What's So Confusing About Grace? by Randal Rauser

Author:Randal Rauser [Rauser, Randal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: [u]
Publisher: 2 Cup Press
Published: 2017-07-26T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

Confessions of a failed Pentecostal

As I have said, I grew up attending a Pentecostal church. According to Pentecostal doctrine, after a person becomes a Christian they are to seek a special experience, the so-called baptism of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals teach that the sign you’ve received this experience is “speaking in other tongues” (“other tongues” being Christianese for other languages).59 Since the reception of these supernatural tongues was reputed to be the authoritative sign that one had received the baptism of the Spirit, and the Spirit only baptizes truly converted, living disciples, the gift of tongues would provide a sure sign of God’s work in your life. If you received the gift of tongues, you were definitely saved. Indeed, you were saved 2.0.

When I was a teenager I realized that this doctrine offered a clear answer to the question of salvation. All I needed to do was to receive the gift of Spirit baptism and speak in other tongues and I would have official validation of my salvation. And so, beginning at the age of thirteen I began actively to seek the baptism. Over the years I came forward at the altar call on several occasions to receive the baptism: Sunday service, Bible camp, youth retreats, I sought the Spirit whenever and wherever he could be found. (Remember, the Spirit is a “he,” not an “it.”)

However, this Spirit baptism thing turned out to be a lot more elusive than I’d thought: time and again I came up empty-handed. The last time I ever went forward in search of this elusive blessing followed the sermon of a Pentecostal evangelist who was the guest speaker at our youth group. After his rousing talk on Acts 2 Pentecost, he invited everybody who wanted to be baptized and to speak in tongues to come down to the front. My hand shot up in the air and I was down at the altar in no time, shifting from foot to foot with a buoyant anticipation. Finally, at long last I sensed that this would be my moment!

Gradually the evangelist worked his way through the anxious crowd, praying for a lineup of earnest, spiritually deprived ragamuffins who were all seeking the gift of the Spirit. One after another I could hear people begin to cry, wail, and break out into euphoric bursts of tongues. Whoa, they were falling over like dominoes! (Definitely a good sign!) The longer it went on, the more the anticipation grew and I sensed that finally my time had come. It was now or never. As the expectation increased, I closed my eyes and dialed up the intensity of my fervent prayers. I could sense the Spirit rolling toward me like a holy tsunami . . . and I braced for impact.

Before I knew it, the evangelist announced his presence by slapping one of his clammy palms onto my forehead. I shifted my balance to keep from falling backward as he began to pray. He started by calling out to God for me to receive the blessing with a mixture of English and his heavenly prayer language.

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