I recently caught another sermon by pastor Kong Hee of City Harvest Church. Speaking on prayer and quoting Mark 16:17-18, he advised that “the key to power and protection, to the wisdom of God, to solve society’s problem, to shine for the kingdom is praying in tongues.”
Uh, no, pastor, it’s not.
Society’s problems cannot be solved by Christians praying in tongues. The world needs to hear the Gospel, repent and turn to Christ, not through humanist efforts. You can build the best hospitals, have the best doctors but there will always be disease and death, and the eternal fates of people are more important.
Yes, you can and should take care of people’s physical needs for we are to feed the poor and take care of widows, but that must come after the Gospel is preached. Did Paul build hospitals to help the heathen turn from their false gods and pagan practices? No, he preached the Gospel and the Gospel only.
Here’s an excerpt from the sermon which you can watch here (Jabez 2: Prayer Part B):
So what is Jesus saying? As you engage culture, God’s power will ensure you’ll solve society’s problem. You’ll find solution for people that are sick, you’ll find solution for people who are oppressed, you’ll do miraculous work. You’ll find the solution for every answer the world is looking for.
…
How to get into that kind of power?
…
You see, right in the middle of Jesus’ command here, He gave us a little key. He said “In my name, you gotta speak with new tongues.”
That means the key to power and protection, to the wisdom of God, to solve society’s problem, to shine for the kingdom is praying in tongues.
And I didn’t say that; Jesus said that!
I am quite sure that our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t say that at all, meaning this pastor is putting words into God’s mouth.
Seriously, I am warning that one be careful not to follow after such teachings.
You’ll notice that, if you fast forward the sermon, the entire congregation was told to break forth and speak in tongues, which is an obvious disregard to the instructions given by Paul for orderly worship.
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.
1 Corinthians 14:26-28
Worse yet, there was an altar call right after. I wonder how true Paul’s words earlier in 1 Corinthians would be for some unbelievers there!
If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
1 Corinthians 14:23
It saddens me that so many are led astray…
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Tags: City Harvest Church, Corinthians, False Teachings, Kong Hee, Sermon, Tongues
16 Comments
If we believe everything the pastor/preacher said, we will be killing each other..
Sad, indeed.
THB:
How so?
I had a friend who had that experience too… she’s an unbeliever and she was invited for a talk, and when everyone started speaking in tongues and getting ’slain’, she got frightened and thought of christianity as being extremely scary. sigh… I didn’t know what to say to her at all.
I agree with you, Carolyn. From what I have observed, such displays scare more non-Christians off than drawing them. Someone with a Taoist background once remarked that it was akin to those temple mediums going off in their trances.
Paul’s teaching for orderly worship is not just empty words — they are inspired of God as all Scripture is.
I speak in tongues too! Then again the reason I use it is so people don’t know when I’m insulting them.
You always bring out a good point.
The ability to pray in tongues is a special gift of the new covenant.
Acts 2:4
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them
Mark 16:17-20
17 And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. 19 So then The Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went forth, and preached everywhere, The Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed.
… which translated to power and protection
Also, when you pray in tongues, you are plugging yourself into the Holy Spirit.
Hence, I feel that if you can’t pray in tongue or don’t agree in praying in tongues, please don’t criticize fellow millions of Christian brothers and sisters out there who have the gift (one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirits - 1 Corin 12:7-10) in speaking in tongues.
Thanks.
God bless you!
I find it incredibly suspect that everyone in CHC that purports to be able to “speak in tongues” invariably chant some repetitive gibberish like “sheebalabalaba” or variations thereof.
All of you shouldn’t denigrate Pastor Kong any further; why, the man can make thousands of people spontaneously exhibit Tourette’s syndrome!
Quit criticizing the preachers. Get a life with God, man. You won’t know the power in Tongues till you have experienced it. You perish for lack of knowledge. For His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Seek and you’ll find. Knock and the doors will be opened. CHC has 23000+ members and thousands of other visitors (not yet members). You got to be a fool to think that so many thousands are stupid? When I first visited CHC I didn’t like Kong Hee. I made bad thoughts about him. Guess what, he may not be perfect but he’s sure anointed and connected with the Holy Spirit - he answered my thoughts by a rebuking story ! Don’t play play with him ya. He is a Man of God!
QUOTE: However, there are still two unfulfilled issues — one is that my parents have yet come to know and accept God, though some of my aunties and uncles have, while the other is this gnawing call to go out and minister, be it as a pastor or a missionary. I have yet the courage to pursue the latter in earnest though, because I’m still so tied to the ‘flesh’.
ANSWER: Maybe you should “cruxify” your flesh first and be obedient to the Holy Spirit. Salvation, Water Baptism, yielding to the Holy Spirit, Faith (Faith comes by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God). Jesus didn’t go around criticizing but just spoke the Words of Abba and let the chips fall wherever He went. Judge not lest you be judged. The deep things of God are revealed to the Servants of God; not to infants. Baby drink milk, adults eat meat. People don’t convert people. They share the WORD, faith arise, the spirit man gets stirred up, Holy Spirit convicts him and he converts. God is not looking for a golden vessel nor a silver vessel; He’s looking for a Yielded vessel. You did not choose Him, He chose you. Christianity is about sharing the Good News so that man can know how to connect back to Father God - and tell other men. Without money you cannot do much on earth, without faith you cannot please God. The Gospel of God is preached on earth. If you are poor how can you be part of the Good News and a blessings to others. How can a hungry man feed another hungry man unless he has already been blessed in money, food, and goods? Theology without works is dead. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (blogs).
I cannot believe what you guys are speaking in this blog. How not to pray in tongue before the Lord for all things?
Read the bible carefully before start comment out from your own understanding and knowledge. I am sad to see you participate in this blog that is full of lies and Christianity scamming.
My pastor has taught about speaking in tongues too, but sometimes when I’m in the congregation I feel really squirmy about it and all.. I’m so confused =/ Then again we are told to discern spiritual maturity by the fruits of the Holy Spirit i.e love, patience etc, and all that is in place. So I just can’t figure it out @@
Speaking in tongues is definitely a God-given supernatural event. On the day of Pentecost, remember who was there and how they all spoke with tongues. The languages they spoke may have been understood by others but surely was not understood by those speaking. So therefore, the speakers’ understanding was unfruitful yet in the spirit they were being edified. Don’t knock the experience if you don’t understand it or feel rejected by the fact that it hasn’t happened to you. Most people try to rationalize why things are ok with them and wrong with others–thus, it feels better to try and explain why speaking in tongues is inappropriate for today if you don’t experience it. And in regards to edification of the church, ask yourself if people are being edified when they speak in tongues together. You will realize that even though people are speaking in tongues at the same time, the event is actually a lot of people having personal prayer together. Even if you had one message interpreted, that doesn’t guarantee that unbelievers will believe the message. Hey, people flat out rejected Jesus’ words in their own language right? Speaking in tongues, where human languages or what some describe as gibberish are spoken as the Spirit gives the utterance, always edifies the person speaking–doesn’t matter if they are alone or having a personal prayer in a group–and God approves of it (a lot of people spoke in tongues together on the day of Pentecost at the same time…hmmmm). Don’t be weak–don’t over rationalize. I challenge you to ask God to fill you with his supernatural power, not the way you want it, or the way other Christians today may have described it, but the way the disciples experienced it on the day of Pentecost.
Hello Isaiah. Happened to read your post. I think being a Christian is all about striking a balance. Maybe you didnt read properly the entire 1 Cor 14. Take a look at this.. =)
1 Corinthians 14:5
I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.
1 Corinthians 14:18
I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all;
I think what Paul meant is that we should pray in tongues more. (that also means in church.) So during prayer meetings, we should also pray in understanding for edification of the church.
What do you think?
Yuliana:
Thank you for dropping by and sharing your thoughts.
You asked if I had read 1 Corinthians 14 properly in its entirety, then cherry-picked two verses on tongues. Might I suggest that perhaps you should read 1 Corinthians 14 in context instead?
Would you like to explain what Paul said about interpretation of tongues and orderly worship? Moreover, the Greek word for tongues is glossa — the language or dialect used by a particular people distinct from that of other nations (Source), and not the gibberish heard at many CHC services.