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THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY GHOST Dear Dr. Stanley: Thank you for the materials you sent that I received pertaining to my question, "Do you speak in an unknown tongue," that I asked in a letter that I sent you a month or two ago. That question that I asked you in my letter is a yes or no question. But I still don't have a yes or no answer from you. However, I think it's fair to surmise from the seven xeroxed pages you have sent, that the answer is no. From what I know of you, you're a born-again Christian, and basically teaching the Bible. I expect you are winning souls for the Lord Jesus. That is good. I'm a soul-winner, too. It is quite unfortunate that you don't speak in unknown tongues, since that means that contrary to what you thought, you do not have the Baptism with the Holy Ghost; you are not filled with the Holy Ghost, though you said you thought you were. You would have been more effective as a Preacher had Jesus baptized you with the Holy Ghost. I don't mean to say you're not doing some good for people. Nor is it that Jesus has discriminated against you, I expect. But He said, "Ask and you'll receive. Seek and you'll find." (Matt chapt 7) While it is shown by John the Baptist in each of the first four books of the New Testament that Jesus is the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost, one doesn't just automatically get the Baptism with the Holy Ghost just because he becomes a Christian, however, we see in Acts chapt. 10 that Cornelius received the Baptism with the Holy Ghost at about the same time he became a Christian. The Lord can do it that way, but in my experience, he usually doesn't. And how did Peter know that Cornelius had received the Baptism with the Holy Ghost? Because "they heard them speak with tongues..." (Acts 10:46) Since we know that Jesus was the baptizer with the Holy Ghost, consider that in the light of Heb. 13:8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever." So then, Jesus still is the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost. In Acts 19, Paul went to Ephesus and found Christians. He asked them, "Have you received the Holy Ghost" since they believed? They hadn't. Paul laid hands on them, and they received the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, and spoke in tongues. But of course, the very first Baptisms with the Holy Ghost were on the day of Pentecost. (Acts chapt. 2) Notice that in each of the three passages, Acts chapt 2, chapt 10, chapt 19, THE EVIDENCE OF THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY GHOST IS THE SPEAKING IN UNKNOWN TONGUES. Those who've not yet spoken in unknown tongues haven't received the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. In the seven pages you sent, you quote, "Do all speak with tongues?" The implication, of course, is that not all do. But Paul is talking about in the church not all speak with tongues. But at home in their personal prayer lives they should have been speaking in unknown tongues, and if they weren't, they were missing the perfect will of God for them. (Romans 12:2) You seem to think on your page 58 that in the New Testament, tongues are only mentioned in Mark chapter 16. You are quite mistaken. Tongues are spoken of in Acts chapter 2, chapter 10, and chapter 19. In 1 Cor. 14:18, Paul says, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all." In 1 Cor. 11:1, "Be followers of me, as I also am of Christ." You are not following Paul, as instructed, Brother Stanley if you're not speaking in unknown tongues. In Romans 8:26, "Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we don’t know what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Don't you see what it's saying there? We don't know what we should pray for in our native languages, so we pray in the Spirit, that is, in unknown tongues. In Jude verse 20, "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost," You build up yourself on your most holy faith, praying in unknown tongues. Or, rather, I do, and you don't. You mention the nine gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Cor. chapter 12, and come therefore to a conclusion regarding the tongues. No, sir, the tongues that come with the Baptism with the Holy Ghost are not mentioned in those nine gifts. You are wrongly dividing the scriptures. (2 Tim. 2:15) The Interpretation of Tongues is not tongues, it's words spoken in the known language, in our case, English. The "Divers Kinds of Tongues" is not the normal kind of tongues one gets when he receives the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. I believe divers kinds of tongues would have to be at least two unknown languages, and when we say unknown tongues, that means languages unknown to the person speaking them. As far as I know, I've not received Divers Kinds of Tongues, one of the nine gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor 12), but I've been Baptized with the Holy Ghost with the speaking in unknown tongues. You mention the rule of only two or three speaking in tongues, but that's in the church, in church services. For Christians praying at home, there is no such rule. You are wrong that the gifts of the Spirit were only for the early church, and not for today. No, they're for today also, even if multitudes of churches are not doing so. What it means is that multitudes are missing the will of God. Have you not heard of John Osteen, a Baptist preacher, who while studying the Bible, came to the conclusion regarding the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, "Well, what's wrong with it? It's scriptural." So John Osteen got the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. Then his church kicked him out. So he went and started Lakewood Church in Houston. Last I heard, they had thirty thousand people in that church. It would be good if you'd get kicked out for receiving the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. I expect you'd go out and build a larger church. It is always better to get kicked out for right doctrine rather than staying with wrong doctrine. You speak of the early church as carnal, and immature. I have news for you. So is today's church, and maybe even worse. I don't often use quotations not from the Bible, but one that I heard says, "The man who has an experience is never at the mercy of the man who merely has an argument." I am the man with the experience. I've been baptized with the Holy Ghost, with the speaking in unknown tongues. You are the man with merely an argument against what I have, and what no one will ever persuade me to turn loose of, no matter how well-intentioned they might be, nor how big a name they have on earth. Judgment Day will come, and many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. There's a book on earth, "Who's who." But the real "Who's who" comes out on Judgment Day, and the other one will be held in low esteem. Acts chapter 1 says, "You will receive power after the Holy Ghost shall come upon you." I have it; you don't. Of course, you might still get it. And if they needed additional power in the first century church, how much more do we need it now, when because iniquity has abounded, the love of many grows cold? (Matt. 24:12)
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