Must We Speak in Tongues?
A believer could easily reach a level of depression due to feeling abandoned by God, seeing everyone else at the altar of the church “speaking in tongues”, and feeling shame at not having attained unto the gift due to apparent unfaithfulness. That’s the most common trend that I have noticed, the sorrow that comes with the absence of this popular gift.
One of the most pronounced teachings among charismatic Christians is that a vital and prevalent gift among all true Christians is that of “speaking in tongues.” This gift is practiced as glossolalia, the phenomenon of speaking in an unknown (and non-human) “language.” This often becomes a sensation-oriented endeavor for the believer to experience the (expected) ecstasy of close communion with God during worship and prayer. Many believe that it is indeed a language, a heavenly and angelic one in fact, and that the practice of this gift edifies the individual. Although, if examined biblically, at the very least, the common public practice will be subjected to Scriptural confines, and the private use will not be so much boasted of.
First mention of “Speaking in Tongues”
There are several areas of Scripture used for pointing to the teaching and belief of speaking in tongues. The first reference in the New Testament concerning the phenomenal occurrence of glossolalia is in the second chapter of Acts, where Scripture gives a description of the events on the Day of Pentecost:
And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
-Acts 2:3-4
Some sects within Christianity claim that this is not only descriptive of the events that took place, but is actually prescriptive for normative Christianity. These same sects often claim that speaking in tongues is a necessary evidence of true Christian conversion that ought to be pursued by everyone that claims to trust in Christ. In fact, the following command given by the Apostle Peter to the crowd of new believers that have just been cut to the heart by the preaching of the first sermon after Christ’s ascension is taught as a dogmatic chain of events for salvation.
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit..”
-Acts 2:37-38
With Peter’s words in mind, these Christian sects claim that the Holy Spirit will fall on (or fill) new believers in the same way as on the Day of Pentecost, yet, only after they have repented and have been subsequently baptized with Jesus Christ’s name verbally proclaimed over them. Any alteration to this formula, as they would teach, would disqualify the baptism, and would not bring with it the gift of the Holy Spirit. With such doctrine, it becomes a rigid necessity to have all of these ducks in a row for full obedience to the gospel message so that the blessing of God would come in the form of “tongues”. Again, this is an unbiblical approach to Scripture because it negates so many other descriptive events in the New Testament concerning faith and salvation. In fact, some section of Scripture make no mention of “tongues,” while others don’t even bring up water baptism as the fulcrum upon which salvation hinges.
What is important to understand is that when a single verse is used to make an entire theology that disagrees with the whole of Scripture concerning a doctrine of the Bible, the outcome is false and destructive. Where the Bible gives further clarity about anything, and when such clarifications are thoroughly examined using other areas of Scripture as reference points, we are able to correctly comprehend seemingly-contradictory statements. To make a clearer example of this, the following Scripture references pertain to the attainment of salvation, and they do not claim water baptism as the necessary turning point:
Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul, so that you may live.
-Deuteronomy 30:6
...so it is the Lord Himself that performs the miraculous heart transformation which leads a person to then respond obediently and to act on their newfound faith in God.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
-Ezekiel 36:25-27
…God leaves no room for us to boast about ourselves in salvation. He leaves all of the boasting for Himself in bringing about the entire fact of salvation, as well as the obedience that follows that regenerating work upon our heart and mind.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
-John 5:24
…belief in God is representative of salvation, and is already proof of rescue out of eternal death.
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had also been poured out on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter responded, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ…
-Acts 10:44-48
…the Holy Spirit had manifested with languages in this way without any intervention on Peter’s part. It was solely through a genuine belief in the proclaimed message of the gospel that saving faith had taken place in their hearts (Romans 10:17). The “tongues” were a sign for the unbelieving Jews (1 Corinthians 1:22-23, 14:22), namely, Peter and his companions, who were to report the incident back to the Jerusalem church. Although the Jewish Christians believed on and followed Christ, they were still significantly skeptical about anything Gentile. This occurrence would be undeniable proof that God has welcomed the Gentiles into the same salvation and with the same power as with those on the Day of Pentecost.
And the jailer asked for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas; and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
-Acts 16:29-31
…the jailer was told to “believe” as a requirement for salvation. Now, we understand that there was likely more than that spoken to the man, but the whole gospel proclamation is entailed in such words as “Call on the name of the Lord,” and “Seek, and you shall find.” We aren’t to dismantle the gospel or its parts, but there also isn’t an organized method of salvation which dogmatically begins with water and ends with speaking in tongues. Otherwise, it would be in every account mentioned in Scripture, instead of just explained as a description of events leading to the building up of the early Church from the ground up.
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
-Romans 10:9-10
…faith in God that would lead to a confession of the Christian faith is at the core of any salvific reference in Scripture. All is accomplished monergistically (single-handedly) by God Himself, and obedience is a required outflow of such saving faith. Yet still, the obedience isn’t the saving aspect, otherwise believers could boast in their works and deeds. Ephesians 2:8-9, however, definitively rebukes such ideas. The good deeds and obedience that believers practice will follow their salvation, but will never accomplish or earn it.
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
-Ephesians 1:13-14
…as we hear the gospel message, God seals us unto adoption with His promised Holy Spirit, by which we cry out “Abba, Father!” This deposit is not our promise to stay faithful to God, but is His promise to come back and raise us up to glory on the Last Day (John 14:3). Even in the midst of this sin-ridden world and our sin-stained hearts, we can be confident of God’s guarantee that He is ours and we are His, forever and immutably.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
-Ephesians 2:8-9
…all is grace. Salvation is not from us, but is wholly a work of God, from the faith that leads to repentance, to the sanctification that glorifies God all throughout our faltering progression toward heaven (Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 12:2).
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
-1 Peter 3:18-21
We will discuss the significance of "Jesus name only" baptism and water baptism's place and purpose for the believer’s life in a future article.
Link will be posted here.
The aforementioned Scriptural excerpts show more clearly that the commands to repent and be baptized are not signifying demands upon the order to salvation. Rather, these two commands, repent and be baptized, are the whole of a believing and behaving Christian. Just as James commanded believers to act according to their profession (James 2:14-26), so also Jesus and the Scriptures commands individuals to repent of their sin and godless living and to walk obediently towards God in faith. Also, the wonderful and fantastic signs of God’s hand at work were for a time of revelation, and not a regularity in Scripture, which is why only in the time of Moses, Elijah and Elisha, and Christ and His Apostles, is there a rise in the miraculous. The prominent signs occurred when God brought in the Law, warned of the judgements for apostasy, and brought in the New Covenant along with the New Testament Scripture. In all other times and places, God was not performing such signs and wonders as found in those specific ministries.
The previous references evidence what took place in Jerusalem at Pentecost, showing that it was not a prescription for how everything must occur for salvation. Instead, it was descriptive of the initial occurrences among the signs and wonders-oriented Jews. Speaking in tongues in not a requirement for proof of salvation, nor is it a promise to all that may ever believe on the Lord. It was, rather, a miraculous occurrence brought about by God in order to point to the establishment of His new covenant, ratified by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, if “tongues” aren’t promised for everyone at the moment of their salvation, then where else do we hear of them in the New Testament?
Speaking in Tongues as a Spiritual Gift
The doctrine of “speaking in languages” as a spiritual gift is found in 1 Corinthians 12-14. In these chapters, there is references to the gift of speaking in other languages, as well as interpreting other languages. These gifts are given by the Holy Spirit of God to whichever individual the Spirit is pleased to endow (1 Corinthians 12:11). Yet, none of these enablements and empowerments of the Spirit are promised similarly for all believers. Also, each Christian is given a specific gift for the purpose of building up and edifying other believers, and for gathering more people to the faith through ministry (1 Corinthians 12:7). Teaching otherwise would be to go against what the Bible has clearly stated - that not everyone will have the same gifts (1 Corinthians 12:28-30). With the statements that Paul made, rhetorically asking if everyone has the gift of prophecy, speaking in languages, or interpreting languages, the resounding answer would be “No!” Contrarily, there are many nowadays teaching believers to seek this one specific gift, as if all are promised to acquire it. Usually, in such environments, churchgoers are urged to work towards the attainment of the gift of tongues through faithfulness to the commands of God (and the specific church doctrines). In doing so, the believer is taught that this one gift, above everything else, is the necessary proof of their salvation, and subsequently, of their faithfulness to God.
What’s The Big Deal?!
Such a spiritual endeavor may seem beneficial, leading some to even ask, “Why would you have a problem with someone pursuing a promised gift of God?” The problem isn’t with gifts that God gives, but with false promises and empty pursuits. God hasn’t promised what the charismatic movement claims about tongues. And, if God hasn’t promised something, preachers and teachers have no right to brings such demands upon the lives of others. Doing so would inevitable destroy believers, either by elevating them into pride and arrogance, or by diminishing them with humiliation.
Pride Encouraged
As a result of thinking themselves to have attained unto an exclusive group of Christians with a special anointing from God, pride would rise in their heart. This is because many believers are taught that they don’t have the gift, or or cannot use it, because of moral disobedience, spiritual worldliness, or inconsistency in their Christian life. While such things are indeed sinful and ought to be repented of immediately and regularly, that doesn’t hinder the Spirit of God from enabling His people to function in their spiritual capacity. It isn’t just the (seemingly) perfect and faithful that are used of God by His Holy Spirit gifts. If that were the case, then there would be a need to re-examine the entire first Epistle to the Corinthian congregation, from which the main focus of this spiritual gift is derived. The first letter to the congregation began with Paul’s praise of their church for receiving the grace of God through Christ, for “not lacking in any gift” (1 Corinthians 1:4-7). The entire remainder of the letter is focused on rebuke for division and cliques (1:10-12), carnality, jealousy, and strife among the brethren (3:1-4), pride and boasting (4:6-8), sexual immorality and perversion (5:1-2 & 6:12-20), complaints and arguments among one another (6:1-8), marital unfaithfulness and destructive relationships (7:1-40), misuse of Christian liberty (8:1-13), idolatry (10:14-33), insubordination and disorder (11:1-16), gross and punishable violations of the Lord’s Supper (11:17-34), and proud boasting or unloving use of spiritual gifts (12:1-14:33).
Corinth Rebuked
1 Corinthians is a letter of rebuke and correction, and not of praise and applaud for good conduct and adherence to God and His Word. Although this is a congregation of believers that have been saved by grace, they were messed up in every way that a church can be. Scripture identifies them as people who were drinking too much wine at the Lord’s Supper that they actually got drunk, and the Lord punished some by putting them to death (1 Corinthians 11:17-22, 27-30). So, if anyone is to claim that a specific Holy Spirit gift was inactive in a believer’s life because of disobedient conduct, it would be helpful to discover what this congregation of Christians had going on in their midst. For example, the church at Corinth was sternly rebuked for not disciplining, as they should have, the believer who was fornicating with his step-mother (5:1-2), yet the church was still praised for excelling in spiritual gifts (1:7), In fact, their spiritual gifts were prevalent and commendable, although the gifts were being mishandled by many due to immaturity, idolatry, and pride (1 Corinthians 12-14). Therefore, we must conclude that although believers will bring God’s chastisement upon their lives due to ignorance or disobedience, they are still filled with every gift upon the moment of their salvation. They will also grow to understand and use their spiritual gifts rightly as they pursue biblical sanctification and obedience. But, to teach someone that they have “arrived” once they start using a gift will only build their pride, instead of humility before the Lord.
Humiliation Guaranteed
On the other hand, humiliation would come as a result of self-debasing thoughts of inadequacy, causing the believer to yearn for something that isn’t theirs or for them.
A believer could easily reach a level of depression due to feeling abandoned by God, seeing everyone else at the altar of the church “speaking in tongues”, and feeling shame at not having attained unto the gift due to apparent unfaithfulness.
That’s the most common trend - the sorrow resulting from the absence of this praised gift.
Also, a believer can be thrown into a world of anxiety, feeling the need to always perform some spectacular evidence of salvation in order to meet with the demands of their congregation.
This leads to a works-based security and a confidence that relies on self-performance instead of on Christ’s satisfactory and sufficient work on the cross:
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
-Hebrews 10:14
When taught dogmatically, it leads to several things: either putting up a front and trying to force the speaking in the expected tongues, falsifying the gift (knowingly or ignorantly) due to emotionalism, or giving up entirely on the Christian life and the excellence of a walk with God due to a wrongly perceived failure. Out of fear of being disowned by God, some believers, trying their best to utter these sounds in an effort to find peace with God, end up faking the experience. Or, they give up entirely, and walk away from God and His people. Both of these outcomes are destructive. Both are due to mis-teaching of God’s Word and misuse of the gift of tongues. And, both will ruin a believer one way or another, as well as distancing non-believers from congregating at church due to the strange behavior at church altars when large gatherings speak loudly in tongues simultaneously.
Let’s Clarify
Now, many use 1 Corinthians 13-14 as foundations for their belief in the gift, and that is fine. Some believe that it is only human languages that a believer is supernaturally enabled to speak for the purpose of evangelizing. With this view, the other nations heard the gospel in their own tongue when God’s gospel had only begun to break into the rest of the world, which makes more sense than any other interpretation. These groups tend to believe that God specifically used this gift in the first century after Christ, but after the evangelization of the world and the spread of the gospel, the gift ceased or significantly diminished. Otherwise, the only time this gift has been active is during missionary-centered environments when the need arose, and even those occurrences were far and few in between. Others believe that it is a glossolalia experience for prayer and self-edification, useful for comforting and increasing the zeal of a believer for their duty in serving God. This view seems to put some Christians in more of an upper-hand position when fighting against sinful desires, temptation, or moments of despair, since they have a comfort or self-edifying experience that others aren’t endowed with. These two groups disagree on their views, some saying that it is for every Christian and ought to be sought fervently for the sake of salvation proof, while others say it is for some Christians only, and shouldn’t be glorified. There are many disagreements between the best of theologians on the topic of “speaking in tongues,” but at the very least, I would like to make several distinctions so that we do not destroy ourselves with unbiblical pursuits or place unreasonable demands on others:
Speaking in “tongues” is a gift from God by His Holy Spirit. It is understood to be an actual human language, since the word often translated as “tongue” is glóssa which means language. “Speaking in languages” would be a correct and exact translation from the Greek text.
1 Corinthians 12:4-10
“Speaking” and “Interpreting” were gifted to believers for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel in the neighboring dialect or language at the beginning stages of gospel furtherance to the nearby nations as commanded by Christ to His Disciples prior to His ascension.
Matthew 28:19-20
It is not given to anyone due to merit or proficiency in their faith, but is solely given by the Holy Spirit as He wills and chooses.
1 Corinthians 12:11
The gift of Speaking in Tongues is not given to all believers, as it is one of many gifts that are variously distributed by the Holy Spirit for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12:27-31
Spiritual gifts are not for us to obsess with, but for God to be glorified by our use of them for ministering the Word and faith to others within and without the church. Any use of any spiritual gift that does not edify another, and instead boasts of the individual, is rebuked and reprimanded in Scripture
1 Corinthians 12:7
1 Corinthians 14:1-6
1 Corinthians 14:12
1 Corinthians 14:26-28
There are only several references in all of Scripture to praying in the Spirit or in a “tongue,” and they all refer to either praying according to the will of God (praying in the Spirit), or how someone operating in a specific gift is permitted or commanded to use it (speaking in tongues). Let us not bypass Scripture’s clear statements on how to handle a gift from God that is purposed to build others up and not ourselves.
1 Corinthians 14:27-28
It must be understood and admitted that we are nowhere in Scripture ever commanded to speak as a large gathered group in languages or “tongues” without a Holy Spirit-gifted interpreter, and are instead commanded to rather speak clearly, coherently, and in the local dialect so that everyone understands what is being said. There is actually a rebuke for anyone that may attempt to speak in tongues without an interpreter, or as a group (whether that means pronouncing some revelation or praying). So, let us take these biblical restrictions and apply them to our congregational gatherings, submitting to God’s written Word, and not to our own notions or ideas. No matter how powerful the urge might be to go with our gut, if Scripture clearly speaks against a certain practice or commands something to be done in an orderly fashion, we must abide by the revealed Word of God.
1 Corinthians 14:40
One Last Thing
The idea of tongues being a non-language, syllabic, and repetitive spiritual act of worship and prayer has a likely origin in what is known as the “Mystery Religions,” which had spiritual practices that would promise a close relationship to the gods attained through chanting, singing, and even glossolalia. Their practice of glossolalia was an incoherent babble that gave them a desired evidence of depth in their spirituality, as well as a sense of nearness to their deities. This belief was also being practiced by many of the Corinthian Christians, as well as their sexual immorality. The believers at Corinth were bringing the practices from their past ignorance and paganism into the church, which is why the entire first Epistle to the Corinthians is a rebuke about all of their ungodly behavior.
This seeking after “tongues” re-emerged more recently in the early 19th century with Mormonites (Mormons), and has followed into Christendom at the start of the twentieth century with an evangelist named Charles Parham, who believed that “tongues” was an actual gift of languages previously unknown to the speaker. He believed that it was for the use of missionary work in the early church, something that non-charismatic Christians would agree with. Parham also, however, believed that there were two types of “tongues,” one of which was a sign gift as in the day of Pentecost, and another which was an enablement to speak foreign languages for gospel proclamation. In aims of gaining an apparently lost intimacy with God, Parham and his small group began attempting to revive the Day of Pentecost experience. Even though the gospel had been effectively and fruitfully making its way throughout the world since Christ, they still sought this phenomenon of “tongues” as different languages for preaching and teaching, and claimed to have been gifted it for use among each other.
Eventually, a minister named William Seymour took the mantle from Parham and worked it into something that even Parham wasn’t aiming at - an entire movement focusing solely on the Holy Spirit and an experience filled with emotional ecstasy. Concerning “tongues,” the outcome was this sort of ecstatic glossolalia utterance which is a staple of modern-day Pentecostalism. So, what Parham had originally aimed for as the Holy Spirit-endowed gift of speaking in different, previously untaught languages for propagating the Good News to other nations, had quickly become something else entirely. More often, among charismatic circles, it is now known only as an ecstatic and self-edifying prayer language that is primarily for the edification of the individual.
Where does that leave us?
To conclude, the spiritual gifts are enablements by God for His work to be accomplished in the earth, and they are to line up to that purpose with a proper posture and trajectory. Striving to show off by loudly practicing something in front of others is outright rejected by Jesus Christ (Matthew 6:5-8).
We aren’t called to pursue the fantastical outworking of God’s Spirit which make us look grand and special in the eyes of others. Instead, Christians are consistently called to pursue love and obedience, as described and taught by God, in which our sanctification will grow and deepen (Romans 12:1-2, Romans 13:12-14, 2 Corinthians 7:1, Galatians 5:22-25, Philippians 2:12-16, Colossians 3:5-10, 1 Timothy 6:11, Hebrews 12:14, 1 Peter 1:15-16, 1 John 3:6-10). Therefore, let us pursue what we are commanded to in our God-given strength, trusting that He will enable us to rightly use the gifts we’ve been given when the need arises. Also, let us comprehend that we will not all be gifted in the same way for ministerial functions, and that the only gift that is indeed identical across the board for every believer is the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). The Holy Spirit seals us until heaven, and is God’s downpayment given to us at the moment that saving faith is produced in our hearts by His grace (Ephesians 1:13-14, 2:8-9). So, let us not boast in our enablements, position, or honor, but in the Lord, who rescues the weak and evil from wrath into an everlasting salvation for His praise and glory (1 Corinthians 1:31).
