Speaking in Tongues

Brent Thompson

02/21/18

Having established some basic doctrinal truths regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit, attention can now be given to the next topic of interest—speaking in tongues. A few questions surrounding this issue include: What does speaking in tongues entail? Is this spiritual gift still active or has it ceased? If it has ceased, then what are people doing when they are speaking in tongues? Paul’s words to the church in Corinth provide invaluable assistance in gaining an appropriate and biblical understanding of speaking in tongues and the cessation of this spiritual gift.

In approaching this topic, a wider lens is necessary because the scope of Paul’s words to the church at Corinth includes three very prominent gifts—prophecy, knowledge, and tongues—which he indicates that all three are going to come to an end (1 Cor 13:8). The Holiness, Pentecostal, and Charismatic movements believe that all three are still active. So the question is since Scripture plainly states that these gifts will come to an end, when will that happen? The answers that those associated with these movements will give includes, “sometime in the future,” or they will cease when the “perfect thing” of verse 10 comes—which they also see as a future event. What are their reasons for believing this? Charismatics believe this mostly because the Bible does not contain one verse that explicitly states that tongues have ceased. Any person trying to convince them otherwise will have a hard time because such as verse does not exist in the pages of Scripture. However, basing a major doctrine of theology on the presence or absence of a single verse of Scripture is dangerous, to say the least. In fact, there is not a single verse in the Bible that specifically and explicitly states that God is three in one, but the Doctrine of the Trinity is a major point of theology and biblical truth for Christianity. Another example is that there is not a verse that specifically says, "Jesus is 100% God and 100% man at the same time,” but that is the essence of the God-Man character of Christ. The doctrinal beliefs that Christians cling to must be built by piecing together all the biblical facts of Christ's character to see the whole portrait. So, to argue that tongues haven't ceased because there isn't a verse specifically stating that fact, is not a good argument to use.

So, what does Paul mean when he writes that these three spiritual gifts will come to an end (1 Cor 13:8)? The answer is found within the context of the text, as is the case with all biblical truth. The over-arching theme of chapters 12 through 14 is that love is greater than all things and that all things should be done in love. At the beginning of chapter 12 Paul explains the allocation of spiritual gifts to individuals and how they are manifested in those individuals (1 Cor 12:1-11). A transition occurs in Paul’s rhetoric at the mid-point of the chapter as he reminds the Corinthians that all are one in the body of Christ and each has a specific role to fulfill for God’s Kingdom (1 Cor 12:13-30). In other words, there should not be jealousy and strife because of another person’s gifting because all the individual parts work together for the good of the whole. At the end of the chapter Paul transitions again to the main motif of the succeeding chapters by writing, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way” (1 Cor 12:31).

In the next two chapters Paul’s main point is to augment the necessity and everlasting characteristics of love and that any gift used without love is a waste of the gift because “love never ends.” In verse 8 of chapter 13 Paul writes, “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge; it will pass away.” The importance of this verse is found in the wording Paul uses. To unpack this verse and its magnificent depths there must be an understanding of each gift Paul references.

First, the gift of prophecy results in speaking many prophecies which is the reason the word is in the plural form. This gift was simply the ability to proclaim God’s truth publicly. In the Greek language the word for “prophecy” comes from the two words pro (meaning "before") and phemi (meaning "to speak"). Literally it means, "to speak before,” which was most often before an audience. Therefore, the gift of prophecy was to speak before people, proclaiming the Word of God. Second, the gift of tongues is simply the gift of languages. The word “glossa” in the Greek means “language.” The gift of tongues is defined as "the ability to speak a foreign language that had not been learned by the speaker." The purpose of this gift was as a sign of God's judgment to unbelieving Jews (more on this below). Third, the gift of knowledge is defined as "the ability to observe facts and to draw spiritual truth out of (exegesis) the Word of God." It is the gift of being able to understand God's Word. This was seen as a scholar's or teacher's gift which the Corinthians considered a prominent gift.

Paul’s words to describe the cessation of these gifts are important. Notice in verse 8 that Paul’s description for the cessation of prophecies and knowledge is the same wording. In the Greek it is the word, “katargeo” which “means to be made inoperative.” Some translations read, "shall be done away," or "shall be rendered inoperative," or "abolished." Take note that the verb used to describe the cessation of tongues is different and is translated differently in English. It is the Greek word “pauo,” which literally means “to stop.” This first distinction in the context of this verse is important. Prophecy and knowledge will be rendered inoperative, but tongues will stop or cease.

The second distinction that is important is the different voices or tenses that Paul used in the Greek language. The verb used to describe the cessation of prophecy and knowledge is the word “katargeo,” and it is written in the passive voice. What does that mean? The rule of grammar states that when a passive verb is in a sentence, the subject receives the action. Therefore, in the case of prophecy and knowledge, something will act upon them to cause them to stop. What is that something? In verses 9-10 Paul writes, "For we know in part [the and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away [Gk. katargeo].” So, what is it that's going to come and stop prophecy and knowledge? The "perfect thing" which most scholars conclude is the eternal state of the believer in heaven (however, that discussion is beyond the scope of this topic). Furthermore, take note that the word “tongues” does not appear in verse 9. Why? Because only prophecy and knowledge are stopped by the "perfect thing” which correlates perfectly with the passive verb tense.

The verb pauo that Paul used to describe the cessation of tongues is not in the passive voice, but in the middle voice. To better understand this distinction, here are the differences in the active, passive, and middle voices. In the active voice one would say, "I hit the ball." In the passive voice one would say, "I was hit by the ball." And in the middle voice (if English had a middle voice) we would say, "I hit myself." In other words, the Greek middle voice is reflexive, indicating that the subject is acting upon itself. Therefore, the literal translation of verse 8 would read, "Tongues will stop by themselves."

Since that preliminary information is out of the way, the main question still remains: “If tongues will stop by themselves, when will that happen?” What follows will be the reasons why I believe that the gift of tongues has ceased. First, the out pouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles in Acts 2 was an outpouring of the miracle gifts needed to fulfill their specific assignment. Speaking in tongues was a miracle gift and miracles, as recorded and articulated in Scripture, have ceased. The last recorded miracle in the Bible was the healing of Publius’ father around the year A.D. 58 (Acts 28:7-10). From that year until John’s completion of the book of Revelation sometime in the 90’s there are no recorded miracles. Miracle gifts, like tongues and healing, are only mentioned in 1 Corinthians which is one of the earliest epistles written. The books of Ephesians and Romans do not even mention these gifts.

Second, tongues were a sign to Israel because of their unbelief and this gift fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 28:7-10). Israel, who had been offered the kingdom and rejected it, were receiving God’s judicial verdict through the sign of tongues. This gift was given so Israel would know that God was turning from them to the church established in Christ (1 Cor 14:22). Third, the gift of tongues was inferior to the gift of prophecy (1 Cor 14:1-12). Why? Because the gift of prophecy edifies the church and the gift of tongues does not, especially when the rules of Scripture are not followed (1 Cor 14:26-33). Fourth, the completion of the New Testament makes speaking in tongues unnecessary and useless. The Bible is God’s complete revelation to mankind and there will be no further revelation. In fact, we are told in Scripture not to add to or take away from the words of prophecy of this book (Rev 22:18). Additionally, the writer of Hebrews tells us that, “God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son...." (Heb 1:1-2). The Word of the Son is what? The New Testament and with its completion there will be no further relevation.

The last reason I believe that tongues have ceased is found in the records of history. Throughout the writings of the Apostolic Fathers there is no mention of the gift of tongues. The Apostolic Fathers are those who immediately succeeded the apostles in the early church toward the end of the first century until the middle part of the fifth century (A.D. 450). There are numerous examples that one could choose to study (i.e., Justin Martyr, Clement of Rome, Augustine, Origen, et al.). When taking history into account, there are a few instances recorded where ecstatic utterances supposedly took place, but all these were outside the mainline church (i.e., Tertullian, the Jansenist, the Shakers, et al).

The first revival of speaking in tongues within the confines of the evangelical church of Jesus Christ since the Apostolic Age was in 1901 at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. Agnes Ozman received what she called "the baptism of the Holy Spirit" accompanied by speaking in tongues. This practice became part of the Holiness movement of the church in America. In 1906, speaking in tongues came to Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California. Out of these two events in 1901 and 1906, grew the mainline Pentecostal denominations that many believers in Christ are a part of today. So, where had this gift been for over eighteen hundred years? They ceased and according to Scripture, once they ceased there would not be a re-initiation of tongues (1 Cor 13:8). They had accomplished their purpose.

There are many believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ, who believe that speaking in tongues is active and some even engage in what they believe as speaking in tongues. I don’t know what they are experiencing and trying to convince them otherwise is a fruitless endeavor. Furthermore, it would arrogant and wrong for me to say that God could not endow someone with the spiritual gift of tongues today. He is God and I am not. All I know is what I have been able to determine from my study of Scripture which points to the ceasing of tongues in history once the Scriptures were completed and canonized. I would encourage any believer to dig into the Bible for themselves and let the Holy Spirit guide you on the meaning of the text, the consistency of God’s character and faithfulness, and the visible history of the church.