Out of the Darkness Part 4: Paul the "heretic", the Holy Spirit, and speaking in tongues

Finally, let's talk about those things that the apostle Paul said about the Holy Spirit which I facetiously called "heresy" in Part 1 of these posts.

I'm going to share a little secret with you. While it may look like these series of posts are intended solely as a defense for YM Yang, the truth is his individual situation is not and was never my main concern. If the IA is correct about him and he really is a false prophet, then he will quickly fade into obscurity. On the other hand, if the IA is incorrect about him and the messages he preaches are truly from the Holy Spirit, it will not matter what the IA does to him, the Holy Spirit will continue to work in him no matter that title he holds, what church he belongs to, or whom the audience of his ministry is, as long as he does not give up.

So these posts are intended to address much broader and systemic questions about doctrine, truth, church organization, and more. What happened to Pr. Yang is really just a canary in the coal mine. And if we, meaning every member of the body of Christ, don't take steps to recognize the warning signs, wake up, and take action to improve the church, the situation will only get worse.

To me, as to many of you, the central and most disturbing accusation against Pr. Yang is that he allegedly preached heresy about the Holy Spirit. Specifically, the accusation against him is that he preached that speaking in tongues is not the evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit.

The accusation is a serious one, so I decided to get to the bottom of it not by relying on third party accounts or hearsay but by going straight to the horse's mouth. Specifically, on September 2, 2012 I went to hear Pr. Yang for myself as he gave a Bible Seminar in Elizabeth, NJ. I attended other sessions with him in New Jersey in 2013. And then again earlier this year on June 27 I attended services that were held in Bridgewater, NJ where Pr. Yang again shared some words.

Mind you, I have been a True Jesus Church member for almost 50 years. My mother was a deaconess in the church in Elizabeth. My grandmother was a deaconess in the church in Nanjing. As for my grandfather, members of the Taichung church to this day still speak lovingly of him, remembering him as the old man who sat in the front of the chapel each Sabbath and loudly proclaimed "Hallelujah!" after each service before turning around and smiling and nodding at the congregation. What most Taiwanese members don't realize was that he was a personal friend of General Chiang Kai Shek and that he turned down a high position in the Nationalist government so he could focus on his family and his faith.

When my mother was a teenager she was at the point of death and Elder Isaac Wei, the son of Paul Wei, laid hands on her and she was completely healed by God. As for me, I received the promised Holy Spirit at age 10 and when I did I spoke in tongues.

As ridiculous as it is to hear me rattling off my curriculum vitae, I mention all these things only to make a point to those who need me to make it. I'm not some impressionable new believer who can be easily brainwashed by some flim flam artist. I'm not some little rat in Hamelin who's been mesmerized by the dulcet tones of the Pied Piper. I am a brother in Christ who is trying his best, like you, to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. I was baptized the same way you were. I can recite the same Bible verses as you, I pray the same way you do, I take the Holy Communion just like you. I attended and graduated from SSCs, NLMSes, NYTSes, NATSes, and the whole alphabet soup of seminars that our church offers. And like you, I know the Basic Beliefs backwards and forwards, I believe them, and I can defend them with the best of you.

Having said all of that I'll say something else, again, it's sad that I have to but I do. Despite my "credentials" as a member of the True Jesus Church, this post, and in fact this entire blog, is written in the spirit of sharing my own personal observations and experiences. They could be spot-on, they could be completely off.

So for those of you ready to declare that I am a prophet of the Lord declaring the very words of God, as well as those of you who are ready to declare that I am sent from Satan to deceive you, please stop. Just stop it. Instead of worrying about the spirit that is within me, focus on the spirit that is within you. Read what I have to say, pick out the things the Spirit is telling you are correct, and toss out the things the Spirit is telling you aren't. And if there are things the Spirit is telling you are correct, explore them more fully and get into an even deeper understanding than I have. And then share it with others.

And, by the way, this is the very attitude you should have not just about me but about anyone who shares the Word of God with you, from the smallest child to the most seasoned elder.

In sermons, we sometimes hear from the pulpit that we are not supposed to do certain things. We are not to listen to sermons from ministers in other churches. We are not to read religious books published by people outside our church and if we do, they should only come from a list of books that a minister approved. And most relevant to this incident, we're being instructed from the pulpit not to listen to Pr. Yang's preaching--the warning is that if you expose yourself to such "heresy" you'll instantly be brainwashed and start going down a path to hell.

This is hogwash. Now I'll agree with a few principles. First, I do agree that brand new believers need to be very careful. There are lots of false prophets and false teachings out there in the world, and for someone new to the faith IMO it's best for them to stick to just studying the Bible itself, the so-called "elementary teachings". Their focus should be on building up their relationship with the Lord.

That said, if you've been a long-time believer and find yourself petrified that you'll somehow be bewitched simply by exposing yourself to any teaching outside of what you hear on a True Jesus Church pulpit every Saturday--what does that say about your own faith? Do you still look at yourself as an infant, able to be tossed back and forth by the waves? Or is your faith a little more grounded than that? Do you believe in the power of the promised Holy Spirit that is within you and do you trust Him to lead you into all truth?

So with that, I'm going to talk to you very specifically here and in subsequent posts, about the "heresy" that Pr. Yang was accused of speaking against the Holy Spirit.

In this post I'm going to share my personal thoughts on the Holy Spirit. In the next post I'm going to share with you the "official" charges that the IA leveled against Pr. Yang during the WDC in which they voted to excommunicate him. I will lay everything out as far as what I was able to find after talking with both sides, and you can decide for yourself.

If at this point you're still petrified that I'm going to somehow brainwash you, please do me a favor. Close your browser, shut down your computer, throw your computer out the window, and go hide under your bed for the next week or two until it's all passed. But otherwise, I invite you to read the rest of this post and the next few posts with an open mind, asking the Spirit to help you see if there is any truth at all behind anything I write.

How It All Started

Because I really, really wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on, I asked a LOT of people for their perspective on how the Pr. Yang incident had gotten to where it was. As I said before, I heard a lot of generalities on both sides and not very many specifics. And so I tried to filter my way through all the finger-pointing and emotions and get down to specifics.

After asking many, many people one brother told me about an incident years ago where this whole mess seems to have originated.

Again, I'll provide a disclaimer. As far as the brother who told me this, I have known him for a long time and know him to be a honorable person who loves God. There would be no reason for him to lie to me and even if he did, I don't think he could have come up with a lie that was so detailed in the specifics. But again, I ask you to pray and ask the Spirit to help you discern whether any of what I write is someone's fabrication or are the facts.

The story goes that there was a spiritual convocation in Europe. At this event there was a certain elder preaching on the pulpit. He specifically cited those who did charity work under a Buddhist charity and said that regardless of how good their deeds were God would not remember their work. He went on to say that this applied even for members of the True Jesus Church who did good deeds. Regardless of how many good deeds a True Jesus Church member did, if he or she did these good deeds without having received the Holy Spirit as evidenced by praying with tongues, God would not remember their work either.

Because I wasn't there to hear these actual words, I won't go any further than this as far as identifying who this elder was nor stating unequivocally that I am sure these were the exact words he preached.

A lot of members in that meeting, especially the youth, were disturbed by this message. And so in the next session, Pr. Yang corrected this elder publicly. In retrospect, maybe Pr. Yang should have approached it a little more gently than he did, especially since this elder came from a culture where saving face is so important. But what's done is done.

In his correction, the way I heard it, Pr. Yang said that once a person was baptized that person becomes a child of God. And once someone is a child of God, yes, even if that person does not speak in tongues yet the Holy Spirit can and will still work within him or her. And of course, his or her good deeds would be remembered by God.

If you think about it, there's truth in both statements. The elder is speaking from a perspective of God's judgment. If we are to assume, as our doctrine denotes, that you must receive the promised Holy Spirit in order to be saved, then theoretically if you haven't received it, whatever good deeds you do won't matter. But the minster was speaking from a perspective of God's mercy. We know our God to be a merciful God. Regardless of what the letter of our doctrine implies, is it really true that God will not even remember good deeds done by someone who was baptized and therefore someone he considered his child and a member of the body of Christ?

As far as I can tell this little incident so many years ago was what started this whole mess. The elder went on to a high level position in the church. The minister continued ministering in his local church and to many around the world who found his unique style of preaching to be refreshing.

Here's where the accounts start to differ. Those in support of Pr. Yang insist that this elder misused his authority and "power" to start a process that methodically stripped Pr. Yang of his job and ultimately of his church membership. Those who oppose Pr. Yang insist that everything that transpired is justified because this incident was only the tip of the iceberg as far as "heresy" he preached against the doctrines of the church and that if he persisted he would destroy the faiths of many.

But let's put aside all that human drama, emotion, and hyperbole and explore exactly what was said on that particular day. Was what Pr. Yang said in correction of that elder really "heresy"?

Let's look at Galatians 3:26.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Let's also look at Romans 8:14.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 

Looking at just these two verses it says that all who were baptized into Christ are children of God. And it also says that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. So which is the correct statement? Or are they both correct? Is it possible that those who have been baptized but have not received the promised Holy Spirit can still be led by the Spirit of God?

I don't want to make this into a logic puzzle nor a game of semantics, because these are matters of the Spirit. And as such, I implore you not to just read this with your mind, but to pray and ask the Lord to lead you into the truth.

So Let's Talk About the Holy Spirit

Most of us know about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but let's just recap.

In the Greek version of the New Testament there are essentially two words that are used that translate to the word "gift" in English. The first is δωρεά, which can be transliterated to dórea. It's defined as "a free gift", or a gift that's not acquired by merit or entitlement. You see this word used in conjunction with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38, Acts 8:20, Acts 10:45 and Acts 11:17, as well as Hebrews 6:4.

The second is χάρισμα, which is transliterated into charisma, Its meaning? Apparently technically it's pretty much the same definition. It's a "gift of grace", an "undeserved favor". In the Bible, it's most notably used by Paul when describing the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians, namely in 1:7, 7:7, 12:4, 12:9, 12:28, 12:30, and 12:31. It's also used in context of the Holy Spirit in 1 Timothy 4:14 and 1 Peter 4:10.

Luke, Paul, and Peter appeared to have been very, very deliberate in their choice of words when speaking of one "gift of the Holy Spirit" versus the other in context.

What makes this all a little tricky is that the word "Holy Spirit" in Greek, Ἁγίου Πνεύματος, transliterated as Hagiou Pneumatos, is the same word regardless of which Greek word for "gift" is used. And when Hagiou Pneumatos is used in a passage without dórea or charisma sometimes it's tricky to figure out whether which "gift" of the Spirit is being described, or in fact if neither gift is being described and the passage simply talks about the Holy Spirit himself.

I've been reading the Bible for almost 50 years and even I can't figure it all out, as doing so does require some spiritual wisdom. But if we call ourselves the true church, these are all matters we should all be exploring, not reciting 20 words of dogma as the totality of our understanding of the Holy Spirit. And because the Holy Spirit is within us, we shouldn't have to refer the question to some committee to answer--God will put the answer in our hearts.

Perhaps further complicating things, elsewhere in the Bible the words Πνεύματι Θεοῦ (Pneumati Theou) are used, literally "the Spirit of God". Again, where these words are used, is it referring to the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help the church, or just the Spirit in another context? Again, this requires some spiritual wisdom to fully understand.

But let's talk specifically about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those who haven't proceeded past an elementary understanding of the Holy Spirit will understandably conflate the two. So let's be clear about what each of them mean.

When the Bible speaks of dórea, it's in the context of the Holy Spirit that abides within you. Sometimes this will be referred to as "the promised Holy Spirit" or "the indwelling Holy Spirit". According to our church's understanding of the truth, in 1917 Paul Wei was the first to have received the instructions from the Lord about the proper mode of baptism. We believe that this revelation to Wei was a restoration of the "one baptism" spoken of in Ephesians 4:5 and that upon receiving this "one baptism" and having our sins washed away, we can once again receive the promised Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts permanently. And we believe, because we've observed it and experienced it exactly as described in Scripture, that the evidence of receiving the promised Holy Spirit is in speaking in tongues.

However, when the Bible speaks of charisma, the Bible isn't speaking of a different Holy Spirit or of a "lower class" of Holy Spirit, as if such a thing could even exist. There is one Holy Spirit. I hope we can all agree on that point.

And in 1 Corinthians, Paul speaks of gifts that God will give to people through the Holy Spirit with a specific purpose of helping the body of Christ.

One vital thing to understand about charisma is that nowhere in the Bible does is say that in order to receive these gifts one needs to speak in tongues. To the contrary, Paul writes about chaotic situations in the church where members would stand up and start speaking in tongues but there was no one who could interpret what they were saying. Paul's advice to these people was to sit down and remain silent. Why? Because even if these people were truly inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak in tongues, if there was no one to interpret then such prophesying simply wasn't intended to be used to teach others. Most likely, it was something that was intended simply to edify that individual alone (e.g., someone received dórea but for whatever reason presumed to stand in front of the congregation as if it were charisma). 

What's the Difference Between Praying in Tongues and Preaching in Tongues?

There's a lot of confusion about what it means to "speak in tongues" in prayer vs. "preach in tongues". I think in our early church history there were a lot more examples of members preaching in tongues but because we don't see it a lot nowadays I think the confusion is understandable. So allow me to give my own understanding.

Around 1977 or 1978 the Elizabeth church had grown to the point where it could hold a Spiritual Convocation. I was only about eight years old that summer, but I remember it distinctly. The church had rented out a large camp site and we'd have services in a beautiful setting in the woods.

I remember one evening we were all praying together. Suddenly when the prayer ended I heard my mom continuing to pray loudly on the other side of the room. As the room got quiet after prayer she very loudly shouted something to the effect of "be in unity!" and repeated it several times.

Later I, along with the rest of the congregation, learned the full story. There were two visitors who happened to be at that campsite and came to attend some of the services. They loved what they heard about the truth of baptism. They asked to be baptized then and there. The evening prior to that prayer service the church board had met to discuss whether the church should baptize these two people. There was bitter and loud disagreement. Some insisted that as Philip did with the Ethiopian the church should not hold back. Others insisted that the church could not baptize these two people if they would not commit to attending the True Jesus Church and continuing to grow in the church. After an evening of contention and fighting, the board ended the evening without any resolution.

Here's the funny thing. Mom was a board member but she missed the board meeting the night earlier because she was tired and decided instead to go back and rest with my dad, my brother and sister, and me. So she had no idea of anything that happened in the meeting. And so when the members of the church board heard mom shouting those words they knew instantly that the Holy Spirit was speaking directly to them. They made a decision immediately to baptize these two visitors.

I remember asking mom what it felt like. She described it in a very detailed way to me. She said she was praying using the tongues she always used. But then she heard her tongue "change". And then she simply shouted out the words she did. She had an excellent knowledge of the Bible so she knew exactly what was happening to her. When she prayed, she was using the gift of the promised Holy Spirit (dórea). But because God needed her that night, He gave her this temporary gift (charisma) of preaching in tongues and interpreting her own tongues. After that, I think maybe this happened to her one or two more times, but none after that. Mom's real charisma gift which she used literally until her last days on earth was in counseling, a gift that she used to help lots of members.

So to summarize, receiving the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit is different than receiving gifts of the Holy Spirit to help the church.

So Can Someone "Have the Holy Spirit" Without Speaking in Tongues? 

That's a great question, and it really depends on your definition of what "have" means.

I'm going to provide my personal opinion, and quite bluntly, as far as the specifics of my opinion it probably differs slightly from BOTH the official IA dogma and Pr. Yang's preaching. And you know what? That's okay.

If I had to trace back my own understanding of the Holy Spirit, it was probably influenced most by Elder John Wu in New Jersey, but also through my own study of Scripture and experiences. Am I saying that my opinion is the one true opinion? Of course not. But for that matter neither should anyone else. We should all be constantly growing in our understanding of the truth. Because God reveals different things to each of us, and it's by humbly sharing what God has given each of us that we can all attain unity and perfection, not by beating down or throwing out people with whom we differ.

So can someone "have the Holy Spirit" without speaking in tongues?

If you're talking about dórea, the gift of the promised Holy Spirit, my opinion is no. We all know full well that in Acts 8:15 and 16, there were believers who were baptized but had not received the Holy Spirit. We also know in Acts 19:5 and 6 that the believers in Ephesus had to be re-baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and that it wasn't until Paul placed his hands on them that the Holy Spirit came on them.

But wait a minute. 1 Corinthians 12:3 says that "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit". And 1 Peter 4:14 says that if you are insulted because of the name of Christ you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. And then in 1 John 4:2, John said that every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. As you saw above, in Romans Paul says that all who are baptized are considered children of God, but in Galatians he also says that all who are led by the Spirit are considered children of God.

Something doesn't add up there, right? There are plenty of people who aren't even baptized members of the True Jesus Church who say "Jesus is Lord", or who are insulted because of the name of Christ, or who acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Should we get new Bibles that redact these verses because they seem to conflict with our church's Basic Beliefs?

The truth is, the Holy Spirit can work with anyone. It's a dangerous notion to think that the Holy Spirit is something unique to someone who has received dórea, or for that matter unique to the True Jesus Church. That's putting the Holy Spirit into a little box, as if he were a prize in a Cracker Jacks box. It's limiting the Spirit's power. Jesus himself said that the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. Different people may have different interpretations of this verse, but to me it simply says that the Holy Spirit is not something you can define in 20 words and tie up with a neat little bow.

You've no doubt heard the accounts of the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East by ISIS. When ISIS takes over new territory, whether in Mosul or Ramadi or Fallujah, the pattern is clear. ISIS goes from house to house. If they identify the house as one with Christians in it, they'll paint a red "ن", the letter in the Arabic alphabet equivalent of "N". It stands for "Nazarene". This is an open invitation for others to come into the house and plunder all of its contents and root out anyone hiding in them. Men would be taken and executed on the spot, sometimes by beheading, sometimes by crucifixion. But not before they saw the fate of their wives and their children. Their women would be brutally raped. Their children, as young as 9, would be sold to soldiers to have sex with over and over again. The persecution that these followers of Christ face are more horrific than almost anything you can imagine, perhaps just as horrific or worse than any Christians have ever faced in history. And there's no one to help them.

And yet they could have avoided this very easily. All these Christians had to do was to convert to Islam, or even just pretend that they converted to Islam, and they and their families would have be spared this horror. And yet over and over again they refused to deny the name of Christ.

Do you even dare to suggest that these followers of Jesus Christ will not be remembered by God because they don't speak in tongues like you do? Do you dare suggest that their courage in the face of certain death and worse was completely by their own human will and not by the power of the Holy Spirit?

I'll give another example.

Some of you might know that I worked on the English language hymnal in the early 1990's. As part of that project, I tried hard to track down the original English versions of several hymns.

There were a number of hymns I never tracked down until recently. Here's one of them. I'll give you the version as written by the True Jesus Church, as well as the version written by the original author. If you want to play along at home, turn to hymn 253 in your hymnal.

The True Jesus Church Version

1.
Jesus said when bidding them farewell, "In a little while I'll come again"
What a precious gift to us He gave; Promised Holy Spirit to all men

Refrain:
He is here! He is here! O what blessed news we hear, 'Tis the Saviour dear!
Come repent and with zeal welcome Him to our hearts; He is here, the Promised Spirit is here!

2.
He has sent His Spirit to be here, By that power all sinners are healed,
Pow'r that over Satan shall prevail; Truth and grace in Him shall be revealed.

3. 
He has said that when the Spirit comes, We will receive power from above.
He will teach us all that we should say, Witness for Him 'til that glorious Day.

The Original Version

1. 
“I will pray the Father", Jesus said, "He will send the Spirit in my stead";
Answered is his condescending prayer: He has come the promised Comforter.

Refrain: 
He has come to abide, The Comforter has come to abide;
Bid him welcome today, every door open wide, For the Comforter has come to abide.

2.
He in love and never-failing grace, Makes the heart his chosen dwelling place;
Wondrous temples of the Holy Ghost, Cleansed and saved to the uttermost.

3. 
For this fulness all my being cries; On the altar is my sacrifice,
All I am, or have, or hope to be, Thine, O Lord, henceforth, eternally.

4.
Very God in truth I know thou art, Holy Spirit come and fill my heart;
Cleanse the temple, idols all dethrone, Reign in power within and reign alone.

I want you to try an experiment. Take the first version that was written by a True Jesus Church member who prayed in tongues. Sing it. Then, take the second version that was written by a Methodist Episcopalian and sing that.

Which version lifts your heart more and makes you want to praise God more?

The True Jesus Church version is laughable. The poetic meter is all wrong--there are times where you're forced to mispronounce words like "Spir-IT" and "pow-ER". The grammar is way off. Something else you see in a lot of these "Adapted from Hymns of Worship, 1977" hymns is overuse of contractions to squeeze words into the music ("pow'r", "'tis", in some hymns you can even see nonsensical words like "sp'rit"). The rhymes are either off or feel like they're straight out of a rhyming dictionary. And some of the phrases are borderline laughable. What does "'tis the Saviour dear" mean? Can you even recite a tongue twister like "Come repent and with zeal welcome him to your heart" much less sing it? And how can you sing the last line without it sounding like you're saying "He is here--THE PROMISED SPEAR--IT IS HERE!!!"

Now some of you might get a little defensive here and say I'm just being mean. After all the holy worker responsible for these words surely tried his hardest, and he's going to feel hurt and offended when I so callously mock his hard work. To all of you worried about this, don't worry. I won't.

Now compare it to the words written by Mrs. C.H. Morris. They are completely in accordance with Scripture. They are beautifully poetic. When I sing I don't cringe; to the contrary I'm lifted up. Yes, I DO want to bid the Holy Spirit welcome today. I DO want the Spirit to cleanse my heart. I DO want to give all I am or have or hope to be to God.

Again, did Mrs. C.H. Morris write these words solely based on her own human skills, or were these words at least in some way inspired by the Holy Spirit?

By the way, and if the hymn writer's name sounds familiar, maybe it's because she also wrote this:

Nearer, still nearer, close to Thy heart, 
Draw me, my Savior—so precious Thou art! 
Fold me, oh, fold me close to Thy breast. 
Shelter me safe in that “Haven of Rest”; 
Shelter me safe in that “Haven of Rest.” 

Nearer, still nearer, nothing I bring, 
Naught as an offering to Jesus, my King; 
Only my sinful, now contrite heart. 
Grant me the cleansing Thy blood doth impart. 
Grant me the cleansing Thy blood doth impart. 

Nearer, still nearer, Lord, to be Thine! 
Sin, with its follies, I gladly resign, 
All of its pleasures, pomp and its pride, 
Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. 
Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. 

Nearer, still nearer, while life shall last. 
Till safe in glory my anchor is cast; 
Through endless ages ever to be 
Nearer, my Savior, still nearer to Thee; 
Nearer, my Savior, still nearer to Thee! 

I remember during the times in the mid-1990's when I was stricken with a deep depression, this was one of the hymns that brought comfort to my soul. I'd belt it out when I was completely alone and afraid in the darkness of night, and invariably tears would start rolling out of my eyes. Not because I was sad but because in my darkest moment I was reminded that wherever I was in life and whatever I was going through Jesus Christ still loved me and was holding me close to his heart. And that was enough to bring comfort to my soul and strength to survive to another day.

When Leila Morris wrote this hymn, as well as others like "Let Jesus Come Into Your Heart" and about 1,000 others, can anyone look me in the eye and say that just because she didn't pray in tongues that she didn't have the Holy Spirit working through her?

Hopefully you're starting to see my point. The True Jesus Church was given a very precious gift when Paul Wei became the first to receive instruction about baptism. And many of us who have been baptized with that baptism have experienced first-hand the phenomenon of receiving the promised Holy Spirit, something I have yet to witness in any other church.

But somehow I feel as if we have co-opted this blessing given by God into a perquisite to be doled out by the church. And we've taken something as miraculous as the truth of the Holy Spirit and built walls of human precepts around it.

Here's an example of what I mean, something that we all see every day in our churches.

Can someone who has not received the promised Holy Spirit do church work? 

Since I can remember the church has had a rule in the church that unless someone has received the gift of the promised Holy Spirit (dórea), that person is not allowed to do certain kinds of church work.

Now as I said in a previous post I received the promised Holy Spirit in 1980 when I was 10 years old, during the first-ever Student Spiritual Convocation in Elizabeth. I have an older sister, two years older than me. She didn't receive the promised Holy Spirit until many years later. But for those of you who know her you know she is a remarkable person. She graduated at the top of her class in high school and again with highest honors from Princeton University before getting her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. Not only is she smart, she has amazing talents from God. She is a brilliant writer, she can play the piano, she knows her Bible just as well or better than me, she loved the kids in church and they loved her back, she has impeccable character, and she loves the Lord. She was a highly respected leader of multiple organizations in high school and would have made an amazing RE coordinator. Heck, she would even have made a great church board member. But because she hadn't received the promised Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues she was barred from doing church work for many, many years.

Me on the other hand? Very quickly after I received the Holy Spirit I was assigned to all kinds of work. I was put in charge of creating Elizabeth's AV system. I became an RE teacher shortly after. I was assigned to lead hymns. Eventually I was leading Bible Studies, giving sermons, elected to the church board, elected to the NCC, and so on.

It was almost as if two classes of citizens emerged. On the one hand you had those who spoke in tongues who were allowed to do all kinds of church work. These were the golden children who were lifted up as examples for everyone else. And on the other hand there were the have-nots. These were the poor souls who in every prayer meeting had to do the perp walk to the front of the chapel so they could receive the laying on of hands as they prayed for the Holy Spirit. While others were leading hymns, and playing the piano, and teaching RE classes, and giving sermons, and leading Bible Studies, these people were treated as second class citizens. And ironically, even though their services were desperately needed by the church they were not welcome.

First of all, where in the Bible does it even say that in order to work for the church you have to have the promised Holy Spirit, i.e., speak in tongues? To the contrary, as we noted above, in 1 Corinthians 14:23, there were those who were able to speak in tongues, but Paul berated them because these people presumed that their tongues were intended to edify the public when their tongues were only intended to edify themselves.

Three decades later I look back now and shake my head. My sister is just one example. Over the years, how many times has the Lord blessed us with talented people who could help His church, only for us to reject them because they didn't pray in tongues or meet some other artificial outward standard? Every day in your own churches, if you open your eyes, you'll witness members who don't yet have the promised Holy Spirit winning others to Christ. You'll hear them speak even in casual conversation words that teach you and touch your heart. You'll observe their characters as being pure, dedicated, and faithful to the Lord. Is this all from their own human effort, or is the Holy Spirit working in them?

Does Dorea Really Qualify You for Any Kind of Church Work Imaginable?

Let's look at it from another angle.

Like I said in an earlier post, I served on a church board. And when it came time to vote on whether a certain brother and sister should be assigned to a certain job, invariably only one question would be asked, "did they receive the Holy Spirit". If the answer was yes, then usually the vote was unanimous.

It always struck me that in a lot of cases, no one even knew the person they were voting on. And very rarely did we talk about the person's actual qualifications for the job.

And just as the church fails to assign members who may have gifts from the Holy Spirit to church work, almost worse we seem to presume that once someone receives the promised Holy Spirit and starts praying in tongues they're automatically qualified to do anything.

To put it bluntly, we have sermon speakers who really shouldn't be up there. But because a church board (some of whom may never have even spoken to this person, much less heard him give a sermon) listened to him praying in tongues, decided that he's "filled with the Holy Spirit" on account of that, and took a democratic vote, they start putting them on the schedule. Never mind looking out for whether this person actually has the gift nor even the passion necessary to pursue the gift.

This is not to say that the church should take anyone off the street and have them start teaching RE or preaching sermons. But then again, let's say there's a member who maybe has been a member of the church for a long time, clearly has gifts from God, knows their scriptures and the doctrines of the church left and right, and who accurately and powerfully preaches--but the only difference is that he hasn't received the indwelling Holy Spirit. And compare him to someone else who was baptized two months ago and received the promised Holy Spirit. Which of the two would you rather have teaching your child? Which do you think the Lord would rather have teaching his children?

While I'm on the subject, there's another common misunderstanding of the truth that pervades the True Jesus Church today, and that has to do with "fullness of the Holy Spirit".

Tongues and the Fullness of the Holy Spirit

I heard rumors, which I haven't yet been able to confirm yet, that the IA and the World Delegate Conference a few years ago passed a resolution declaring that our Basic Belief on the Holy Spirit should read "To be filled with the Holy Spirit is evidenced by the speaking of tongues". If this sounds a little different than what you grew up understanding, it's because it is different. Evidently it was only in recent years that they altered this phrase to read "to be filled with the Holy Spirit".

I haven't yet been able to find any records of these meetings to verify whether this actually happened, but if it did, there is more untruth in this sentence than in anything that Pr. Yang ever said. Why?

It's simple. Show me where in the Bible it says that speaking in tongues is the same as "being filled with the Holy Spirit".

In Acts 2:4, it says the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. Read this verse carefully. These are two independent clauses. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. The disciples began to speak in other tongues. The conjunction "and" is used, not the conjunctive adverb "therefore". It's a very big stretch to take this verse and conclude "all who speak in other tongues are filled with the Holy Spirit".

But if you're not convinced, let's look at other places in the Bible where it's recorded that someone is "filled with the Holy Spirit".

In Acts 4:8, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, addresses the members of the Sanhedrin. It doesn't record Peter speaking in tongues at this point.

In Acts 4:31, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Again, was the place "shaken" because their tongues were so loud that it caused the building to literally vibrate? Or does the term "shaken" here refer to the atmosphere in the room being excited, stirred up, and agitated? Regardless, to use this verse to "prove" that speaking in tongues is a sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit is dubious.

In Acts 6:3 when the apostles were choosing deacons to help them wait tables, they chose seven men who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. Was the primary way someone knew them to be full of the Spirit whether they prayed in tongues? Or did they perhaps observe other things?

In Acts 7:55, Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit before he died. Did he start speaking in tongues at that point?

In Acts 9;17, Ananias tells Saul that he will see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Bible goes on to describe what happened--something like scales fell from his eyes, he got up, he was baptized, he ate some food, and he regained his strength. The Bible doesn't describe Paul speaking in tongues at that point.

In Acts 13:9, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit when he spoke against Elymas the sorcerer. The Bible records the words Paul said but doesn't record him speaking in tongues.

In Acts 13:52, the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The Bible doesn't mention that they spoke in tongues at this point. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.

In Ephesians 5:18, Paul exhorts the church in Ephesus to be filled with the Spirit. Is he telling them they need to pray in tongues more? Or is he saying something else?

Hopefully you're starting to see the point. Any statement along the lines of "speaking in tongues is the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit" is simply an incorrect statement.

Yes, when you receive the promised Holy Spirit you speak in tongues. But that is only the starting point. From there, you need to rely on the daily presence of the Holy Spirit in your life to change you and every day make you more and more like Christ.

In all the verses above, when Luke and Paul wrote about those who were "filled with the Holy Spirit", what is it they really looked at? Did they observe their prayers and the more "fluent" the tongue the more full of the Holy Spirit they were?

Wouldn't it make more sense that they looked at the totality of this person's life of faith? Did this person demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit in his daily life? Did this person show signs of growth in his faith over time? Did this person grow in the knowledge of the truth (and this doesn't mean asking whether this person has memorized the Ten Beliefs, it means asking whether this person gone beyond the elementary teachings and explored deeper truths with the guidance of the Spirit). Has this person put to death the deeds of his sinful nature? Does this person have character that reflects Christ? Is this person well down the road where one day he can present himself fully mature in Christ?

There are some people who speak with tongues outwardly, but inwardly from the day they received the Holy Spirit they haven't improved one bit. And worse, while thank God it's clearly the exception rather than the rule, I sometimes do hear accounts of those who exhibit the worst behavior--spousal abuse, child abuse, adultery, sexual harrassment, and so on--all while publicly they are praying in tongues. Why is this? Because even though they'd received the Holy Spirit and from an outward appearance may have appeared normal, in their hearts they never grew spiritually and they quenched the Spirit's fire. And yet for some reason speaking in tongues seems to be the emphasis of our church's message about not just receiving the promised Holy Spirit (which is truth) but also being filled with the Holy Spirit (which is not).

Again, none of this is to take away from the doctrine that you must receive the promised Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. I fear that just as Pr. Yang had to say this over and over again I'm going to have to repeat this over and over again. But does saying one thing really contradict the other?

The "Heresy"

And so let's get down to brass tacks. What exactly is this "heresy" that Pr. Yang preached?

As far as I can tell, it comes down to semantics. Specifically, Pr. Yang says that when someone is baptized, God's spirit abides in them.

Does any of this contradict the Basic Beliefs of the True Jesus Church?

That's hard to say. Here's what the Basic Belief says (or at least said until it was evidently changed):

Receiving the Holy Spirit, evidenced by speaking in tongues, is the guarantee of our inheritance of the kingdom of heaven.

But let's ask ourselves this. Does what he says contradict Scripture?

Scripture says that once you are baptized, you have put on Christ. You become a child of God. You are a new creation. You are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. You are led by the Spirit of God. If you confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and proclaim Jesus as Lord you are doing so by God's spirit.

If you feel any of this is "heresy", I invite you to go read Galatians 3:27, Romans 8:14-19, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 12:13, 1 Corinthians 12:3.

We know that all Scripture is God-breathed. Then how do we deal with seeming contradictions? Why is it that in one part of the Bible it clearly says that we need the promised Holy Spirit to gain salvation while in other parts of the Bible it clearly says that the Holy Spirit can work in just about anyone?

The one thing we should NOT do is to close our ears and pretend that the apparent contradictions do not exist. And worse, we should NOT pillory those that wish to explore questions like these.

What we should do is, with humble hearts, look to Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Through the Holy Spirit, he will lead us into all truth. A lot of these concepts are in the spiritual realm, so using MENSA type logic puzzles to try to piece together Bible verses just doesn't work. We're supposed to worship in spirit and in truth, but sometimes it seems we get so caught up in word games that we don't leave room for the spirit.

Nice Try, but I Still Feel That Pr. Yang Preached Heresy

Okay, even if after all this you still conclude that what Pr. Yang preached was heresy, was the proper solution to strip him of his title as a minister and then to excommunicate him as a member of the church? 

Like I said, from what I can see there is truth on both sides and the differences are really quite trivial, hardly the sort of thing that rises to "heresy".

If you look in the Bible, you'll see that the early church was filled with false teachings that were really false teachings. There were those in the church in Galatia who insisted that as one of the church's Basic Beliefs all members of the church had to be circumcised. Did Paul muster the elders from Jerusalem and march into the church of Galatia to excommunicate these members? No, he fought them on the battlefield of ideas. He wrote an impassioned letter to the church that publicly and methodically defended the truth. And notice something else he did. He didn't merely quote Scripture to make his point--in fact, there was no Scripture to even point to since he was literally writing it as he went. No, he powerfully spoke the truth that he received directly from the Holy Spirit. He was so worked up about it that he wasn't beyond making nasty, sarcastic, personal attacks. But he went past the personal attacks and gave a compelling, complete, and clearly articulated defense of the truth.

Later in the apostolic church's history, a heresy known as Gnosticism had spread within the church. Among other things, this heresy taught that the masses could not understand Scripture--only a select few possessed a "secret wisdom" that could discern the "real" truth hidden in Scripture. Among other things, they preached that Jesus did not come in the flesh, because matter is intrinsically evil. They taught that the way to achieve perfection is by asceticism, punishing the flesh in order that believers could experience the Spirit. It focused on unethical, loveless intellectualism over true love.

That is what "heretical" and "deviant" teachings look like, not semantic differences between whether someone who has been baptized can or can't be considered to be "temples of the Holy Spirit" or "led by the Spirit of God".

But again, you might notice something. Even when confronted with real heresy, when Paul and John wrote their epistles to warn the believers against it they didn't demand the excommunication of those who preached it. They didn't try to use their "power" or "authority" as apostles to physically kick those who preached this heresy out of the church. Instead, with the power of the Holy Spirit, they forcefully and powerfully proclaimed their understanding of the truth--not just hiding behind Scripture references but countering the false teachings by proactively proclaiming deeper understandings of the gospel truth. They didn't treat their audience, the members of the church, as helpless sheep who needed them to shield them. They had the faith that the same Holy Spirit that was in them was in the members, and that He would help them discern.

If You're Really Looking For "Heresy"...

Honestly, is the contention that as soon as someone is baptized, they can have the Spirit of God working within them really "heresy" or a "deviant" teaching? Especially when there are so many verses in Scripture and examples from our own real-world observations that suggest that yes, it's possible that those who don't speak in tongues can still have the Holy Spirit working in them?

Ironically, it's arguably the statement from the IA and the WDC that "to be filled with the Holy Spirit is evidenced by the speaking of tongues" that contradicts Scripture much more egregiously than any other we've mentioned. 

But am I calling for those responsible for that statement in the IA and WDC to be stripped of their ministries and excommunicated from the church? Am I calling them "heretics" and "deviants" or warning you that they they have an evil spirit in them? Of course not. Those people probably just have a different understanding of the complete truth than I do. Pr. Yang has his own understanding of the complete truth. And unless you're someone whose faith has not advanced beyond the blind memorization and recitation of creeds and dogma, you have yours as well. 

We are supposed to be one body of Christ. Who knows, maybe the ministers in the IA are the "head" and other ministers such as Pr. Yang are the "heart". Well, speaking as the pinky toe with an ingrown toenail and toenail fungus, I have this to say. Everyone, please, will you please just figure out how to work together? You can't just start excising different parts of your anatomy and think that it's going to fix everything. You're going to end up killing the whole body.

We have all been taught from childhood that the True Jesus Church is the chosen church of God, and that she will only get more and more perfect as the years go by.

But consider this. Over the years there have been many others that have been "chosen" and said the exact same thing about themselves. The very word "Pharisee" has become synonymous with hypocrisy today. But did you know that without the faithfulness of the Pharisees in the intertestamental era the Jewish faith would never have survived and the Lord Jesus Christ would never have been born? Yes, at one point they were indeed the chosen ones of God in every sense of the word. But by the time of Jesus, their faith had dwindled to a mere shadow of the faith of their fathers. Yet still they persisted in proclaiming "we have Abraham as our father". But as John the Baptist said, God could turn stones into children of Abraham. Couldn't he just as easily turn stones into members of the True Jesus Church?

And while we call ourselves the "true church" remember that there was another "true church" in history. And unlike our church that was established almost 1900 years after Christ's death, this other "true church" was established immediately after Christ's death, by people who had walked, talked, and ate with Jesus. If that "true church" could fall because its members grew complacent or because their worship became more about legalistically following creeds as opposed to following the guidance of the Holy Spirit himself, who is to say the same can't happen to us? Yes, prophesy says that the church will continue to grow to perfection. But ask yourself this. Regardless of what your baptismal certificate says, will you be a member of that true spiritual church when this happens?

Yes, we have "the truth". But unless keep in step with the Spirit and unless we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God we will go the way of all the other "chosen ones". 

So these were my thoughts on the controversy, but as promised, in the next post I'll post an actual document that detailed the case against Pr. Yang. I invite you, with a prayerful heart, to explore it with me.