Instead of submitting and obeying and giving honor and reverance and respect to those trail-blazers who were before, whom God used to help make the visible church what it was, which was good enough to save some in it; whom afterwards those same some just want to create a name for themselves or don't want to give up their worldliness.
I've heard stories of some apostolics who came to truth who got the real Holy Ghost before they became apostolic while they were attending false churches such as the Mormon Church, charismatic Catholic Church, etc. What does this tell me? This tells me that a person getting the Holy Ghost is dependent on a person's hunger and thirst for righteousness; and that just because a person gets the Holy Ghost in a "church" that is not right with God DOES NOT MEAN THAT GOD IS GIVING HIS THUMBS UP FOR THAT CHURCH!
To put it more succinctly, just because God baptized someone with the Holy Ghost in a church, doesn't mean that God is well pleased with that church.
Now if you question this, then go and question those apostolics who received the real Holy Ghost while they were members of the Mormon Church and at a charismatic Catholic Church.
There are Holy Ghost baptisms and tongues and interpretations and other spiritual gifts/signs in everything from the most left-wing charismatic PENTECOSTAL church to the most right-wing conservative apostolic PENTECOSTAL church
AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.
Now we apostolics know that the most left-wing charismatic pentecostal churches are in false doctrine, but the whole gambit of pentecostal churches goes from the most left-wing charismatics to the most right-wing apostolics; so on that line, where is it that God is okay with a church and is NOT ok with a church? That's a rhetorical question, btw.
Is God well-pleased with your church? How do you know? Because someone got the Holy Ghost there? Sorry, but that is not enough.
Even the early catholics still had the Holy Ghost...
TONGUES IN THE EARLY CHURCH
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In addition to scripture, there are many writings by early church fathers about tongues.
For instance, the necessity of receiving the Spirit and specifically described speaking in tongues as evidence of the Spirit - Irenaeus (130?-202?), Bishop of Lyons
"[T]he perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father… For this reason does the apostle declare, 'We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,' terming those persons 'perfect' who have received the Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used [h]imself also to speak. In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages… whom also the apostle terms 'spiritual,' they being spiritual because they partake of the Spirit." - Irenaeus, Against Heresies,5.6.1, ANF, I, 531.
And another, speaking in tongues as one of the marks of a true church - Tertullian
"Let Marcion then exhibit, as gifts of his god, some prophets, such as have not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God… let him produce a psalm, a vision, a prayer - only let it be by the Spirit, in an ecstasy, that is, in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred to him… Now all these signs (of spiritual gifts) are forthcoming from my side without any difficulty." - Tertullian, Against Marcion, III, 446-47.
Paul in
1 Cor 1:7-8 taught that the gifts were unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
Does history record that this was this the belief of the early Christians as well? Yes it does...
That the Christians of his day expected the spiritual gifts to remain permanently in the church - Asterius Urbanus (c. 232)
"For the apostle [Paul] deems that the gifts of prophecy should abide in all the church up to the time of the final advent." - Asterius Urbanus, Extant Writings, 10, ANF; VII, 337.
God was gracious and gave the early Catholics space to repent, but the time came when God removed his Spirit and took the gifts with Him...
TONGUES GONE IN THE BACKSLID CATHOLIC CHURCH
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By the late fourth century and early fifth century, Christendom had for the most part, but not all, evolved into what came to be known as the Roman Catholic Church. Apparently, speaking in tongues had practically disappeared from most places in the backsliding church, but the memory of it remained to some extent; he wrote:
"This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur hut now no longer take place… Well: what did happen then? Whoever was baptized he straightway spoke with tongues… They at once on their baptism received the Spirit… [They] began to speak, one in the tongue of the Persians, another in that of the Romans, another in that of the Indians, or in some other language. And this disclosed to outsiders that it was the Spirit in the speaker." - John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Cor, 29, NPNF, 1st ser., XII, 168.
Augustine (354-430) testified that the church in his day did not expect to speak in tongues when receiving the Holy Spirit, but admitted that this used to be the case:
"For the Holy Spirit is not only given by the laying on of hands amid the testimony of temporal sensible miracles, as He was given in former days… For who expects in these days that those on whom hands are laid that they may receive the Holy Spirit should forthwith begin to speak with tongues?" - Augustine, On Baptism, Against the Donatists, 3.16.21, NPNF 1st ser., IV, 443.
The memory of it remained and they wrote about the way it used to be - how sad
Living in past experiences where the Spirit used to be and used to flow.
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