The Case Against Tongues: Weighing up the Evidence

By Gordon L Swanepoel

For seventeen years I spoke in tongues as a Charismatic, a Pentecostal and a member of the Word of Faith Movement. There I knew wonderful Christian brothers and sisters in the Lord, who, like me, spoke in tongues. Not for a moment did we ever contemplate that we could be in error.

Brothers that that I’d known and had left these churches, started to challenge me with scripture, concerning speaking in tongues and the use of other gifts. Their challenges and my subsequent desire to prove them wrong, believing their assertions and charges to be a sin against the Holy Spirit, changed me forever.

With the help and love from these brothers and other wonderful men of God that I have since met, together with my own diligent searching of scripture, I have clearly and unequivocally been shown the error of my belief and practice of speaking in tongues.

My sincere prayer is for all those who practice and promote speaking in tongues, to take the time and effort to read this book. With an open mind, consider all the scriptures and the arguments therein, so that you would be thoroughly and prayerfully challenged to weigh up the evidence and observe the unassailable case against tongues.

Scripture, and scripture alone, is sufficient to lead us into all truth, and set us free!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gordon L Swanepoel
• Release date: Oct 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370120987

Gordon L Swanepoel

Gordon Swanepoel has a heart for people, both Christians and the unsaved, but even more so, a passion and love for God’s Word, and the Truth it reveals. Driven by a strong desire to reveal the Truth of the Gift of Tongues, and how it is to be interpreted properly, has become his first book: ‘The Case against Tongues: Weighing up the Evidence’. Gordon has several topics in mind, which he is currently contemplating writing, in order to correct sincere error, wherever it exists and is practised in the Christian world. He lives with his wife, Lauretta, in Centurion, South Africa.

Book preview

THE CASE AGAINST TONGUES

Weighing up the Evidence

Gordon L Swanepoel

© Gordon L Swanepoel 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the author. Brief excerpts may be cited in book reviews, provided the narrative quoted is verbatim and due credit is given by way of the book title and name of author.

Cover design by Michael HH Warren & Konrad Schaffner

Formatted by Leila Summers

Edited by Michael HH Warren

Published by Anchor Publishing International

Dedication & Acknowledgements

I dedicate the highest praise, thanks and appreciation to my Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with a mind and heart that seeks after His Truth, to share with all who would listen, comprehend and purpose.

Heartfelt and loving thanks of appreciation go to my dear wife and best friend of thirty eight years, Lauretta, who is one with me in the Lord and in my endeavors to reveal the Truth of a Holy Living God to an errant and unbelieving world.

Sincere thanks are accorded to Pastor Stuart Olyott, a man of the Holy Living God, whose sermon on ‘1 Corinthians: The Gift of Prophecy, Tongues and Knowledge’, so many years ago, forms the anchor and backbone of my critical response to the gift of tongues written about in this book.

Special thanks go to my long-time friend and brother in the Lord, Glen Gifford, who has always challenged and urged me to think further and deeper, and through his continued support and friendship, to place God’s Truth above all else. His review of my book was most discerning and highly appreciated.

Warm thanks also go to my brother in the Lord, Keith Warren, a devoted reader of the Books of Daniel and Revelation and all things scriptural, for his review, insights and moral support.

Finally, particular thanks go to my friend and brother in the Lord, Michael HH Warren (‘Mike’), who has esteemed me as his spiritual mentor. As a published author in his own right, his thorough editing, along with his biblical comprehension and unwavering support, has made this book possible.

Author’s Note

In writing about the controversy that surrounds the issues associated with speaking in tongues, I do so as an ex-Charismatic, ex-Pentecostal and a Word of Faith member who spoke in these so-called tongues for seventeen years.

I know many people who attend Charismatic Pentecostal and Word of Faith churches, who claim they believe that speaking in tongues is biblical and relevant for today, and that, if God said it in His Word, that settles it. In fact, that was my mantra for those seventeen years.

However, after coming to a clear biblical understanding of tongues, I do now scripturally judge what they say about the gifts and the use of these gifts within the church today, especially the gift of tongues and the use thereof.

Why?

Simply put, because there has been such an unrealistic and unbalanced emphasis on the gift of tongues. Speaking in tongues has been and is still being treated as the beginning and the end of all true spirituality; as though it is the only true key to a powerful Christian life.

Speaking in tongues is considered to be the key that opens the gateway to the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. If you did not have this experience, then you are considered to be half a Christian, going nowhere fast.

This has resulted in many having doubts about their own salvation; not to mention the endless condemnation of spiritually ‘not measuring up’ to all those who have the so-called gift of tongues.

My book aims to reveal to the reader the evidence of the biblical facts; to make a case against speaking and promoting tongues.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: The Perfect Has Come

Chapter Two: What Were Tongues?

Chapter Three: Important Facts about Tongues

Chapter Four: Tongues as a Biblical Gift

Chapter Five: Is There Power in Tongues?

Chapter Six: Is the Gift of the Holy Spirit Evidenced by Tongues?

Conclusion

End Notes

Resources

Introduction

Is the ‘gift’ of tongues that is being used in today’s churches, the same gift that was used in the early church?

This is perhaps one of the most contentious questions being asked in theological circles today. With the unremitting controversy raging on, there is much confusion over the issue of tongues today. This confusion is not only evident in the Charismatic, Pentecostal and Word of Faith churches, but the confusion has filtered over into some evangelical Baptist and Presbyterian churches, into many Methodist and Anglican churches, and even into Roman Catholic churches.

Whenever one goes through the book of 1 Corinthians, especially chapters 12–14 one will have to deal with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and especially the gift of tongues, and how this gift was used in the early church.

With this book: ‘The Case against Tongues: Weighing up the Evidence’, I aim to provide you with the biblical truth, whose facts, based firmly in scripture, will establish a correct and sound understanding of the ‘gift of tongues’ and what it means for us today, in order that we may rightly divide the Word of Truth.

Many of the Corinthians during that time were involved in erroneous and ungodly practices; they were caught up in the culture of the day. These ungodly practices were affecting the early church. Instead of being God’s witnesses to the city of Corinth, they themselves were infected by ungodly practices. Carnality, incest, brothers suing each other, drunkenness at the Lord’s Table, out of control church services, and virtually every other sin imaginable, which included the misuse of the gifts, was prevalent, even to