John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Bible questions are not settled by men's experiences but by the Word of God. - John R. Rice [Speaking with Tongues, pg. 7]

We are expressly taught to seek prophesy. That means speak for God, witness for God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 1:8 we are told, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me. . . ." That part we are taught to week. We are supposed to "covet earnestly the best gifts," but we are never taught to covet the gift of tongues. - John R. Rice [Kindly, Clear Bible Answers About Speaking in Tongues, pg. 13-14]

First Corinthians, chapter 14 is a strange chapter, strange because it goes into the whole matter of a tongues heresy they had at Corinth. You say, "Was that a heresy?" Yes. You say, "Didn't they talk in tongues?" They talked in different NATURAL languages. It is very clear in this Scripture. Now they have to be given some restraint and some rules about it, in I Corinthians 14.

Had it been of God, you wouldn't have to have any restraint. Nowhere in the Bible does God say to people, "I have given you the power to work miracles but take it easy. Don't do it so often." The Bible never says, "You who have a gift of healing, don't two of you heal people at the same time."

But God does say that about the kind of tongues they had here in this chapter. Why? Because they were natural tongues being misused, trying to copy after the gift of tongues. So there is restraint and rebuke for what they were doing at Corinth. Now, why would you seek to have what they had at Corinth when the Bible says what they had was wrong, and God is rebuking them for it? - John R. Rice [Kindly, Clear Bible Answers About Speaking in Tongues, pg. 20-21]

I want Christians to be filled with the Spirit of God. I want them to be endued with power from on high. I want them to have all the blessings that God has for them. I want Christians, myself included, to have all the power and fruitfulness that New Testament Christians had. I believe that misunderstanding of the question of speaking in tongues hinders revival and hinders soul winning. With this honest motive, then, I seek to help readers see what the Bible teaches about speaking with tongues. - John R. Rice [Speaking With Tongues, pg. 4]

I am an evangelist, both by calling and choice. My passion, my burden is to see God's saints revived and to see the mighty power of Bible Christianity felt again in America and all the world. We do not seek here to build any denomination. We do not seek here to oppose any movement of godly people. We do not seek a quarrel with Christian brethren. Rather, we seek simply to help men understand the Word of God and to clear away the hindrances to revival, showing them what God wants them to do and what He does not want them to do; showing them what they need in order to do God's work and what they do not need. - John R. Rice [Speaking with Tongues, pg. 4]

Where in the Bible did God ever give a miracle and allow it to be misused, used for an evil purpose? I challenge the reader to find even one such case in the Bible.

God does give us talents, and we sometimes misuse them. But a talent is a gift we have from birth, which is left to us, and we may use it or not. If I have a talent for music, and sing, that is not a miracle. And when I sing with natural talent, it is not God singing. God may bless my singing if I sing for Him. He may despise my singing if I do not sing to please Him. But it is not a miracle and God is not manifest in a purely natural talent. The Holy Spirit may anoint my singing and may by filling me with the Holy Spirit make it useful. But the voice itself is a natural talent. So one may misuse a talent for making money, a talent for public speech, a talent for art. Those are natural gifts. But a miracle is an entirely different matter. When God allows any man to work a miracle, it is God Himself working, even more than the man. - John R. Rice [Speaking in Tongues, pg. 41]

The Psalmist says in Psalm 119:63, "I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts." And if we are to have the wonderful power of God come upon His people to bring great revivals, such as we need, then we must come back to the same kind of brotherly love and fellowship which prevailed before Pentecost (Acts 1:14), at Pentecost (Acts 2:1), and after Pentecost (Acts 2:46; Acts 4:24). - John R. Rice [Speaking in Tongues, pg. 41]