The Spiritual Gift of Speaking in Tongues
Christians have a desire to express their love and devotion to God, especially new converts and mature Christians, generally in worship and prayer, and they wish to be very spiritual about their expression. Listen to the words of your Sunday morning praise and worship and listen to the tone as well as the atmosphere generate in the sanctuary. Listen to the prayers of those leading the service. Their words are very deep. The atmosphere is very thick and moving. There is something about our expression of emotion towards God and it is, at least should be, genuine.
In consideration of worship and leading worship people have a gift. Their gift is natural and skilled. A musician spends countless hours honing their abilities learning methods, scales, theory, all in order to make the music blend together and not come out all chopped up and strange. Their skill units and moves people into a single direction. There are people who express a deep gratitude to these abilities and wished they had them too but admit they do not have the coordination and discipline to study such skill. Though these people do not have the gift of playing a musical instrument does not mean they do not have a gift at all. We all have a specific gift that makes us unique. In the body of Christ these skills, abilities, and gifts should be used to lift one another up and help each other in times of need.
In 1 Corinthians Paul writes about special gifts the Spirit has provided the body in order to do that very thing, to encourage and lift one another in times of need. These gift all come from God and they vary from person to person and they are; utterance of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working miracles, prophecy, ability to distinguish between spirits, tongues, and interpretation. In chapter 13 Paul goes over the greatest gift of them all and that is love, more on that in a little bit.
Out of all of them the one gift that has generated the most popularity among Pentecostal churches is speaking in tongues. If you ever visit one of these churches you will witness this activity quickly and it begins at a very young age being taught in Sunday school classes for children. Not saying this is an absolute terrible thing to do but one must question, is this what is taught in the Scriptures?
First off, there is a teaching going around today that the Spiritual gifts are no longer in use today. The text to justify this is 1 Corinthians 13:8, “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease…” What is troubling about this is the second half of the verse is omitted, “as for knowledge, it will pass away.” If the gift of tongues “has passed away” then should the same be true about knowledge? How can anyone in the church, especially leaders, place a limit or an expiration date on the Holy Spirit? Who is to say that the Holy Spirit cannot operate in our world today as he did two-thousand years ago? I believe this is foolish to begin with and may even borderline blasphemy.
As you witness this activity in the church you will wonder what in the world is going on if you have never seen or heard this before. It is confusing with all the “Untie my bow-tie, who stole my Honda” stuff all around you. Many times it is just one person getting up shouting out this confusing “language” that no one can understand and as quickly as they started they will then begin to speak so that everyone understand what they are saying as to manifest an interpretation.
Allow me to address my accusation to all of this before I dive into what the Scriptures say and how these people use the Scriptures to justify their beliefs. Of all the Spiritual gift listed in 1 Corinthians 12 speaking in tongues is the one that can be faked the easiest. I believe people desire this specifically to draw attention to themselves as to make themselves appear to be Supper Spiritual. This is pride, not spirituality.
So where does this denomination receive this teaching? They begin in the book of Acts chapter 2 where the Apostles and others have gathered waiting for the Holy Spirit to arrive the text describes the event as a rushing wind filling the room and “divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.” (v.2) As this happened the Holy Spirit then fills these people and they began to speak in other tongues “as the Spirit gave them utterance” to do so (v.3). The text goes on to point out that there were men in Jerusalem who were Jewish from every nation who heard these people speaking in their own native language. What astonished these men is the fact they were common Jews, Galileans, who did not know multiple languages, they were not educated people. The text goes on to identify the various places these people who heard them were from.
Their teaching also includes that in order to really be a Christian you must have spoken in tongues. There is a strong attempt to go through the Scriptures to justify this teaching. There is such a strong promotion to teach this part but there is no urgency to teach and practice baptism. So is this biblical?
In chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians Paul is heavy on the subject of love and encourages the believers to seek it more than any other gift. In chapter 14 he deals with the issue of tongues and prophesy. Of all the gifts listed in chapter 12 Paul tells the believers to desire the gifts, especially prophecy, not tongues. Why? Paul says that the one who speaks in tongues do so not to men but to God because no one understand the speaker but speaks mysteries in the Spirit. Those who prophesies speaks to the people for their up building and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in tongues builds themselves up. Paul says that the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues. Paul continues in the text to say that in the time to speak in tongues that there should be two, at the most three, as to not cause confusion to the unbelievers in the church, and someone must interpret. If there is no one to interpret the ones speaking in tongues should keep silent and speak to himself and to God.
God wants order in the church, not confusion. Yet, this is not what I have witnessed. I sat in a church that had a visiting pastor where there was “speaking in tongues” and lay on of hands and people “passing out” on the floor. I sat there, looking around and noticed that others were doing the same thing with their arms crossed shaking their heads in disbelief. The visiting pastor say, “What we were witnessing took place at Pentecost.” I thought to myself, “No, at Pentecost everyone was united. We are not united here.”
I strongly believe that the gift of speaking in tongues is abused, used to gain attention to the individual who is practicing the gift. There are two Greek word for tongues (glOssai) where we get the word “glossary” from, and (dialěktŏs) were we get “dialect” from. Speaking in tongues is not an unknown language when it is used to build up the church. The text used to justify this belief is when Paul says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels…” (1 Corinthians 13:1). This is called a hapax, which means once and it is generally not a good idea to build a doctrine or teaching off of such.
In all the churches I have witnessed this take place I know everyone in that church spoke English. The best way I can illustrate this possibly happen is like this: I have an old Army friend whose father is a Polish immigrant. I have over heard him speaking to his father on the phone speaking Polish. So I use him as an example. If he and I along with half dozen soldiers were to enter into a church filled with Polish speaking individuals where not a single person spoke English and my friend got up to say something to the church I would not consider him speaking in tongues for he was taught how to speak the language. If after my friend spoke and one of the soldiers who did not know Polish interpreted what my friend had said then that would be a Spiritual gift. Likewise, if two or three of us stood up and spoke Polish to the entire church when we did not know Polish to begin with, that would be the gift of speaking in tongues.
Now out of all the gifts Paul speaks about love is the only one that is also a Spiritual fruit (Galatians 5). Paul devotes much on this subject (1 Corinthians 13). In everything we do we need to do so in love. Love is not selfish or boastful. It is the greatest gift given to us through God’s grace. Love is also the greatest gift we can give each other for without love we have no purpose.
In consideration of worship and leading worship people have a gift. Their gift is natural and skilled. A musician spends countless hours honing their abilities learning methods, scales, theory, all in order to make the music blend together and not come out all chopped up and strange. Their skill units and moves people into a single direction. There are people who express a deep gratitude to these abilities and wished they had them too but admit they do not have the coordination and discipline to study such skill. Though these people do not have the gift of playing a musical instrument does not mean they do not have a gift at all. We all have a specific gift that makes us unique. In the body of Christ these skills, abilities, and gifts should be used to lift one another up and help each other in times of need.
In 1 Corinthians Paul writes about special gifts the Spirit has provided the body in order to do that very thing, to encourage and lift one another in times of need. These gift all come from God and they vary from person to person and they are; utterance of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working miracles, prophecy, ability to distinguish between spirits, tongues, and interpretation. In chapter 13 Paul goes over the greatest gift of them all and that is love, more on that in a little bit.
Out of all of them the one gift that has generated the most popularity among Pentecostal churches is speaking in tongues. If you ever visit one of these churches you will witness this activity quickly and it begins at a very young age being taught in Sunday school classes for children. Not saying this is an absolute terrible thing to do but one must question, is this what is taught in the Scriptures?
First off, there is a teaching going around today that the Spiritual gifts are no longer in use today. The text to justify this is 1 Corinthians 13:8, “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease…” What is troubling about this is the second half of the verse is omitted, “as for knowledge, it will pass away.” If the gift of tongues “has passed away” then should the same be true about knowledge? How can anyone in the church, especially leaders, place a limit or an expiration date on the Holy Spirit? Who is to say that the Holy Spirit cannot operate in our world today as he did two-thousand years ago? I believe this is foolish to begin with and may even borderline blasphemy.
As you witness this activity in the church you will wonder what in the world is going on if you have never seen or heard this before. It is confusing with all the “Untie my bow-tie, who stole my Honda” stuff all around you. Many times it is just one person getting up shouting out this confusing “language” that no one can understand and as quickly as they started they will then begin to speak so that everyone understand what they are saying as to manifest an interpretation.
Allow me to address my accusation to all of this before I dive into what the Scriptures say and how these people use the Scriptures to justify their beliefs. Of all the Spiritual gift listed in 1 Corinthians 12 speaking in tongues is the one that can be faked the easiest. I believe people desire this specifically to draw attention to themselves as to make themselves appear to be Supper Spiritual. This is pride, not spirituality.
So where does this denomination receive this teaching? They begin in the book of Acts chapter 2 where the Apostles and others have gathered waiting for the Holy Spirit to arrive the text describes the event as a rushing wind filling the room and “divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.” (v.2) As this happened the Holy Spirit then fills these people and they began to speak in other tongues “as the Spirit gave them utterance” to do so (v.3). The text goes on to point out that there were men in Jerusalem who were Jewish from every nation who heard these people speaking in their own native language. What astonished these men is the fact they were common Jews, Galileans, who did not know multiple languages, they were not educated people. The text goes on to identify the various places these people who heard them were from.
Their teaching also includes that in order to really be a Christian you must have spoken in tongues. There is a strong attempt to go through the Scriptures to justify this teaching. There is such a strong promotion to teach this part but there is no urgency to teach and practice baptism. So is this biblical?
In chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians Paul is heavy on the subject of love and encourages the believers to seek it more than any other gift. In chapter 14 he deals with the issue of tongues and prophesy. Of all the gifts listed in chapter 12 Paul tells the believers to desire the gifts, especially prophecy, not tongues. Why? Paul says that the one who speaks in tongues do so not to men but to God because no one understand the speaker but speaks mysteries in the Spirit. Those who prophesies speaks to the people for their up building and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in tongues builds themselves up. Paul says that the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues. Paul continues in the text to say that in the time to speak in tongues that there should be two, at the most three, as to not cause confusion to the unbelievers in the church, and someone must interpret. If there is no one to interpret the ones speaking in tongues should keep silent and speak to himself and to God.
God wants order in the church, not confusion. Yet, this is not what I have witnessed. I sat in a church that had a visiting pastor where there was “speaking in tongues” and lay on of hands and people “passing out” on the floor. I sat there, looking around and noticed that others were doing the same thing with their arms crossed shaking their heads in disbelief. The visiting pastor say, “What we were witnessing took place at Pentecost.” I thought to myself, “No, at Pentecost everyone was united. We are not united here.”
I strongly believe that the gift of speaking in tongues is abused, used to gain attention to the individual who is practicing the gift. There are two Greek word for tongues (glOssai) where we get the word “glossary” from, and (dialěktŏs) were we get “dialect” from. Speaking in tongues is not an unknown language when it is used to build up the church. The text used to justify this belief is when Paul says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels…” (1 Corinthians 13:1). This is called a hapax, which means once and it is generally not a good idea to build a doctrine or teaching off of such.
In all the churches I have witnessed this take place I know everyone in that church spoke English. The best way I can illustrate this possibly happen is like this: I have an old Army friend whose father is a Polish immigrant. I have over heard him speaking to his father on the phone speaking Polish. So I use him as an example. If he and I along with half dozen soldiers were to enter into a church filled with Polish speaking individuals where not a single person spoke English and my friend got up to say something to the church I would not consider him speaking in tongues for he was taught how to speak the language. If after my friend spoke and one of the soldiers who did not know Polish interpreted what my friend had said then that would be a Spiritual gift. Likewise, if two or three of us stood up and spoke Polish to the entire church when we did not know Polish to begin with, that would be the gift of speaking in tongues.
Now out of all the gifts Paul speaks about love is the only one that is also a Spiritual fruit (Galatians 5). Paul devotes much on this subject (1 Corinthians 13). In everything we do we need to do so in love. Love is not selfish or boastful. It is the greatest gift given to us through God’s grace. Love is also the greatest gift we can give each other for without love we have no purpose.
