At seven fifteen Wednesday night, prayer meeting was underway at the church. Few people were there, but Howard already had them singing choruses. Emily and Hazel were backing him up, with vigor.
***
At seven fifteen, Don White was at home, looking irritably at his watch. He wasn't alone, but the group was small.
"There's nothing we can do, Don," said Ted Blacker. "We eliminated two board members by not including Pete and Donna, Carolyn has again 'chosen not to come,’ and the Graysons are missing. There's no sense even discussing this, and we are definitely not taking any votes."
"I told Paul to be here. Mag, call him again."
"I just did. They aren't home."
Don shook his head in frustration. "I don't understand where they can be!"
***
At seven fifteen, Paul and Jenny were just inside the Felton living room, being soundly embraced by a tearful pastor's wife. From there, they progressed to more hugs and handshakes with the Newsoms, Allens, Felton kids, Debbie, Bill, and Carolyn Curry. They ended up on the couch with Carolyn.
"I didn't expect to see you here, Carolyn." Paul said it casually, but he was perplexed.
"Nor I you, Paul." Carolyn was radiant. “But I couldn't be happier about anything!"
Evalyn was still visibly shaken, but she called the group to order. "Lord, I wish Josh was here!" she blurted out. Then she paused and smiled, and turned her exclamation into a prayer. "Not that we need him here, Lord. We have You, and we have each other, and we have Your word and Your promises. It would just be nice to have him, too! But we're ready, Lord, so lead us tonight where You want us to go, and we'll give You all the praise and all the glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.
"Last night, we had a glorious time here." Several "amens" interrupted her. "Well, if you remember Josh's lesson from last Sunday night, you shouldn't be surprised that that glorious time with God was quickly followed by some confusion."
"I'm sorry about that, Evalyn," said Bill, quietly.
"Oh Bill, there's nothing for you to apologize for! The Devil would have found some way to muddle things up - if not the way he did, some other way. Your intentions were the best. Besides, this gives us an immediate opportunity to tell Satan he's a liar, to bring more glory to God, and to learn more about what it means to be Christians."
"Ev," Paul interrupted, "For my and Jenny's sakes, will you explain what did happen last night? I'm sure I don't have a completely accurate picture." He laughed, a little self-consciously.
Evalyn described the events of the previous evening. "That's 'speaking in tongues’, isn't it?” Paul asked when she was finished.
"Yes, in two different forms. One, we were singing and praying to God in a way that bypassed our brains - our hearts were communing direct with His heart. Then, He spoke back to our hearts in 'tongues,' and then through an interpreter to our minds."
"Wasn't it confusing with everyone going on at the same time?" asked Jenny.
Several people started to protest. "On the contrary!" Carolyn answered for all of them. “It was the most orderly - the most beautiful - thing I have ever heard. The whole room seemed to be alive with God!"
"That's right," continued Harry. "It's the kind of thing that sounds confusing when you talk about it, but ‘orderly’ is an excellent word for it. It was full of emotion, but it was completely controlled."
Paul shook his head. "I believe you when I hear you say it. But because I haven't experienced it myself, and because there's so much teaching against it... "
"Like Pastor Deans!" exclaimed Bill. "I had no idea what a can of worms I was opening."
Evalyn laughed. "It must have been quite a shock to both of you. Our denomination doesn't preach against 'tongues,' like some do, but we don't preach for them, either. We just don't acknowledge them. Pastor Deans wouldn't have expected the subject to come up, and you wouldn't have known that there was any reason not to talk about it."
"But why should it be so controversial, other than that it is pretty spectacular?" asked Debbie.
"Bev and I can shed some light on that," began Harry. "We've had quite a bit of experience... "
"Both positive and negative," interrupted Beverly.
"For sure! Anyway, I guess Ev is the only other one of us who's had any previous connection with 'charismata,’ as they call it."
Everyone looked at Evalyn. "In my mother's church," she explained.
Harry continued. "There's been confusion about this ever since Pentecost, I think. You remember in 'Acts' that the Holy Spirit came ‘like a mighty wind,' in ‘tongues of fire,’ and everyone began to speak in different languages. Right away, some people were turned off by it. They thought everyone was drunk. But others were having the time of their lives, praising God and hearing God praised in many different voices."
"These are not drunken, as you suppose," quoted Pete.
"That's right. Peter (the other Peter, not our Pete) set things straight right away - about what was happening at the moment, but also about the miracles, signs, and wonders that were to follow, now that the Holy Spirit had come to empower Christians. But everybody couldn't receive that message then, just like some can't receive it, now. At first, the denials were simple: they're drunk, they're out of control. Later, after the Bible was put together, they found more sophisticated arguments. ‘Tongues shall cease’ is one scripture that is used a lot to ‘prove’ that the experience doesn't occur, anymore - at least, not from God, it doesn't."
"Where's that scripture?" asked Bill.
"First Corinthians 13 - the ‘love chapter’, of all places! If you read it in context... Well, let's do it." They read the first seven verses together. "You see, it starts right out talking about 'speaking in tongues of men and angels,’ but it's really talking about love. Nothing is any good if it isn't done in love. Okay, look at verse 8: 'Love will never come to an end.’ We're still clearly talking about love. Let's go on: ‘Are there prophets? Their work will be over. Are there tongues of ecstasy? They shall cease.' There it is."
"But Harry," Bill protested, "The verse goes on to say that knowledge will vanish, too. If you're going to claim on the basis of that verse that 'tongues of ecstasy’ have ceased, don't you have to also claim that knowledge has ceased? Does any church claim that?”
Harry shrugged. "Not that I know of," he replied, deadpan.
"Well, how could they?" exclaimed Jenny. "All this verse says is that love is more important than anything else, and that it will last when everything else is gone.” She looked around for confirmation. "Isn't that right?"
"That's certainly how I read it," said Harry.
"Well, why would Christians try so hard to refute something like this?” asked Bill.
"Confusion," said Harry.
"Fear," said Beverly.
"Which?" asked Debbie.
"Both," said Harry. "Certainly, the Bible is a little confusing on this subject. There's not a lot of talk about it specifically... "
"Why should there be?" interrupted Evalyn.
"I agree, why should there be? Unfortunately, the few places it is mentioned, you get very different signals about it. Paul (the apostle, not you, Paul) is obviously not thrilled with 'tongues.' In chapter 14 he says in essence: sure, you're talking to God, but that doesn't do me any good. Why don't you prophesy, so I can get something out of it?"
"The first of the 'me generation'," said Pete.
Harry laughed. "Right! But then in verse 5 he says that he wishes everybody could use the 'tongues of ecstasy.’ Oops, in verse 6 he says that 'tongues' are worthless to the congregation. No, by golly, in verse 15 he says he wants to pray both 'in the spirit’ and ‘intelligently.’ But wait for verses 23 and 24: if you're all praying 'in tongues,’ people will think you're mad. Then, in verse 26... "
"Harry," cautioned Bev.
He stopped. "Bev is calling attention to the fact that I'm getting carried away, but I think you see my point: if you wanted to misunderstand or disbelieve, Paul gives you plenty of opportunity, right there in two chapters."
"But really," protested Evalyn, "He puts it all back together starting in verse 26, and again at the very end of chapter 14. When you meet for worship, he says, one can contribute a hymn, another some instruction, another a revelation, another an ‘ecstatic utterance,' another an interpretation - just like we did. Then, at the end, he says it should be orderly, and it was."
"That's it," agreed Beverly. "Paul finally spits it out, even though he throws in a few 'ringers' along the way, like women keeping silent in church!"
"What's that all about?" asked Debbie.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Harry. "I don't know if we want to get into that, now."
"Why not?" asked Beverly. "It may actually help explain why Paul said some of the things he said about ‘tongues'."
He pondered a moment. "Okay, but this is just Harry talking now. Paul liked to preface some of his remarks with a sort of disclaimer, that he was speaking ‘with permission.’ What he meant was that he couldn't prove that what he was saying was the answer, but that it was an answer that he felt fit with what he knew of God's will. That's what I'm doing now. I don't think you'll find this written down anywhere in the Bible, but it rings true to me.
"I like Paul, but I like him as what he really was - a strong-willed, brand new Christian person - rather than as the god figure that some people make him out to be. I think his teachings become confusing when you make him larger than life. Think about who he really was. He was a man with a clear calling to lead a young church on toward maturity, and all in all he did a good job, considering the times and his surroundings and his own personality. He had been a leader in his former life, but what a leader! He was self-righteous to the point of killing people when he felt they were wrong. He had a wonderful conversion experience, just like all of us, but then he was immediately thrust into a leadership role that he had absolutely no background for. Think about how you were, immediately after accepting Christ: you were excited and eager, but you were pretty much the same old you. You believed in your salvation, but you certainly weren't ready to preach the gospel! Now, think about Paul: he was an extreme type, with a lot of bad attitudes to change, and no Bible to read and no pastor to teach him. I believe he was just like the rest of us, though. Sometimes, he let the Holy Spirit do his talking for him, and he was right on. Other times, he spoke like a man - a good organizer, and with his heart in the right place, so to speak - but one trying to relate to the church of the day, in which women were second-class citizens and there were still slaves, among other things. If we'll be honest with ourselves, and with each other, we'll have to acknowledge that Paul and Jesus were not always speaking the same language. If one of them was off base, I wonder which one it was!"
They were silent for a moment, thinking. Harry continued. "I thought that was going to take us off on a tangent, but maybe not. Maybe the big reason that the charismatic gifts have caused so much confusion in the church is that, like Paul, people have tried to make everything fit into their practical, rational world. If you can't see a reason for it, discard it. You know, religion as an emotional, supernatural part of life went underground during the so-called 'Age of Reason.' People like Descartes said that if you couldn't prove it scientifically, it didn't exist. That fit in really well with mankind's desire to control even God, if we could. Anything that smacked of the supernatural has to go. We can't prove it, and we're uncomfortable with it, so... "
"I can see why this has become so confusing,” ventured Jenny, "But what about fear as a reason for denying these gifts?"
"I think Harry was starting to get into that, too," said Beverly. "Being out of control, so to speak, is pretty scary to a lot of people. Giving up control, even to God, is viewed as dangerous. Interestingly, some parts of the Christian church that are very worried about being out of control - or of being controlled by something or someone else - are very heavy into control of their own membership. They're really weighed down with rules and regulations and prohibitions that are meant to protect Christians. In the best of circumstances, this grows out of love and concern, but when it even controls the Holy Spirit in the church and the individual, it's clearly gone too far."
"It's just as if they didn't trust God to deal directly with His people," said Evalyn.
"That's it, exactly," rejoined Bev, "And that's the essence of the fear I was talking about. They seem to fear Satan more than they trust God. If anything seems to be getting out of control - and I emphasize seems to be - they see it as an open door for the Devil."
"And last night could have seemed out of control," said Carolyn.
"Well, in fairness to the anti-tongues people, the charismatic folks have been known to get out of control," said Harry.
Bev snorted, and Harry laughed. "Bev knows what an understatement that is. Some groups have got so enthused about the emotional part - concentrating on the gifts, not on the Giver and His reason for giving them - that all kinds of excesses have occurred. And, unfortunately, probably everyone who has had an experience with ‘tongues,’ positive or negative, has a horror story to tell. They are misused at times, no doubt. People worship the charismata for its own sake. Churches have actually split up because of 'tongues.' Oh, there's no question the Devil can use it."
"But Harry," protested Bill. "That's throwing the baby out with the bath water! ‘Tongues' certainly aren't the only thing that Christians have misused, and that have caused trouble in churches."
"How about misuse of power?" suggested Pete.
"Or wrong teaching?" offered Donna.
“Or even improper emphasis on what is taught?" added Evalyn.
A pause gave Debbie a chance to say something that had been on her mind for some time. "I think I see why Ev said it was right that 'tongues' weren't mentioned much in the Bible. They aren't meant to stand by themselves, or to be treated differently than all the other things God does. They're just part of the way He works."
“That is what I meant," Evalyn confirmed. "We need to do it, and He needs to hear it and use it, but only because it's part of our total way to pray and praise Him."
"I agree with that," said Harry, "And I guess I need to say one more thing about it. Bev and I have been in and out of the so-called charismatic movement, and we've seen the supernatural gifts... No, wait, I don't want to use that term, because all God's gifts are supernatural. Let's say ‘showy' gifts. Anyway, we've seen the showy gifts emphasized to the point that pride in them gets so great that they're used almost as the basis for a new religion. The NRA is fond of saying that 'guns don't kill people;’ people do.' Well, ‘tongues’ don't cause trouble in church, but the people who glory in them and who claim that all Christians must speak in tongues, sure do! I can't find anything in my Bible that says every Christian needs to speak in tongues, either as a sign of the 'baptism of the Holy Spirit' or even as a part of our personal prayer life. I think you have to be willing and available to do whatever God wants you to do. Some Christians don't speak in tongues because they've decided that they won't. I think they're in trouble, because they've shut a part of their lives to God. If you will, then it's up to God whether or not you do!”
"And," concluded Beverly, "If that's the way you approach it - giving God complete control, that is - then there's no reason to fear that the Devil will mess it up. Remember: greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world."
* * *
Evalyn sat alone in the darkened living room. The kids were asleep. She had half expected Josh to call, but he didn't. No matter, she felt very confident. Everything was going to be okay.
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