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ON THE DAY
OF PENTECOST
By Atif Himadeh
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i- They speak a foreign language. (Do they really do that?)
ii- They translate without the knowledge of the language.
iii- They give the explanation of what was said without a
single mistake.
If a person has the gift of translating one language to another
without knowing the language, then this gift should be exercised.
Such people are needed all over the world. If the Charismatics
really have this gift they claim to have, why don't they use
it? All over the world translators are badly needed. Here
is a challenge to all those who claim to speak in tongues,
prove your gift or else keep quiet.
Some tongue twisters might answer, "We translate only
the language that is spoken in 'tongues' not an already known
language." This can't be right, because the gift of translation
is not part of the gift of tongues, but it is a separate gift.
When a person claims the gift of translation he must be able
to understand the language he is translating from. There is
no trace of a miraculous gift of translating a language you
don't know in the Bible.
I met a young American who believes in speaking in tongues.
He believes that the gift of translation means you can translate
a language without knowing that language and without any mistake.
I challenged him to test that theory. The young man was living
in Turkey for two years and during this time he studied the
Turkish language. He went to a charismatic meeting and he
prayed in Turkish. A young American Pentecostal charismatic
woman translated his prayer. After the service he asked her
"was that what you said a translation to my prayer?"
She said, "Yes, word for word, God gave me the right
translation." He said, "You did not translate one
word of what I have said." Raging in anger she said,
"How do you know?" He said, "I know Turkish
and I prayed in Turkish." She said, "I only know
how to translate what is said by the Holy Spirit." The
Holy Spirit is God and he knows everything. If the Holy Spirit
is really in this woman He would have guided her to know everything.
You may say she was fooled, but nobody can fool the Holy Spirit.
If she translated through the Holy Spirit she would have known
that this man was not speaking in "tongues." When
Ananias and Sapphira lied to the apostle Peter, he knew about
it because the Holy Spirit told him. The Holy Spirit is God
and no one can lie to him. If the Holy Spirit did the translation,
why did He not faithfully translate the words said in the
Turkish prayer? How can people ever know what charismatic
people are praying if this is the way they translate. How
can we discern the spirits?
How could we know if these charismatic people are praising
God or cursing Him in their unknown language? Since nobody
knows the language that was spoken, and those who are translating
are saying what comes to their minds, how am I to know that
they do not speak gibberish while speaking in tongues? The
Bible tells us to try the spirits. "Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of
God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
I John 4:1. How could we try the spirits if each person mumbles
unknown words, and then says the first verse or idea that
comes to his mind.
A woman must not teach men. "Let the woman learn in silence
with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor
to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. "ITim.
2:11,12. The majority of the people who are speaking in tongues
are woman who are commanded to be silent in the church. Women
are commanded not to teach or usurp authority over men. The
Majority of the charismatic churches are pastored or lead
by women.
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Where is the fire of conviction now in the church? They claim
the speaking in tongues and the translation of tongues falsely
with no fire of conviction. Women teach, preach and usurp
authority over men with no conviction that they are disobeying
the word of God. The gifts spoken of in ICor. 12 are only
for men in the church. ICor. 12:1, ICor. 14:6,20,26.
There is no difference between a man and a woman in heaven.
But here on earth God has called men to do His public preaching,
teaching and leading the church. When a woman disobeys the
word, the Holy Spirit will convict her of her sin.
4- All were filled and they started speaking in tongues (languages)
as the spirits gave them utterance.
The believers, who were filled with the Holy Spirit, were
given to speak in tongues. The filling of the Holy Spirit
is not the speaking in tongues. When a person is filled with
the Holy Spirit, he is given utterances to convey a message.
The Holy Spirit is God and He gives everything in a perfect
way. The Holy Spirit may speak through one person in tongues
and one translator so the people will understand or choose
the language that the majority of the people hearing knows
the best as in the day of Pentecost.
On the day of Pentecost each one heard them speaking in his
own language. The Holy Spirit does not make mistakes. When
we are led by the Holy Spirit we will not make a mistake.
The people who speak in tongues today make a lot of mistakes.
For example a person hearing the speaking in tongues counted
the number of times a name was used and it was seven times,
and when he translated the speaking in tongues that name was
mentioned only four times. The Holy Spirit is Perfect because
He is God and He does not make these mistakes. So this man
was not speaking in the Holy Spirit even if you could prove
that he was speaking a language. God is not a man to forget
to translate the name of the person three times. That man
was a false christ, claiming to be led by the spirit of God
while he was led by a false spirit.
On the day of Pentecost the disciples spoke languages that
were mentioned in Acts chapter two. All of them spoke languages
which were understood. None of the disciples spoke in an unknown
tongue, gibberish or in an angelic tongue. Because all the
languages spoken were mentioned in the Bible. If one of the
disciples spoke in an angelic tongue, God would have inspired
Luke to write that down.
Paul, in writing his First letter to the Corinthian church,
he was warning them about the wrong teachings that were spreading
in the church. When he reached chapter thirteen he was saying
to them that love, faith and hope are more important then
knowledge, prophecy and speaking in tongues. In chapter fourteen,
Paul was rebuking the Corinthian church for the gibberish
speaking which was practiced by that church. "Now, brethren,
if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit
you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or
by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?" ICor.
14:6. In other words Paul is saying "speak something
we understand" "...,except ye utter by the tongue
words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is
spoken? For ye shall speak into the air. There, it may be
so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is
without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning
of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian,
and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." ICor.
14:9,10,11.
What is happening today in the charismatic churches is like
what happened in the Corinthian church and Paul rebuked that
in chapter 14. Paul cannot forbid the speaking in tongues,
because the Bible, the complete word of God, did not yet come.
The people in the Corinthian church actually were not speaking
languages as they should. Paul was not against speaking in
tongues,
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but he was against speaking gibberish. The Corinthian
church was better than the charismatics today in that, they
never translated any of the gibberish voices. The idea that
you translate something you yourself do not know, was not accepted
be the Corinthian church, because the Greek word for translate
means explain or interpret.
God would never speak to the people in an unknown tongue with
every one present. A tongue is unknown to the speaker, but should
never be unknown to everybody. If a person speaks a language
nobody knows or there is nobody that understands the language
to translate, he should cease to speak. The charismatics today
are completely different from the disciples on the day of Pentecost.
5- Everyone heard them speaking in his own language.
We must realize that the miracle here was done by the Holy Spirit
so that everyone heard them speaking in his own language. The
Holy Spirit knows what to give and when to give it so that the
one hearing, will understand.
If an American is visiting in Israel and he is in a meeting
with Israeli who speak Hebrew, the Holy Spirit will give him
the Hebrew language, so that they will understand the message
from God. If English speaking people are present in the meeting
then a person who knows both Hebrew and English will translate
to them what was spoken. Most of the hearers heard them speaking
their own language in which they were born. Can you find this
to be true in any charismatic church today. In all charismatic
churches today they utter sounds that are not languages to hide
what they are really saying. Then they camouflage what they
are saying by translating these unknown words to a verse in
the Bible. In this way nobody can accuse them of wrong utterances,
and nobody can prove the falsity of what was said or find fault
in the translation.
Are you ever going to hear from a Persian, a Greek, or an Arabic
person saying, "These people (tongue speakers) are speaking
our languages" No! you will never hear the real speaking
in tongues as it was heard on the day of Pentecost.
Some charismatic people claim to speak the language of angels.
Who told you that one of the disciples on Pentecost spoke in
the language of an angel? All words spoken at Pentecost were
understood since each person heard someone speaking in his own
language. Actually, at Pentecost there was no translation at
all since each one heard the words in his own language. Again
we stress the fact that the Holy Spirit never made a mistake
when He gave each Galilian the language of the group of people
standing around him. What's more, these Galilians did not practice
on a tape recorder a sentence in a foreign language. So that
they can impress the believers they were going to visit in a
foreign country.
Notice in this verse it says "every man" and not "every
angel" "... Because that every man heard them speak
in his own language." It does not include angels. So on
the day of Pentecost, no angelic language was spoken. Among
the languages spoken on that day, the angelic language is not
mentioned. Paul the Apostle is the only one that mentions angelic
speaking, but he says, "Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels and have no charity, I am become as sounding
brass, or a tinkling cymbal". ICor. 13:1. The word "though"
in Greek however is (ean) which means (if) and it is often used
with other particles to denote indefiniteness or uncertainty
and some times the impossible. So this verse does not say that
a person "can" speak in tongues of angels but the
verse says "if" he speaks in tongues of angels. This
angelic tongue speaking might never be possible, so do not build
your house of faith on "if's". And human speaking
in angelic tongues is not taught or mentioned any where else
in the Bible.
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