This morning as I was leaving the house to go to my sons first track meet I found a piece of paper attached to my door titled "I Am Not Ashamed"  I grabbed it and headed to the truck.  As we were driving to the meet in Dallas I took some time to read this 8 1/2  X 11 piece of paper and was amazed at how easy it is for Christians to twist the scriptures to make them seem to say what we want them to.

In this little article the author stated:

"The reason people gets saved & never go on is because they are not baptized with the Spirit. It is impossible to live the life God wants His children to live without this experience."

Immediately I picked up my Bible (the compact NET edition is great for leaving in the truck!) and turned to 1 Corinthians 12.  I read all the way through chapter 14 and could not seem to wrap my mind around the fact that there are some who teach that if you do not speak in tongues that you are either not saved or not assured of your salvation.  Are they not reading the same scriptures that I am?  Do they know something I don't?

Well yes and no.  Yes they are reading the same scriptures I am however they tend to cling to "proof texts" like Acts 19:2 While disregarding the plain reading of other scriptures like 1 Corinthians 12-14. The other questions answer is simply, no they do not know something that I don't.

I would like to take a minute to expound my own personal thoughts on the speaking of tongues and why I do not believe they are 'required' for every believer today to 'prove' their salvation.

1 Cor 12 we read of spiritual gifts.  The Corinithian church needed some explanations of what exactly Spiritual Gifts were. 

1 Cor 12:4 Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit.  So right from the start we know that what follows shows that there are a diversity of gifts within the one body.  These are listed starting in vs 8:

• message of wisdom (8)
• message of knowledge (8)
• faith (9)
• gifts of healing (9)
• miracles (10)
• prophecy (10)
• discernment of spirits (10)
• different kinds of tongues (10)
• interpretation of tongues (10)

We see here that the speaking of tongues is just one gift of the Spirit.  This list is followed by vs 11 "It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things" 1 Cor 12:11

When we continue reading it gives us the analogy of a body, there are eyes, ears, feet...although they are all different they belong to the same body.  Not every can be an eye, or ear or even a foot.  Everyone is gifted in the way the Spirit feels fit.  The idea of tongues being just one gift is further expounded : 1 Cor 12:27-28

"Now you are Christ's body, and each of you is a member of it.  And God has placed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, gifts of healing, helps, gifts of leadership, different kinds of tongues."

The "deal closer" that shows me that the speaking of tongues is NOT required evidence for salvation is found in the next few verses:

Not all are apostles, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all perform miracles, do they? Not all have gifts of healing, do they? Not all speak in tongues, do they? Not all interpret, do they? 1 Cor 12:29-30

So the teaching that to be saved a person MUST manifest the gift of tongues is clearly false.  There are many other scriptures that could be used however for the sake of this blog entry keeping it short is best! For more information I recommend the following articles from Bible.org

• Spiritual Gifts - series by Bob Deffinbaugh
• Speaking in Tongues- by Lehman Strauss

Don't forget to check all the articles and Q&A for both of these subjects using the "Master List of Topics" on the Main page of bible.org

~*All scriptures are NET unless otherwise noted*~