In these days our attention is focused on the small group meetings. We must spend time in this matter. All the pastors and preachers in Christianity today know that it is very difficult to help believers lead a life of constant fellowship with the Lord. For this reason, two methods have been developed in Christianity. One is to have a Sunday morning worship service to sustain the people. During the week very few people go to church meetings; most of them go only on Sunday for a worship service. The preachers or pastors prepare a sermon for them each week. In addition, at least twice a year there may be some so-called revival meetings or retreats. Through these revival meetings or retreats they try to stir up the congregation. Most of the fundamental Christian churches depend on this method to maintain themselves.
The other method is that of the Pentecostal movement with its tongue-speaking. This group considers the fundamental Christians too dead; they use the Pentecostal gifts, especially tongue-speaking, to stir up the people. From 1932 on I began to attend their meetings. After many decades of observation and experience, I have the confidence to say that most of today’s so-called speaking in tongues is false. The tongue-speaking mentioned in the book of Acts and in 1 Corinthians is a real dialect (Acts 2:4, 6, 8, 11; 1 Cor. 13:1). It is not like what the tongue-speakers of today practice. Most of today’s tongue-speaking is only a kind of nonsensical sound; it is not a dialect. We have a brother among us who is a scholar in linguistics. He told us that today the most simple language in the world is the Hawaiian language; but even this language has at least thirteen consonants. However, the tongue-speakers can produce at most only ten consonants. This proves that the so-called Pentecostal gift of tongues today is not a real dialect.
In the summer of 1963 I was conducting a training in Pasadena. At that time tongue-speaking was quite prevailing on the West Coast. I read a report by a pastor who was very much in favor of tongue-speaking. He said that he had contacted two hundred tongue-speakers, and every one of them told him that they doubted that their speaking in tongues was genuine. After that the pastor exhorted the readers not to doubt their tongues. All they needed to do was to speak; it was all right for them to speak anything. He said that as long as they could speak something, that was a tongue. During the training I asked a brother to read aloud the article to everyone. After that I asked them, “On the day of Pentecost when the apostles spoke in tongues, did any one of them doubt that his was a real tongue? Why is it that today, of the two hundred mentioned in this article who speak in tongues, all doubt their genuineness? This proves that their tongues are not real.”
Some are not happy unless they speak in tongues. They must shout and cry before they feel happy. At first I did not understand this. Gradually, I found out that even an unbeliever when he is depressed can experience an emotional release by shouting a little; he does not need to speak in tongues. I remember that as a child in my hometown I watched the carpenters and the bricklayers build houses. They kept themselves busy from morning until evening. When it was time for them to stop to eat, they threw their tools aside, waved their arms around, and shouted some nonsense. In this way they felt relieved and refreshed.
Concerning the tongue-speaking of today, I would say that most of it, if not all, is false. However, the principle which tongue-speakers apply is correct. The principle of tongue-speaking is to open people’s mouths. To close our mouth is to be shut up, and to open our mouth is to be released. When a person is angry, if he is a cultured man he will shut up and not speak anything. This will give him an ulcer. If you are angry but have no way to vent your anger, just go out into the yard and shout, “Oh, heaven! This is unfair!” Then sing some songs, or recite a poem, and your anger will be gone. You do not need to speak in tongues. It will be just as effective if you shout like the heathens do.
A brother read in some books that even in ancient Egypt and Babylon, a kind of tongue-speaking was practiced in the places of idol worship. There is a brother among us from Ghana in Africa. He told me that when he was young, while he was still an unbeliever, he saw the idol worshippers speaking in tongues.
The reason I have mentioned all these things is to advise you not to take the way of tongue-speaking. Do not take this short cut. Tongue-speaking is like a tide; it comes in fast, and it goes out fast. The Pentecostal tongue-speaking movement began roughly in the middle of the nineteenth century in England. By now nearly a century and a half has passed. Historically, very few churches or Christian groups have been definitely built up through tongue-speaking. The Assembly of God is the most solid group among the tongue-speakers. They told their seminary students clearly that they cannot depend on tongues to build up the churches. To build up churches, the only way is by teaching. They can speak in tongues in private, but in their meetings they do not speak in tongues.