TEN TRUTHS YOU MAY NOT KNOW AND MAY NEVER WANT TO KNOW 8

By Nana Yaw Aidoo

TRUTH 8: Tongues Were Actual Human Languages And A Gift That Has Ceased

As I discussed scripture with a Charismatic lady one time, I was left with the impression that "the Holy Spirit is the gift of tongues and the gift of tongues is the Holy Spirit". It is simply impossible to fail to see all around us, the "unhealthy preoccupation" with experiences from the Holy Spirit, which experience is basically tongues speaking. John MacArthur wrote that; "Committed charismatics talk incessantly about phenomena, emotions, and the latest wave or sensation. They seem to have comparatively little (sometimes nothing) to say about Christ, His atoning work, or the historical facts of the gospel" (Introduction to "Strange Fire").

Indeed the gift of tongues was a biblical phenomenon as we see in Acts 2 when the church of Christ began. Unfortunately, however, what Pentecostals and Charismatics call "tongues-speaking" is nothing less than ecstatic gibberish and an affront to the Holy Spirit, whom they claim to honor. We submit that what is "sold" today as the miraculous gift of tongues bears no resemblance to that which is spoken of in inspired writ.

The first time the gift of tongues is seen in scripture, is in Acts 2. It was the miraculous ability to speak a language that the speaker had no prior knowledge of, or had never learnt. With the Holy Spirit having filled the twelve, it is written that they "began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). When this happened, the multitude that were in Jerusalem "from every nation under heaven", "came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. They were all amazed and marveled saying, Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?...we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God" (Acts 2:6-11).

Friends, the apostles spoke in tongues and when they did, what the audience heard were their normal, earthly and native dialects. They did not hear unintelligible babbling, the kind that is heard today. All bible students recognize "the law of first mention" as an important hermeneutical principle. The meaning a word/concept has in scripture the first time it is mentioned, is mostly the meaning that it holds generally, when it is seen elsewhere in scripture. Since this is the first time the gift is mentioned in scripture, by applying "the law of first mention", we have no doubt at all that, anytime it is mentioned elsewhere, it means exactly as it means in Acts 2.

Then comes the Pentecostal-Charismatic preacher, who contends that the tongues of 1 Corinthians 12-14 are different from that which were spoken in Acts 2. However, like David Cloud noted; "There is no reason to believe that the gift of tongues mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12-14 is any different from that mentioned in Acts...The same Greek word "glossa" is used for both. This word refers to the tongue itself (Mk.7:33) or to a language spoken by the tongue" (Tongues Speaking, pp.18-19).

The honest bible student is the one who interprets "hard passages" in view of the easier ones, which in this case is Acts 2. The false teacher on the other hand "takes exactly the opposite approach. He builds his pet doctrines upon relatively obscure and difficult Scriptures while ignoring and overthrowing the clearest ones" (Cloud). If we would throw away all prejudice, we would see Paul explain what the tongues of 1 Corinthians 12-14 were.

The apostle wrote; "So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. There are, it may be, so many languages in the world, and none of them is without significance. Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me" (1 Cor.14:9-11). Clearly, tongues were languages that could be understood.

Finally, the gift of tongues ceased with the completion of scripture. Paul wrote; "Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away" (1 Cor.13:7-10). That "which is perfect" is the "perfect law of liberty" (James 1:25) that was at the time of writing, incomplete. With the completion of the New Testament record, the miraculous ceased to exist.

W.E. Vine wrote; "There is no evidence of the continuance of this gift after Apostolic times nor indeed in the later times of the Apostles themselves; this provides confirmation of the fulfilment in this way of 1 Cor.13:8, that this gift would cease in the churches, just as would "prophecies" and "knowledge" in the sense of knowledge received by immediate supernatural power (cp.14:6). The completion of the Holy Scriptures has provided the churches with all that is necessary for individual and collective guidance, instruction, and edification." (Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, pp.143).

Even the 4th century preacher, John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) admitted that the gift had ceased by his time, with these comments on 1 Corinthians 12-14; "This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to, and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place" ("Homilies on 1 Corinthians," Vol.XII, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Hom.29:2 as cited by David Cloud).

Not only were tongues actual human languages but with scripture complete, the gift has ceased.

If you didn't know this truth, hopefully you do now.

God bless us all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

(To be continued...)