Can the gifts of the Spirit be given to anyone or only to those who have received the Promised Holy Spirit? Reviewing the Case Against YM Yang: Part 5

For context behind this posting, please read the first post in this series. 

(II) AFTER BAPTISM, ONE HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT, SO PRAYNG FOR HOLY SPIRIT AND SPEAKING IN TONGUE IS ONLY GRACE UPON GRACE

YM holds that once you are baptized, the Holy Spirit is in you, so receiving the Holy Spirit evidenced by tongues-speaking is only grace upon grace. This is a deviation from our fifth article that believes that receiving the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in tongues. is the guarantee of heavenly inheritance.

Extracted from RAWLS[加足馬力]前先[認清方向], dated 20/4/2013.

- YM continues to preach on the pulpit that when you believe and are baptized, you already have the Holy Spirit. RAWLS used the example from the “God of Every Man” spoken in April 2013 where YM says that why is it that today we are so afraid to admit that we have the Spirit of God in us especially when our sins have already been forgiven? Why is it that you don’t dare to believe that God’s Spirit is in you? If you do not dare to believe that God’s Spirit is in you, then that would equal to the fact that you do not dare to admit you are part of the body of Jesus Christ. Every one of us has got God’s Spirit in us because you have been saved from sin and God’s Spirit is in you. But you still have to pursue for the promised Holy Spirit. This is so clear. Why has everything become so complicated today?

- This is RAWLS’ critique: Even after YM speaks his own views, he adds on by saying that you still have to pursue the promised Holy Spirit. But when you believe, you have the Holy Spirit. This is in contradiction to the beliefs of the True Jesus Church. The fifth article of faith of the True Jesus Church maintains that receiving the Holy Spirit is for the heavenly inheritance and should be guaranteed by the speaking in tongues.

"RAWLS" has already shown that he or she will take words out of context to make a point, so I went back to the original audio to listen to the point that was being made in full context.

This particular sermon spoke about how in the rank-and-file of our church many people erroneously believe that only a small group of ministers can or should be endowed with the kinds of gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. The perception is that only ministers, for example, are qualified to give messages of wisdom, messages of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miraculous powers, the gift of prophesy, the ability to distinguish between spirits, the ability to preach in tongues, and the ability to interpret tongues.

The point of the sermon was that no, these gifts can be distributed to any member.

If you want to listen for yourself, this excerpt starts at 30:40.

When you are baptized, you become a part of the body of Christ. And from that point you will have a role to play. It's your job to find out what gift you have to serve. Can a foot do the job of a hand? In most cases the job of the hand is very specialized. In the whole body, only the hand can do certain things. The foot won't scold the hand saying, "you can't pick up that bag". No the foot will be very happy that the hand did its job.

We are one body. We have the same Spirit. The Spirit can work within all of us. But we seem to have complicated this.

Let's review this again, very simply. Look at 1 John 4:13. These are the words of an apostle.

 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 

This is clear enough, right?

What kind of God do we believe in?

We often say that we reject the doctrine of the Trinity. But [many people do not understand exactly what the doctrine of Trinity is]. Trinity, very simply, doesn't say there are three gods. It says that God has three "roles". The Father is the Son and the Son is Holy Spirit. They don't separate these three things. A lot of us misunderstand their beliefs, assuming those who believe in the Trinity worship three distinct entities. Their beliefs are really more along the lines of having one entity with three "faces". If you have one you have them all.

We say we believe in the One True God, but have you noticed that when we preach today, we tend to divide God up even more than those who preach the Trinity do?

Recently we've discussed a lot of things. A lot of people say that after you are baptized the Holy Spirit is not within you.

Is God within you? 

In these verses it says all someone needs to do is acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, and God lives in them. Let's ask this. If God lives in them, does the Son live in them? Does God's Spirit live in them?

It seems that we have a tendency to split God apart in our preaching. "He has God in him, but the Holy Spirit is not in him". "He has Jesus in him but the Holy Spirit is not in him". Things really aren't that complicated. If we are truly the body of Christ, if we confess that Jesus is the son of God the apostle John said it very clearly. In that scenario God will be in you. God will be in you. But don't forget. This doesn't mean that you do not need to still pursue the promised Holy Spirit. You do need to continue to pursue the promised Holy Spirit and speak in tongues.

When you compare the summary from "RAWLS" given above with the full seven-minute transcript of the actual words that Pr. Yang preached in his sermon, do you see a difference?

Our church's Ten Basic Beliefs are just that—basic beliefs. These 422 words are not a Catechism that are meant to represent the totality of our faith. They are not a creed we are to memorize and recite. They are not a stick that we use to beat other people over the head when we hear them say something that we perceive to be contradictory to them. They are just a tidy summary of the things our church believes.

In this sermon of Pr. Yang, he is identifying a real problem in the church—how some, if not most members feel "unqualified" to take on holy work and for that reason decide that holy work is in the purview of only full-time ministers and maybe lay ministers. What's the result? We end up with ministers who are overworked. We end up with lay members who fail to grow in their faith because their faith ends up being without works.

His sermon, then, was intended to inspire the members and to remind them that God was within them and that God's Spirit would work in them so they could help the church, even if they weren't ministers. As Paul himself did, Pr. Yang's intention was to encourage the flock to pursue spiritual gifts.

How in the world is this "heresy"?

Nothing he said contradicted the words of Scripture. Nothing. Scripture very clearly says that if anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them. But anyone with even a basic comprehension of the spiritual realm knows that this doesn't contradict the teaching that prayer in tongues is the evidence of receiving the promised Holy Spirit.

If you listen to the audio carefully you'll hear that he takes pains to state very specifically that when he says that God's spirit is in someone who has been baptized, he's in no way denying the necessity of praying for the promised Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. And so I'm perplexed--why is it that the commentary simply cannot or will not acknowledge this?