Page 69 - Pneumatology - A Study of the Holy Spirit

Is speaking in tongues evidence for having been baptized by the Holy Spirit?

Connect…

Someone might come up to you and ask you if you have ever been baptized by the Holy Spirit. If that should
happen, the caution flag should go up. We have learned that every believer has been baptized by the Holy
Spirit at the time of salvation. If a person does not have the Holy Spirit, then he is not saved! Period!

The person asking you this question has probably misunderstood this doctrine and is confused about the
works of the Holy Spirit. So, you can take this opportunity to tell him that you have been baptized by the
Holy Spirit and give him your testimony. Most likely, he will want to know if you have spoken in tongues,
which he believes is a sign of the Holy Spirit’s baptism. So, if you carefully study the information in this
course, you should be able to give a defense of the truth of Scripture and help this believer understand how
the Holy Spirit works in our lives. Let’s get started.

The Lesson ...

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Is speaking in tongues evidence for having been baptized by the Holy Spirit?

The modern Charismatic movement teaches that when a believer speaks in tongues (ecstatic utterances), the
tongues are a validation that the person is not only saved, but has moved up the ladder of sanctification to a
new level of being baptized by the Holy Spirit.

There are three occasions in the book of Acts where speaking in tongues accompanied the receiving of the
Holy Spirit—Acts 2:4, 10:44-46, and 19:6. However, these three occasions are the only places in the Bible
where speaking in tongues is evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the book of Acts, thousands of people believe in Jesus, and
nothing is said about them speaking in tongues (Acts 2:41, 8:5-25, 16:31-
34, 21:20). Nowhere in the New Testament is it taught that speaking in
tongues is the only evidence a person has received the Holy Spirit. In fact,
the New Testament teaches the opposite. We are told that every believer
in Christ has the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians
1:13-14), but not every believer speaks in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:29-
31).

So, why was speaking in tongues the evidence of the Holy Spirit in those three passages in Acts? Acts 2
records the apostles being baptized in the Holy Spirit and empowered by Him to proclaim the gospel. The
apostles were enabled to speak in other languages (tongues) so they could share the truth with people in
their own languages. Acts 10 records the apostle Peter being sent to share the gospel with non-Jewish
people. Peter and the other early Christians, being Jews, would have a hard time accepting Gentiles (non-
Jewish people) into the church. God enabled the Gentiles to speak in tongues to demonstrate that they had

37 https://www.gotquestions.org/tongues-Holy-Spirit.html - Used with permission
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