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A Biblical Perspective on the Gift of Speaking in Tongues

Pastor Chris Mosley

The Holy Spirit fully indwells every person at the moment they believe (1 Cor 6:19). He is not given in booster shots. Sometimes you may not feel the presence of the Spirit because of some kind sin in your life but He never deserts you. (John 3:16, 5:24, 6:40, 6:47, 10:27-30, Rom 8:35-30, Phil 1:6, etc).

There are some false teachers out there that try to tell you that there is separate indwelling of the Holy Spirit and that the sign of this separate indwelling is the gift of tongues. They use as proof that the apostles had to lay hands on some people in order for them to receive the Holy Spirit and sometimes they immediately spoke with tongues. This however is weak example because the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit began at Pentecost. Many people had not actually trusted Christ yet as their Savior, rather they had been baptized to acknowledge His coming. But when the apostles came to them and explained the gospel they believed and received the Holy Spirit. The laying on of hands did not transfer the Holy Spirit. It was just customary to lay hands on someone if you were going to bless or commission them. The apostles were doing that very thing for these new believers. Some of them spoke with and or had the ability to interpret tongues, or languages foreign to them, as a sign to those who watched that these gentiles could also receive the gift of salvation. Notice this in Acts 8:16-17.

  The gift of tongues is actually discouraged in a church service at a ratio of 2000 to1 (1 Corinthians 14:19). It also is said to edify the speaker (1 Cor 14:4) not the church, and in verse 12 he says to seek to edify the church. Not to mention that the word tongue in the Greek many times is used in reference to a language. That was the miracle on the day of Pentecost, that these Hebrews spoke and every one heard in their own language (Acts 2:6). I am not saying that God could not use this gift for prayer between man and Himself, but it is clear that it is greatly discouraged in a church service in 1 Corinthians 14. Also, very few churches that do practice this gift practice it Biblically. If is to be done in a service it has to be done by no more than 2 or 3 (1 Cor 14:27-28) or not all, there has to be an interpreter, which means it has to be an interpretable language (1 Cor 14:10), and it cannot be done by a woman (1 Cor 14:34).

  Why do people seek so desperately after a gift that has been so severely restricted and discouraged and then with no scriptural support, attach it to salvation? I personally believe that the word of God supports that tongues was a gift of speaking and understanding an understandable language of the time, mainly used in the apostolic era. To support this, in 1 Timothy Paul was giving Timothy instruction on how the church was to be set up and ran. Notice tongues are never mentioned. As a matter of fact, tongues are not mentioned at all in all after Corinthians. Why not if it is the sole sign of being spirit filled?

So, how do I reconcile the gift being used in church at all? During this time frame in Corinth there was a lot of pagan worship. Many of these pagans mixed their way into the congregation of this new and exciting religion called Christianity. One of the worship styles that were practiced by many pagans was a mysterious ecstatic babble that was supposed to have been poured out by their gods. I believe that when the people were meeting together to worship that the services were getting out of hand with everyone wanting to speak and some spoke different languages, which would explain why he said they needed an interpreter. Also some were probably trying to influx this pagan babble. This is why he told them that every language had to have an interpretation or they were to sit down and be silent. You can study far and wide in the Scripture and never find the word tongues used as some mysterious babble in relation to the worship of God. That is why he said that uninterpretable languages made people think the speaker was a barbarian. They were, however, encouraged to prophecy, or to proclaim divine truth, throughout the entire New Testament.

  The modern day movement of focusing on signs and wonders rather than Biblical truth and instruction is nothing new (Matt 12:39-41). True happiness, I feel, is not found in the seeking after “look at me” sign gifts, but in the gifts God gives you to use for His glory. Many times only He and you know what you are doing. But he sees it privately and rewards you openly. I don’t require feelings, emotions, sign gifts, and miracles to know that Jesus is my Savior nor to grow in His grace. I simply need to look at the Scriptures and trust that every promise God made in them will come true and that everything I need to know is in there.

  Don't forget to check out our resource page. We now have a link to Grace Evangelical Society's website as well as a link to e-grace.net w hich is another source of accurate Christian information.