John,
The online article on “The Irvingites and the Gift of Tongues” was very interesting. Makes you want to know more about this guy! I thought it was interesting how, at the very beginning of the article, the author describes Irving as “setting the foundation for the modern tongues movement”, as if speaking in tongues now was some new thing that Irving started. It’s the “Christian movement” that is the odd thing that quenched the Spirit which spoke in tongues in the first place!
It’s also pretty neat how this came up today. Just last night, I was wanting to read what was said about Jesus ascending to heaven in Acts 1. I decided to continue on into Acts 2, and I feel like Jesus let me see something about that scene more clearly.
The holy Ghost was first poured out on the disciples in the upper room in verses 2-4. What I had never noticed before was that they began to speak in tongues in that upper room, AND THEN the sound was heard and people from different nations and languages began to hear them speaking in their own languages. The disciples would likely not have been speaking in different foreign languages amongst themselves in the upper room, because they already spoke the same language. It wasn’t until they spilled out into the street and multitudes of people could then see and hear them that the speaking in tongues “morphed” into (or included) speaking in the different languages of the people that were there.
Am I seeing that correctly? This was pretty exciting to me, but I want to make sure I’m thinking of it rightly. There are so many today who excuse speaking in tongues as “not for today”, because it was only for the day of Pentecost, so the gospel could be heard and understood by everyone there. But it looks like the disciples began speaking in tongues BEFORE they began speaking in foreign (human) languages.
Vince
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Thanks, Vince. I had never noticed that, either. There would have been no point in the disciples speaking in languages men could understand until they were outside, where men were. It may be that the followers of Jesus on Pentecost morning were speaking in languages unknown on earth until they went outside, overpowered by the gift of God.
Pastor John
For those who read this email, here is the URL concerning the Spirit-filled saints in Scotland and England whom Christians slandered as “Irvingites”:
https://charlesasullivan.com/1826/the-irvingites-and-the-gift-of-tongues