The Gospel Herald -- Promoting the fundamentals of the 1888 message.

 

Chapter 3, Section 7

The Significance of Our Study

Realizing the significance of this, we find that the charismatic tongues suddenly take on a new and frightening dimension. Biblical prophecy suggests that in order to arrive at a unity of faiths in the closing days of history, the adversary must provide a common denominator that will serve as a spiritual adhesive.

The charismatic movement has now supplied that "adhesive" through its "tongues."

"I believe the charismatic renewal has spread so rapidly in the Church these past six years because it is God's work," editorialized Patty Gallagher, a Catholic charismatic convert, hopefully. "He [God] desires to reveal himself to his people," she continued, "as he spoke to us during the June conference in prophecy, 'What you see before your eyes is just the beginning.’" —New Covenant, op. cit., p. 3.

We are now indeed witnessing the awakening of the three unclean spirits of Revelation 16, and the position of the minute hand of the prophetic time clock of eternity is no longer a mystery.

But it is not just our conclusions and judgments based on the aforementioned evidence that have brought us to this point. The supernatural master of the charismatics himself has proudly supplied us with even more devastating indications that "something" ungodly has gained control of the movement.

While attending a study conference on the charismatic movement, I became acutely aware of this.

Speaking of his experiences with college students who had become charismatics, a young minister I conversed with enumerated the various phenomena that accompany the tongues. Drawing on his many counseling sessions with an impressive number of glossolalists, he submitted a list of seven accompanying phenomena, every one of which was a major revelation in itself.

Those who join the charismatic movement and become spiritually committed to its operation depend, in various degrees of involvement, on one or more of the eight following manifestations:

  1. Prophecy: their leader or other members of the group speaking to them "for God" in an authoritative way.
  2. Clairvoyance: the supernatural ability to foreknow events.
  3. Clairaudiance: hearing voices giving supernatural revelations.
  4. Gift of Tongues: the ability to speak in untranslatable words.
  5. Laying on of Hands: the supernatural ability to transmit "power" and the "Holy Spirit" to new converts, often accompanied by an experience resembling an electric shock.
  6. Healing: the ability to perform spirit(ualistic) healing of the sick.
  7. Visions: the reception of supernatural guidance or information in dreams.
  8. Trance: a withdrawal from reality during which state contact with the supernatural is made.

The revealing thing about these points is not their number or their order, but their significance in this modern movement.

For they can be regarded as the "fruits of the spirit"—of the master spirit guiding the charismatic movement and its gift of tongues.

They're not new.

They were revealed before. And not so long ago either!

Just ask the spiritualists, and they will gladly tell you where and when. For it was exactly 59 years ago, in 1914, that the Nationalist Spiritualist Association of Churches adopted a list of definitions for the manifestations of spirit power.

The fifth paragraph is the one we are interested in, and it should be of interest to the charismatics.

It reads as follows: "The Phenomena of Spiritualism consist of Prophecy, Clairvoyance, Clairaudiance, Gift of Tongues, Laying on of Hands, Healing, Visions, Trance, Apports, Levitation, Raps, Automatic and Independent Writings and Paintings, Voice, Materialization, Photography, Psychometry and other manifestations proving the continuity of life as demonstrated through the Physical and Spiritual senses and faculties of man."—Spiritualist Manual, page 37.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It is interesting that the spiritualists have listed their phenomena in order of importance, and that the gifts occupying the most important place in their churches are also those that unify the charismatic movement.

Yet, some people still ask the questions, Are the tongues godly? Are they God's gift to the church? Aren't we still to wait for the "fruits of the Spirit"?

To the committed Christian there is only one possible answer. An emphatic NO is the only responsible reaction, for the indications that the manifestations of the charismatic movement of today are a new revelation of spiritualism, this time, however, cloaked in a disguise of godliness, are too real to be ignored.

The identification of the charismatic movement is no longer a problem. The spiritualist movement has identified it for us.

But this does not mean the end of the tongues.

This devil's counterfeit fulfills a definite role in prophecy, and there is indeed a reason for the introduction of the false tongues in these closing days of mankind.

Commented Ellen G. White: "It is with an earnest longing that I look forward to the time when the events of the day of Pentecost shall be repeated with even greater power than on that occasion. John says, 'I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.' Then, as at the Pentecostal season, the people will hear the truth spoken to them, every man in his own tongue. God can breathe new life into every soul that sincerely desires to serve him, and can touch the lips with a live coal from off the altar, and cause them to become eloquent with his praise. Thousands of voices will be imbued with the power to speak forth the wonderful truths of God's word. The stammering tongue will be unloosed, and the timid will be made strong to bear courageous testimony to the truth."—Review and Herald, July 20, 1886.

Anticipating God's special gift of this "second Pentecost" to His church, the devil has moved in with force, introducing his counterfeit as a Godly manifestation.

History stands ready to repeat itself—but the result will be such that it can never be forgotten.

Rene Noorbergen

Home  |  Glossolalia Index (book 1)(book 2)  |  Articles Index  
Gospel Herald Discussion Web  |  Genesis Studies  |  Sabbath Studies
Contact Us