The Early Years of the Tongues
Movement
CHAPTER 11
Conclusion
It is to be taken seriously to heart by us all that
failure of Christians in the endeavour to obtain God’s supernatural gifts
and to walk fully in His ways, even though these failures have been extensive
and disastrous, does not alter the fact that His gifts are available or lessen
the duty to seek them as He exhorts us to do. The Corinthian believers failed
much in the exercise of the gifts, but when giving directions to correct the
failures, the apostle included the call to "Follow after love; yet desire
earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophecy" (ICor.14:l).
Therefore the heart must first, always, and supremely be set upon love as
primary and superior. Considerable reading of the early literature shows that
this was too much overlooked. Gifts were given precedence. There must he
preserved a sound judgment as to the relative importance of the several gifts.
It is abundantly clear that Scripture places "prophecy" as the chief of them:
it is equally clear that in the Movement "tongues" was first given the
pre-eminence, and later healings came to the forefront. Sundry speakers and
writers did occasionally exhort otherwise, but it is evident that the vast
majority sought and valued a "tongue" as the inestimable boon.
So
devastating was this misguided determination to speak with a "tongue" that the
Spirit of God was in practice denied His divine right to "divide to each one
severally as HE will" (1 Cor. 12:11). This diminished that humbleness of heart
before God, that broken and contrite spirit, which certainly secures His
favour, and too frequently there was induced a state of self-will which leaves
the believer helpless before our watchful spirit foes. For it serves their foul
end to foster in us self-will as to a matter in the spiritual life even better
than in some carnal thing. Witness the man in India who was so doggedly
determined to speak with a tongue that were he denied this he contemplated
getting "lost in some jungle," that is, he would court death. Thus one may be
seeking a "gift" and at the same time have self-murder in the heart. How
treacherous is our poor heart! To such an evil mind an evil spirit could and
would minister; indeed, from such a being must have come the very thought of
suicide if disappointed.
The problem may be raised how God could give
blessing in a Movement while such conditions obtain. The answer is easy to
find. Peter had just made that true confession as to the person of Christ which
has remained the standard profession of faith: "Thou art the Anointed, the Son
of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). Only a few minutes later this same devoted
disciple became, all unconsciously, the tool of Satan to place a trap at the
feet of Christ (vs. 22, 23). This the Lord could not but rebuke sharply, yet He
did not dismiss Peter from His inner circle but continued to train and to use
him. He knew that His servant’s heart was right, though his judgment was
sadly at fault. It is not our aberrations and failures, even if in themselves
serious and disastrous, that forfeit the blessing of God on what in us is of
Him. It is known moral defilement that separates between us and our God, so
that He will not hear us (Isa. 59:1, 2): "If I wash thee not thou hast no part
with Me" (Jn 13:8)
If one is asked what one would wish one’s
brethren in the Movement to do today the answer is that each should go on
serving the Lord where he is rejoicing in any measure of the grace of God upon
his service, and so continue until He calls to some other course. Each servant
of God should be ever ready for this. Only let each scrutinize closely his own
former personal experience, testing each item by Holy Scripture.
During
the first outbreak of the Movement in India, in 1907, a leader from the
original centre at Los Angeles was sent there to fan the flame. At Coonoor he
and his supporters were requested to justify from Scripture the then happenings
as mentioned earlier. A gathering was held, but when pressed upon details they
declined the task of giving proof from Scripture: and small wonder for such
doings cannot be justified by Scripture. But this attitude to God’s word
written opens a door through which evil spirits find easy access. The leader
and his friends broke off the gathering, and their closing words as to the
other party were not heavenly. This last feature will not surprise one who saw
a photo of this leader. He was Mr. A.G. Garr, mentioned earlier, the very type
of man not able to endure persistent challenge and contradiction. One of his
earliest supporters in India has lately written to me as follows: In the month
of June, 1907, there was an open meeting when it was hoped that outsiders would
be influenced. This meeting was attended by some of the leading missionaries on
the hills at the time — the writer was also present… In the meeting
referred to the demons seemed to be let loose and I have never witnessed such a
scene when Mr G appeared to be demon-possessed and Mrs G. gave the impression
of being a kind of medium having an entrancing voice, especially when under the
influence of the "tongue". This meant the breaking up of the meetings in
Coonoor for a time. The party moved to Colombo.
This writer confirms the
impression of Mr. Garr from his photo. He writes: Mr. G. was very autocratic,
and perhaps this is the reason why the demons were let loose that day. Now no
one filled with the Spirit of Christ will ever be autocratic, for Jesus was
meek and lowly, and His follower Paul, by nature and training, an aristocrat,
could say, "I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who in
your presence am lowly among you " (II Cor. 10:1).
In his spiritually
important treatise, The New Testament Order for Church and Missionary, Mr. A.
R. Hay discussed at length the Gifts of the Spirit, including speaking with
tongues. He emphasizes their necessity for and permanency in the church, and
concludes with a valuable section on their counterfeits (chs. xv and xvi).
These last are of two types: those produced by evil spirits and those of purely
soulish origin. Of the latter again there are two types, the intellectual and
the emotional. He says (p.204): "The emotions are not wrong; they are
God-given. They may be deeply stirred by the Holy Spirit… The Holy Spirit,
while He will profoundly stir the emotions, will never throw them out of
balance… The power of that which is of an evil spirit, or which is purely
of man’s own powers, does not effect this true balance; it introduces
confusion and prevents true unity and co-operation with the Spirit of God."
It will be found that emotional religion and sin are not incompatible. This
proves that such emotional religion has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit.
Roman Catholicism is largely an emotional religion. It is possible for a devout
Catholic to live on a low ethical and moral plane, having no true sense of sin.
Pentecostalism is largely an emotional religion. It also can be tolerant of
sin. Such we have found to be the case in many of the Pentecostal congregations
with which we are acquainted in South America. Believers from other churches
who are led astray by the movement generally lose their keen sense of sin,
frequently to a disastrous extent. In Pentecostal congregations where sin is
rife, members, themselves in sin, will be active in the use of "gifts" of
tongues, prophecy, healing, and in giving revelations. These gifts, of course,
are not true gifts of the Holy Spirit. He could not manifest Himself through
such instruments. They are false gifts, deceptive emotional counterfeits of
which evil spirits not infrequently take advantage.
As to the last point we
may note that there was grievous sin in the church at Corinth, yet they "came
behind in no gift" (1 Cor. 1:7), nor in ch. 14 does Paul raise any doubt as to
their gifts being from the Holy Spirit. The warning as to sin accompanying
gifts should not be resented or ignored, seeing that it is the sober record of
a servant of Christ by no means antagonistic and with long experience of the
lands of which he speaks.
Yet another aspect of the same scene came to
me lately from another British worker with equally long experience of that
Continent. He speaks of the vast modern evangelistic efforts made in
English-speaking lands and notes that they scarcely reach the pagan masses,
because they work from within the churches and the audiences are nearly always
composed of 95% good churchgoing Christians. But, adds he, It seems that the
Pentecostalists, with their emphasis on healing, a New Testament emphasis of
course, are doing a greater work, for they sometimes get mass meetings in
stadiums with perhaps 5% Christians and the rest modern pagans. The day alone
can declare comparative results.
My correspondent then considers the
feature that in some South American lands mission work scarcely touches the
people, from the workers not being in close contact with them, and he adds this
testimony: The other strong point about the Pentecostals in their work in the
mission field is their complete identification with the natives and their lack
of anything like racial or social barriers. This bears directly upon the above
question of blessing attending the labours of sincere men, who do preach the
gospel, but in whose activities there co-mingle elements not of God. For the
God of all grace owns what is of Himself, though this does not justify elements
not of Him. For these latter we should watch carefully and remove them directly
they are detected, so that the divine blessing may flow the more freely.
1.
Let each brother analyse his "baptism," as that of T. B. Barratt was examined
in Chapter 4, and retain only what conforms to Scripture. But in this process
no one should assume that the "tongue" was given by the Holy Spirit, even if it
was a genuine language, for demons cause mediums to speak perfectly in
languages they do not know. Nor should one rely on ecstatic emotions or other
subjective marks, since these also can be counterfeited.
2. Then let each
examine carefully his doctrinal beliefs, lest he has been betrayed into error
on any point, especially as to the humanity of the Son of God.
3. Let him
maintain a sincere and open mind toward God, being ready to go on with Christ
according to His directions in the Word. It is happily true that the more
startling and shocking manifestations of those early years are not so much seen
today. But other subtler dangers have arisen and are general. One of these is a
secret satisfaction in things being great and imposing, revealed by great
organizations, large churches, huge assemblies, immense wall posters. Another
factor, which contributes to the former, is non-Scriptural organization. This
is far advanced in the larger branches of the Movement, and has reached perhaps
the utmost possible development in The Apostolic Church. Its Constitution,
dated, I believe, in 1937, regulates every conceivable contingency in church
order and Christian activity. It gives plenary authority to the "Apostles" and
"Prophets" the latter being the really dominant persons to whom even the
"Apostles" must defer. After reciting the doctrinal beliefs, it lays down that
the "confession of faith as set out herein shall for ever be the doctrinal
standard of the Apostolic Church, and shall not be subject to any change in any
way whatever." This is made legally binding by the Deed being enrolled in the
High Court. Thus no officer, teacher, or member is at liberty to make the
slightest progress in the knowledge and practice of truth as revealed in Holy
Scripture. If the Spirit of truth shall show him in Scripture something
different from or absent from the Constitution he must either stifle the truth
or leave the Apostolic Church. In essence the same position results wherever a
constitution or creed is adopted. It involves spiritual strangulation, as has
been seen in every corporate church system and will duly become apparent in
this Movement.
A further example of unscriptural inter-church
organization is seen in The Church of God (ch. 2). It began in 1886, twenty
years before the outbreak at Los Angeles. Organizing soon commenced. The most
influential leader was elected as head of the rapidly growing Society. This
spoiled him spiritually and he had to he removed for financial default. See
Like a Mighty Army (168 ff.). The same regrettable development was shortly seen
at the Asuza Street Mission Los Angeles. Bartleman stresses the feature that
for a time the meetings there went on without human control: "Brother Seymour
was recognized as the nominal leader in charge...Brother Seymour generally sat
behind two empty shoe boxes, one on top of the other. He usually kept his head
inside of the top one during the meeting in prayer. (How Pentecost Came,
58)… The truth must be told. "Asuza" began to fail the Lord also, early in
her history. God showed me one day they were going to organize (68)... As the
movement began to apostatize platforms were built higher, coat tails were worn
longer, choirs were organized, and string bands, came into existence to "jazz"
the people. The kings came back once more to their thrones restored to
sovereignty. We were no longer "brethren." Then the divisions multiplied etc.
While brother Seymour kept his head inside the old empty box at Asuza all was
well. They later built for him a throne also. "(P.88).
Mr Gee (p 148)
gives a tribute to the part Rev. A. A. Boddy and Mr Cecil Polhill took in the
early years of the Movement in England but he does not say why they dropped out
of prominence after only a few years. The reason in Mr. Boddy’s case was
that other leaders pressed him to leave the Church of England. He replied that
the Movement in this land had commenced in the Church, why should he leave it.
But as they pressed the point, he dropped out of affairs, and Sunderland ceased
to be the centre it had been. Mr. Polhill also was a churchman. On retiring
from the Movement he became a lay reader in the Church of England, and also
resumed his former co-operation with the China Inland Mission. It is easy to
see that with the principal leader a clergyman, and the principal centre a
church, and the next chief leader also a churchman, it would have been
difficult to develop any other form of interchurch organization. But after
their withdrawal from leadership high organization went forward. The Assemblies
of God exhibits this. "Elim" went the same way, until at length its Founder
recognized the evil and left that organization, yet only to found another.
How organization induces deterioration was shown by the Editor of
"Redemption Tidings," the organ of The Assemblies of God, in the issue of
October 11th, 1957. Speaking of the conditions found in the Movement thirty
years previously he spoke of the holy contagious fervour then abounding. and
said: "There were no "sermons," they were all messages ... We had no choirs
then, we were all choir. A great simplicity characterized our worship. Probably
we erred at that time through fear of organization, but we did enjoy a
simplicity of worship. Many meetings were "open." While this brought its
dangers, it also presented its opportunities. We did not as a rule hold
separate youth meetings: we took our first steps in testifying, singing, or
speaking in the "open" meeting. When one sees the spiritual stalwarts that
these methods produced, it would seem that we were not too far out in our ways.
Ministerial status was not magnified, we were all brethren ; and ministerial
attire was anathema in most places. Often our services had no plan but the
variety was wonderful."
This testimony is simple and weighty. It
illustrates that there were at that earlier period features in the Movement
which were of God and which He could own in spite of contrary conditions. The
"open" meeting gave to the Spirit of God due honour as the actual Leader of
worship and Trainer of witnesses, the outcome being spiritual stalwarts. An
order of humanly trained and appointed "ministers" is essential clerisy: it
restricts the Spirit and induces spiritual lethargy in the members of the
assembly. The Editor’s remarks and those of Bartleman correspond. It is
the history of this whole age of clerics suppressing the laity so that the
Spirit of God is denied His rights in the house of God bringing feebleness and
poverty, as in Laodicea while the church boasts of its riches. The New
Testament knows nothing of any body corporate of Christians except the local
church under its elders not under "prophets" or a single "minister." Nor does
it recognize any authority over the Lord’s servants except the Lord
Himself. Councils, Committees, Conferences, officials, regulating the education
of pastors, preventing a godly man exercising his preaching gift unless he has
been through the prescribed course, then appointing him a "probationer" - these
and any other such measures are all a product of human prudence, a telling the
Spirit of God that we know how to train preachers better than He does; and they
all involve intervention between the Lord and His bondservant with some
suppression of His rights as Head of His church Let each evangelist and teacher
act upon the principles just stated as to the local church and as to service to
the Lord remembering the words of the great apostle Paul: "If I were now
pleasing men I should not be the bondservant of Christ. For freedom did Christ
set us free: stand fast therefore and be not entangled again in a yoke of
bondage " (Gal. 1:10; S:1). It demands courage and faith to follow Christ
fully, to be a Caleb. As to temporal needs in His service let us remember His
own example of faith in His Father and let us in this matter keep in mind Frank
Bartleman and his wife. To the trustful the Lord ever imparts His courage and
strength, by which He on earth did fully the work and will of His Father and
was well pleasing to Him. Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things
beforehand beware lest ye fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in the
grace and knowledge of our lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory
both now and for ever, Amen (2 Pet. 3:17–18).
THE END