Speaking in Tongues
Many people have asked
me what I believe the Bible teaches
about the gift of tongues. Some
churches teach that speaking in
tongues is an affirmation of
receiving the Holy Spirit. The
Bible provides more information about
this interesting subject than most
people realize.
Speaking in Tongues
at Pentecost
1. At the time of the
Exodus, God required all male
Israelites to attend three annul
services at a specific place which
later became the city of Jerusalem. “Three
times a year all your men
must appear before the
Lord your God at the place
he will choose: at the Feast of
unleavened Bread, the Feast of weeks [later
called Pentecost] and the feast of
Tabernacles. No man should
appear before the Lord
empty-handed” (Deuteronomy
16:16, insertion and emphasis mine)
2. Following the
Exodus, the Lord was patient with
Israel’s rebellion, even though
they continued to rebel and remain in
apostasy for about 800 years.
Finally, during the sixth century
B.C. the Lord used King
Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Israel.
When Israel learned that destruction
was surely coming (Jeremiah 25:
9-11), many Jewish families scattered
throughout the surrounding nations to
avoid death. (See Ezekiel 5:
10-15.) After 70 years of
Babylonian captivity, many of the
offspring born during the exile chose
to remain in their adopted homelands.
Jewish families were dispersed
throughout the Middle East and
surrounding nations during this
period, and this explains why people
spoke so many different languages at
Pentecost in A.D. 30.
3. Ten days later
after Jesus ascended, the day of
Pentecost arrived. About 9 a.m.
on Sunday morning, (Pentecost always
fell on a Sunday), the Holy Spirit
descended upon the meeting with
display of intimidating power.
There was a violent wind, tongues of
fire, and curiously, everyone heard
the message in their own language!
“All of them [the
disciples of Jesus] were filled
with Holy Spirit and began to speak
in other tongues
as the Spirit enabled them. Now
there were staying in Jerusalem
God-fearing Jews from every
nation under heaven.
When they heard this sound, a crowd
came together in bewilderment,
because each one heard them
speaking in their own language. [Then
Peter said] ‘These men are
not drunk, as you suppose. It’s
only nine in the morning!’”
(Acts 2: 4-6; 15, insertions and
emphasis mine)
4. The disciples did
something that had never been done
before. They spoke to the
congregation about Jesus using the
native languages and dialects of the
congregants: “Then how
is it that each of us hears them in
our native language?
Parthians, Medes and Elamites;
residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and
Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia
and Pamphlia, Egypt and parts of
Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome
(both Jews and converts to Judaism);
Cretans and Arabs – we hear them
declaring the wonders of God in our
own tongues!” (Acts 2: 8-11,
emphasis mine)
5. When Acts 2 is
carefully examined, there is no
evidence of an unknown tongue
being spoken at Pentecost. Instead,
the Bible record clearly indicates
that Christ’s disciples spoke in
the native languages and dialects of
the congregants.
Paul’s
Position on Speaking in Tongues
1. I believe
God chose for the Holy Spirit to be
manifested at Pentecost (through
violent wind, tongues of fire and the
miracle of speaking foreign
languages) for at least two reasons.
First, the gift of speaking foreign
languages overcame the impossible
barrier which foreign languages
create. Every man heard in his
own language the saving gospel of
Jesus Christ. Second, when the
tongues of fire rested upon the
disciples, the disciples and the
gospel of Jesus were given instant
credibility. Three thousand
congregants were baptized (Acts 2:41)
and when they returned home from
Jerusalem, they carried the
experience and the gospel of Jesus
back to their homeland. Seeds
planted sprouted into an array of
churches when Paul arrived on the
scene a year later.
2. Given his
unusual calling and experience of
associating with Gentile believers,
Paul, the Jew, quickly realized that
Gentile churches were very different
than Jewish synagogues. The
Jews remained together in various
nations because their ethnicity and
their religion mad them inseparable.
Early Christianity, on the other
hand, was ethnically diverse, it had
no traditions, and its doctrines were
embryonic. Paul could see that
unless the Holy Spirit kept a newly
formed church alive, human efforts
could not hold it together. At
Corinth, the believers were unhappy
because they could not determine who
was leading the church. There
were Jewish converts who insisted on
maintaining Jewish traditions and
Gentile converts who were hostile to
these assertions. To calm the
storm, Paul explained that the Holy
Spirit gives gifts to different
people for the purpose of building up
the church. After making this
point, Paul then said the Holy Spirit
Himself-not human beings-determines
who will receive a gift from God and
what the gift will be: “All
these [gifts] are the work of
one and the same Spirit, and he gives
them to each one, just as
he determines.” (1
Corinthians 12:11, insertion and
emphasis mine)
Paul provided nine
examples showing that the Holy Spirit
does not give everyone the
same gift: “Two one there
is given through the Spirit the
message of wisdom, to
another the message of
knowledge by means of the same
Spirit. To another faith
by the same Spirit, to
another miraculous powers,
to another
prophecy, to another
distinguishing between spirits, to
another speaking in
different kinds of tongues, and to
still another the
interpretation of tongues [e.g.,
the gift of ears – the ability
to hear a foreign language and
understand what was said].” (1
Corinthians 12: 8-10, emphasis and
insertion mine)
3. To unify the
church in Corinth, Paul established a
chain of command. “And
in the church God has appointed first
of all apostles, second prophets,
third teachers, then
workers of miracles, also
those having gifts of healing, those
able to help others, those with gifts
of administration, and those speaking
in different kinds of tongues.”
(1 Corinthians 12:28, emphasis
mine)
Paul placed
“speaking in different kinds of
tongues” at the bottom of the
list because some people in Corinth
were speaking gibberish and after
doing so, using the
‘ability” to wield
authority in the church.
4. To combat
this silly behavior and more
importantly, the ulterior motive
behind it, Paul said that unknown
tongues (gibberish) really have no
place or value among believers: “Tongues,
then, are a sign, not for believers
but for unbelievers: prophecy,
however, is for believers, not for
unbelievers.” (1
Corinthians 14:22, emphasis mine)
5. Paul said five
intelligible words are of greater
value than 10,000 words (of
gibberish) spoken in an unknown
tongue. “I thank God
that I speak in tongues more than all
of you. But in church I
would rather speak five intelligible
words to instruct others
than ten thousand words in a [gibberish]
tongue. Brothers, stop
thinking like children.
In regard to evil be infants, but in
your thinking be adults.” (1
Corinthians 14: 18-20, insertion and
emphasis mine)
6. Paul
conceded that a person might
experience a “eureka”
moment and be overcome with profound
emotion. In this setting, he
might speak un unknown tongue
(gibberish) to God: “For
anyone who speaks in a tongue does
not speak to men but to God. Indeed,
no one understands him:
he utters mysteries with his
spirit.” (1
Corinthians 14:2, emphasis mine)
7. Wisely, Paul
did not rule out speaking in foreign
languages. (Remember, many of
the early Christian churches were
filled with ethnically diverse
believers speaking in many dialects.)
However, Paul made it clear that
before someone speaks in a foreign
tongue, there must be an
interpreter who can interpret the
speech. Otherwise, the speaker
must remain silent. This
requirement eliminates gibberish
altogether for two listeners cannot
translate gibberish and produce
identical results. “Therefore,
my brothers, be eager to prophesy,
and do not forbid speaking
in tongues… If there
is a interpreter, the speaker should
keep quiet in the church and speak to
himself and God… But everything
should be done in a fitting and
orderly way.” (1
Corinthians 14:39; 14:28; 14:40,
emphasis mine)
8. Finally,
Paul appealed to common sense: “…
Unless you speak intelligible
words with your tongue,
how will anyone know what you are
saying? You will be speaking
into the air… Now, brothers, if
I come to you and speak in [unknown
] tongues, what good
will I be to you, unless I bring you
some revelation or knowledge or
prophecy or word of
instruction?” (1 Corinthians
14:9, insertion and emphasis mine)
“Did You
Receive the Holy Spirit?”
Please consider the
following story: “While
Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the
road through the interior and arrived
at Ephesus. There he found
some disciples and asked them,
‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit
when you believed?’ They
answered, ‘No, we have not even
heard that there is a Holy
Spirit.’ So Paul asked,
‘Then what baptism did you
receive?’ ‘John’s
baptism,’ they replied. Paul
said, ‘John’s baptism was a
baptism of repentance. He told
the people to believe in the one
coming after him, that is, in
Jesus.’ On hearing this, they
were baptized into the name of the
Lord Jesus. When Paul placed
his hands on them, the Holy Spirit
came on them, and they spoke in
tongues and prophesied. There
were about twelve men in all.” (Acts
19: 1-7)
Contrary to what some
people infer, there is no indication
in Acts 19 that anyone spoke
(gibberish) in an unknown
tongue. Since Paul was in
Ephesus, the gift of tongues was
particularly useful. Ephesus
was a cosmopolitan city, made up of
many nationalities. People in
the city spoke Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
and various Asian languages and
dialects. The gift of tongues
at Ephesus parallels the gift of
tongues at Pentecost. The
impossible barrier of language was
overcome and this gift gave
credibility to the disciples and the
gospel of Jesus. Everyone
present at the baptism clearly heard
the gospel spoken in their own
language!
Peter’s
Experience with Cornelius
Many people believe
that speaking in tongues is a
conformation of being saved. Notice
this passage: “The
circumcised believers who had come
with Peter were astonished that the
gift of the Holy Spirit had been
poured out to the Gentiles [Cornelius
and his family]. For they
heard them speaking in
tongues and praising God.
Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone
keep these people from being baptized
with water? They received the [power
of the] Holy Spirit just
as we have.’” (Acts
10: 45-47, insertions and emphasis
mine)
To appreciate this
verse, we have to examine the
setting. Peter would not, under
ordinary circumstances, enter the
house of an “unclean
Gentile.” Jesus understood
Peter’s religious paradigm and
He gave Peter a vision (about unclean
animals) so that when invited to
enter the house of Cornelius the
Gentile, he would go.
Peter was afraid.
He was concerned that he might offend
the Jewish believers if he went to
the home of uncircumcised Gentile, so
Peter gathered a few
“circumcised believers” to
go with him. Early Jewish
converts had a very narrow view of
the gospel of Jesus. To them,
Jesus was a Jew, the gospel of Jesus
was Jewish and in A.D. 34, the
Gentiles were not important to the
Jews. Of course, the disciples
did not know the profound truths
found in Ephesians 2 and Galatians 3
because those chapters had not been
written. Therefore, when Peter
preached the gospel to Cornelius and
his household and the Gentiles began
speaking to one another in their
native tongue. Peter turned to
his circumcised brothers asking,
“Can anyone keep these people
from being baptized with water?”
Because the Holy
Spirit enabled the Gentiles to speak
in tongues, Peter and his circumcised
brothers were forced to acknowledge a
profound truth that day; God
loves Gentiles believers just as much
as He loves Jewish believers. Peter
said, “I know realize
how true it is that God does
not show favoritism but accepts men
from every nation who fear him and do
what is right.” (Acts 10:
34, 35, emphasis mine) This was the
point of the vision God gave to Peter
before he went to the home of
Cornelius, but the truth and meaning
of the vision did not penetrate
Peter’s paradigm until he saw
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at
Cornelius’ home.
When the Gentile
converts spoke in tongues, Peter
unwittingly confirmed there was no
gibberish. Peter said, “They
have received the Holy Spirit just
as we have.” We
know there was no unknown
tongue spoken at Pentecost and there
was no gibberish spoken at the home
of Cornelius. I assume that
Cornelius’ family members and
servants spoke among themselves in
various dialects of the Roman
language and this is what Peter and
his friends observed.
Summary: Speaking
in gibberish or an unknown tongue has
no place in church or in the
corporate worship of believers.
The gift of speaking in tongues
enabled the gospel to overcome the
impossible barrier of language during
the first century A.D. This
genuine miracle, unlike gibberish,
enables the gospel to go where it
could not otherwise go! This gift was
bestowed upon early believers for the
benefit of unbelievers. The result
was rapid church growth.
Larry Wilson
