RELIGIOUS MISCONCEPTION

The following article is written by brother Matt Tison. Please reach out if you have questions.

There's a great misconception among the religious world when it comes to speaking in tongues.

In the Bible, speaking in tongues was not emotional, unintelligible speech that no one could understand. In Acts 2, the apostles spoke in actual languages they had never learned, and the people listening said, “we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11).

Even when Paul addressed tongues in Corinth, he emphasized understanding, interpretation, and order. Worship was never supposed to become confusion or a display of spirituality. “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33).

Real Christianity is remarkably simple. Mankind has made religion complicated.

In religion today, people build massive organizations, religious corporations if you will. People hire production teams, construct stages, bring in bands, lights, smoke, and entertainment. People develop programs for every age and every demographic.

And somewhere along the way, people can begin believing that all of that is Christianity.

But open the New Testament. Read the scriptures for yourself. What do you see?

You find Christians gathering together.

They prayed.

They sang.

They studied the apostles’ teaching.

They remembered Jesus in the Lord’s Supper EVERY first day of the week.

They gave back as they had prospered.

They encouraged one another.

They preached Christ.

They helped those in need.

They went home and lived faithfully for God.

That was church.

No concert required.

No elaborate production.

No celebrity preacher.

No emotional spectacle necessary.

Just Christians worshiping God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), according to what He revealed.

There is something incredibly refreshing about realizing that we do not have to improve upon God’s design.

Christianity does not need to be made more exciting.

Worship does not need to be made more entertaining.

The gospel does not need to be made more impressive.

It just needs to be believed, obeyed, and lived out.

Sometimes the hardest thing for religious people to accept is that God really did make His way that simple.

“Those who gladly received his word were baptized… And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” — Acts 2:41–42

Maybe instead of asking, “How can we make church more appealing?”

We should be asking,

“How closely does what we are doing resemble the church we actually read about in the Bible?”

Leave your questions or thoughts in the comments or send me a private message. I always appreciate the productive conversation!

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