Dr. Bernard on today's episode, we want to ask you a question that comes up pretty frequently.

I saw it actually used on social media recently.

So Pentecostals, the United Pentecostal Church and other classical Pentecostal denominations,

teach and believe that the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues.

So we would say a person doesn't have the Holy Spirit if they haven't spoken in tongues.

One of the arguments that gets thrown back at us quite frequently, again I just saw this again recently on a social media discussion, was the words of Jesus.

When Jesus said in Matthew 716, he said, you'll know them by their fruits.

Does Jesus's words there in Matthew, does that indicate that fruit is the evidence of the Holy Spirit then and that tongues

therefore plays no role? What would your response to that be? I believe that the abiding

evidence of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit, supremely love, and the pursuit of

holiness. That doesn't contradict anything that we teach.

It's very interesting.

You're correct.

The Pentecostal movement broadly, which includes the Trinitarians, speak of tongues as the

initial physical evidence.

The UPCI Articles of Faith actually say initial sign, which I prefer.

And all throughout the UPCI manual, we speak of that tongues is the initial sign.

I like that because I think that a little bit more accurately captures the evidence you see

in the New Testament.

So obviously the Book of Acts, which we have another episode that covers this subject

in great detail, I think maybe a couple episodes.

But when you look at Acts 2, Acts 10, Acts 19, the sign that showed people that they'd

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