From time to time, people write to us and ask about speaking in tongues.We've all witnessed the following scene (or something similar to it)—whether on TV, the Internet, or in person. A flashy, well-rehearsed evangelist is pacing back and forth across the stage, preaching to the faithful while clutching a microphone in one hand and his "sweat rag" in the other.

Suddenly, without warning, he breaks out in a strange language: Shanda da malaweesa nokimba ma da shalawanda. He loosens his tie before continuing: Shunda da da ma shunda, tonda, da da na munda! The crowd whoops and hollers with approval. They believe they have just witnessed something supernatural.

Some people say you can't be saved unless you speak in tongues. Others say you're not saved if you do speak in tongues.

So which is it? Is this phenomenon biblical or is it demonic? Is it to be pursued or should it be shunned?

Or should our position fall somewhere between those extremes?

Tongues is promoted today mainly by Pentecostal (or Charismatic) groups; and it's one of several key issues where Pentecostals have marked differences with other Bible-believing Christians.

CJF Ministries is not Pentecostal, but we have a unique connection to the Pentecostal movement.

First, a little background. The founder of CJF Ministries was a Jewish man named Charles Halff who became a believer in Jesus when he was a teenager.

When he first told his Jewish family that he believed Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah of Israel, they chalked it up to a religious phase. They were hopeful that Charles would grow out of it. But a couple of years later, when they realized how serious he was, both parents (who had been divorced for some time and lived separately in Tulsa and San Antonio) banned him from their homes and said they never wanted to see him again.

Their response was not altogether unpredictable. After all, the Halffs were well-known in the Jewish community in San Antonio. In fact, they had been one of 44 founding families of Temple Beth El in 1874. So when young Charles made his profession of faith in Jesus, it was, quite frankly, embarrassing to his parents and other family members. An aunt offered him a large amount of money (in the form of savings bonds) if he would renounce his newfound faith. He turned it down. At age 17, Charles found himself homeless on the streets of Tulsa, carrying his earthly belongings in a cardboard box.

These events took place during a period when he had been living with his father and his uncle in Tulsa—and that's where the Pentecostal connection comes into play: an Assemblies of God (AOG) family in Tulsa, Mr. and Mrs. Luther Burnaman, heard about this homeless Jewish teenager and took him in. They not only provided him with food and shelter while he looked for a job and made the transition to his new circumstances, but they also prayed for him, encouraged him, and helped him become grounded in his faith.

Charles Halff never forgot their kindness. In fact, the daughter (Betty Burnaman Spangler, who was a little girl when he had come to live with her family in the 1940s) visited him here in Texas in 1991. They hadn't seen each other since he was a teenager, and it was an emotional reunion.

At one point, the AOG denomination wanted Charles to become a regional evangelist for Texas and Oklahoma. The offer included a car and a generous salary—and Charles, who was in his early 20s and struggling to build a ministry from the ground up, was tempted to accept it. He later said the "fly in the ointment" was the AOG's insistence that he speak in tongues. Their position back in those days was that speaking in tongues was the initial evidence of being "baptized in the Holy Ghost." That was why they felt they couldn't have a denominational evangelist who had never spoken in tongues.

Even at this early stage of his ministry, Charles had already developed the habit of "testing all things" by Scripture (1 Thess. 5:21). He had many AOG friends by this time and had preached in a number of AOG churches; so when he was challenged on the issue of tongues, he instinctively went to the Bible for an answer. After a great deal of study and reflection, he concluded that he did not agree with the Pentecostal position on tongues.

Around this same time, Oral Roberts set up a tent across the street from a church in Oklahoma where Charles was preaching in a revival. Oral was conducting healing meetings during the day, and Charles was preaching at night; so he took the opportunity to attend some of Oral's daytime services. He later said that what he observed in those meetings (that is, the theatrics and obvious crowd psychology techniques), although brilliantly executed, helped to solidify his non-Pentecostal doctrinal stance.

Some of his well-meaning AOG friends ignored his objections and even offered to teach him how to speak in tongues. They said, "Come on, Charlie—it's easy!" They instructed him to put his brain in neutral ("just let yourself go!") and repeat certain nonsensical syllables over and over until it "came naturally" (an interesting term for something that's supposed to be supernatural).

But to him, it was a matter of integrity. He didn't want to learn to speak in tongues just to appease his AOG friends—or to land a lucrative post with the denomination. It just wouldn't have been right. So he declined their offer.

Even so, he never forgot his Pentecostal friends and what they did for him in those early days. Throughout his life, he appreciated Pentecostalism's emphasis on personal holiness and spiritual fervor, even though he disagreed with several points of the movement's theology.

One of those points of disagreement, as we saw earlier, was the gift of tongues. Charles' study of Scripture led him to an understanding of the gift of tongues that differs from that of most Pentecostals.

Continued in Part 2