Forty years ago many preachers were insisting that being able to speak in tongues was the definitive sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit, or upon receiving the Holy Spirit. Whether this is so can be answered with a good measure of certainty. On the other hand, it was sometimes said by preachers that being able to speak in tongues was the definitive sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Whether this is so cannot be answered with certainty. If this sounds confusing, let me clarify.
Words are important for theologians, and theology is what we are doing right now. Theology, as we have explained elsewhere in ALBERITH is to ask questions about God. And the question we are asking here is about what God had in mind regarding this thing we now call "baptism of the Holy Spirit." So, if you have not realized it already, we are theologizing. To do theology well we have to use our words properly. In the movie by #### The Last Emperor, Puyi's tutor, played by , told the young emperor, "A man who does not say what he means cannot mean what he says." His point, of course, is that we should be precise about what we are talking about.
Take the statement: "Speaking in tongues is a definitive sign of having been baptized in the Holy Spirit." Is this true? That depends. The expression, "baptized in the Holy Spirit" or "baptism of the Holy Spirit" is not a biblical expression and its exact definition is what we give to it. If we define that speaking in tongues is the definitive sign of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, then it is, by definition, true.
The question, "Is speaking in tongues the definitive sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit?" of "of having received the Holy Spirit?," is altogether a different kind of question. Here the definition is not up to us, but up to Scriptures. Scriptures use those two expressions, and the answer to that question can only be answered by recouse to what Scriptures say. For the rest of the article, therefore, we shall only attempt to answer the this question, Is speaking in tongues the definitive sign that a person has received the Holy Spirit.
The answer is clearly no.
When the early disciples were first "filled with the Holy Spirit" on the day of Pentecost, they spoke in tongues (Acts 2:4). When Peter and John laid hands on the Samaritan believers (Acts 8:14-19), something obviously spectacular happened. What it was were are not told. It may have been tongues. Equally, it was not. When Ananias laid hands on Saul and prayed for him, so that he may "see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 9:17-19), "immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptised, and after taking some food, he regained his strength." Here we can safely assume that Saul was "filled with the Holy Spirit" even though the text is silent about the matter. As the text is equally silent, he may have also spoken in tongues. Or he might not have done so. When Paul prayed for the disciples in Ephesus (Acts 19:6) "the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied."
Now, that is all the evidences upon which to answer our question. Two out of two is an even odd. At best we can conclude from this is that, speaking in tongues often accompanies being filled with the Holy Spirit. We overstretch our integrity to insist that it is the definitive sign of being so.
You may also be interested to read the article on Speaking in Tongues
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2017