TCW Short Take #4: Why is speaking in tongues so crucial to the Prosperity Gospel?

Why are these miraculous sign gifts, specifically for this question, speaking in tongues, so crucial to the prosperity movement? Because if you can appear as though you've got some special power that other people don't have, then you can, in a sense, control them. And you can, in a sense, wow them and lead them and get them to do whatever you say.

It's a power play. So what a lot of these guys do is they take the spiritual gifts that we see in Scripture and to you, you know, brothers and sisters who are listening, who have a position that allows for an open approach to the spiritual gifts that are miraculous and signs and wonders. It doesn't mean that there can't be healthy disagreement or even some understanding that there's going to be two different positions. And we can both hold those positions each and still be united in the gospel. That is OK. But what has happened is there is a group of people who have taken an open but cautious approach to the sign gifts or an open but biblical approach.

Maybe my my friends would prefer I call it. And they've taken that position and they've twisted it and gone way beyond just a biblical argument. And they've said things that make no sense, even to Pentecostals. I've got friends who are Pentecostals and they've told me before, listen, we preach the Bible. We go verse by verse. We advocate for the modern day use and operation of sign gifts, but only in the way that they were used in the New Testament.

And if someone doesn't have an interpreter, they're not allowed to speak in tongues or even try. Some people believe that it's ecstatic. Some don't.

There is all sorts of room for some good, healthy debate there. And those Pentecostal friends of mine have said, but absolutely no way under heaven do we believe. And they'll just list all the things that my uncle has taught or that some other prosperity preacher has taught, whether it be a Jesse Duplantis or a Creflo Dollar. There is a huge gap between our biblically thinking Pentecostal friends and those who would twist a view on the gifts of the Spirit for monetary gain and for a power play. And that's what was happening, David. It was all a sham.

It was manmade. It was taking something that's supposed to be given from the Holy Spirit if it's legitimate and making it something that you could get by praying a special prayer or repeating after an altar worker. That's not how the Holy Spirit worked at Pentecost. It's not how he works today. So trying to be fair here to both sides, I think there are a large group of us that may disagree on the ins and outs of spiritual gifts. But we are in wholesale agreement against what Prosperity Gospel and these signs and wonders enthusiasts are starting to twist and teach.