Questions:
Hello Rev. Barr. Grace and Peace to you and yours. I am an ardent defender of the King James Bible, this is how I found your site via Google Search. You have some wonderful articles on the AV, I look forward to reading more after writing to you. I would ask a question about one article however and I ask it with respect since from what I have read so far I feel you are a Godly man. I hope you indulge me. I have many friends in the AOG, including a pastor, and they are great blessings to me!

I myself am a member of the Reformed Episcopal Church, I trust you shall not hate me for being Anglican. I am jesting, you seem from your writings to be a gentleman. I wrote to one person to complement him on a very good pro AV article and he wrote me back telling me that Anglicans are all going to burn in Hell! OK! The REC is very biblical, conservative and orthodox, but this gent was not willing to do his homework. Sorry! I digress.

My question is about speaking in tongues, I have always considered this a gift of the Holy Ghost, and that a Christian can be Spirit filled whether this gift is manifested or not.

Do you thing that this gift is necessary to all Spirit filled Christians?

If I do not show this gift does it mean I do not have the Holy Ghost?

I feel I have other gifts for our Lord's Church this is not one of my giftings. Would you deny that I have the Spirit?

Answer:
Subject: Re: Greeting from Texas!
Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2002 15:07:29 -0600
From: Jack Barr
To: xxxxxx@xxxxxx

Hi there xxxxx,

Thank you for your letter. You ask some very good questions. And Yes, I use the KJV because it IS the Word of God.

As for denominations,

There is only one denomination in the eyes of God, and that is the Bride of Christ. All other denominations are man made and do not stand in the eyes of God. If you love and serve Jesus Christ, placing Jesus first in your life, then you are in the body and bride of Christ and have salvation. Now isn't that simple. That is what the Bible tells me. God does not care what name you place on the church that you attend, He only cares about what is in your heart.

Anyone who hates you (or puts you down) for any reason has a real problem themselves, and the problem is between themselves and God. But you need to forgive them and to pray for their salvation.

It is impossible for any man to know with any certainty who will go to hell. I can tell some that if they continue in the sins or lifestyle that they are living that they will go to hell, but there is no way for me to know if they will repent, turn to God and gain salvation. That can only be between them and God. I am certain that there were many who had their doubts about me, for I did not accept My Lord God untill I was turning 55 years old.

You ask about having the Holy Spirit and about speaking in tongues.

No, I would not deny that you have the Holy Spirit, but while you have the Holy Spirit, it does sound like you have not yet received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, for you do not yet have the sign of having received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.. I know that this needs an explanation to understand the difference.

As soon as you have given your heart to Jesus Christ, you receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. You can not belong to God without the Holy Spirit residing inside of you!! But I must show you that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is separate, and for a different purpose, of which, the speaking in tongues is only a sign, and not the reason for the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Do you have to have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit to have salvation?

The answer is no! Salvation is by faith only, according to God's word in the bible.

On the difference between receiving the Holy Spirit and receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

To understand, perhaps it would be helpful to look at a couple of verses from the bible.

Please note that this was a while before they received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. They now had the Holy Spirit residing in them just as you and I have now.

So what is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit??

Acts 1:8 tells us that the purpose of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is for POWER to witness!

But it is said that this verse only speaks of the Holy Spirit coming on you, and says nothing about the Baptism in the Spirit. But while this is true if, and only if, you take the verse out of context. When place back into the context of the first part of Acts chapter 1, we see that Jesus is speaking and is speaking of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Therefore verse 8 is speaking about receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and not merely just the receiving of the Holy Spirit, which they already had. Here Jesus is telling them that they will receive this power in the future. By Jesus placing this receiving of power in their future, it tells us that just having the Holy Spirit in them, as they already had, did not give them this power.

We can ask, just how important is it to have that power?

We can see also in Luke chapter 24 and in Acts chapter 1 that Jesus thought that it was so important to have that power that Jesus commanded the Apostles, (who already had the Holy Spirit in them,) to not leave Jerusalem to start their ministries until the received the power.

You ask, Do you think that this gift is necessary to all Spirit filled Christians?

Yes, I do think, and believe, that it is necessary for every Christian to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as well as just receiving the Holy Spirit. Is it necessary for salvation? The answer is no. Why then is it necessary? Because of two reasons, First: because Jesus believed that the Apostles, and us, needed to have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in order to have the power to perform the task that He was giving us, that is to be witnesses for Him. Without that power a person will either not witness at all or will be a weak ineffectual witness, producing very little fruit. Second; Jesus said that we should have it, and on a study of the New Testament, we see that ALL who became Christians in the time of the Apostles, received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus also said that if you are a believer that speaking in tongues is one of the signs that will be manifested through you, or follow you, which will show that you are a Christian Believer.

How do we know that they received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit?

Because they all had the same sign as the Apostles had received on the day of Pentecost, that is, the speaking in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. In Acts 8:15-19 when the Apostles laid hands on people they received the Baptism with the sign of speaking in Tongues, Simon saw the sign and he tried to buy the power to give the sign. He would not have done that if he did not see a definite sign proving that they had received the Baptism.

And when Peter was with Cornelius at Caesarea, Acts10:44-48, preaching to them, they all received both the Holy Spirit AND the Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the sign of speaking in tongues.

You say that you have other gifts for Our Lord's Church.

That is great. But so many confuse the Gifts of the Holy Spirit with the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is to be noted that every gift from the Holy Spirit has been given to men throughout all of history, except the giving of messages in tongues and the interpretation on those messages. These two have been given to man only since the day of Pentecost. And I have experienced and noted, that only some of those who have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit gives messages in tongues, or are able to interpret those messages.

You certainly can have any one of the other gifts from the Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit gives these gifts to whosoever He wishes.

So what we have, is that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, is a Gift, and a Promise, From God the Father, and does not originate from, nor come from the Holy Spirit. For it is God the Father who gives us the Baptism in the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ.

You ask, If I do not show this gift does it mean I do not have the Holy Ghost?

No. But let me explain just a little farther. I have met many a person whom I have never heard speak in tongues. Does this mean that they do not? If others have never heard you speak in tongues, nor heard you declare that you do, then how could they possible know? If you do speak in tongues, even when you are only praying alone, then you have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and others may never know. In this respect, you are not showing the "gift" of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, but still have it.

But if you mean by not showing the "gift" of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, meaning that you do not speak in tongues at any time, then you do not have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

If you have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, then You Will also have the Sign of speaking in tongues. If you do not have the sign, then you do not have the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

As I stated above, you, as a Christian, do have the Holy Spirit residing inside of you, but I have shown above that there is a difference between having the Holy Spirit and having the Baptism in the Holy Spirit also. As a Spirit filled Christian without the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, you may be given any, or all, of the gifts of the Holy Spirit except giving messages in tongues or the interpreting of them. You may do miracles, give prophecies, be given a word of knowledge or of wisdom etc. God will use you if you are willing to be used.

When you seek after the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, seek the power, not the sign. Know also that there are so very many whom God tried to give the Baptism in the Holy Spirit to, only to have them refuse to accept it. In one case, I had been laying on of hands and praying for a woman at our church to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. She insisted that she wanted it, But God told me to stop praying for her to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit because she would not accept it. In another case, The Lord had me send all the scriptures about it to a relative, which I did. About two years later, while I was on my knees praying to my Lord God about 2 am, the Lord said "pick up the phone and call my relative, tell them that I want them to accept the Baptism in the Holy Spirit." I called them immediately and relayed the message to them. Their response was "If God wants me to have it then He will give it to me." They were refusing to accept. God will not give any gift to anyone who does not want it. To this day they do not have it, and does not seek after it. Since that time, they have fallen several times because they did not have the power to resist. Nor do they go about declaring God's Word to those they meets.

I hope that this will anawer your questions.

May God Bless You and Lead You into All of His Truths

Rev. Jack Barr