In light of the Strange Fire Conference, we just completed our mini series focused on the problem of Charismatic excess/Prosperity Gospel influence in Asia. The following are the links not only from the past two weeks but also over the years on Veritas Domain. Lord willing, if we were to write more on this topic we will put the links on here as well.
We continue with our closer look at Joseph Prince’s arguments for his position that every Christians should speak in tongues. For those who may not know, Joseph Prince is a Pentecostal preacher from Singapore, who’s popularity is felt not only in Asia but even here in the United States.
The video we have been examining is this particular clip from Joseph Prince’s channel:
Eight seconds into the video he tries to argue that it is biblical for Christians to ask other Christians whether they speak in tongues, implying that believers should speak in tongues:
One time the Apostle Paul passed by a group of people and he asked them, ‘Have you received the Holy Ghost?’ And the Bible says they were disciples, they were believers in Christ. ‘Have you received the Holy Spirit?’ he asked them. Now, today that is not the question we ask people after we see that they are saved. We don’t asked them, ‘Have you received the Holy Spirit?’ because it is insulting to many “denominations” to suggest that, to ask the question ‘Have you received the Holy Spirit?’ is insulting. Yet I think it is in Acts 16, or 19…and in Acts 19 when you look at it the Bible says that Paul passed by a certain region and then he found disciples. The word there is disciples. These are believers in Christ. Christians. And he asked them the question, ‘Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?’ So they said, “We never heard of anything called the Holy Spirit.’ ‘So unto what baptism were you baptized?’ “John’s baptism.’ Well Jesus said what? You will be baptized by the Holy Spirit. And the Bible says that he prayed for them, laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit and the Bible says what was the evidence for those of you on the page? They spoke with tongues and prophesied, right? So we don’t want to compromise just because some denominations are of the persuasion that tongues has ceased alright, we don’t want to compromise because our standard is the Bible. Can I get a good Amen?”
(0:08-1:35)
Joseph Prince is appealing to Acts 19. Let’s take a closer look:
1.) Prince makes much out of the point that its to “disciples” (verse 1) that Paul asked his question “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (verse 2). Specifically though, these disciples were those of John the Baptist since they didn’t know about the Holy Spirit (verse 2) and only knew about John’s baptism (verse 3). This observation should make us cautious in assuming these are regular New Testament Church era Christians.
2.) In light of the fact that they were John’s disciples who only knew up to the baptism of repentance and never even heard about the Holy Spirit, one must be sensitive to progressive revelation and how redemptive history unfolds. This particular episode is unique in that as the church began and started from Acts 2 onward, there were a number of believers who were disciples before hearing about the Holy Spirit such as John’s Disciples. Yet by God’s providence the Lord brought those like the Apostle Paul to fill them in about the Spirit. We expect that as the book of Acts progress, with the church growing more and more, that the number of such disciples of John who didn’t know about the Spirit would decrease. When we fast forward to today, there are not John’s disciples who haven’t heard of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, if one is sensitive to the context, Acts 19 is not a text to justify asking other Christians whether they have the Holy Spirit and implying that they should speak in tongues.
The Domain for Truth 