Matthew Stuckey here and I wanted to make a quick video on three common myths of Pentecostals or the
Pentecostal religion. And the number one myth about the Pentecostal religion is that this
practice of speaking in tongues is associated only within the Christian realm. And so this is
a common misunderstanding, a common myth when it comes to people that live in the United States,
because a lot of people from all over the world are well aware of the fact that speaking in tongues
is not just associated within the Christian realm, but it's actually associated outside of
the Christian realm. In fact, just in the common world, psychiatrists have been studying this idea
of speaking in tongues for quite a long time, and it's called glossolalia when it comes to just the
secular world, glossolalia. And it's this practice of people that will speak in some language and
utter words that they do not understand, and then they will black out. And when it comes to
psychiatrists, it's often associated to people that are schizophrenic or bipolar or people that
are insane and people that are crazy. And this is a practice you'll often see, and this is often
associated with people that are homeless or people that are drug addicts, and they'll just speak in
languages that they do not understand, and they'll say things that are utter nonsense that are not
part of any language, but they're just saying things, they don't remember them, and they
black out and everything. And it's known as glossolalia, and commonly it's considered something
that people that are insane do. So it's not just associated within the Christian realm, there are
actually a lot of people that are insane that do this. But not only that, it's not just people that
are insane or crazy, but you know, it also dates back historically for a very long time. This is
not something that just started in the days of Jesus Christ. In fact, the first recorded instance
of this were people that were worshiping the false god of Ammon, who was the Egyptian god of the Sun
and the air in 1100 BC, 1100 before Christ. Over a thousand years before Jesus Christ is the first
recorded instance of people, you know, practicing glossolalia, where they're basically uttering
words they do not understand, and they black out, and they wake up, and they have no idea what they
said. And so this was a common practice with people that were worshiping false gods all the
way back a thousand plus years before the time of Jesus Christ. Now I would say that although
this is the first recorded instance of this, there's nothing new under the Sun, so I'm sure
you can go back before the days of the flood, and people that are worshiping false gods are going to
be basically uttering nonsense. And this practice of speaking in tongues or glossolalia existed long
before the time of the flood. From the very beginning, people that are pagans and worshiping
false gods are doing this practice. It's not just associated within the Christian realm. But you
know, a more famous example, someone who would have a lot of credibility within the secular world,
is a man by the name of Plato. You know, everybody knows who Plato is, the famous Greek philosopher,
and he commonly in his writings talked about people that practice glossolalia, and it was
always associated with people in a spiritual sense. You know, people that were diviners or
sorcerers or practice black magic, and there's a very split opinion on these people back in his
day, and Plato existed hundreds of years long before the time of Jesus Christ. And one quick
quick quote from Plato was this, he said, there are like diviners or soothsayers who say many
fine things but do not understand the meaning of them. And he said there are people that are
diviners or soothsayers or sorcerers who utter things but they don't understand what they're
uttering. And this is the practice of glossolalia. Now that's a small quote, and if you look at his
writings, you can see much more in-depth statements from him that I don't have time to get into in this
video, where he's clearly talking about people that are practicing glossolalia, or what people
in the Christian realm would call speaking in tongues, where they're saying things they don't
understand, and then they would say that they're speaking to the spirits, or they're speaking to
the gods. And so these are people that were sorcerers and diviners and people practicing
witchcraft and black magic, things that the Bible says would get the death penalty, things that are
very wicked sins, people that are bad people. And Plato would say how these people were these
diviners, these religious magician, you know, sort of people, and they were practicing these things.
And it's only recently now you're seeing it in the Christian realm where it's becoming like a big
thing and it's considered very common. It was always considered with people that were practicing
witchcraft and sorcery and people such as that. But it's not just that it's associated outside of
the Christian realm. I mean, it's associated with all false religions. You see this especially in
shamanism. You see this in voodoo, in the really dark false religions. You also see it, though,
in Hinduism. You see it with many of the monks in Buddhism that are practicing this speaking in
tongues or glossolalia. And so this is not something that is just underneath the Christian
realm. Actually people that are, you know, false prophets and sorcerers and wicked people, they
have practiced speaking in tongues long before the time of Jesus Christ. This is not just something
that is associated within the Christian realm. In fact, you can make video talking for hours about
all the recorded instances outside of the Christian realm, you know, dating back before the
time of Christ of people that were practicing this. So the first common myth with Pentecostals
is that this speaking in tongues is something that is only associated within the Christian realm. In
fact, it's only been really recently commonly existing within the Christian realm. It was
always, you know, considered to be things that pagans did in the past. Another false idea, a myth
of the Pentecostals is this, that the Pentecostal religion is just a brand new religion that started
100 years ago. So people often talk about the Azusa street revivals and, you know, people that
are Pentecostals will say that the spirit was just kind of poured out and, you know, this religion
just kind of just skyrocketed and the numbers have been skyrocketing. And, you know, obviously this
is becoming far more common, the Charismatics, the Pentecostals. But, you know, before the Azusa
street revivals, this already existed within the Christian realm, right? The Quakers in the 18th
century are one example. And they were known as the Quakers because during their services,
it was like an earthquake was going off. You say, what do you mean? I mean, they were going like
this, you know, shaking, quaking or shaking. And now they're known, they were known as the Shakers
or the Quakers because they're shaking or they're, it's like an earthquake's going off. They're the
Quakers. And so this idea of the Pentecostals, this is not a new thing. People were doing that
in the 18th century. And the 19th century, the early 19th century, you had Charles Finney,
which is a very famous false prophet from the past. And he was a Presbyterian, but he was
practicing things such as speaking in tongues and these charismatic gifts and these things that
someone that was possessed would end up doing. Now, many of Charles Finney's friends tried to
hide this because at the time, it was not considered acceptable within the Christian
realm, or someone who would be a Protestant, such as he was, to be exhibiting these sorts of traits.
But Charles Finney was practicing many things that modern day Pentecostals would. And if he was around
the day, he probably would have been a Pentecostal preacher, because it's more commonly accepted than
it was during his day. So the first myth is this. When it comes to the Pentecostals, that speaking
in tongues is something that is only associated with the Christian realm. It's actually only
recently been strongly associated with the Christian realm, because it was considered a
pagan, wicked practice that sorcerers did. And so only recently, as Christianity has become very lame
and has just accepted everything and doesn't care what the Bible says, only now is it commonly
accepted for people to speak in tongues and call themselves Christians. Myth number two is that the
Pentecostals are a brand new religion. There were, you know, people that were practicing this before
the last hundred years, and the numbers have definitely increased, but this was existing long
before the last hundred years. And number three is this, that the Pentecostals are going back to the
old-fashioned book of Acts, old-fashioned Christianity. And the Pentecostals would have you to say that,
you know, when you have Acts chapter 2, the Spirit's just being poured out, and people are speaking in
tongues and uttering this language that they don't understand to speak to God. And they say
they're bringing back, you know, the old-fashioned Christianity found in the book of Acts. But yet, if
you read the book of Acts, you don't see this speaking in tongues like they're talking about.
You'll see people that are speaking with tongues, meaning speaking in actual language, that people
understand. And in Acts chapter 2, they're speaking and people understand in their own language. Why?
Because they were given the ability to speak in other languages that they did not know. That's
what the miracle was in Acts chapter 2. They weren't speaking a language that nobody understood.
People were getting saved because they were preaching the gospel, and people understood in
their own language. And they're shocked that these people are speaking a language that they don't
actually know. And so that's what the miracle was in Acts chapter 2. And why was it that that
miracle was allowed to happen by God? Well, the reason why is because God wanted the gospel to
get out. And by them speaking languages that they did not know, many people were able to get saved.
Because people were gathered all around the world after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And
there's, you know, great confusion and excitement and interest. I mean, this is long before the days
of the World Cup or the, you know, Super Bowl. And so people were excited about, you know,
spiritual matters. And people are gathered together, and God allowed this miracle to take
place. But see, what you see throughout the book of Acts is not just people that speak actual
languages, which is what speaking with tongues is. The Bible does not say speaking in tongues. It
says speaking with tongues in your King James Bible. But what you see throughout the book of
Acts is an emphasis on soul winning. You see people going out and preaching the gospel. It
says going house to house, taking opportunities to preach to people that they saw, whether it was a
public opportunity, or whether or not it was just going, you know, from town to town and house to
house. And you're seeing people stop. You see, you see Peter go all the way to Cornelius to preach
the gospel. And the emphasis in the book of Acts is on soul winning. And that is what the old-fashioned
Christianity is, is just basically preaching the gospel to people and spreading the message of
Jesus Christ. And I'll be honest, I would love it if churches would go back to the old-fashioned
Christianity. But see, the old-fashioned Christianity was not just getting possessed by
devils and saying things you didn't understand. It was preaching the gospel to lost people,
something that churches are not doing because they have lost their first love. So what are the three
common myths of the Pentecostals? Myth number one is that speaking in tongues is associated only
within the Christian realm. That's actually not true. It's existed long before the time of Christ
with false religions all around the world. Myth number two is this, that the Pentecostals are
basically kind of a brand new religion in the last hundred years. And basically, you know,
Christianity kind of died off, but there's been this major revival that took place. Well, no,
there was actually people that would put themselves under the Christian realm that had, you know,
false belief systems hundreds of years before that. And I'm sure all the way back to the time
of Christ, just these false people rising up, and they were exhibiting certain things like this.
It's just has become very accepted in the last hundred years. And myth number three is this,
that the Pentecostals are practicing this old-fashioned Christianity that had kind of
died out. Well, in reality, in the book of Acts, what are they doing? They're going soul winning.
That is what the old-fashioned Christianity actually is. Thank you and God bless.