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Matthew Stuckey here and I wanted to make a quick video on three common myths of Pentecostals or the Pentecostal religion. And the number one myth about the Pentecostal religion is that this practice of speaking in tongues is associated only within the Christian realm. And so this is a common misunderstanding, a common myth when it comes to people that live in the United States, because a lot of people from all over the world are well aware of the fact that speaking in tongues is not just associated within the Christian realm, but it's actually associated outside of the Christian realm. In fact, just in the common world, psychiatrists have been studying this idea of speaking in tongues for quite a long time, and it's called glossolalia when it comes to just the secular world, glossolalia. And it's this practice of people that will speak in some language and utter words that they do not understand, and then they will black out. And when it comes to psychiatrists, it's often associated to people that are schizophrenic or bipolar or people that are insane and people that are crazy. And this is a practice you'll often see, and this is often associated with people that are homeless or people that are drug addicts, and they'll just speak in languages that they do not understand, and they'll say things that are utter nonsense that are not part of any language, but they're just saying things, they don't remember them, and they black out and everything. And it's known as glossolalia, and commonly it's considered something that people that are insane do. So it's not just associated within the Christian realm, there are actually a lot of people that are insane that do this. But not only that, it's not just people that are insane or crazy, but you know, it also dates back historically for a very long time. This is not something that just started in the days of Jesus Christ. In fact, the first recorded instance of this were people that were worshiping the false god of Ammon, who was the Egyptian god of the Sun and the air in 1100 BC, 1100 before Christ. Over a thousand years before Jesus Christ is the first recorded instance of people, you know, practicing glossolalia, where they're basically uttering words they do not understand, and they black out, and they wake up, and they have no idea what they said. And so this was a common practice with people that were worshiping false gods all the way back a thousand plus years before the time of Jesus Christ. Now I would say that although this is the first recorded instance of this, there's nothing new under the Sun, so I'm sure you can go back before the days of the flood, and people that are worshiping false gods are going to be basically uttering nonsense. And this practice of speaking in tongues or glossolalia existed long before the time of the flood. From the very beginning, people that are pagans and worshiping false gods are doing this practice. It's not just associated within the Christian realm. But you know, a more famous example, someone who would have a lot of credibility within the secular world, is a man by the name of Plato. You know, everybody knows who Plato is, the famous Greek philosopher, and he commonly in his writings talked about people that practice glossolalia, and it was always associated with people in a spiritual sense. You know, people that were diviners or sorcerers or practice black magic, and there's a very split opinion on these people back in his day, and Plato existed hundreds of years long before the time of Jesus Christ. And one quick quick quote from Plato was this, he said, there are like diviners or soothsayers who say many fine things but do not understand the meaning of them. And he said there are people that are diviners or soothsayers or sorcerers who utter things but they don't understand what they're uttering. And this is the practice of glossolalia. Now that's a small quote, and if you look at his writings, you can see much more in-depth statements from him that I don't have time to get into in this video, where he's clearly talking about people that are practicing glossolalia, or what people in the Christian realm would call speaking in tongues, where they're saying things they don't understand, and then they would say that they're speaking to the spirits, or they're speaking to the gods. And so these are people that were sorcerers and diviners and people practicing witchcraft and black magic, things that the Bible says would get the death penalty, things that are very wicked sins, people that are bad people. And Plato would say how these people were these diviners, these religious magician, you know, sort of people, and they were practicing these things. And it's only recently now you're seeing it in the Christian realm where it's becoming like a big thing and it's considered very common. It was always considered with people that were practicing witchcraft and sorcery and people such as that. But it's not just that it's associated outside of the Christian realm. I mean, it's associated with all false religions. You see this especially in shamanism. You see this in voodoo, in the really dark false religions. You also see it, though, in Hinduism. You see it with many of the monks in Buddhism that are practicing this speaking in tongues or glossolalia. And so this is not something that is just underneath the Christian realm. Actually people that are, you know, false prophets and sorcerers and wicked people, they have practiced speaking in tongues long before the time of Jesus Christ. This is not just something that is associated within the Christian realm. In fact, you can make video talking for hours about all the recorded instances outside of the Christian realm, you know, dating back before the time of Christ of people that were practicing this. So the first common myth with Pentecostals is that this speaking in tongues is something that is only associated within the Christian realm. In fact, it's only been really recently commonly existing within the Christian realm. It was always, you know, considered to be things that pagans did in the past. Another false idea, a myth of the Pentecostals is this, that the Pentecostal religion is just a brand new religion that started 100 years ago. So people often talk about the Azusa street revivals and, you know, people that are Pentecostals will say that the spirit was just kind of poured out and, you know, this religion just kind of just skyrocketed and the numbers have been skyrocketing. And, you know, obviously this is becoming far more common, the Charismatics, the Pentecostals. But, you know, before the Azusa street revivals, this already existed within the Christian realm, right? The Quakers in the 18th century are one example. And they were known as the Quakers because during their services, it was like an earthquake was going off. You say, what do you mean? I mean, they were going like this, you know, shaking, quaking or shaking. And now they're known, they were known as the Shakers or the Quakers because they're shaking or they're, it's like an earthquake's going off. They're the Quakers. And so this idea of the Pentecostals, this is not a new thing. People were doing that in the 18th century. And the 19th century, the early 19th century, you had Charles Finney, which is a very famous false prophet from the past. And he was a Presbyterian, but he was practicing things such as speaking in tongues and these charismatic gifts and these things that someone that was possessed would end up doing. Now, many of Charles Finney's friends tried to hide this because at the time, it was not considered acceptable within the Christian realm, or someone who would be a Protestant, such as he was, to be exhibiting these sorts of traits. But Charles Finney was practicing many things that modern day Pentecostals would. And if he was around the day, he probably would have been a Pentecostal preacher, because it's more commonly accepted than it was during his day. So the first myth is this. When it comes to the Pentecostals, that speaking in tongues is something that is only associated with the Christian realm. It's actually only recently been strongly associated with the Christian realm, because it was considered a pagan, wicked practice that sorcerers did. And so only recently, as Christianity has become very lame and has just accepted everything and doesn't care what the Bible says, only now is it commonly accepted for people to speak in tongues and call themselves Christians. Myth number two is that the Pentecostals are a brand new religion. There were, you know, people that were practicing this before the last hundred years, and the numbers have definitely increased, but this was existing long before the last hundred years. And number three is this, that the Pentecostals are going back to the old-fashioned book of Acts, old-fashioned Christianity. And the Pentecostals would have you to say that, you know, when you have Acts chapter 2, the Spirit's just being poured out, and people are speaking in tongues and uttering this language that they don't understand to speak to God. And they say they're bringing back, you know, the old-fashioned Christianity found in the book of Acts. But yet, if you read the book of Acts, you don't see this speaking in tongues like they're talking about. You'll see people that are speaking with tongues, meaning speaking in actual language, that people understand. And in Acts chapter 2, they're speaking and people understand in their own language. Why? Because they were given the ability to speak in other languages that they did not know. That's what the miracle was in Acts chapter 2. They weren't speaking a language that nobody understood. People were getting saved because they were preaching the gospel, and people understood in their own language. And they're shocked that these people are speaking a language that they don't actually know. And so that's what the miracle was in Acts chapter 2. And why was it that that miracle was allowed to happen by God? Well, the reason why is because God wanted the gospel to get out. And by them speaking languages that they did not know, many people were able to get saved. Because people were gathered all around the world after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And there's, you know, great confusion and excitement and interest. I mean, this is long before the days of the World Cup or the, you know, Super Bowl. And so people were excited about, you know, spiritual matters. And people are gathered together, and God allowed this miracle to take place. But see, what you see throughout the book of Acts is not just people that speak actual languages, which is what speaking with tongues is. The Bible does not say speaking in tongues. It says speaking with tongues in your King James Bible. But what you see throughout the book of Acts is an emphasis on soul winning. You see people going out and preaching the gospel. It says going house to house, taking opportunities to preach to people that they saw, whether it was a public opportunity, or whether or not it was just going, you know, from town to town and house to house. And you're seeing people stop. You see, you see Peter go all the way to Cornelius to preach the gospel. And the emphasis in the book of Acts is on soul winning. And that is what the old-fashioned Christianity is, is just basically preaching the gospel to people and spreading the message of Jesus Christ. And I'll be honest, I would love it if churches would go back to the old-fashioned Christianity. But see, the old-fashioned Christianity was not just getting possessed by devils and saying things you didn't understand. It was preaching the gospel to lost people, something that churches are not doing because they have lost their first love. So what are the three common myths of the Pentecostals? Myth number one is that speaking in tongues is associated only within the Christian realm. That's actually not true. It's existed long before the time of Christ with false religions all around the world. Myth number two is this, that the Pentecostals are basically kind of a brand new religion in the last hundred years. And basically, you know, Christianity kind of died off, but there's been this major revival that took place. Well, no, there was actually people that would put themselves under the Christian realm that had, you know, false belief systems hundreds of years before that. And I'm sure all the way back to the time of Christ, just these false people rising up, and they were exhibiting certain things like this. It's just has become very accepted in the last hundred years. And myth number three is this, that the Pentecostals are practicing this old-fashioned Christianity that had kind of died out. Well, in reality, in the book of Acts, what are they doing? They're going soul winning. That is what the old-fashioned Christianity actually is. Thank you and God bless.