Part 2
Written nearly three centuries after John's death.
Ambrose is not considered today to be a heretic. On the contrary, he is acknowledged as one of the first Doctors of Theology of the Early Church. And he writes of the gift of tongues in the present, not the past, tense.
Was he deceived also?
Error in the Early Church
In the Early Church, as with the Modern Church, various schools of thought evolved into different groups. Some of these groups remained orthodox, some were mostly orthodox with a few doctrinal oddities or errors, and others fell off into deep error.
Tongues speaking Christians were not immune to the same failings experienced by the rest of the body of Christ.
Montanism
After so many centuries have passed, combined with the fact that none of the original Montanist writings survived to today, our understanding of the Montanists is sketchy. But what little we know is disturbing.
Montanists followed the teachings of Montanus who claimed to be a Christian, and a prophet of sorts. He traveled through Asia Minor, teaching and operating in his gift, with two female companions Prisca, and Maximilla.
These two women claimed to be the embodiment of the Holy Spirit.
Montanus claimed also to be the Holy Spirit and related to others various visions, revelations, and prophecies he believed God had given him. Montanus and these two women were known as "the Three."
Prisca claimed to have seen Jesus Christ in a female form in a vision.
The teachings and prophecies of Montanus, Prisca and Maximilla were initially welcomed by the Church, but upon closer examination, and as the prophecies and teachings became more and more bizarre and unscriptural, they were properly rejected by the major Church leaders of the time. However, their false teachings and prophecies spawned a movement that lasted several centuries.
It is interesting to note the reason that their prophecies were rejected by the majority of the Church. They were rejected, not because the Church believed that the Gifts had ceased. No, these prophecies were initially welcomed, with the assumption that they were genuine. Prophecy was not unknown in the Church at the time. But these prophecies and teachings were rejected because the content of them were clearly unbiblical.
The question arises in my mind, did these three start out as orthodox Christians to whom God began to reveal Himself, and by giving God's written Word no heed, did they then slowly drift off into error? Or were they false prophets from the first day? After so many centuries, and with so little direct documentation, I can not say nor can anyone else.
Either way they are perfect examples of what Brother Hagin, Sister Goodwin, old-time Pentecostal leaders, and I have warned about. They were apparently open to every supernatural experience that came along, and they gave little, if any heed, to God's written word.
Brothers and Sisters, I don't care how supernatural the experience seems, how inspiring it seems, any vision, dream, revelation, prophecy, or message in tongues and interpretation that does not agree with the foundational doctrines of Christianity, is simply not from God and must be rejected.
I will repeat the point I make in other articles: We are to build our lives, ministries, and churches on the preaching and teaching of God's written Word. We are to hold fast to sound doctrine. Then, if God gives an utterance or revelation or miracle, we will know it is from God because such will always be in agreement with the Scriptures. If something supernatural manifests in our midst, and it glorifies man, leads away from faith in Jesus Christ, or contradicts God's written Word, it must be rejected without a moment's hesitation and without a second thought.
Montanus and his two companions did not hold fast to God's written Word and the teachings of the Apostles. They believed that their prophecies equaled or were greater than Scripture. That is gross error. No prophecy given after the completion of the Scriptures in the First and Second Centuries, to this day, is equal to Scripture.
These three made claims that I have never heard made in 26 years of attending Charismatic services. They claimed that they were God, or that they were the Holy Spirit. Prisca is quoted as saying when she was excommunicated, "I am driven away like the wolf from the sheep. I am no wolf: I am word and spirit and power." Such claims made by them or any other Christian is blasphemy, heresy, and nonsense.
People who flow in the Gift of Prophecy or tongues, are simply mere mortal Christians, vessels, through whom God chooses to flow in that moment to bless others. Only God is God. Our God is a jealous God, and He will not share His glory with another.
There are indications that Montanus and his followers, placed a gross over-emphasis on prophecy, and the prophetic office, and taught others to do the same.
No.
We place all of our emphasis and attention on the preaching and teaching of God's written Word. Then if the Gifts of the Holy Spirit come into manifestation, they are like icing on the cake. If they don't come into manifestation, then that is fine too. We just go ahead and continue to teach and preach God's Word.
Some who argue against speaking in tongues as a current-day experience, try to equate the current Charismatic Movement with Montanism. I believe they do this sincerely, but in ignorance.
They have never personally experienced speaking in tongues or prophecy. Nor have they been in our services frequently enough to observe over time what our actual teachings are, and how we apply them. When they attack Charismatics they are doing so out of fear and ignorance of something they have not experienced and do not understand.
I likewise, thought I knew all about salvation, when I was still a sinner. But I found that when I finally humbled myself, bowed my knees before the crucified Lord and accepted him into my heart, salvation was a much deeper, transforming experience than I had assumed it would be. Similarly, when you put aside misinterpretation of Scripture, ignorance of Church history, and see these wonderful gifts in operation where they are genuine and operate under close oversight so that everyone stays within Scriptural bounds, you find then to be far different than the opponents purport them to be.
Lessons to be Learned
From the Montanists:
Over the years, many Spirit-filled Christians have made the same mistake that the Montanist movement made including:
1. Being open to practically any supernatural
experience.
2. Submitting to no seasoned oversight.
3. Receiving correction from no one.
4. Rejecting repeated warnings from other
Charismatic leaders of the time.
5. Giving God's written Word only casual
attention at best.
6. And veering from sound doctrine and
common sense.
Montanism was at its peak from AD 185 to 212. The bulk of Irenaeus' ministry and writings occurred at the same time.
So we see the steady stream of genuine speaking in tongues flow from the apostles, to Polycarp and other second-generation Christians, directly to Irenaeus and other third-generation Christians, while separately spiritual events took place among the Montanists and died out. But genuine spiritual gifts carried on outside of the Montanism--before, during, and after that heretical movement--in orthodox Christian churches as witnessed by Irenaeus, Urbanus, Novatian, Hilary, and Ambrose.
Tertullian is the only orthodox leader whose witness can be legitimately questioned because he became caught up in the Montanist movement for a period of time in his life. Thankfully though, historical accounts imply that he repented of these errors and returned to genuine Christianity at the end of his life.
So when Tertullian wrote of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy being "forthcoming from my side without any difficulty," we do not know if he was referring to these gifts operating in the orthodox church he came from, or the heretical church he entered into.
So, for the sake of argument, let's assume the worst. Let's assume he was writing of the heretical sect he eventually joined, and let's set aside his testimony for the time being.
That still leaves us with the testimonies of those who remained orthodox, recounting virtually the same observations:
Justin Martyr (100-165 AD),
Irenaeus (130 - 202 AD),
Asterius Urbanus (c. 232 AD),
Novatian (d. 258 AD),
Hilary (c. 300 - 367 AD),
and Ambrose (340 - 397 AD).
If the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and speaking in tongues in particular, ceased with the last Apostle, what explanation do we give for the falsity of these eye-witness accounts left to us by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Novatian, Hilary, Ambrose?
Did they deliberately deceive us?
Were they so gullible that each and everyone were hoodwinked by passing spiritual snake-oil salesmen?
I have yet to read a persuasive Cessationist explanation for these historical accounts.
Reasonable people may disagree on whether tongues is a present day experience.
But no fair-minded Christian can absolutely ignore Church history.
It is a historical fact, attested to by respected Early Church leaders, who left to us a written record of eye witness accounts, that speaking in tongues was taking place in their midst until the mid to late Fourth century.
This is beyond dispute.
The Cessationists’ claim that tongues ceased with the Apostles is clearly proven wrong by the historical record.
With that argument failing, Cessationists fall back on the argument that tongues continued only among those who knew the Apostles. But this argument falls short also when we note that the generation who knew the Apostles all died off, their children's generation died off, and their grandchildren's generation all died off, and tongues was still manifesting among orthodox believers three centuries after the Apostles.
With their secondary argument failing, Cessationists retreat into ambiguity, claiming that tongues and the other gifts "ceased somewhere back then."
"Somewhere" simply isn't good enough.
Extraordinary claims call for extraordinary proofs.
It would be extraordinary indeed for God to operate all but two of these gifts through men from the first chapters of Genesis, through the Law, the Prophets, the Gospels, then adding tongues and interpretation in Acts, and continuing all nine gifts through the Epistles, through the first Four nearly Five centuries of the Early Church, and then to abruptly withdraw them.
To accept such an astounding proposition, we would need substantial proof, certainly something more than sketchy theories, and historically inaccurate assumptions.
In 25 years of studying extensively the subject of spiritual gifts and speaking in tongues, I have yet to find a single anti-tongues argument that stood up to scriptural examination. Nor have I found one that fit with the clear historical record.
It is indisputable that the Gifts continued.
It is also indisputable also that the Gifts waned.
They did not "cease."
They could not have been "withdrawn," for:
"The gifts and calling of God are without repentance."--Rom. 11:29.
Or as the Amplified Bible translates it,
"For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable--He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call."
The Gifts did not cease, and could not be withdrawn, but they did eventually wane.
By the time of John Chrysostom, they were virtually unknown.
John Chrysostom (347 - 407 AD) was a notable Christian bishop and preacher from the 4th and 5th centuries in Syria and Constantinople.
Chrysostom was baptized in 370, and was ordained a deacon in 381. Sometime between 381 and his death in 407, he wrote of the waning of the Gifts of the Spirit in locales with which he was familiar, and the general backslidden state of the Church. We will look at three quotes from his "Homilies of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians."
Commenting on:
"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant."--I Cor. 12:1,
John Chrysostom writes of the lack of these spiritual gifts in his day and locale:
"This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place. And why do they not happen now?...why did they then happen, and now do so no more?
...Well: what did happen then? Whoever was baptized he straightway spake with tongues and not with tongues only, but many also prophesied, and some also performed many other wonderful works... they [the Corinthians] at once on their baptism received the Spirit...And one straightway spake in the Persian, another in the Roman, another in the Indian, another in some other such tongue: and this made manifest to them that were without that it is the Spirit in the very person speaking.... For as the Apostles themselves had received this sign first, so also the faithful went on receiving it, I mean, the gift of tongues; yet not this only but also many others: inasmuch as many used even to raise the dead and to cast out devils and to perform many other such wonders: and they had gifts too, some less, and some more. But more abundant than all was the gift of tongues among them..." ("Saint Chrysostom: Homily on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians," Phillip Schaff, 1889. Volume 12, Homily 29 NPNF 168-169).
"...For there were of old many who had also a gift of prayer, together with a tongue; and they prayed, and the tongue spake, praying either in the Persian or Latin language, but their understanding knew not what was spoken. ("Saint Chrysostom: Homily on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians," Phillip Schaff, 1889. Volume 12, Homily 35 NPNF 211).
In the same book in which Chrysostom laments the absence of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, he ties this loss in with the backslidden, corrupted state of the Church at that time:
"What now can be more awful than these things? For in truth the Church was a heaven then, the Spirit governing all things, and moving each one of the rulers and making him inspired. But now we retain only the symbols of those gifts...they thus used to speak, not of their own wisdom, but moved by the Spirit. But not so now: (I speak of mine own case so far.) But the present Church is like a woman who hath fallen from her former prosperous days, and in many respects retains the symbols only of that ancient prosperity; displaying indeed the repositories and caskets of her golden ornaments, but bereft of her wealth: such an one doth the present Church resemble. And I say not this in respect of gifts: for it were nothing marvelous if it were this only: but in respect also of life and virtue." ("Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians," Phillp Schaff, 1889. Homily 36, NPNF 219-220).
This is the first written account we have of the Gifts of the Spirit no longer manifesting prolifically in the Church.
And the author--a Doctor of Theology, not a heretic--describes a Church not only lacking in the supernatural Gifts, but also bereft of life and virtue.
Augustine (354-430 AD) concurs that the Gifts of the Spirit and speaking in tongues are unknown in his day. He writes around the year 400 AD:
"For who expects in these days that those on whom hands are laid that they may receive the Holy Spirit should forthwith begin to speak with tongues?" (Augustine, On Baptism, Against the Donatists, Section 3, Chapter 16, NPNF 443).
When the Church had "life and virtue" from Pentecost to the mid to late Fourth Century, the Gifts of the Spirit were present and widespread. By the late Fourth to early Fifth Centuries, the church was "bereft of life and virtue" and gifts.
Why the Gifts Waned
The more you see the written Word of God replaced by the ideas of men in the Church, the less life, virtue, and spiritual gifts are present.
Jesus said of the Jews of his day:
"For God commanded...But you say...So for the sake of your tradition (the rules handed down by your forefathers), you have set aside the Word of God--depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect. You pretenders--hypocrites!...Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men."--Mat. 15:4-9 (Amplified).
There is a correlation here that most overlook. It had been God's will to heal the sick and work miracles throughout the Old Testament, and His will had not changed in Christ's day. But healings and miracles had largely disappeared from the Jewish experience by the time Christ began his ministry. The religious people then, like today, made excuses for the lack of miracles.
Had the Lord been like some Christians today, he would have began his ministry by preaching that miracles were only for Old Testament times, and that they were not needed in post-Old Testament Israel.
But he did not do that.
Instead, in the Scripture we just read, Jesus attributed the decline in miracles to hypocrisy, corruption, and the abandonment of God's written Word.
Note also that he did not allow the unbelief around him to stop him from working miracles. No, he went right ahead and healed the sick, cast out devils, and worked miracles.
For his trouble, the Pharisees claimed,
"He casts out devils through the prince of the devils."--Mat. 9:34.
That accusation is still around today: "Those Charismatics! I tell you, that's all of the Devil! God just don't heal anymore. The days of miracles are over. Speaking in tongues ceased long ago. These are all false miracles! False signs and wonders!" Christ did not allow similar accusations of false ministry to stop him in his day, and we can not allow them to stop us today.
As more and more of the philosophies and traditions of men were brought into the Church and given equal or greater standing than God's written Word, you see less and less life, virtue, and manifestations of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit.
They never completely ceased, but they did steadily reduce to a mere trickle.
By the Middle Ages, the Church had reached the point where it lacked life, virtue, and power. Church leaders could have humbled themselves, addressed the corruption, and returned to the literal interpretation of God's Word. Instead, they began to claim that speaking in tongues and miracles were rare at best, and demonic at worst. "In fact by A.D. 1000 the Rituale Romanorum (Roman Ritual) defined glossalia as prima facie evidence of demon possession." (Vinson Synan, The Century of the Holy Spirit, page 20).
Today some Christians actually have adopted the same position and claim that speaking in tongues occurs now only when a person is under the power of demons.
Filled with corruption, greed, sin, and hypocrisy, and actively denouncing speaking in tongues, it is little wonder that speaking in tongues waned in the Medieval Church even further.
Some try to argue that after the Apostle John died, speaking in tongues continued only in heretical sects. But even one of the most determined critics of modern speaking in tongues has to grudgingly admit that tongues continued on in legitimate Christian churches long after the original apostles died:
"after the apostles tongue speaking was almost entirely isolated to the Gnostics and the Montantists." (Charismatic Chaos, John F. MacArthur, 1991, p. 234)
Please note that he states "almost entirely."
