Failed Pentecostal Missionary Tongues

Michael A

2 years ago

In the following 14-minute video, Andreas Wiget describes how the Pentecostal movement morphed in the early 20th century.

I learned much of what he said in John MacArthur’s book, Strange Fire; but Andreas looks at this information from a different perspective.

MacArthur’s presentation, in my opinion, was to state that modern Pentecostalism rests upon a foundation of lies and therefore ought not be believed. [Something like what happened when the 12 tribes split and 10 began worshiping golden calves; none of there subsequent worship was acceptable to God because it veered from what God had established.]

Andreas focused on the adjustment made by proponents of Pentecostalism after the humiliation they experienced when they discovered that the languages they uttered did not enable their missionaries to witness Christ to people of the nations in whose languages they believed they were speaking.

What did they do, they redefined ‘speaking in tongues’ to mean something other than they originally believed it meant; by doing that, they did not have to admit that their language was meaningless gibberish….

About the vlogger:

Hi! My name is Andreas and I am a servant of the LORD from Switzerland 🇨🇭! Thanks for visiting! Digging Deeper is a discernment ministry offering Christians a better understanding of Biblical truth. Even when engaging with polarizing topics I try to follow Col. 4:6, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” I am a reformed Baptist and I hold two master degrees in theological studies.

The following narrative and links accompanied this video at the YouTube site, Digging Deeper:

The early Pentecostals all believed that the gift of tongues consisted of authentic human languages. Both Charles Fox Parham (Topeka Outpouring) and William J. Seymour (Azusa Street Revival) believed that. How is it then that most of today’s Pentecostals and Charismatics identify the gift of tongues as a spiritual language? The truth is that the redefinition of tongues happened because of a public embarrassment in the founding years of Pentecostalism. I call this event the Great Pentecostal Disappointment. Find out more about it in this video.

How to understand tongues in 1 Corinthians? Watch this video https://youtu.be/Q2r4k5YHFJU

00:00 Introduction, Pastor Michael Todd

01:11 Early Pentecostalism

04:07 Xenolalia or not

05:14 Failed missionary tongues

08:13 The Great Pentecostal Disappointment

09:46 The Redefinition of Tongues

10:46 1 Corinthians, Marcus Rogers

12:21 Pentecostalism and Higher Criticism

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