITH to mean “Make myself believe” rather than God-enabled trust in Him) that what we were really practicing was superstition!
I’m soooo glad to have gotten out of there and back to the Bible, and to practical, proven, sound doctrine!
I was trapped for a time in the Charismatic movement. Let me say, not every Charismatic is
“way out there”. However the Charismatic movement as a whole is unscriptual. First they place too much emphasis on emotions. Second they feel that anything that occurred once in the Holy Scriptures is normal Christianity. Placing an emphasis on tongues as a prayer language is unscriptual. When the Bible talks of Tongues/Tongue it always means a known language, not some gibberish. Remember, Paul said Tongues was the least of the gifts, not the most important