3653 — The Apostolic People
By Editor
Will you please tell me something about that sect of people called the Apostolic? I am a convert, and have been attending their meetings, but I do not seem to be able to approve of the speaking in tongues, as they profess. They hold that you must speak in tongues in order to have the baptism such as was manifest on the Day of Pentecost, believe that diseases are of the devil, and also believe in the prayer for the sick, and anointing with oil. L. The Lord has expressly told us that it is our privilege to pray for the sick, in the 5th chapter of James. The sick may call upon the elders of the church, and they may pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. We are told that the prayer of faith shall save the sick. Of course sickness came because of sin, and sin originated with the devil; all that is true. But there may be many reasons why people are sick that have nothing to do with the devil; their sickness is simply the outworking of the law of cause and effect in a fallen world. David says, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word." Seeing a certain blind man, the disciples of Jesus asked, "Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" And Jesus told them that neither the man nor his parents had sinned, but God had suffered the affliction in order that He might be glorified. There is a common-sense way of looking at all these things, in taking the Word of God just as it is given. But we are nowhere told in that Word that we must have the gift of tongues as the evidence that we have the Spirit of God. The gift of tongues was possessed by some in the early church, but not all. It was necessary there because the disciples were to go out and preach among men of other tongues and other languages. But it is not mentioned among the greater gifts, nor the more necessary gifts. God placed in that early church first apostles, secondarily prophets, after that teachers, helps, governments, and so on; and tongues came toward the very last. See the apostle's instruction in 1 Corinthians, chapters 12 to 14, and note that the apostle does not make the tongues a prominent gift, altho some of the believers seemed inclined so to do. A whole lot of this so-called speaking with tongues in these days is the utterance of a lot of outlandish gibberish, which neither edifies those who hear nor exalts the one who speaks. Souls have been led to believe that they spoke some East Indian tongue, and have gone to India to convert natives, but when they reached there they could not be understood, and some have made shipwreck of faith because of it. Let this one great thought be grasped by our inquirer: God gives His Spirit for service, and that Spirit bestows upon His children gifts (1 Cor. 12:11; 1 Peter 4:10); and as every man has received a gift — some gift — let him use it in service for others. It is one of the talents to which God will add others, if the receiver will use them aright. The one great test of all spiritual manifestations in these and all other days, is given by the prophet Isaiah, and by our Lord Himself: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20. "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." We are given in clear, unequivocal terms the characteristics of the remnant church who will welcome His coming: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.