How did the Pentecostal movement come about? From church history we know that the Pentecostal movement did not exist until two centuries ago. At that time in England, no one was allowed to preach in an unsanctified house; the preaching must be done in the sanctuaries, that is, in the church buildings. Moreover, ordinary men could not preach; it had to be done by ordained clergymen. At that time everyone going into the sanctuary must be sober and quiet. They must realize that they were there to worship God. Hence, no one dared to move or to say anything in a rash way. It was not until John Wesley was raised up by the Lord to speak for the Lord that he began to preach on the streets. Once he preached to the coal miners while they were on their way home. By the end of the preaching, the crowd was so touched that they began to weep and cry. Tears were rolling down their cheeks, leaving white streaks on their blackened faces. I saw pictures of this. After another century, Christian worship services in England again became so dead that the Pentecostal movement was started. The Pentecostals would shout and cry, thinking that by so doing they would come alive. In the end three types of people appeared. First, there were the laughers. Then, there were the rollers. Last, there were the jumpers. Fifty years ago, when I first attended a Pentecostal meeting in Shangtung, I saw all these people. Some were jumping, others were rolling, and still others were shouting. No one paid attention even when the pastor went to the platform to speak. Later there was the holy parade; everyone marched excitedly around the meeting hall. By 1932 the Pentecostal movement also came to us. One time in our meeting in Tsinan a co-worker by the name of Yuen began to play act. He was acting like the little donkey which bore Jesus into Jerusalem. Everyone around him shouted “Hallelujah!” Some even took off their coats and laid them on the floor for him to tread upon.
In 1943 I was recuperating from illness in Chefoo. A brother by the name of Chang came from another city to meet with us in the church in Chefoo. He rebuked the church saying, “Look, our Brother Lee is bedridden with tuberculosis. How dead you all are!” When he said this everyone began to pay attention to the Pentecostal movement and to practice speaking in tongues. One sister named Lee who was a nurse spoke in tongues more frequently and vehemently than all the others. At that time I spent most of my time in bed. The elders came to invite me to attend one of their meetings. Because I was a veteran in this matter, I was thoroughly familiar with the matter of speaking in tongues. I told the elders that I did not need to go because I knew the situation already. By that time I already had had over ten years of experience in this matter. But because of their insistence I later complied. The brothers arranged a cot for me to lie on during the meeting. When the meeting began, that sister Lee knelt down and was getting ready to speak in tongues. But strangely she was not able to utter anything. Right away she said that she would not speak that day.
After this, the winter solstice festival passed, and a sister who loved the Lord very much died of tuberculosis. This sister Lee then told the husband of the deceased sister that he should not prepare any coffin or gravesite. She told that brother Wong not to prepare any funeral, and that his wife would rise at twelve o’clock noon the next day. There were over a thousand brothers and sisters in the church in Chefoo. All were shocked by the news. Everyone waited for noon the next day. When the time came, nothing happened. The tongue-speaking sister worked hard on the dead sister to try to resurrect her. But in spite of everything she did, the dead person remained dead; nothing could resurrect her. After about three hours of fruitless effort, an older elder told the husband of the dead woman to go ahead and make preparation for her burial. From that time on, no one in the church in Chefoo would believe anything about tongue-speaking anymore. As a result, the church in Chefoo was rescued.
My point is this: the reason why all these Pentecostal tongue-speaking things came about is because Christianity is too dead. When Christians would not speak in the meetings, Satan would fabricate some false things to stir people up.
I have studied this matter for over fifty years, and I have seen many tongue-speakers both in the Pentecostal movement as well as among us. For a year I even took the lead to help others to speak in tongues. I tried during all these years through much objective study to find out if those tongues were genuine or not. Now I can tell you that the result of my studying gives me definite proof that these people’s tongues are not genuine. Acts chapter two tells us that the tongues were dialects; they were languages. Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:26 also tells us that tongues can be interpreted; it is a language that can be interpreted. I have heard Chinese speaking in tongues, and I have also heard Americans speaking in tongues. Their tongues are not like those in the Bible, which can be interpreted. For this reason I know that my judgment is correct. If you are a linguist and you record the tongues of these people and study them thoroughly, you will find out that they consist of at most a few sounds. How can a few sounds constitute a language? For this reason they come up with the explanation that tongues are not necessarily a language; it can be sounds of the tongue only. When they teach you to speak in tongues, they all tell you to roll your jaw and turn your tongue. As a result you get the tongue-sound.
Some find it hard to roll their jaws or turn their tongues. For these it is difficult to speak that kind of tongue. In China, there are people who can imitate all kinds of sounds by their vocal faculties. This is their skill. They can utter something which sounds like English, or Japanese, or Chinese. Sometimes they can imitate the bird’s singing. Sometimes they can mimic the sound of a woman walking. For these people, surely you do not need to teach them to speak in tongues; they can all speak in tongues fluently.
Moreover, when the Japanese speak in tongues they speak with a Japanese accent. When the Mexicans speak in tongues they likewise speak with a Mexican accent. The Chinese speak in tongues with a Chinese accent, and the Americans speak in tongues with an American accent.
The tongue-speaking of the Pentecostal movement is wrong, but the principle of opening our mouth to speak in the meetings is right. We do not need to use that kind of method to open our mouth in the meeting. We have a spirit within, and we have the word of the Bible for us. We can use our mouth and exercise our spirit to speak forth the words of the Bible. This is so much better than speaking in tongues. Call on the name of the Lord. Pray-read His words. The best way is to open your mouth and speak. But here is our problem: we will not open our mouth to speak in the meetings. This is especially true of the Chinese. We are not used to opening our mouth in public. This is unfortunate. For this reason we often quench the Spirit. If you want to start a fire in the stove, you must give it air above and below. If the opening on top is closed and the door underneath the fire is shut, you can never start the fire. You must first open the vent as well as the door. Then the fire will be started. In the same principle when you open your mouth, the Holy Spirit will burn within you. But if you close your mouth, the Spirit will not move. This is the quenching of the Spirit.
The Christian meetings are to us the amusement in our daily life. Here we amuse ourselves in God. For this reason when we meet together, we must meet in the Spirit and into the Lord’s name; that is, we have to meet into the Lord Himself. He is the Spirit abiding in our spirit. For this reason we must release our spirit. In order to release our spirit we must open our mouth to speak. We can speak two or three words about our experience of Christ in our daily life. In every circumstance we need to experience Christ. Enjoy Him in everything, great or small. Take Him as your strength, your wisdom, your support, your comfort, your light, and your guidance. Paul said, “I can do all things in Him who empowers me” (Phil. 4:13). If we would be like this, then when each one of us comes to the meeting, we will have a few words to say about Christ. This is the exhibition of Christ. In your daily life you live by taking Christ as your life and by experiencing Christ. Then in the meeting you bring your experience, just as the farmers bring in the harvest for an offering. When you present in the meetings the Christ that you experience and speak forth this Christ with your mouth and spirit, you are offering up your harvest and you are exhibiting Christ. In this way your living is one which meets in the Spirit and by Christ.