You're welcome. Yes the statements by some that you don't have the Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues is serious error. Every Born Again Christian has the Holy Spirit or they are not born again yet.
Most all pentecostal churches and denominations believe that you must be born again first and receive the Holy Spirit before you are eligible for the experience called the "enduement of Power from on High to be a witness" or the "baptism of the Holy Spirit"
The statement that you have not yet experienced the enduement of power from on High to be a witness if you have not spoken in tongues is what the AOG and many Pentecostals believe.
The thing is, presumably Peter the first time he preached to Gentiles hearing some or all of them speak in tongues and some or all of them magnify God does not prove that if someone has not spoken in tongues, that he or she is not baptized with the Holy Spirit. If we look in Acts 2, Peter quotes a passage about the outpouring of the Spirit and people prophesying, having dreams and visions.
That is NOT saying that you do not have the Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues. Not saying that at all.
Can someone say "it's not for me" or chose to turn down the gift of speaking in tongues if it is available to them? Yes, they can. But they will change their mind if the keep learning and growing in grace. It is a very strange concept to the mature to say to God.. "I know that you have offered me a gift and I know that you would not offer me something I would not want if I understood it, but I am going to pass, thank you very much God" No, no one would say that if they were thinking correctly. Their mind has to be befuddled with erroneous thoughts about the gift to say that, such as fear that God would give them something that would make them appear weird to their friends. Or fear that God would harm them. Or something sort of thinking that is erroneous.
Now can people turn it down because they don't think it is real? Sure, but that it different than turning it down while believing it is a gift God wants them to have.
You either believe God wants you to have it and therefore you also want to have it, (if you are thinking correctly) or you have reasons why you don't think it is available for you, or you are not worthy, (sin in your life) or you don't believe that God is really offering it to you, but who is it that actually believes God is giving this gift today, wants to give it to them, but they say "no thanks God?" Who would do that? I can't imagine it. Except for the "I still have serious sins of the flesh I need to quit first" mentality and I can relate to that. I can understand why someone can believe it is available and say it is not for me if they were thinking they were living too sinfully and needed to work on other things before asking for the gift of tongues. I get it. I think this experience can help them get past that sinful living however and they should just go ahead and surrender all and ask for this outpouring. They will discover that their lack of seriousness about sin changed the day they received this experience and that spiritual sloth was cured.[/QUOTE]
I Corinthians 12:
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
10...to another discerning of spirits;
to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally
as he will.
Not everyone gets 'divers tongues' from the Spirit. These are distrubted 'as He wills.' We this specically in verse 30:
30 Have all the gifts of healing?
do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
From what I've read, the Greek strongly indicates the answer is 'no', like we might in English, 'Not all speak in tongues, do they?"
I grew up Pentecostal and in my late teens as I studied the Bible, I thought Pentecostals had it all together doctrinaly: church style, ecclesiology, pneumatology, etc. I studied through all the passages on the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I saw passages about receiving the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, the Spirit coming on people, being full of the Spirit, etc. in Acts to see where the doctrines I'd been taught came from. In the A/G, I was in Teen Bible Quiz, so I'd memorized I Corinthians and knew those verses. Eventually, I realized there was an issue with the very-much-over-stated initial evidence doctrine. One thing that caused me to admit it to myself was realizing it was one of the weakest parts of the Oneness argument that one had to speak in tongues to be saved. That doesn't jibe well with Pauline soteriology.
I think one reason why a lot of Pentecostals, preachers in particular, do not like letting go of initial evidence because it messes up their methodology. They lead people through steps. For example, repeat this prayer in faith to get saved (some do that, and hopefully they actually tell them the gospel first), then maybe water baptism, if they are from the small minority that believe in one-time post-conversion 'zap sanctification, they lead them through that, then lay hands on them and try to get them to, or encourage them to speak in tongues. It could be that some people that you lay hands and believe God to be filled with the Spirit might actually get filled/baptized with the Spirit even if they do not speak in tongues. The problem is the 'second class Christian' mentality. And if Acts 6 is about appointing deacons, then should a church not have deacons who do not speak in tongues, since the men in Acts 6 had to be filled with the Spirit? Paul actually indicates that divers tongues is a manifestation of the Spirit, and that not everyone will manifest it. So if we want clarity on how to interpret those statements in Acts 10 and 11 about tongues in Cornelius' house, we can look at Paul's letters.
I know there are those who will say that 'initial evidence' is not what Paul has in mind. 'Initial evidence' tongues are also 'tongues', that are spoken in. The only reason to think Paul's words do not apply is 'Because I said so' or 'Because this preacher said so' or 'Because my tradition says so.'
There are also those people who prophesy, have revelatory dreams or visions- manifestations Acts 2 mentions, and manifest other gifts who have not spoken in tongues. Paul says to be filled with the Spirit and to speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. There are other ways the Spirit manifests in believers He has filled besides tongues.