DO ALL SPEAK WITH TONGUES?

DAVID F. GRAY

Question-- I am a young Christian, and I know that I received the Holy Ghost, for I spoke with tongues as they did on the Day of Pentecost. I witnessed to all my friends at school (I am going to a community college). One of my best friends claimed that he received the Holy Ghost too, but he did not speak in tongues, and he said that when the disciples received the Holy Ghost they did not speak with tongues either, and he showed me John 20:22. He said that Acts 2 was a filling of the Holy Ghost after they had already received it, and tongues was given them to preach to various nations, but not everyone receives tongues. I don't know how to answer him. Can you help me?

ANSWER-- Your friend's argument is a common teaching in certain circles, and the purpose of it is to try to do away with the necessity of speaking in tongues. However, to say the disciples received the Holy Ghost in John 20:22 is a gross distortion of Scripture. Neither that verse nor its context suggests that the disciples received the Holy Ghost at that time.

To understand what Jesus was doing in verse 22 it is necessary for us to go to the previous verse. Here are the two verses together: John 20:21-22 (KJV) Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: What Jesus was doing here was sending His disciples forth into the world to preach and promising them an enduement of power to enable them to fulfill that commission.

Luke's account of the same event is recorded Luke 24:36-49. Both accounts start with the words "Peace be unto you." Luke concludes saying what Jesus told them: "An that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, unto ye be indued with power from on high" (Luke 24:47-49).

Notice that in both accounts Jesus calmed their fears by saying, "Peace be unto you." In both Jesus commissioned them (or sent them) into the world as His witnesses, obviously to preach the gospel. In Luke's account there is no indication whatsoever that they received the Holy Ghost at that time. In fact, the record states that Jesus told them to tarry in Jerusalem until they were "endued with power from on high.- John's account in no way contradicts Luke's. In fact, Jesus' breathing on His disciples has been called 'the breath of promise.' He simply gave them a preview of Pentecost, a "tiding over" blessing until the Day of Pentecost arrived, when they would receive the Holy Ghost. When He said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost,"

He was giving them a command and a promise that they would receive the Holy Ghost "not many days hence" (Acts 1:5). That the disciples received the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost is incontestable. When the crowd heard the speaking in tongues and beheld the mighty manifestation, they cried out, "What meaneth this?" (Acts 2:12). Peter's message was in answer to this question. He said, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh" (Acts 2:16-17). He explained to them about Jesus, preached Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, and then declared, "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear" (Acts 2:33). If the disciples had already received the Holy Ghost in John 20:22, Peter did not know all He declared that what they had received right there at Pentecost was "the promise [that Jesus had promised] of the Holy Ghost... which ye now see and hear."

Peter emphasized that what they had received at Pentecost was actually the baptism of the Holy Ghost when he recounted to the other disciples what had occurred at the house of Cornelius: "And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost' (Acts 11:15-16). "As on us at the beginning refers to the fact that Cornelius and his household spoke with tongues when they received the Holy Ghost, just as Peter and the rest of the disciples did at Pentecost. "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision [the Jews] which believed were astonished-because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God" (Acts 10:44-46).

When Cornelius spoke in tongues Peter knew he had received the Holy Ghost "as on us at the beginning," at Pentecost. Peter did not refer back to the time when Jesus breathed on them, but to the Day of Pentecost. That is when the disciples received the Holy Ghost, not before.

Young man, learn this, and learn it well: You received God's greatest gift when you were baptized in Jesus' name and filled with the Holy Ghost. People may try, as your friend did, to find some way to avoid the truth. But squirm as they may, God's Word stands true. The experience you possess is of God. You can expect opposition and persecution.

The Scriptures ask this question: 'Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?' (Psalm 2:1). The answer is: "Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved' (II Thessalonians 2:10).

THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED IN THE OCTOBER 1994 ISSUE OF THE TEXICO TRUMPET, AND WAS WRITTEN BY DAVID F. GRAY.

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