----- Original Message -----

From: Chris Barr

To:  Paul Wong - The ARK Forum

Sent: 1/8/2001 11:00 AM

Subject: Response to Speaking in Tongues

Thank you Paul for the good writing on Speaking in Tongues.  When I write of speaking in tongues I am referring to the Biblical version of Sabbath keeping Pentecostals and the actual Yah-inspired speaking in other foreign tongues as well.

Chris Barr - little child of Jesus Christ

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from ... IF YE KNOW THESE THINGS by Elder Ross Drysdale

I remember three personal incidents that stand out in my memory, vividly, which substantiate this. One involved a woman I knew in New Jersey who was baptized in the Holy Spirit in her apartment and began to speak very loudly in an "unknown tongue." However, it was not unknown to her Puerto Rican neighbors who heard it because she was speaking clearly and loudly in Spanish. The neighbors, knowing she could not speak Spanish, thought she had the radio turned up loud and was listening to some Spanish preacher "getting excited" during his sermon!

Another case occurred on Staten Island, New York, when I invited a young Jewish girl to service. Someone was filled with a mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit and began to speak boldly in tongues. I noticed this girl began to cry. I waited to see what would happen. She turned to me and asked me how the speaker knew such perfect Hebrew! I told her that the man was a Norwegian with no knowledge of Hebrew whatsoever. She looked incredulous and then informed me what he had said in Hebrew.  It was a beautiful appeal to come into the House of the Lord, because God was waiting with open arms. This was followed by a traditional Jewish prayer she had learned as a child. I know this happened because I was there. The young lady was as astonished as I, and had no reason to lie.

The third case involved a young mother who was in line in my church to have prayer for her baby. I could see the Holy Spirit all over her, so I laid my hands on her and told her "In the name of Jesus Christ receive ye the Holy Spirit." She began speaking clearly in other tongues, which included German. I am a licensed teacher of German and therefore quickly recognized and understood what she said. I knew the woman very well and was quite aware of the fact that she had absolutely no knowledge of German, yet she was speaking with perfect grammar and pronunciation, something she could not have done otherwise.

For all their claims of believing in "the supernatural phenomena" being available "to the entire people of God" (p. 204), non-Pentecostals do not have one whit of it occurring in their church services; and wouldn't permit it if it did! The really "ordinary and mundane history" is being written in these churches, and not those of First or Twentieth Century Pentecostals!
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In the year of 1918 I was in charge of a coal mine at Mossy Bottom, Kentucky, a small independent operation in the Big Sandy River district. The miners in this section were not organized at this time and had no union of any kind. Foreign labor was frowned upon and most of the miners were small time farmers from the out-lying hill country. None of the present modern mining equipment was in use then and coal was cut with a small electric hand drill. A few months before the mine owner, J. C. Christie, had imported two Polish miners as coal cutters. John and Lee spoke very little English, had their own house and got along well with the other miners.

None of the small coal camps boasted their own church house. Close beside our office and commissary building was a small house, often used by different denominations to hold services. One Sunday in May a man appeared with a group of followers and received permission to hold a meeting in the building.

About 1:00 o'clock I noticed quite a crowd collecting and quietly let myself into the office and opened a window opposite the building. The music came from stringed instruments. Some of the group chanted the words to the music while others screamed and made weird sounds. One young girl, who appeared to be about 13 years of age uttered a stream of meaningless sound spouted from her lips.

I motioned to a miner who stood on the outside near the window. He told me they were "Unknown Tongues" and the young girl was a recent convert from a small mountain settlement nearby.

That evening John and Lee came to the club house and asked for me. In their halting, broken English, they made me understand that the girl had spoken their own language. They evaded my direct questions but insisted she had given them a message. No one had understood anything she said except John and Lee who had gestured to each other and left the building.

The next morning the camp was in an uproar. Miners stood in groups around the commissary, whispering among themselves and refusing to go "on the hill". Will Jennings, our mine foreman and a grizzled old Welshman, was going from group to group keeping a firm grip on his temper. John and Lee had packed their suitcases and were waiting for their "time". The young girl had told them not to go into the mine again as there would be a slate fall and the roof of the mine where they were working would cave in.

There was nothing to do but pay the two cutters, John and Lee, and send them on their way. Then Jennings and I tried to reason with the sullen miners. Jennings was considered the best "pit boss" in the Big Sandy fields and his men had confidence and respect for his judgment. With a fine disregard for the "Unknown Tongues" warning, he marched stubbornly up the hill and into the tunnel. In about an hour he returned and assured the men that everything was in order.

By this time the morning was far advanced and the miners decided to wait for the noon whistle before going to work. At 20 minutes of 12:00, while some of the men were eating lunch and others were getting their powder and mine supplies, a dull deadened sound came from the hill. Then a mighty roaring issued from the mouth of the mine.

A slate fall had completely filled the "room" where John and Lee had been cutting before they quit and one entire section of the mine had caved in. This portion of the old mine, known as Number Eight, was never entered again as the coal was almost mined out. It was many weeks before miners would work the other seams.

Mossy Bottom is now one of the many "ghost mines" along the Big Sandy River. A few windowless shacks still stand there as a mute reminder of the past. I often remember as I pass the place, the young girl and her true message given in "Unknown Tongues".

B. Jones -- Ashland, KY
Reported September 1961

May God bless you!