A Study
By Robert L. Cheek Jr.
I am sure that all of us have at one time or another crossed paths with a very peculiar group of professing believers. They are, for the most part, a very self-assured, spirit-filled, joyous people, wholly given and utterly determined to promote and defend what they believe to be one of the most important manifestations of God’s Spirit in the last days. These professing believers are perpetually convinced, not by what the Bible tells them but by what their heart and feelings tell them; convinced not by truth or reason but by testimony and experiences that they have a gift that the Bible calls tongues. I think most of these individuals could be considered genuinely sincere and I think most genuinely love Jesus. However, any of us can be sincerely wrong if our life experiences contradict God’s Word.
Charismatics generally fall into one of three categories or groups.
1. The first are the average rank-in-file professing believers who become caught up in a lifestyle of emotional experiences that seem to feed their souls. We could call this group the “ignorantly-bliss-followers”. They are totally sincere but totally ignorant of God’s Word concerning tongues. They make up the majority of charismatics that you will run into. Their defense is almost always that the charismatic experiences have really fed their souls and produced a happiness in their life that traditional church and worship never seemed to do. It doesn’t really matter whether or not the Bible condones or condemns their actions, because the end justifies the means. The ignorantly-bliss-followers need to be instructed from the Word of God by Christians who not only know the truth but can teach the truth in love and patience as though they were children.
Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
2. The second group is sort of like the“willingly ignorant” of 2 Peter 3:5. They are mostly sincere and do have some knowledge of the Bible, just enough to be dangerous with it. However, they are wary of placing their experiences under that microscope. They are a little afraid that doing so will jeopardize an experience of their Christian life that they feel is absolutely central to their worship of God. To question their charismatic experiences is as detrimental to them as it would be for us to question our King James Bible, but there is one important difference between us and them. Our conviction is based on producible facts while their conviction is based on feelings. We can label this second group of charismatics the “informed-but-afraid-evangelists”. This group allows themselves to be mentally numbed by the effects of self-gratification, pride and the confusion that is created by their experiences. From this group come most of the lessor debaters and defenders of charismaticism that you see in churches. They are very vocal and defensive. In their minds those who do not or have not yet experienced tongues, are less spiritual and less in tune with God than they are. They will ignore any inclination of doubts and will defend themselves in an attitude that approaches arrogance and pride that only the Word of God can repel.
The informed-but-afraid-evangelists need to be shown from the Word of God that their experiences do not line up with the Bible. It does no good to argue experiences or personal beliefs. They must be firmly but graciously dealt with from the Scriptures and made to see that they are standing in a place where two roads meet. They must see they have a choice to make. Either their experience lines up with the Bible or their experience contradicts the Bible. But the argument must always come from the Scriptures if there is any hope of convincing them of the truth.
Galatians 2:11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Galatians 2:12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Galatians 2:13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
3. The last group could hardly be called Christian at all. They are nothing more than ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing. Their purpose is to deceive and to profit from the charismatic and ecumenical movements. We shall call them the “show-boat-deceivers”. Included in this group are the ecumenical musicians, singers, performers and charlatans of radio, television and entertainment. To them there is nothing inherently spiritual about tongues, but it draws crowds and fills pockets, so they embrace it if that is what it takes to succeed. They have no vested interest in defending tongues, but they have all the interest in the world in promoting and using tongues. It is nothing more than a vehicle and a tool for building their own agenda and lifestyle. Most televangelists, crusaders and performers fall into this group and most are not saved. You won’t run in to many of these on the streets because you are not important enough and they are not interested in the truth.
Titus 1:10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
Titus 1:11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
I believe every charismatic fits into one of these three groups. I want to begin a series of lessons that are specifically aimed at equipping Bible-believers with enough Scripture to be able to effectively help the charismatics. The title of this series is The Illusion of Modern Tongues. I wholly expect that these lessons will find their way into the hands of charismatics who have received them from loving friends, relatives and other Christians who sincerely want to reach the charismatic with the truth of God. In fact, I very much want to reproduce the text of these lessons into some form of pamphlet or booklet for that very purpose.
Let me say right off that I do not automatically consider the charismatic Christian to be unsaved. In fact I have met many who are saved, love Jesus, and are very sincere and devoted believers. If tongues and the charismatic movement were not so harmless to them, I would be inclined to leave the subject alone and let them enjoy these experiences that they claim build their faith in God. But the truth is that any experience of life that stands in direct opposition to the truths of the Bible will inherently hurt the Christian. It is for that reason alone that the subject must be dealt with.
How does tongues pose a danger to the believer? The danger is not necessarily in the experiences themselves. The danger is in what the experiences do to the heart and mind of the charismatic. The danger is in the results. Tongues teaches the believer to trust more in experience and feeling, what they see and hear and feel, rather than to trust in the truth of God’s Word.
When a magician entertains an audience, the audience is compelled to belief through what they see and hear and experience. Nothing about the trick is true, but the illusion is there and it is quite convincing when the rabbit is pulled from the hat or the person disappears from the box. You have heard the expression, “seeing is believing”. The magician relies on this. The enemy of the magician is common sense. In order to be a good illusionist, he must flood the audience with enough illusion to counter common sense. If he can do this, he is a good illusionist and he has succeeded. In the case of the charismatic movement, tongues is the illusion and Satan is the magician. The modern tongues movement has absolutely no Scriptural merit, but the illusion is so convincing that it counters the common sense of the Scriptures. It takes a very good magician to counter God’s Word, but then Satan is a master illusionist.
2 Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Satan is the great deceiver and he has a very definite purpose in the illusion of modern tongues. He knows that if He can create experiences that are so convincing and so emotionally stirring to unwitting believers, he can use these experiences to lessen the Word of God and the effect the Bible has on God’s people. He wants to remove the Bible as the Final Authority of life. It is in this that the tongues movement poses the greatest danger. It’s hard to argue against experiences. There are some who claim to have seen U.F.O.’s and even aliens. There are some who think they have had out-of-body experiences. Those experiences are dangerously convincing. There are those who think they have spoken heavenly languages. The only thing we have to repel the experience is God’s Word.
2 Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Guess what? The Bible teaches us the only out-of-body experiences that are real are heaven and hell. Everything else is an illusion. In the case of tongues, the Bible shows us what real tongues are. Everything else is an illusion. Satan banks on the fact that the average Charismatic does not know the difference and therefore cannot see the illusion. He is hoping that limited knowledge flooded with perpetual experiences will lead most away from the truth. Unfortunately he very often succeeds. We know that illusion is one of Satan’s greatest tactics from what we read in the Bible. In our next lesson, we will see how Satan tries to mimic what God does.
