Why don't some speak in tongues?

[deltaguitar]

Originally Posted by Daniel Alicea

Mow ... some have gone as far as saying that one is justified before God ... made righteous .... after repentance (Segravian view) or after baptism (Epleyian view) but still not rapture ready because they have not experienced glossolalia ...

I can't wrap my mind around the fact that the righteous will burn in hell or that the bible lied about the righteous being saved.

This is a subject that just starts to make my blood boil. I know what it is like to have people tell me over and over that you must speak in tongues to be saved. I have been told that I just need to turn it all over to God, really let him take control, just get out of the isle and run around the church and he will bless you. I suffered for years because I thought that I wasn't a RIGHT with God. If it wasn't for God's hand in my life and the consistency of the bible I probably would have left church a long time ago. I had basically given up on church even though I was a long time musician in our church.

I do think we should strive to be used in the gifts of the spirit but to make "gifts" a requirement for justification causes huge problems that we see in many Pentecostal circles.

1) People think that they have to speak in tongues to be saved. Well, until they do speak in tongues they can't be used in ministry, they don't feel secure in their salvation, and there is a constant pressure by other members to "get right" with God. There are many that I have come across that expect a visual outward demonstration or they are not satisfied that there is an experience with God. I tried to get the Holy Ghost at a young age. All my friends had it and I thought I should have had it too. But I couldn't figure out the speaking in tongues thing. Finally, I went to Mississippi district youth camp and I just told everyone I got the Holy Ghost when I came back. I had stammering lips of course and had prayed for hours begging and pleading for God to find me good enough to give me the Holy Ghost and I figured I had it though I didn't really speak in tongues. There I said it; it took me 19 years later to actually say those words. I didn't speak in tongues that night but at least I could get the monkey off my back and be accepted by the church family as "saved".

2) A culture of "spiritualism" seems to develop where some people start to think that they must act a certain way in order to be spiritual. We then end up with all the "spiritual" folks getting slain in the spirit, running the aisles, speaking in tongues and demonstrating their superior spirituality to the other saints. You then end up with preachers preaching that "we are a powerful people" and "just look at how WE worship God." This, in my opinion, is a false perception of spirituality and causes confusion as it is a worship of self and our outward demonstrations.