Speaking in Tongues

“The Pentecostal movement itself continues to grow at a rapid rate. It is arguably the fastest-growing component of Christendom today. Johnson, Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (located at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) gave a new report on the status of Spirit-Empowered churches. The Center has recently adopted the term “Renewalists” to represent the three key sectors of this movement, including Classical Pentecostals, Main-line Denominational Charismatics and Independent Charismatics. At present, it is estimated that these groups combined make up 584 million worldwide, or 26 percent of all Christians.” – Robert Crosby.

“The Pentecostal movement is not simply a new denomination,” says Margaret M. Poloma of the department of sociology of the University of Akron.  “The rise of Pentecostalism is more analogous to the rise of Protestantism in Christianity than the birth of a new denomination.  It’s an example of the restructuring of Christianity.”

I don’t mean to pick on Pentecostalist (or ism).  I only give those quotes because speaking in tongues is a huge part of Pentacostelism but it is not limited to Pentecostal churches.  There are also charismatic churches that do NOT align themselves with Pentecostals and yet think they are speaking in “tongues.”  If you are sitting in your pew thinking how little this lesson will affect you, please think again.  If you never share your faith, if you never plan on having Bible studies or biblical conversations with anyone, then I suppose it won’t make much of a difference to you.  But as popular as this is becoming, I’m sure you’ll run into someone who believes in the current practice of speaking in tongues.  In fact, such was the case with Mitch and I about 8 months ago.

We need to be ready to give a defense for what we believe on tongue speaking.  And if the person you are talking to is educated at all on the subject they will probably throw verses like Mark 16:17 at you.  Jesus said those who believed would do this.  Are you ready to answer that?  Well let’s talk about it.

Our lesson is going to have 3 components to it:

• We need to admit – miraculous gifts were a part of the early church.  That was part of God’s plan.  But the work of miracles was NOT given to everyone.  That’s significant because if we are all baptized with the Holy Spirit (as they will say), then why didn’t everyone in the first century perform miracles?
• What did biblical speaking in tongues look like?  What is it exactly?  And subsequently, is it what you see in religions today?  If what you see in today’s world is not the biblical speaking in tongues, then we have a disconnect…
• If tongue speaking ceased, do we know when it happened?

MIRACLES EXISTED IN EARLY CHURCH, BUT NOT WITH EVERYONE – I Cor. 12

I Corinthians 12 is one of the places people will go in order to defend this because Paul clearly states in vs. 4-11 that God is blessing different members of the church with different spiritual gifts and we can’t deny some of these are miraculous, such as – gifts of healing, tongue speaking, prophecy, etc. Then Paul goes on to give the “body” analogy that as body parts are doing different things, so members of the church are doing different things.  It’s not about who is better than who, it’s not about who is more honorable than who in the church…we all have different roles, different duties…just focus on doing your duty! Now jump down to vs. 27-31.  It’s the rhetorical questions in vs. 29 and 30 I want you to focus on.  Are all apostles?  No.  Are all prophets?  No.  Are all teachers?  No.  And one of those questions is – do all speak in tongues?  NO!

What’s my point?  Here it is – Although God blessed people in the first century with different gifts, not all played a role in that.  NOT everyone in the church had a miraculous gift.  And the whole point of this part of the letter is to emphasize NOT looking down on someone who doesn’t have the gifts you have.  Don’t look down on someone who doesn’t do what you do. Many of the charismatics and pentecostals teach that anyone can speak in tongues. There is actually website called howtospeakintongues.com.  There are YouTube videos (I’m ashamed to say that I’ve watched them) that teach “how to” lessons on speaking in tongues.  I came across another website giving “pointers” on speaking in tongues (which is another huge contradiction in their thinking because nowhere does the Bible talk about tongue speaking as being learned…tongue speaking cannot be taught…tongue speaking is not something you get “pointers” on…tongue speaking is something that comes natural because God gifts you with that).  But furthermore – it flies in the face of what Paul says here in I Cor. 12 (which is one of their favorite chapters) that not all could do this, and that was okay.

So when you shine the light of I Cor. 12 on what Jesus said in Mark 16 you find out that Jesus was not making a sweeping statement of all believers across the board.  Although Jesus was saying those things would exist among believers, it would not be the ability of EVERY single Christian in the church. In fact, Paul will go on to make the point, if you could not work any miracle at all, if you held no leadership position at all, no teaching position at all, but if you have love…you have the best there is!  Some of the hardcore “tongue speakers” in today’s world will even go so far as to say that if you can’t speak in tongues, your faith is lacking.  They are very insulting about the fact that you “resist the Spirit” and can’t do what a believer should be doing.  What I would say to them is, by focusing too much on miracles YOUR LOVE IS LACKING.

This too, punches a big hole in their baptism of the Holy Spirit argument.  I realize the baptism of the Holy Spirit could be a separate sermon (one of which I’ve done on the radio a couple years back if you wanted to hear it again I’m sure its on the website).  Their claim is – every believe experiences Holy Spirit baptism.  No, no we don’t.  Holy Spirit baptism was for a limited group of people.  And I would ask them – if all believers experienced Holy Spirit baptism, then why couldn’t all believers perform the miracles of the apostles?  If all believers experienced Holy Spirit baptism why couldn’t some believers perform miracles at all? Don’t get me wrong – I believe we are born of the spirit.  I believe we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Those 2 things however, are completely different than the baptism of the Holy Spirit that the apostles received.

So to conclude the point we admit the miracles existed but not with ALL Christians.  So let’s just admit for a moment that miraculous tongue speaking were still current…the fact that I don’t do it doesn’t mean that I’m any less of a Christian than anyone else.  It doesn’t mean I’m any less sincere or have any less faith than anyone.  Don’t judge me for not speaking in tongues…I might have the best gift there ever was…of love.

WHAT IS BIBLICAL TONGUE SPEAKING?  WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE?

This, I think, may be the most crucial point of the sermon because by comparing the biblical speaking in tongues with what you see in charismatic churches you can immediately see that what’s happening today is NOT what you see in the Bible.

First and foremost – we must admit that tongue speaking was something that could be understood by other people.  A “tongue” was nothing more than a language being spoken.  As was mentioned earlier, the miraculous part comes where you are speaking a language you may have never heard before, you’ve never learned before, you still have no idea how to speak it and yet the Holy Spirit is giving you the ability to speak the language.  To prove this, let’s look at an instance where it happens and you’ll see in every instance, someone in the audience knew what was being said…it was understandable language.  Acts 2:1-11 – So, just to give a quick paraphrase – the Holy Spirit is given from heaven onto the apostles and they began to speak in other tongues or languages.  We know from the context it was an understandable language because THREE TIMES the Bible specifies what was being heard. Verse 6 they heard in their own language.  Verse 8, how is it that we hear, each of us in our own native language?  And again in verse 11, “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

QUESTION – I don’t mean to insult anyone’s intelligence – were the languages being spoken understandable?  Did the people understand what was being said?  YES, Luke specifies it 3 times that everyone understood what was being said.  I’m making a big deal out of this because the people who believe in modern day tongue speaking believe that when the Holy Spirit comes upon them they are speaking in a language that NOBODY can understand…well that’s not biblical tongue speaking.  Biblical tongue speaking was a language of human beings and the hearers understood it as their own language.

“Unintelligible utterance” quote.  Many Pentecostals and Charismatics totally admit that their “tongues” are not understandable by men.  You could be wondering – how do people explain away the fact that their “tongue speaking” is not understandable when Acts 2 clearly states that people were hearing them in their own language?  They explain it away with I Cor. 14.  I Cor. 14:2 is how they explain their “tongue speaking” as not being understandable.  It’s all over their literature…they will point to vs. 2 and say, “SEE, SEE, there’s a Bible example of tongue speaking where it clearly states that no one understands what’s being said except for God.”  What’s wrong with that is that it is totally inconsistent with chapter 14.  If we read the rest of the chapter 14 we find Paul rebuking any tongue speaking that people cannot understand.  We find Paul telling the Christians to stop the tongue speaking if no one can understand or to find an interpreter, so that people can be built up by the message.

Drop down to I Cor. 14:6- 11.  Paul says if you speak and no one understands you might as well just speak to the air, which is what I think they are actually doing.  But look closely at vs. 10 – NO language of mankind is without some meaning. Even the most tribal language in the bush of Africa, the language always means something.  And Paul says it is supposed to mean something to human beings.  It’s not supposed to be something between you and God, languages mean something to human beings…and the reason I know he’s talking about other human beings understanding is because of vs. 11 – the idea of being a foreigner to someone and them being a foreigner to me.

To make my point as clear as I can – tongue’s were not a secret language that only angels could know, only God could know…biblical tongues were languages of some culture that could be interpreted either  miraculously…OR…interpreted because someone actually spoke the language…OR…they were understood because it was your language.  But what you see in modern day charismatic congregations is nothing of the sort.  So even if I did believe in modern day miracles at the hands of men, there’s no way I would believe charismatics are actually speaking in tongues…because what they are doing is not anywhere close to being consistent with that miracle in Bible times.

WELL, IF WE BELIEVE THAT TONGUE SPEAKING EXISTED…BACK IN 1^st CENTURY

And we don’t believe it exists now…Allen, when do you think it stopped?  That’s a fair question – when did miraculous tongue speaking stop?  I believe it stopped when the apostles could no longer pass miraculous gifts on to people by the laying on of hands.  This brings up another inconsistency in the belief system of Pentecostals and charismatics with what Scripture says.  Some think that the story of Cornelius is an experience that all believers enjoy.  That just as Cornelius had miraculous gifts fall on him, so we too experience that.

The only problem, and the BIG problem, with using the story of Cornelius as a proof text that all people should receive the Holy Spirit in a miraculous way is this – that never happens to anyone else!  Consider all of the accounts of conversion in the book of Acts.  Of all the other Epistles that could tell us about this miraculous experience that we should all receive is, nowhere else in the Bible can you see that happening!  In fact, you see quite the opposite happening.  What you see in all the other parts of the Bible is that the apostles have to lay hands on someone for them to receive the Holy Spirit in a miraculous way.  Go to Acts 19:5-6.  Verse 5 – You would expect the Holy Spirit to come on them right now.  Or perhaps even before the baptism.  Remember, if the story of Cornelius is supposed to be all of our experience at conversion, Cornelius received the Spirit PRIOR to baptism.  But here, there’s no Spirit before the baptism.  In fact, there is no miraculous power of the Spirit UNTIL…Paul laid his hands on them.  Look at vs. 6.  The text is very specific, (is it not?), that when and only when Paul laid his hands on them did they receive the Spirit.

I submit to you that this series of events is in harmony with the other cases that you see where miraculous gifts are passed on in the N.T…and not the story of Cornelius.  Go to Acts 6:5-6 – So they pulled some men aside for a special duty and the apostles (please notice the hands of the apostles are specified)…the apostles laid their hands on these men.  Look at one of them immediately starts doing – miracles!  Stephen in 6:8.  Did you notice that when Stephen was described in vs. 5 he was described as full of faith and the Holy Spirit?  But not until he has the hands of the apostles on him does he perform miracles?!  Did you notice that?  That’s consistent with what you see in Acts 19 isn’t it?

Another instance where it’s clear that the apostles had to lay hands on someone for them to receive miraculous power is in chapter 8.  Acts 8, the conversion of the first Samaritans.  Remember Phillip (just like Stephen) was one of those guys mentioned in Acts 6 that had the apostles hands laid on them. Stephen did miracles, well guess what Phillip is doing in Samaria?  He was doing miracles because of the laying on of apostles hands.  Acts 8:12-13.  So this is great.  People of Samaria have heard the word of Christ. They are being baptized in obedience of their faith.  Question – and I know many of you know where I’m headed with this – who is going to lay their hands on the Samaritans?  Phillip is not an apostle.  Phillip can perform miracles, we just saw that…but who is going to lay their hands on these Samaritans that they might have some manifestation of the miraculous power?  Acts 8:14-17 – vs. 17 – Do you see what’s happened here?  Phillip is a miracle worker, but he doesn’t have the power to bestow the Holy Spirit on anyone. Phillip does not have apostolic power to do that.  So what do they do?  They call some Apostles who DO have the power.  Peter and John get into Samaria, and because they are apostles, they lay their hands on these Samaritan converts and they bestow on them the Spirit.

If that’s not clear enough for you, look at vs. 18.  Acts 8:18 – Laying on of whose hands?  It was the apostles’ hands! That, my friends, is consistent with Acts 6 when the apostles gave the Spirit in miraculous form to those 7 select men.  That, my friends, is consistent with the apostle Paul laying his hands on those people in Acts 19.  So why was there such a unique difference with Cornelius?  If you read Acts 10 and 11 closely, what you see is that the Spirit was given to Cornelius as indisputable evidence that the Gentiles were saved just as the Jews were and that the gospel was to be preached just as much to the Gentile race.

In short – the story of Cornelius is the exception…and NOT the rule.  STUDY TIP – Be very careful about people who use exceptions than the norm in the Scripture…because oftentimes they are trying to pull something on you.  And of course, let’s be careful OURSELVES about using exceptions in Scripture when the bulk of evidence speaks otherwise.  So, why don’t I believe in modern day miracles?  Because no apostles are around to lay their hands on anyone.