Speaking in Tongues

The phenomenon of speaking in tongues, as being the evidence of having received the Holy Spir­it needs to be discussed at this time. Speaking in tongues, or glossolalia, as some of the church world calls it today is very controversial among many churches. Some of the churches believe that God inspires it and some do not. Some churches believe that it is the sign or evidence that a person has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and God has bestowed this gift upon them.

In conjunction with the gift of speaking in tongues there also is a gift given to some mem­bers of the church called the interpretation of tongues. Paul the Apostle said in his letter to the Corinthians, if there is no interpreter of tongues in the church, the person having the gift of speaking in tongues should keep silent, for it would not benefit the church to speak without it being interpreted for everyone to understand. But in many churches today, people engage in speaking in tongues, as they call it, as a regular part of their worship service.

The phenomenon of speaking in tongues first originated on the day of Pentecost, and was bestowed upon the apostles as they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is recorded in Acts 2:4. While reading about this event it becomes very obvious that these tongues being spoken were actually other languages and visitors to the city, from other countries, recognized what was being spoken. In Acts 2:6-8; these visitors said that every one of them heard the apostles speak in their own language, in their own tongue, where­in they were born. So, these visitors were very much amazed be­cause these men being from that region could speak all those different lan­g­uages.

But other Jews being present, not knowing that these apostles were speaking in other languages and not knowing these for­eign languages themselves, thought these apostles were drunk on wine and were just uttering crazy sounds.

Later on as the church was growing, the apostles visited some other disciples of the Lord who lived in other areas and as they preached the gospel to them, those people also began praising God and speaking in tongues, which were the languages of their native countries. The apostles witnessing this testified that these people also had received the Holy Spirit the same as they did in the begin­ning. Thus, the phenomenon of a person speaking in another tongue or language became the evidence of that person having received the Holy Spirit and was accepted by the apostles because of the experience they had.

There is a spiritual gift of speaking in other tongues or languages and a spiritual gift of interpreting other tongues or languages and it is bestowed upon someone when God needs to speak to a person of a foreign country or language through someone else. But God uses this gift for this purpose and not for the purpose of providing evidence that a person has received the Holy Spirit.

Paul the Apostle had trouble with the people of Corinth. Every time they gathered together every one of them proceeded to speak in another tongue and these languages were not being inter­preted for the whole church to understand what was being said. So, Paul in his first letter to them had to instill some order in their church to keep down the confusion it was causing.

He told them, as is recorded in 1st Corinthians 14:33, “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” This church was apparently the only one that Paul had this problem with, as no reference was made to this in his other letters.

Many make reference to the words of the Lord in Mark 16:17 where He said “And these signs shall follow them that believe; they shall speak with new tongues”. This is very true, when there are needs for another language to be spoken for someone listening to receive the message from God, only then will God speak through someone, in that language, for the person to hear. So, speaking in other tongues is a gift of the Spirit endowing a disciple to speak in a foreign language. It has nothing to do with the unintelligible ecstatic utterances used by some as a manifestation of a deep religious experience.

But those apostles spoke in other languages for a reason, as a sign to those people from other countries that the apostles had received something from God. Remember that God always uses a sign to get people’s attention so they will listen to the Word. The only problem with what happened on the day of Pentecost was that the apostles, in error, also looked at speaking in tongues or other languages by other foreign converts as being the evidence of them having received the Holy Spirit.

Later on, when the apostles heard that some of the people of Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to verify it (Acts 8:14). Peter and John determined that the Samar­itans had not received the Holy Spirit, even though they had been baptized in Jesus’ name and laid hands on them with prayer for the Holy Spirit to come upon them (Acts 8:15-17). Now how could they have determined that these people had not received the Holy Spirit? They, without a doubt, asked the Samaritans if they had experienced the same phenomenon that the apostles had on the day of Pentecost, including the speaking in tongues. But you see, the Samaritans had already received the Holy Spirit if they had re­pented and been baptized in Jesus’ name, just like Peter had said on the day of Pentecost. But already Peter was looking for that external evidence of speaking in tongues.

Then again, when Peter went to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea, and as he spoke to those seeking the Lord there, he testified that the Holy Spirit fell on them (Acts 10:44). He certainly was telling them about his own experience on the day of Pentecost and they became so thrilled that they began to speak in another language that was not familiar to Peter After this had happened Peter stated that since they had received the Holy Spirit, they should now be baptized (Acts 10:47).

But you see, Peter should have known something was wrong. He had stated the formula on the day of Pentecost as being: first repent, second then be baptized, then third you would receive the Holy Spirit. But here he assumed they had already received the Holy Spirit because they spoke in tongues, even before they had been baptized. Again the speaking in tongues as evidence of having received the Holy Spirit had been misleading to those present.

When Paul asked the believers in Ephesus if they had re­ceived the Holy Spirit since they had believed, they said no. (Acts 19:2) When Paul had determined that the formula had not been followed, and that they had not been baptized in Jesus’ name, he baptized them again (Acts 19:4-5). But then Paul, thinking that they had not received the Holy Spirit since they had not spoke in tong­ues, laid hands on them for them to receive it (Acts 19:6).

Some of the church world today says that speaking in tongues is an unknown language and not one that is in existence today.

They get this term of “an unknown tongue” from the statement of Paul the Apostle in the 14th chapter of First Corinthians. But the original scriptures only speak of an unknown tongue as a foreign language that a person has not learned. Be­sides, in this 14th chapter the original scriptures did not have the word “un­known” in it. The translators of the Bi­ble added the word “unknown.”

So, the doctrine of speaking in tongues had spread like wild­fire. It wasn’t enough to accept the promise of God and the pro­phetic statement that Peter made on the day of Pentecost. They had to have some outward evidence.

The doctrines of man have developed and have been accepted down through the years and have resulted in blinding the people from the truth of God’s Word. But God is still looking for us to ac­cept His promises and His Word, just as He gave it in the begin­ning, and it is unchanging.

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