There are many that are convinced
the gift of tongues is operative today. They are engaged in the practice of it
everyday. What many will say is that it’s a private prayer language to God
that, a deeper communion with the Father on a higher spiritual plane. Those
that supposedly have the gift in some people’s eyes are the haves, and those who do not speak in
tongues are the have nots. The proponents of this gift are called
Charismatics and Pentecostals hence the phrase Charismatic or Pentecostal
movement.
Those that are convinced the gift
has already ceased are called Cessationists. They are the ones that believe the
gift ended by the end of the first century beginning of the second century.
They insist these sign gifts were for the apostolic era only. Once the apostles
died, and God’s revealed word was complete, the gifts ceased.
What do you believe? Are you a
Charismatic-Pentecostal or a Cessationist? Who’s right and who’s wrong?
Does it
matter?
One thing the writer has learned
is that our traditions and the way we have been taught has an extraordinary
influence on the way we think and act. Our traditions create biases in our
lives. When those traditions and cultural biases are challenged or threatened,
our defenses go up. What’s disturbing to me is that we do this (i.e. defenses
go up) even when the scripture is clearly presented in a particular area.
As a result, our cultural biases
and traditions subconsciously take precedent over God’s word. This happens in
our churches all the time. The word of God takes a back seat to our traditions;
that is our traditions make the word of God of no effect. Jesus rebuked the
religious leaders for this very sin (Matt 15:3-6).
All traditions in the church are
not bad. Some of them however need to conform to the word of God so that they
do not militate against it.
I provided the small
aforementioned disclaimer to come to the main subject of the article: Has the
gift tongues ceased already or does it continue to this very hour?
Scripture provides the clear
answer.
In I Corinthians 13:8-10 we read,
“Charity or love never fails, but whether prophecies they shall fail, whether
tongues they shall cease , whether knowledge it shall vanish away. For
we know in part and we prophesy in part, but that which is perfect is come that
which is in part shall be done away.”
The first part we need to look at
is the phrase tongues shall cease. The word cease is the Greek word pauo; means to stop, to make an end, a
willing cessation. It is used in what is called the middle voice in Greek
language. That means the subject (tongues) is acting upon itself in some way.
In this verse the apostle Paul, the biblical writer is telling us that tongues
will stop on it’s own, by itself. Nothing will force it out of existence.
It is a temporary sign gift.
So we see tongues has a built in
timer; once the sign gift mission is complete, it will end.
Next, we have prophecy and
knowledge. The Greeks words are propheteia
and gnosis respectively. Prophecy
means to speak forth; in particular divine truth never revealed before.
Knowledge means to know, understand, to perceive; supernatural insight to
explain that truth. Another way to describe prophecy and knowledge is revelation
and illumination. Revelation declares God’s truth. Illumination enlightens, brightens, makes the
revelation clear to one’s heart so they understand what they have heard. The text
says both of these gifts will fail or
vanish away. The Greek word for this is katargeo.
This is a compound word; kata which
means down, and argos which means
inactive. Regarding prophecy and knowledge, in the text is in the passive voice meaning the subject
(prophesy and knowledge) receives the action of the verb (vanish, fail). Prophecy and knowledge’s force was from the outside; that being the abolishing of it by that which is
perfect.[i]
These two gifts will not always abide.
Why was tongues a sign to
unbelievers?
In the first century tongues was
a supernatural gift of languages the speaker never learned, but the unbeliever
understood when they were in the assembly of believers. This phenomenon was
first manifested on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit gave the
believers the utterance to speak (Acts 2:4). As a result of this event and
Peter’s sermon, three thousand souls (unbelieving Jews) were saved that day
(vs. 41). They knew something special had happened. They were hearing men
speaking in their native tongue having never learned the language praising God
(Acts 2:11). Tongues was also manifested among those at Cornelius’ house in
Acts 10:44-46, and lastly with Paul and 12 disciples of John the Baptist in
Acts 19:6. The only other chapters that mention tongues are I Corinthians
12-14. After this, tongues is never mentioned in any other N.T. book.
Paul in I Corinthians 14:22 said
that tongues was a sign to unbelievers, in particular to unbelieving Israel.
Why,
and what did the sign mean?
Paul goes back to the law in
Isaiah 28:11, 12b, “With stammering lips and other tongues He will speak to
this people…yet they will not hear.”
In this text the prophet Isaiah
was making reference to Israel’s enemies, the Assyrians. This nation who’s
language they did not understand would capture them. So we see that tongues was
a judicial sign of judgment and destruction. Since the Israelites wouldn’t
listen to the prophet in their own tongue, God sent foreigners with other
tongues to judge his people for their rejection of the Lord.
In like manner tongues in the
N.T. was a miraculous sign to those who did not believe God’s word. But ,
tongues was also a blessing to the unbeliever in that when they experienced the
hearing of tongues, and it’s interpretation they declared that God was truly
among the believers in that day and so they fell down and worshiped God (I Cor
14:25). Tongues was also manifested among the Gentiles in Acts 10:44-46
signifying that repentance of sins and salvation was made available for them as
well not just for the Jews. So in this instance tongues was a sign to believing
Jews that God was moving in a brand new way (Acts 11:18).
It’s also believed the final
judicial sign of tongues was the destruction of Israel and the temple by the
Romans in 70 A.D. Once this event took place, the sign gift of tongues ended
for good. Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple twice in Matthew 23:38;
24:2.
So according to Cessationists the
gift of tongues served it’s purpose: It was initially prophesied by Isaiah as a
sign of judgment on unbelieving Israel by the Assyrians (and others believe the
sign includes the Babylonians also. They
destroyed the first/Solomon’s temple in 586 B.C.) From there, it became a sign
gift for unbelievers in the early church age that God was supernaturally
working through the saints to reach the unsaved with the gospel message. Tongues
ceased as a final judicial sign against Israel as the temple was destroyed by the Romans. This was a judgment
against Israel for rejecting their Messiah.
I know for many that will read
these conclusions regarding tongues may be considered a “stretch” because you
never heard it before. Charismatics and
Pentecostals have been always taught tongues is something we do to enhance our
spiritual lives. Go deeper with the Lord, speak in phrases that the devil can’t
understand, because we’re speaking to God (I Cor 14:3). We were also told
speaking in tongues was evidence that a person was filled with the Holy Spirit.
If a person is honest what we are
hearing today is not the real gift. Cessationists believe Tongues ceased at the end of the first or beginning of the second century after the death of the apostles.
The gifts of Prophesy and knowledge
I believe also were ended with completion of scripture (i.e. the perfect). Once
God completed His revelation to the last author of Bible the Apostle John, God’s
written word was complete which ended these two gifts.
What we here today is babbling, unintelligible
gibberish can never help anyone because it’s utter nonsense. If the genuine
gift survived until the present age, all men wouldn’t have it anyway for all
did not speak with tongues (I Cor 12:30). Genuine tongues was not a gift to be
sought after; for it was the Holy Spirit who sovereignly distributed the gifts
as He saw fit (I Cor 12:11).
Concluding, I know that despite
all I have explained, people will continue to do what they have always done,
babble in non biblical tongues. Why? Because tradition and bias dictate they
do. But, I would like to lovingly challenge the reader of this article in two
things: 1. Be like the noble bereans and search the things I’ve said whether
they are so (Acts 17:11). 2. When you discover a truth in the Bible that is against
your tradition will you stop your tradition and bow your knees to His word?
I realize this is never easy, but
if you want to grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord Jesus Christ, you
must submit to His lordship and renew your mind with the word of God. Believe me, I’m trying everyday and it’s most
difficult at times.
Be encouraged beloved, the word
of God is all powerful to give you victory in your walk and continued pursuit
of Him.
Notes
[i]
The word Perfect in this text has a variety of possible meanings. Some say this
makes reference to the return of Jesus Christ. That’s possible, but an argument
against this view is that the word Perfect in the Greek is neuter, not gender
specific. Jesus is a male so grammatically Jesus being labeled as the Perfect
in I Cor 13:10 would rule this view out.
Others say that it means the canonization of scripture since God’s revelation
to man was finished with the apostle John around 95 A.D. when he recorded the
book of Revelation. That is also plausible. The argument against the second
view is that special knowledge and prophecy will be in effect in the future,
during the Great Tribulation (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17; Rev 11:3), but the difference
with the gifts here is that they will not be utilized as a source to record
more scripture. Then there are those that say the Perfect makes reference to the eternal state, when all
things are made new; new heavens and new
earth and there will be at that time absolutely no need for prophesying
or knowledge. The writer leans toward this view and the second view.