In 1 Corinthians 14 the apostle Paul spends some
time teaching the church in Corinth about the spiritual gift that is commonly
known as speaking in tongues.
TERMINOLOGY
In the phrase “speaking in tongues,” “tongues” just
means “languages.” So in modern English,
“speaking in languages” is actually a much better way of referring to this gift. And in modern English versions of the Bible
too “speaking in languages” is a better translation of the Greek.
Nevertheless, because the phrase “speaking in
tongues” is so widely used, I will stick with this term in this article. And when referring to an individual example
of using this gift, I will use the term “speaking in a tongue.”
WHAT
THIS GIFT IS
When someone speaks in a tongue, they speak in a
language that they don’t understand with their mind. The person’s spirit connects with their mouth
to form words that have meaning, but their mind is not involved.
Paul describes this situation in the context of
prayer in 1 Cor 14:14:
“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unproductive.”
THE PURPOSES OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES
In 1 Cor 14 Paul refers to two purposes of speaking
in tongues.
Tongues
for strengthening the individual Christian
First, he
says that this gift is used for personal spiritual strengthening.
In
verses 4-5 he states:
“4 The person who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the person who prophesies builds up the church. 5 Now I wish that you could all speak in tongues . . .”
Paul is explicit here that
speaking in a tongue serves to build up a Christian who uses it. And he is clear that he would like all
believers to be able use this gift for this purpose.
Similarly, in v. 18 he says:
“I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.”
Again, Paul stresses the
usefulness of speaking in tongues for the purpose of personal spiritual
strengthening.
Tongues for strengthening the local
church
The second purpose that Paul gives for
speaking in tongues is to strengthen the local church.
In v. 5 he tells his readers:
“The person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church might be built up.”
Here Paul is thinking of a
situation where someone speaks a message from God in a tongue and then
interprets the incomprehensible language into language that those listening can
understand. The result will be that the
listeners are built up in the faith.
Similarly, in v. 13 he tells his
readers:
“Therefore, the person who speaks in a tongue should pray that he can interpret.”
And then in v. 27 he says:
“If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be two or three at most, in turn, and someone should interpret.”
This use of speaking in tongues
referred to in verses 5, 13 and 27 is really the equivalent of a prophecy. In a prophecy, a prophet speaks a message
from God to the listeners in language that they can understand. In a tongue plus interpretation, the same
result is achieved in two stages. A
Christian speaks a message from God out loud in an unknown language, and then
either the same believer or another interprets this into understandable
language.
This is all extremely mysterious. Personally, I have no idea why God would ever
want to use this method of tongue plus interpretation, when it might seem that
a simple prophecy would suffice.
INCREASE IN ACCEPTANCE OF THIS GIFT
In
most of church history, the majority view among Christians has been that God
ceased giving the gift of tongues at some point in the first century.
A big
change came at the beginning of the twentieth century, however, with the origin
of the Pentecostal movement. Since then,
an increasing number of believers have accepted that God still gives this gift today. In fact, I think it would be right to say
that at the present time a sizeable majority of evangelicals worldwide accept
that God still gives this gift.
Nevertheless,
there remain more than a few Christians who deny that He does this, and they
use various arguments to try to make their case.
I
believe strongly that God does give the gift of tongues today, and in what
follows I will argue for this position.
BIBLICAL TEACHING
When thinking about any topic, the
most important thing to do is see what the Bible has to say about it. Scripture is our God-given “Manual for the
Human Life,” and what it teaches is key.
So we will begin with this.
1 Corinthians 13:8-10
A good place for us to start is 1 Cor
13:8-10.
Here the apostle Paul states:
“8 . . . if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when what is complete comes, what is partial will be done away with.”
In this passage Paul is referring
back to the gifts of the Spirit he has been talking about in chapter 12. He clearly believes that a time will come
when speaking in tongues, prophesying and other gifts will no longer be used. And he seems to imply that this will happen
“when what is complete comes.”
Those who claim that God no longer
gives the gift of tongues (and some other gifts of the Spirit) today often
argue that the time Paul is referring to in this clause is the point at which
the New Testament was completed.
This, however, is simply not a
credible interpretation of the passage. “When
what is complete comes” is certainly not referring to any experience that can
be found in this world of ours. Rather,
it has in view a time after Jesus has returned to earth.
The context of verses 8-13 confirms
this. In these verses, Paul contrasts a
present state and a future state. The
present state involves knowing in part and seeing indistinctly. The future state, which begins when what is
complete comes, involves knowing fully and seeing face to face. Paul is clearly contrasting the present
experience of Christians with our future state of existence. So “when what is complete comes” is
definitely referring to a time after Jesus has returned to the earth.
Therefore, when Paul says that
partial things like speaking in tongues will be done away with “when what is
complete comes,” the most natural way of taking his words is that this gift
will continue until Jesus returns.
It is true that Paul is speaking very
concisely here. And it is true too that
his main focus in this passage is not on precisely when the gifts of the Spirit
will cease being used. I am not saying
that this passage proves outright that God still gives the gift of tongues
today. But Paul’s words certainly fit
better with this gift continuing until Jesus returns than ceasing centuries
ago.
1 Corinthians 14:1
Another verse that points in the same
direction is 1 Cor 14:1. Here Paul
instructs the Christians in Corinth:
“Pursue love, and eagerly desire spiritual gifts . . .”
The “spiritual gifts” Paul refers to
here certainly include the gifts he has listed in 1 Cor 12:8-10, one of which
is speaking in tongues.
The first thing to note about the
command to desire spiritual gifts in 14:1 is that it must have applied to all
Christians in around 55 AD, when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. Clearly, this command was given to all the
Christians in Corinth. And there is no
reason whatsoever for thinking that Paul or God would have wanted anything
different in other churches at that time.
We should therefore have no doubt that when Paul wrote this letter God
wanted all Christians to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, including the ability
to speak in tongues.
Next, we need to give due weight to
an argument from probability:
If we consider the rest of the New
Testament, it contains hundreds of commands that would have applied to all
Christians at the time they were written.
I am not aware of a single one of these that no longer applies to
Christians today.
If it is correct that every other NT
command that applied to all Christians at the time of writing still applies
today, then, all other things being equal, it is highly probable that the
command in 1 Cor 14:1 also still applies.
And this argument from probability carries considerable weight, although
I accept that it doesn’t prove outright that God gives the gift of tongues
today.
Even if I
am mistaken about other NT commands that applied to all Christians when they
were written, and there are a few that no longer apply today, the number of
these is surely very few. So the argument
from probability would still carry some weight, although admittedly not nearly
so much.
Acts 2:16-18
Another relevant passage is Acts
2:16-18. Here Peter, referring to the speaking in tongues that occurred on the day
of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given, quotes the prophet Joel:
“16 But this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it will be in the last days,’ says God, ‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.’”
Peter is saying that the events of the day of Pentecost are the beginning
of the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy in Joel 2:28-32. Joel prophesied that God would pour out His
Spirit, says Peter, and this has now come into effect.
This passage refers explicitly to prophesying, visions and dreams. I will say something about what the passage
suggests about these things before moving on to talk specifically about
speaking in tongues.
First, we need to note the time reference in this passage. It says that God will pour out His Spirit,
and prophecies, visions and dreams will take place, “in the last days.” The last
days here is the period of time that began with the giving of the Spirit and
will end with the return of Christ.
When this passage says that God will pour out His Spirit “in the last
days,” and that this will involve prophesying, visions and dreams, the most
natural way of taking the words is that these activities will take place throughout
the last days. If they occurred only
in the first century, then the pouring out of the Spirit in the way that the
passage describes would only have happened in the very first part of the last
days. And that does seem a rather
awkward interpretation of the text.
Furthermore, to think that prophesying, visions and dreams no longer
occur today also fits poorly with what we know as “salvation history.”
This is a term that refers to how God’s overall plan for human beings has
unfolded in various ways in different periods of history.
For example, the calling of Abraham and the giving of the Law at Sinai
involved radical new departures from what had come before.
Later, the ministry of John the Baptist brought something radically new,
as did the earthly ministry of Jesus.
The day of Pentecost was also a huge change from what had come before. On this day the Spirit was given, in
fulfilment of Old Testament promises of the New Covenant.
Crucially, however, since Pentecost there has been no critical point in
salvation history. We are still in the
same New Covenant era that began on that day.
In view of this, it would be unexpected, to say the least, if God no
longer spoke through prophecies, visions and dreams. After the Spirit had descended on the day of
Pentecost, this would be like Him deciding to partially reascend to heaven
part-way through the New Covenant era.
There are two good reasons, then, for thinking that prophesying, visions
and dreams continue today. Firstly, “in
the last days” most naturally suggests this.
And secondly, today we are still in the same period of salvation history
that began on the day of Pentecost.
Of course, the revelation that God gives in prophecies, dreams and
visions today is not remotely on a par with biblical revelation. Nor does it have universal application. Instead, it just concerns specific situations
that individual Christians or individual churches are facing at the time.
Although v. 17 makes no explicit mention of speaking in tongues, it makes
sense to think that what this verse implies about prophesying, visions and
dreams it also implies about the gift of tongues as it is described in 1 Corinthians. There are two reasons for this:
First,
speaking in tongues is precisely the thing that leads Peter to quote Joel’s
prophecy. It is true
that the kind of speaking in tongues in Acts 2 is not exactly the same as
either of the kinds of tongues mentioned in 1 Cor 14. And it is true too that the day of Pentecost
was a unique event. Nevertheless, it is
a fact that it is tongues that leads Peter to refer to God’s pouring out His
Spirit.
Second,
the pouring out of the Spirit that Joel prophesied surely involves all the
gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Cor 12:8-10.
And speaking in tongues is on that list.
It is
reasonable, then, to think that what the verse implies about prophesying,
visions and dreams it also implies about the gift of tongues as it is described
in 1 Corinthians. So, because the verse
most naturally implies that prophesying, visions and dreams continue throughout
the Christian era, the same is true of speaking in tongues.
Summing
up, then, Acts 2:16-18 counts as biblical evidence that God still gives the
gift of tongues today.
The Longer Ending of Mark’s Gospel
Another relevant text for our purposes can be found in the so-called
“Longer Ending” of Mark’s Gospel.
We know that in the first centuries of the church, this Gospel circulated
with a number of different endings. The
earliest surviving copies of Mark end at Mark 16:8. However, most old copies of Mark contain the
Longer Ending that a majority of English-speaking readers of the Bible will be
most familiar with, ending at what is known as Mark 16:20. There are also copies that have a variety of
other differences and additions.
In the Longer Ending there is a passage that refers to speaking in
tongues. The text that is commonly
referred to as Mark 16:15-18 reads as follows:
“15 And He [Jesus] said to them [the eleven], ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to all creation. 16 The person who has believed and has been baptized will be saved. But the person who has not believed will be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will expel demons, they will speak with new tongues, 18 with their hands they will pick up snakes, if they drink anything poisonous it will in no way harm them, and they will place their hands on those who are ill and they will get well.’”
Discussion of which ending or endings of Mark should be considered
Scripture is complex. Personally, I
prefer the view that this passage shouldn’t be regarded as Scripture. But I don’t want to get into a long analysis
of the issue here.
Instead, let’s look at this passage under two scenarios, firstly assuming
that it is Scripture and secondly assuming that it isn’t.
So, first, let’s suppose that the passage I have quoted should be
regarded as Scripture.
If we do this, it should be clear that the passage strongly implies that speaking
in tongues is something that continues throughout the Christian era:
In v. 15 Jesus refers to evangelism in “all the world” and “to all
creation.” So from His point in time He
is clearly thinking about evangelism that will continue on long into the future
around the world.
Therefore, when in verses 16 and 17 He refers to “the person who has
believed” and “those who have believed,” by far the most natural way of taking
His words is as a reference to Christians of all times and places. Those who say that in these verses Jesus is
speaking only of Christians living in the first century or thereabouts are
taking an extremely unnatural interpretation of the text.
Verse 17 says that speaking in tongues is a feature of those who believe. (This doesn’t mean that it is a feature of all
who believe, simply something that many Christians do.) So, because those who believe are Christians
of all times and places, speaking in tongues is something that we can expect to
be a continuing activity of the church.
If these words are Scripture, then, this passage strongly implies that speaking
in tongues is something that we should expect in every century of the church.
Second, let’s assume that this passage is not Scripture.
If we do this, it still seems reasonable to regard the passage as quite
strong evidence that speaking in tongues continues throughout the Christian era:
Importantly, there is no doubt that in the last 2000 years large numbers
of Christians have understood the passage we know as Mark 16:9-20 to be part of
Scripture. In fact, it seems highly
likely that most believers have
regarded this passage as Scripture.
The vast majority of these Christians have known nothing about early copies
of Mark or even that this Gospel once circulated with a variety of endings. Most, or at least very many, Christians in
the last 2000 years have been led to believe that Mark 16:9-20 is Scripture,
and they have accepted this in good faith.
It is surely very unlikely that God would have allowed so many Christians
to have an ending of Mark’s Gospel that misled them. If He had, then through no fault of their own
they would have been reading as Scripture something that was actually
misdirecting them. But we would expect
God, in His love, not to have allowed this to happen.
So even if Mark 16:9-20 is not Scripture, it makes sense to think that it
contains good Christian teaching.
We saw above that if we take this passage as Scripture, it strongly implies
that speaking in tongues is something that continues throughout the Christian
era. Therefore, even if we don’t take
the passage as Scripture, because it apparently contains good teaching it still
supplies us with quite a strong piece of evidence that we should expect
speaking in tongues today.
Hebrews 2:3-4
One passage that is often said to show
that God no longer gives the gift of tongues is Heb 2:3-4, where the author
writes:
“3 . . . how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? This salvation was first announced by the Lord, and then it was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, 4 while God added His testimony by signs and wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.”
Those who say that the gift of
tongues has ceased often argue in this way:
In this passage the author wants his
readers to understand what an enormously important thing the Christian message
of salvation is. To help him make his
point, he says that in the time of the first generation of Christians God
testified to the truth of this message by signs, wonders, miracles and gifts of
the Spirit. However, if the author
believed that these things still occurred at the time of writing, we would
expect him to have concentrated on God testifying to the message by them in the
present rather than in the past. Therefore,
this passage strongly implies that gifts like tongues no longer existed at the
time of writing.
It is certainly true that the
author’s intention in this passage is to stress how important the message of
salvation is. And I do admit that this
argument isn’t one that should be quickly dismissed. Nevertheless, there are a few points to make
here.
(1) The passage is too indirect and
brief for us to reach clear conclusions on what the author believed about the
existence of tongues and other gifts at the time of writing.
(2) It is possible that the author
felt that after mentioning Jesus and the first generation of Christians, he had
done enough to make his point.
He begins by telling them that no
less a person than Jesus began announcing the message. And then he goes on to say that people who
heard Jesus themselves were the ones who passed on the message to the author
and the readers. He also notes that God
accompanied this passing on of the message with miracles and gifts of the
Spirit to help validate it.
Maybe having said all this, he
thought that he had said enough to make his point that the message of salvation
is extremely important. If so, then potentially
he could have chosen not to move on to speak about the time of writing, even if
he was aware that God was still giving gifts of the Spirit like tongues in his
day.
(3) I think it is quite possible that
at the time this letter was written, miracles and gifts of the Spirit may have
been a lot less common than they were earlier in the first century. And this could have motivated the author in
Heb 2:3-4 to focus on miracles and gifts among the first generation of
Christians.
I will say something about the
frequency of tongues throughout church history in part 2 of this article.
(4) In Heb 6:5 the author refers to
Christians generally as people who have “tasted . . . the powers of the age to
come.”
This could well suggest that gifts of
the Spirit like tongues were ongoing at the time of writing.
(5) Even if this passage does more
naturally seem to suggest that the gift of tongues had ceased at the time of
writing, we need to beware of drawing conclusions based on one or two proof
texts.
A good example of the dangers of this
can be seen in Col 1:19-20, where Paul writes:
“19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him [Christ], 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace by the blood of His cross – whether things on earth or things in the heavens.”
In this passage Paul explicitly says
that God was pleased “to reconcile all things to Himself.” And the “all things” he has in mind are
described as “things on earth or things in the heavens.” There can be no doubt that he is including
human beings in what is talking about. So
the most natural reading of this passage is that all human beings will be
reconciled to God through Christ.
However, Paul cannot have meant that,
since it would contradict so much else in his letters (e.g., Rom 2:5-9; 2 Cor
2:15-16; Gal 6:8; Phil 1:28; 3:19; 1 Thess 1:10; 2 Thess 1:6-9).
Instead, he must mean that all things
will be reconciled to God apart from one unexpressed, exceptional group of
beings, comprising some people and some angels, that will experience eternal
destruction.
The most natural reading of Col
1:19-20 is therefore not the correct one.
And the same could potentially be true of Heb 2:3-4.
Of course, the number of biblical passages
where the most natural reading is not the correct one must be relatively few. If God had inspired the Bible in such a way
that the correct meaning was usually at odds with the most natural sense of the
words, we would be in real trouble when trying to learn things. Thankfully, He hasn’t done that. A large majority of the time, passages should
be taken at face value. And we can be
confident that the most natural reading of most passages on any given topic
will be in line with the truth.
So, even if Heb 2:3-4 most naturally
seems to suggest that the gift of tongues has ceased, it is still the case that
several other passages most naturally suggest that this gift has not
ceased, as we have seen.
Summing up
There
are other Bible passages that have some relevance for the topic we are
considering, but I have given the most important of them. The above discussion
has shown that on balance the Bible fits better with the position that God continues to
give the gift of speaking in tongues than with the view that He ceased doing
this long ago.
See also:
