"A Humble Servant's Catholic Blog"

Some groups of Christians believe that every saved person speaks in tongues, and anyone who does not, isn’t really saved. Here’s an example of what I have been told by such a person: “ When we receive the Holy Spirit or we are filled with the Holy Spirit after being born again, the initial evidence is speaking or praying in tongues . Anyone who cannot pray in tongues does not have the Holy Spirit within them. Acts 2:4, 10:45-46 and 1 Cor 12:28 list the ministry gifts. The last one is diversities of tongues. Praying in tongues is your own personal prayer time for your edification. Every Christian can do it at will (1Cor 14:4,14.). The other 3 gifts are done as the Holy Spirit wills. ” But does the Bible really say that ALL Christians will speak in tongues, or even be able to? Is there any indication that this will be THE sign that a person is saved or has received the Holy Spirit? Let’s look at the passages cited and see what they say. This person (a Pentecostal) cites Acts ...

I once had a discussion with a friend of mine who believed that the world would be better off without any religion.   “ I think I figured it out ” , he said.   “[The one thing humans can] do away with that would make the world a much safer, brighter, happier, more progressive and innovative, and loving world [is religion]” .     Going with my own understanding of “religion” , I asked, “ How could the world be safer, brighter, happier, more progressive/innovative/loving by doing away with a relationship with our Creator? Seems like that would be a step in the opposite direction. ”   We ended up talking about several different topics at once ( whether we really know our Creator; whether He created evil/sin; the nature of free will; the state of humanity; etc. ) but the main focus was religion, and whether the world would be better off without it.     I said, “ Let’s make sure we are talking about the same thing:   ‘Religion’:   f...