Taking a first look at Marcus Roger and his unbiblical teachings on tongues and baptism.

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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel" not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. - Galatians 1:6-9 (ESV)

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The proliferation of social media has allowed for an explosion of the gospel across the world that the apostles could have only dreamt about. The problem is man is inherently evil and as such, the true explosion is often measured in terms of false teaching. Anyone with a camera and some editing skills can produce quality content but what remains paramount is that you are being taught correctly and unfortunately lies will always sell better than the truth to a sinful world. We want to hear about how great we are, not God. We want to hear that this is our best life now and how a nine-word prayer can change your eternal destination without one significant change in your life. The cross? The blood? Repentance? That's for those suckers who get up early on Sundays. Why go to all that trouble when you can roll out of bed when you want and go to your favorite Facebook preacher/prophet or just load up YouTube to hear what your itching ears are dying to hear that day. Sound like hyperbole? Let us consider the case of Marcus Rogers today, false teacher extraordinaire - who has over 700,000 subscribers on YouTube. Now that's hardly the big time of Joel Osteen and his 3 million followers but considering no one would know Rogers if NOT for YouTube, 700K is nothing to sneeze at. A reader asked me to take a look at him so the first video I found is linked above on the subject of tongues. Now Rogers appears to have an endless amount of false teachings but let's start here and reason together once more. I will be responding in relative order, to the statements that jumped out at me. The overall premise Rogers teaches is the traditional Charismatic false teaching about how the gibberish manifestation of tongues, is evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

"I don't care what anyone tells you. If they are saying you don't need to speak in tongues, they are teaching the opposite of what the apostles taught. Look at Acts 7:51 - stiff necked, always resist the holy ghost as your father did." - Marcus Rogers

This is the recurring focus of this video. That anyone telling you that you don't need tongues is not teaching what the apostles taught. This is of course a red herring and absurd. No one I have ever heard says you do not need tongues. The point Marcus misses here is that the teaching is wrong. That is what discernment ministries rail against. This element of snobbery and superiority. Anyone who has spent ten minutes in a Charismatic church knows exactly what I am speaking about. The super spirituals are those who can apparently move in and out of gibberish tongues and English within the same sentence! As opposed to the rest of us shleps who either suffer from "faith issues" or are "overthinking" it. Look however, at his scripture reference:

"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it." - Acts 7:51-53 (ESV)

This is a rebuke to the teachers of law from the first martyr Stephen. This is not a reference to being filled with the Holy Ghost upon baptism. It is a direct reference to how the Israelites resisted what God said even to the point of killing His prophets! The irony is delicious. Be wary of tricks like this by Rogers and his ilk. If someone throws out a scripture reference, check it! More often than not they are focused on a fragment and ignoring the context.

"I never met anyone that wanted it that didn't get it eventually. Jude said to pray in the holy ghost. It's a promise all the way back to Joel. Paul said the spirit is making groanings and utterances on your behalf. When people run to Corinthians it is because they do not understand there is a difference between the gift of tongues and being filled with the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues" - Marcus Rogers

Ironically the person who sounds confused is Marcus Rogers. These are different topics splashed together to muddy the waters. Let us start with the first notion that he has never met anyone who has not "gotten it" who has not wanted it. C'mon Marcus. We all know plenty of people who are earnestly prayerful and still no "shabba dabba doo" in service. I knew a pastor who waited an alleged 24 years for this. Now, Jude is exhorting us to pray in the holy spirit. There is zero indication in these verses that Jude meant speaking like a toddler. Praying in the spirit means praying according to God and His word, which is His will. Now, Romans does speak to the Spirit interceding for us when we know not what to pray but this is our private prayer language, not the manifestation of gibberish tongues related to the baptism of the spirit. Marcus always comes to the same conclusion. If anyone has the temerity to disagree with him then they must not understand their bible. Right Marcus. Let us deal with this mysterious Corinthians verse he never actually identifies. I assume it is this:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body"Jews or Greeks, slaves or free"and all were made to drink of one Spirit. - 1Corinthians 12:12-13 (ESV)

At several points in this video, Marcus seems clearly frustrated that people who disagree with him revert back to these verses while he feels he has presented a plethora of verses. Nonsense. As we have already shown and will continue to do so, sputtering out verse fragments is not "proof." More importantly, what does Rogers do with these verses from Corinthians? Remember, Marcus' theology is that the baptism in the spirit is a separate occurrence in the life of a believer that can happen at any time. It could be immediate, or it could be 24 years. Yet these verses make it clear that ALL were baptized into one spirit, and ALL were made to drink of one spirit. There are not classes of Christians delineated by how "spiritual" they make themselves out to be. No beloved, we receive the indwelt Holy Spirit upon salvation. That is the power from God. That spirit leads us into all truth. There are two manifestations of other tongues. One is a gift of the spirit and is given out by the spirit as He wills. As this is for the edification of the church, these are other real tongues of this planet and not some mystical, gnostic babbling. The second is the secret prayer language.

"If you want the truth, pray about it. What am I telling you that's false. You can have that prayer language. In Mark it says these signs shall follow them that believe. Paul walked up to everybody and said have you received the holy ghost. People are going to get mad at this video but if you ask those people if they have spoken in tongues they will say no." - Marcus Rogers

Once again, Rogers throws some phrases and fragments together to try and make an unbiblical point. First of all, prayer is important but when someone is teaching you, we only need to open our bibles. The bible debunks false teachers like Marcus Rogers. He suggests prayer because we can convince ourselves anything through our wickedly deceitful hearts, but His word remains true and unchanged. Secondly here - everything Marcus is teaching is false on this subject! It divides the church and shipwrecks the faith. No one is denying you cannot have a prayer language, but we have NOTHING to do with that.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. - Romans 8:26-27 (ESV)

Does this, which is our secret prayer language verses, sound like we are in control at all? The Spirit INTERCEDES for us when we are at our end. The groanings too deep for words is either the spirit speaking through us or just for us. Either way, it is not something we have to wait for and will occur only when the spirit deems it is necessary! Beloved, Paul did not "walk up to everybody" and ask if they have received the Holy Ghost. He did that ONE time in Acts 19, that's it! The people who say no to Rogers' query about speaking in tongues are speaking to this horrible teaching. If the spirit has not willed tongues yet in either deep prayer or as a gift to edify the church, it is no wonder most would honestly answer no.

"When you were in the world and you felt that "F" word bubbling inside of you and you released it to your tongue the bible says out of your body is going to flow rivers of living water so you're going to feel the presence of God all around you and all you have to do is surrender your tongue to it. And people will get mad at this video because I am telling you that you can have it. All I am trying to do is build your faith. The bible says you will receive power after the holy ghost has come upon you." - Marcus Rogers

But what are you trying to build faith in Marcus because it sure isn't scripture. Read the key verses from Galatians. They too were following an unbiblical teaching regarding mixing the law (circumcision) with faith in Christ for salvation. Their faith was being built upon this false teaching just like Marcus' followers' faith is being built on equally shoddy theology. Faith in a false gospel or a false Christ does not lead to salvation. Just look at the carnal comparison he makes! So, to finally learn how to release this imaginary tongue, just think back to when you felt the "F" word bubbling up before you cursed someone out? Of course, the referenced verses regarding living waters have nothing to do with using the "F" bomb.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. - John 7:37-39 (ESV)

The delicious irony continues. This reference is to the indwelt Holy Spirit granted upon BELIEF, not some magic potion years later. The reference to Pentecost does not indicate that it could take years for one to receive the power. The power comes after the Holy Spirit has come upon you!

"I don't know how people can argue with Jude 1:20 - praying in the holy ghost. What does that mean? Paul says the spirit makes intercession. I don't know how people can argue with that. Mark 16 says they that follow me shall cast out devils. If you believe. People say well you aren't casting out devils - yes we are. If you believe." - Marcus Rogers

Another hodgepodge cobbled together. No one is arguing about Jude 1:20. The term Jude uses is praying in the holy spirit, not speaking gibberish. Yes, the spirit makes intercession but as we have already shown, this is about PRAYER, not some magical spirit baptism years after the fact. Now Rogers turns to Mark 16 and wonders how anyone could argue with that. Let's first acknowledge that most historians and scholars admit that Mark 16: 9-20 was probably added to scripture and not actually written by Mark. So, what does that mean hermeneutically? It means we do not establish doctrine based on these verses but take them with a grain of salt, always seeking solid confirmation for any points we wish to teach as crucial. Here is this section from Mark:

And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." - Mark 16:17-18 (ESV)

The referent to tongues here is not specific if it means foreign languages in church or our prayer language but it also shows no evidence of supporting the notion that after believing and being indwelt with the Holy Spirit that God is secretly holding back His power until some foreboding future date. As for Marcus casting out devils, I call poppycock. Go watch his absurd video where he claims to have pulled a snake out of a woman's back. Please. Belief is extremely important in the life of a believer but as the Galatians had to learn, belief in what is even more important.

"It's just like baptism. Mark says that he who is baptized is saved and he who is not is damned.

Why do people get mad, because they don't have faith. Go back to Peter's first sermon. First repent, one action, then be baptized, two actions, and then ye shall be saved." - Marcus Rogers

The verse from Mark is like the above verses, in fact it is the preceding verse. It comes from the same section of added text. As such, to create a whole doctrine of damnation if not baptized is biblically criminal. How does Marcus explain Ephesians then:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)

Baptism is most assuredly a work. Thus, any supposed conflict must be resolved by understanding the foundation which is salvation is of God and not because of any works of man. Now, Marcus came across his Mark verse, and it cause some consternation apparently but what did he do? Did he research and sort out the discrepancy? No, he staked a claim to his view and dismissed any other out hand. It doesn't work that way. As for Peter's sermon, I have no desire to reinvent the wheel. Got Questions has done some admirable work on this matter and if you wish to see that discussion, click this link:

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Having a camera does mean you have been called by God. Studying to show yourself approved does. Marcus Rogers routinely dismisses any criticism as people who just have a religious spirit to which I say amen, I do! You see, God established religion, so stop trying to dirty the word. The bible always confirms if true. For example, we see in verse 2 of 1Corinthains 14 that speaking in tongues is uttering mysteries in the spirit. That sounds so esoteric until you shuffle down to verse 10 and discover that they once again are talking about known languages:

There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, - 1Corinthians 14:10 (ESV)

Be not bewitched like the Galatians before you. Do not allow yourself to be built up in the faith of something that is not of God. Do not follow internet charlatans or chase the next big viral wave. If you insist on doing so, open your bible! Once they have proven themselves unworthy as Marcus Rogers did here, just mark and avoid them.

Reverend Anthony Wade - May 23, 2023

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.