The Third View of Tongues

Help! I Believe in Tongues

CHAPTER 1

The reference to occult subjection was my downfall. One of the area pastors was engaging in a deliverance ministry, and the others were protesting that no such thing as casting out demons should ever be done.

Understandably enough, my hosts were somewhat alarmed. One leader said to me, "You didn't really mean what you said; we know what you meant," And, still naive and unaware of the local controversy, I blundered on. "Oh yes," I said, referring to my illustration, "we really saw a case of demon possession."

The persecuted pastor, on the other hand, stuck to me like a burr - and that was understandable. I had unwittingly identified myself with him in his difficulty.

In conversing with the young pastor later, I found him to be hurting but sane, even loving those who disagreed with him.

Then, while I went with the mission leader to the interior of the country, a special convention was held by a minister of another denomination in the young pastor's church, and forty or fifty of the Latin believers there spoke in tongues. Their excitement knew no bounds.

And my consternation increased. On the one side I was under pressure to denounce the tongues-speakers. And in my heart I wanted nothing to do with opposing anything the Holy Spirit might be doing. When I refused to denounce the young people who were speaking in tongues, the tension increased and the young people flocked to my side.

My two-week ministry went poorly. I was effectively "turned off' by leaders who wanted a repudiation of tongues. I felt like Jeremiah. I was a man with a message, but no one would listen.

On the other side of the coin, I also knew what it was to suffer deep personal loss and. the alienation of an honored brother in Christ when he was carried away by the charismatic movement.

In isolated circumstances, apart from regular fellowship with other Christians, a beloved brother in Christ, along with his wife, became involved in a prophecy and gift movement which would certainly be repudiated as left wing and radical by mainline Pentecostal denominations as well as by evangelicals generally.

While I wait for my friend to retrace his steps, while I yearn for a renewal of the loving relationship we once enjoyed, the pain is real. It is as real as the anguish I felt when the pressure was on to denounce the youthful tongues-speak-ers.

Am I alone between the poles? I think not. And, it seems to me that the charismatic movement hardly needs enemies when events like these buffet its friends.