“Am I borned again?”
Finally, as she was about to end the conversation, she asked me one final question, “You are not borned again, right?” Astonished by how she abruptly asked me , I replied. “Yes, I am.” She asked me how I know I am borned again. I said, “From the word of God, I know.”
She then asked me whether I prayed and worshiped in tongues. I said I did not. Then she concluded quite hastily, “No, then you are not borned again. If you do not pray and worship in tongues, you are not borned again. Let me show you!”
She pointed to my bible and told me to turn to 1 Corinthians 12 and told me to read. But she didn’t direct me to any specific verses. Incidentally, I was already reading 2 Corinthians so I could flip to the chapter relatively fast.
While I was looking for a specific verse that she would be talking about, she told me quickly. “You got to pray a prayer like this. Ask God to give you the gift of speaking in tongues. Hallelujah! Amen! After that, then, you are borned again.”
After which, she smiled at me and walked away before I could answer anything. I returned her a smile as she went away.
On the train, after that encounter, I thought to myself, having a little bit of mixed feelings.
Firstly, I knew surely that what she has said was not biblical at all. There is no where in 1 Corinthians 12 that says that to speak in tongues is to be borned again. In fact, I found a verse in 1 Corinthians 12: 28-30 that plainly states:
“And God has appointed in the church, first apostiles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have fits of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret,do they?”
All do not speak in tongues, do they? God has given different gifts to different men in the church. Not necessarily does it need to be the gift of speaking in tongues. The gift of tongues is but one of the many gifts. By assuming she is correct, inferring from what she had said, the gift of tongues would be the most important gift because she says that it is the gift that determines whether the individual is borned again. That means that the rest of the church with the other gifts are not borned again.
However, this so readily contradicts 1 Corinthians 12:28 that ‘God has appointed in the church, first apostiles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.’ From this we see the order of the gifts, etc prophecy is a superior gift to teaching and teaching is a superior gift to tongues. So, very clearly and certainly, tongue speaking being the most important gift would not stand.
Ironically, the section that she refers me to for backing her claim has convinced me so easily otherwise.
Recently, listening to a series of sermons by Dr Lewis Johnson on the parables of Matthew 13, I am increasingly convinced of the truths brought out in the light of the parables. I would like to share one portion of it here.
In the parable of the Tares and the Wheats, it reads from Matthew 13: 24-28a:
” He presented another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in this field. But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘ An enemy has done this!’ “
The explanation of this is given by Jesus to his disciples in Matthew 13: 37-39a:
“And He answered and said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil,”
This parable according to Dr Lewis Johnson says something quite really of the age we are living in today. The tares, many false doctrines, are being sown by false prophets from Satan among the wheat. This means that simulanteously as God is revealing his word to men, the sowing of the wheat, Satan is also sowing his own seed, corrupting the true word of God.
It is so easy to be deceived by the ‘word of God’. There is a great deal of false doctrines and heresies prevalent in the world today that we are unaware of and may possibly agree with. They are so similar to the true word such as the one that I encountered that it is hardly possible to tell that it is counterfeit. The woman used christian terms like ‘born again’ and quoted the bible. But it is truly not from God.
It is important to base everything on the Word of God, the foundation of our faith. We need to read for ourselves the bible diligently in its context and ask for the ministry of the holy spirit, lest we be deceived by false teachers. Only through God’s enabling can we be able to tell the genuine from the counterfeit.
