Repent, be baptised, and speak in tongues to be saved?

This old article by Troy Waller has been restored from the archives.

When I was in the Revival Centres I was 100% sure that the above message was the gospel preached in the Bible. I preached this message to many people and even saw some of my friends join the Revival Centres. I was a committed member of my assembly and attended Sunday meetings and Young Peoples faithfully. I was sure that I would be a part of the Revival Centres until I died or the Lord came back.

Some very close friends of mine left the Revival Centres to attend another Pentecostal church in the late 1980s. Although the Revival Centre policy instructed me to discontinue fellowship with them, I stayed in touch because these people loved the Lord and continuously encouraged me in my walk.

I was horrified the day they told me that they didn’t believe you had to speak in tongues to be saved! How could they reject something that was so clear in the Bible? How could anyone not see that the Bible teaches you must speak in tongues to be saved? Because I couldn’t deny that the fruit of their lives bore testimony of Christ, I listened to their reasons for what they believed. They never denied the gift of tongues, in fact they spoke in tongues too. They just didn’t think it was necessary for salvation. They began to show me things from the Bible that challenged my understanding of salvation.

Since leaving the Revival Centres I have met many people who left the church over the years and are now fellowshipping in Pentecostal and Evangelical churches. It would be fair to say that there are more ex-Revivalists than Revivalists! They too had been concerned at some of the inconsistencies in the Revival Centre message as well as the way people were often mercilessly ‘put out’ of the church.

Although we don’t have time to examine all their reasons in one leaflet, let’s look at one account from the Gospel of Luke which shows a man who was clearly saved but never spoke in tongues.

The Thief on the Cross

Quite simply, we read that the thief on the cross was told by Christ that he would be taken into Paradise that day. This thief never spoke in tongues yet Jesus assures him of salvation.

And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:39-43)

When I try to bring this point up with Revivalists I am usually met with, ‘We’ve heard this one before!’ When I was in the Revival Centre I would answer this objection to my doctrine by stating that this account is simply mistranslated. In retrospect, I realise that my argument was weak and erroneous.

What sort of comfort was Jesus offering the thief when he said, ‘Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise’? According to the Revival Centre, none! One Revivalist wrote,

Paradise is mentioned three times in the Bible. The root meaning of the word is a park or garden. The Lord and the two malefactors died and were buried in the earth (garden).
‘The Thief on the Cross – Unsaved?’ ‘Voice of Revival’ Vol 33, No 1, Feb. 1992. p13

The Greek word for paradise used by Jesus here is paradeiso, a park, ie. (spec.) an Eden (place of future happiness, “paradise”) (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance). This was a Persian word, taken over into Greek, and symbolises a place of beauty and delight. The definition of the word is not just park or garden but also Eden, paradise. The place where God walked with man in close fellowship and unbroken relationship (Genesis 2). The words of Christ to the thief on the cross were not that he would be in the grave with Jesus but that he would be in the Garden of God, Eden, a place of future happiness, paradise. Paul uses the same word when he writes,

And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
(2 Cor 12:3-4)

Are we to accept the Revival Centre definition for the word paradise here and say that a man was caught ‘up’ into the ground or tomb where he heard unspeakable words? Of course not. This man was caught up into God’s presence, possibly bodily, where Jesus had promised to take the thief. The thief was saved yet he never spoke in tongues!

So What Must I Do To Be Saved?

Believing on Jesus is the only way that we can be saved. Paul made clear the gospel message he preached to the Corinthian church when he wrote,

By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
1 Cor 15:2-5 NIV

Please note that Paul’s message was not ‘repent, be baptised and receive the Holy Spirit with Bible evidence of speaking in tongues’. Paul’s message of first importance was the death and resurrection of Christ. It is believing that message that saves us! Paul reaffirmed his message to the Roman church when he wrote,

But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Rom 10:8-10 NIV

Paul also wrote,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.
Eph 2:8-9 NIV

All that Jesus said is fundamental. Nothing that Christ said to us is ever to be considered incidental. The gospel that the Lord himself preached was,