Transcript HOW TONGUESSPEECH EMPOWERED EARLY PENTECOSTALS Gary B. McGee The gift of tongues  The traditional assumption about the failure of tongues as human languages 

HOW TONGUESSPEECH EMPOWERED
EARLY PENTECOSTALS
Gary B. McGee
The gift of tongues
 The traditional assumption about the failure of
tongues as human languages
 The expectation at the Topeka revival (1901) and
the Azusa Street revival (1906-9)—the ability to
speak in unlearned languages at will
 Pentecostals returned to the New Testament to
discover that tongues is really prayer in the Holy
Spirit (Rom. 8:26-7; 1 Cor. 14:2).
 By 1908, Pentecostals no longer believed in
tongues as a gift of languages for missionary
preaching.
Gary B. McGee
The gift of tongues
 This raises two major questions:
 Why didn’t Pentecostals mention their having to
return to the New Testament to find the biblical
meaning of tongues? Some allowance for
embarrassment must be given, but this doesn’t
adequately provide the answer.
 Why weren’t Pentecostals (generally) traumatized
by the disappointment and leave the fledgling
movement en masse?
Gary B. McGee
Early Pentecostals and
tongues
Gary B. McGee
 Throughout the earliest years of
the movement, Pentecostals noted
two functions with speaking in
tongues:
1. Preaching (?) in unlearned
languages (Acts 2:5-6): “Godly
Jews from many nations . . . . were
bewildered to hear their own
languages being spoken by the
believers.” Also: 1 Cor. 14:22:
“Speaking in tongues is a sign, not
for believers, but for unbelievers.”
(Isa. 28:11-12)
What really happened?
2.
Praying in tongues: Acts 2:11: “And we all hear
these people speaking in our own languages about
the wonderful things God has done;” Acts 10:45-6:
“The Jewish believers who came with Peter were
amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been
poured out upon the Gentiles, too. And there could
be no doubt about it, for they heard them speaking
in tongues and praising God.”
Also 1 Cor. 14:2: “For if your gift is the ability to
speak in tongues, you will be talking to God but
not to people, since they won’t be able to
understand you. You will be speaking by the power
of the Holy Spirit, but it will all be mysterious.”
Gary B. McGee
What really happened?
 THE FIRST VIEW—TONGUES FOR PREACHING—
HELD THE NOTORIETY THROUGH 1908.
 Announcement by Alfred G. Garr in an April 1908
issue of Confidence (U.K.) that he had “not seen
any one who is able to preach to the natives in
their own tongue with the languages given with
the Holy Ghost.” (Special Supplement to
Confidence, May 1908, p. 2)
 Reflects late 19th-century quest for the power of
the HS
Gary B. McGee
What really happened?

THE SECOND VIEW—TONGUES FOR PRAYER—
BECOMES THE ACCEPTED VIEW
 Recognition of tongues as more than a
linguistic tool for missions; a transforming
experience. Presbyterian missionary to India,
Max Wood Moorhead: “God has brought one
into the sphere of the supernatural, the sphere
of the Holy Ghost who can now work in and
through one’s being much more effectually.”
Gary B. McGee
What really happened?

Pentecostals listed the following dynamics:
1. Rapturous joy and love
2. Heightened sensitivity to the promptings of
the HS in personal prayer, corporate
worship,
and ministry.
3. The prerequisite to be a channel of the
charismatic gifts (1 Cor. 12:7-11)
4. Invigorated boldness to witness for Christ
5. Control of the “unruly member”—the
tongue (Jas. 3:8-10)
6. Ability to cast out demons
Gary B. McGee
What really happened?

For the most part, Wesleyan-holiness and Higher
Life believers would have said they received all
this as well when they were baptized (or sanctified)
in the Holy Spirit, and that without speaking in
tongues.
Gary B. McGee
Unusual expectancy
Gary B. McGee
Let’s look again at what
happened:
 Love—willingness to
cross cultural barriers
as demonstrated in the
Book of Acts. This was
“easier said than done”
among 20th-century
Pentecostals.
Nonetheless, though
without a perfect grade
on their scorecards,
they marked important
progress by 2007.
Prayer in the Spirit
 Intercessory prayer and
praise
Rom. 8:26b-27; 1 Cor.
14:2
 If not in unlearned
human languages, then
in the languages of
angels. 1 Cor. 13:1
Gary B. McGee
Ministry of HS
 Early Pentecostal literature reveals a more textured
theology of Spirit baptism than previously
acknowledged, focused not just on “doing,” but on
“being” as well. Even as first-century Christians
received divine power to speak the “wonders of
God” in “other tongues,” Pentecostals believed
prophetic speech as a charism would increase their
Christlikeness through individual prayer and
corporate worship. It was precisely here in their
vulnerability of stepping beyond the rational into the
Christian mystical arena of speaking glossolalic
Gary B. McGee
Ministry of HS
utterances that they told of
an augmented intuition in
the spiritual currents of
their hearts and learned to
obey the Spirit’s promptings
as God bestowed gifts for
the building of his church.
This subsequently reformed them into being
“partners with the Holy
Spirit” in mission.
Gary B. McGee
The central issue
 How can the church be renewed to accomplish
God’s mission in the world?
 Donald Gee: “In the final analysis, the Baptism
in the Spirit is not a doctrine, but an experience,
and the test of whether I have received is not a
cleverly woven doctrine that will include me
within its borders, but whether I know the
experience in burning fact in heart and life.”
(Untitled note, PE, August 11, 1923, p. 3.)
 Pentecostal spirituality only survives with a
revival every generation: Are we preparing a new
generation of seekers?
Gary B. McGee
Recommended reading
 Michael McClymond, ed., Encyclopedia of Religious
Revivals in America, 2 vols. (2006)
 Anthony D. Palma, The Holy Spirit: A Pentecostal
Perspective (2001)
 Roger Stronstad, The Prophethood of All Believers:
A Study in Luke’s Charismatic Theology (1999)
 Gary B. McGee, “’Brought into the Sphere of the
Supernatural’: How Speaking in Tongues
Empowered Early Pentecostals” (forthcoming in
Encounter—AGTS online journal)
Gary B. McGee