| One Common Denominator
Having researched the subject
extensively before my scheduled interviews with the psychics and
mediums, I found that their reaction came as no surprise. All, without
exception, approved of the phenomenon and name God as its supernatural
source. They are unified in their conviction that through this new
communications medium a common ground needed for the unification of all
churches has finally been achieved. In the tongues, Catholics,
Protestants, and Spiritualists have found their common denominator,
operated by the same supernatural source whose power they assume to be
God.
In a letter signed, "Ralph &
Bobbi," a young married couple who attended one of the first modern
outpourings of their "Holy Spirit" at the now famous Duquesne
Weekend in 1967, looked back on that memorable weekend after six years
of "spirit-fever." One of the paragraphs of their testimony
shows the influence it had on their relationship to members of other
non-Catholic churches.
"Most of our Friday evenings we go
to a prayer meeting with Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists,
Lutherans, and Pentecostals," they wrote. "And for three hours
all denominational differences are annihilated, without compromising an
inch on our Roman Catholicism ….
"Never have I heard the Church of
Rome prayed for with such fervor," they concluded proudly, "as
I have at prayer meeting. And with such love."—New Covenant
(the monthly magazine of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal), Vol. 2,
Number 8, Feb., 1973.
Doctrinal differences are fast
disappearing among the members of the various churches, as this letter
testifies. A newfound oneness in the spirit is permeating hundreds of
thousands of well-meaning Christians, making a mockery of the Biblical
doctrine that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth, and that
this same spirit will lead us into discovering and accepting "all
truth." Even without evaluating all the other available evidence,
we can see that modern tongues stem from a lesser source than the Holy
Spirit. The violation of this Biblical concept alone is
sufficient to make us question seriously the source behind the tongues,
for what does this superficial oneness really mean?
It indicates that the charismatics are
indeed unified, but in confusion. They claim to be "one" and
led by the Spirit of God (truth), but strangely enough, this Spirit of
truth does not lead the charismatic Catholic to abandon his prayers for
the dead or his belief in an eternally burning hell. This same spirit
does not tell him to stop using the saints as intermediaries, or to stop
seeking for forgiveness of sins through a human confessor. Does he have
to stop believing in the infallability of the pope or in a flaming
purgatory? No—they are not told to abandon their belief in these
doctrines but are encouraged by their "brothers-in-the-spirit,
" the charismatic Protestants to retain this heretical faith.
The charismatic Protestants, on the
other hand, are free to cling to whatever doctrines they may espouse,
preferring their charismatic spirit over the Spirit of truth. To them,
love is the supreme test of faith. They are not unified by trust in God
and His guiding principles; they are unified by one common spiritual
orgasm! Doctrines are now held to be essential elements of a church's
individual heritage, and the oneness in the spirit is to be the
spontaneous spark which ignites the flaming experience that binds them.
As we examine the tongues and their
legitimate role in today's Christianity, we find that sanction or even a
quiet acceptance of the phenomenon has virtually become an
impossibility. No matter how badly the charismatics want to prove
the validity of the sounds, the evidence shows that in their zealous
efforts to give the utterings Biblical support, the tongues-speakers
have overstated their case.
The ecstatic utterance of disconnected
vowels, weird and irrational to some; melodious and beautiful to the
charismatics, has been termed "linguistic nonsense,"
"spirit-guided grunts," "untranslatable gibberish,"
and even less flattering names by most or all of those who have given
scientific investigation to the phenomenon. And no matter the objections
of the movement, there is indeed a relationship between the increase in
tongues speakers and the growing degree of mental instability. What's
more, both psychiatrists (for the mentally unstable) and the theologians
(for the charismatics) agree that we are only at the beginning of the
problem.
Yet, if this were all, the
glossolaliac's case would still not be hopeless, for statistics in
themselves are never absolute proof—only an indication of something.
But a careful scrutiny of the manifestations as found in the books of
Acts and Corinthians destroys all hopes for a Biblical basis. The gift
of tongues against which Paul cautioned in Corinth has no relationship
to today's charismatic gift of tongues which has its origin in paganism,
heathen ritual, and even devil worship, historical records of which
precede the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit by at least 1,100
years!
The
Significance of Our Study |
