Has the gift of Tongues ceased - a second look

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

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[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.