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(Sep. 5, 2000) |
The first church I attended after I became a Christian was a United Pentecostal Church. While growing in this church, I was soon taught that I needed to be baptized in water and by the Holy Ghost to be saved. They said that the proof of this baptism is the speaking in other tongues. And.... I believed them. Why shouldn't I, they always referred to the Bible to support their teaching. Wanting to do what God commanded, I was quickly baptized in water and earnestly and honestly sought the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I shed tears, had hands laid on me and sat in the front row (actually in this church we mostly stood up).
One day my friend Christian (yes, that is his name), who also recently became a Christian, challenged me about these teachings. He said that neither water baptism or speaking in tongues were needed for salvation. I wouldn't hear him concerning water baptism, I wasn't ready at the time. But I was able to hear his arguments concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You see, he used the Word of God to support his view. Christian got me to thinking. Now, I wasn't about to toss out everything I learned from my church, but I needed to reconcile the Scriptures because both Christian and my pastor used the Bible to support their views. I went to my pastor and asked him to explain the passages that Christian gave me. I don't know why, but he just didn't. Maybe he couldn't. Instead he gave me more passages supporting the necessity of speaking in tongues for salvation. I took the passages back to Christian. Christian, being a recent convert also couldn't explain my church's Scripture references. I went back and forth between my pastor and Christian 3 or 4 times before I became fed up.
You see, in the process of resolving this problem a greater problem was arising. The inerrancy of Scripture was being challenged. Not intentionally mind you, but in the process of resolving a biblical truth, all I heard was Scripture countering Scripture. I may have been a babe in Christ, but one thing I did know was that Scripture does NOT counter Scripture. What I wanted was truth and I wasn't about to sacrifice truth to gain it. I decided to put aside both the Christian Servicemen's Center (Christian's place of fellowship) and the United Pentecostal Church until I found out the truth concerning tongues.
Being young in my faith I hadn't read much of the Scriptures yet. Now I resolved to read it all until I found the answer. I opened to page one of the New Testament and read. I didn't read just to read, I read to understand, to know. I read though the gospels and then the Book of Acts. When I got to Romans, I felt like I was trudging through mud. I had to read it slowly, repetitively and out loud to grasp its thoughts. By the time I made it through 1st Corinthians, I was resolved in my heart concerning whether or not tongues were needed for salvation and left the United Pentecostal Church.
I learned the greatest lesson in my Christian life from this, which is; I am accountable for my own soul. When I stand before my Maker, I won't be able to stand behind my pastor or my denomination. This has driven me to continue studying my Bible. It has allowed me to say "I don't know" or "I am not resolved" when asked a tough Biblical question. It has kept me from saying I am anything else but a "Christian." It has kept me from signing off on doctrinal statements that decline beyond what I have fairly studied. In essence, it has kept me honest about my faith.
