Tongues:

A Biblical View

By Ovid Need, Jr.

Chapter Five
Spiritual Defined

Have the Biblical tongues, such as recorded in Acts and 1 Corinthians, ceased? We have looked at the historical and Scriptural background; now let's put it all together.

One cannot deny that the major foundation for the current day movement is experience: "You CANNOT deny my EXPERIENCE." (Most, if not all, of the cults which come to our doors are trying to persuade us to accept their experience.) No doubt experiences are real, but experience cannot overshadow the word of God. So again we are reminded, THE WORD OF GOD must be our only authority; we are not permitted to accept experiences as final confirmation of correct activity.

God (through the apostle Paul) clearly tells Timothy that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron, 1 Timothy 4:1-2. Moreover, in his second letter to Timothy, Paul states that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable: 1) for doctrine, 2) for reproof, 3) for correction and 4) for instruction in righteousness, 2 Tim 3:16. Paul further instructs Timothy: Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, II Tim. 2:15. Obviously, Paul is referring to the OT Scriptures; there was as yet no NT. Of course, the application is all Scripture, Genesis through Revelation, but Paul's instruction to Timothy is quite clear: the OT gives the basis of all doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness (right living). Therefore, all teaching must have its foundation in the OT. (Cf. the Lord's instruction, Jn 5:39-47.)

Thus, we see that a person who accepts experience over the word of God would be one of those referred to by Paul in 1 Tim 4:1-2: first, he has departed from the faith, listening to seducing spirits and devils; he speaks lies and has his conscience seared, "I don't care what the Scriptural facts are, I enjoy the experience." The one who accepts experience, emotion or personal feeling of what he thinks is best over the word of God is a victim of seducing spirits, regardless of his denomination. When one says, "I just don't see it that way," in spite of the clear proclamation of the word of God, he is one of the victims of seducing spirits, 1 Tim 4:1, 2. We are commanded to depart from those who leave the final authority of the Scriptures for experience or feelings, For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words (not bad or evil) and fair speech (appealing to the flesh) deceive the hearts of the simple, Romans 16:17, 18.

I do not believe Paul is necessarily talking of breaking fellowship (as we mentioned in the introduction) with them, but when it comes to any kind of confrontation over their doctrinal error, then we are to avoid them as they would try to persuade us to follow them in their emotional experience over God's word, cf. 2 Jn 10.

Let us follow Paul through as he deals with the situation at Corinth. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul's first letter dealing with the sins of a very worldly church. As the Corinthians followed these worldly (sinful) practices, ecstatic utterances from the worship of Aphrodite entered, and these immature Christians accepted pagan practice without examining the OT Scriptures. This acceptance led to their giving a godly spiritual meaning to what was taking place.

Keep in mind that chapter and verse divisions were not in the original letters; they were added much latter, around the time of Wycliffe, for convenience in reading and study. Therefore, chapters 12-15 were all written as one unit dealing with the problem of the infiltrated ecstatic utterances being given a Spiritual meaning. This is confirmed in 12:1 as Paul opens his passage with Now concerning spiritual (gifts is added by the translators), brethren, I would not have you ignorant. In other words, "Now in regard to what is truly spiritual, I would not have you in the dark or misled (cf. Gal 6:1). Clearly, Paul is not referring to "spiritual gifts" at all. Moreover, in 14:1, 2 the words gifts and unknown are added to the text, confirming that Paul is not referring to spiritual gifts (which he does elsewhere); rather, his reference is to spirituality, ie. what it means to be spiritual. What makes one Spiritual.. ecstatic speech or the attitudes and actions of Gal 5:22-26? Note that one of the problems of the modern "versions" of the Bible is their treatment of added words, such as these, as original text, which they are not.

Paul opens this passage dealing with what it means to be spiritual and closes this passage dealing with the misunderstanding and misuse of the "gifts" of the spirits; chapter 13 is the hub of this passage, and everything else revolves around it. Chp 13 deals with the true definition of what it means to be Spiritual, ie. love one for another.

To help draw all the loose ends together, let us give a quick run-down of what Paul says here dealing with a developed situation from this misunderstanding of what is spiritual. 1 Cor 12:7, every man had received his spiritual gift at salvation (cf. Rom 14, &c.). V. 11, severally or uniquely as the Spirit wills; not everyone has the same gift, but it is given according to what God wants the individual to have at salvation for HIS glory. Then Paul moves on into an illustration: the body, 12:14-26: no matter how much desire might be present, the liver cannot be the tongue; furthermore, it is a sin for the liver not to be the best liver that it can be, for the glory of God, because the liver is just as important as the tongue although it does not receive the attention and recognition as does the tongue. V. 25, when the liver becomes content with its position and works properly and the tongue does the same, there will be no divisions or breakdowns, and the body will work effectively. The tongue will be more effective and so will the liver, each in its place, content with where God has placed it, and doing its very best.

Moving on to vs. 26-28: Paul shows the unity and points out that not everyone is an apostle, prophet, teacher, worker of miracles, healer, speaker in foreign languages or an interpreter of foreign tongues, no more than every body part is a liver, eye, mouth or an ear. It is not the person's choice, but God makes this choice at the person's salvation.

12:31, he tells them to covet the best gifts, then tells them what the best gifts are as he shows them a more excellent way: chapter 13. Paul shows us that a person controlled by the Holy Spirit produce the fruit of the Spirit, identified in Gal 5:22, not the "gifts" of the Spirit. Here in chp 13, he defines the most basic of fruit, love. As Paul defines love, obviously what was taking place at Corinth was nothing like the godly fruit of the spirit, yet because of the pagan influence, they mistook their actions for the moving of the Spirit. Paul confronts them with facts backed up with Scriptural evidence: they evidenced all the "gifts," but were worldly; immorality was rampant; they were proud, backbiting, divided, drunken; their women were in rebellion against proper authority. Clearly, rather than being a light in the darkness around them, the darkness was putting out their light; they were asleep in their worldliness; their testimony was shot, and those around them were going to the devil, 1 Cor. 15:34. Yet amidst all of this wickedness, they were proud of their spirituality because they were able imitate the ecstatic speech from the pagan temples and supernaturally speak in unknown foreign languages.

Paul goes to the very root of true spirituality by describing love, ch 13. His description hits their worldliness "head on;" clearly, what they were claiming as spiritual was not. I will not go point by point through ch 13, but I will give an example of how Paul straightly confronts the problems in this church, 13:7: 13:5, does not behave itself unseemly, compared with the unseemly behavior at the Lord's supper table, 11:22; furthermore, ecstatic speech proved to themselves their claim of spirituality, but Paul says that the mark of true spirituality is love and love doth not behave itself unseemly. They were well aware that there was drunkenness at the Lord's table, and this fact alone should have destroyed their confidence in their "spirituality." It would be an interesting study to compare the 15 things in 13:1-7 with the sins exposed by Paul's letter to this church at Corinth.

Will facts cause us to examine the truth about our own personal relationship with the Lord? Usually they will not because we can get so caught up in emotions, experience and personal opinions that the facts are left far in the background, so we go our own way. Many times we must plead guilty to the same sin as the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 15:33, 34.

Let's skip down to I Cor.13:8 where Paul sums up the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit will never fail: "The sense is, that while other endowments of the Holy Spirit must soon cease and be valueless, love would abide, and would always exist. The argument is, that we ought to seek that which is of enduring value; and that, therefore, love should be preferred to those endowments of the Spirit on which so high a value had been set by the Corinthians." 1

But prophecies, they shall fail, ...tongues, they shall cease, knowledge, it shall vanish away (note that he does not say they shall stop or depart for a season, then return). Paul does not link prophecies, tongues and knowledge all together here in one package; rather, he says that knowledge and prophecies will continue until something else takes place to cause them to cease. The definition of prophecy is: "discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purpose of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing the things hidden; esp. by foretelling future events." 2

As we follow prophecies on through in the Greek Concordance, we find other uses of this word which is found in v. 8; in every usage of prophecies we have the reference to Divine inspiration. 3 There are other words translated prophecy or to prophesy, but the word Paul uses in v. 8 always refers to a Divine supernatural ability to foretell the future given to confirm the new message which God was delivering through His messengers. The other word for prophets would fit within several categories: not only to foretell the future, but preaching the already revealed truth of God. In other words, there are at least four Greek words translated into our English words, prophet, prophecy, prophesy, &c (The New Englishman's Greek Concordance and Lexicon, Republished by AP&A, Lafayette, IN, 47903, pgs. 762-764). Paul tells us that supernatural prophecies will continue until something else happens replacing them. 4 Again, this supernatural ability to foretell the future was to confirm that the new message of the gospel was from the Lord according to the law, Deut 18:22.

Fail and vanish are the same word, v. 8: "To cause to cease, pass away, be done away." The thought behind this Greek word is to do away with after the job is completed (unemploy, to terminate); the goal is reached, the job is complete; therefore, they (supernatural prophecies and the supernatural ability to speak other languages [not ecstatic utterances which was dealt with as paganism]) have no more use. Their assigned task is terminated, so they now are idle and useless; therefore, they were discharged from their duty and have passed away. 5

When something else happened after v.8, they were over and finished.

Now we come to a third word, cease: "To make to cease or desist: to restrain a thing or person from something. To leave off" (Thayer's, pgs. 496-7). Therefore, we see that Paul is saying that knowledge and prophecies will continue until something else happens to cause them to stop; tongues, however, will cease, stop in and of themselves not needing anything to act upon them to cause them to cease. When will they simply stop? 1 Cor 14:20-22 gives us the answer. As we have already seen, when the OT prophesied purpose for tongues was fulfilled, they stopped.

OT Reference

We cannot be reminded too often that we must view every NT doctrine and practice in the light of the OT. There are four OT passages which refer to the purpose of tongues: first, Deut. 28:36-49, where we see that a sign of God's judgment upon His rebellious, stubborn, stiff-necked people would be people marching through Israel speaking languages they would not understand (See Stephen's indictment against these people, Acts 7:51). Second, Isa 28:9-13 (cf. 2 Ki 17), the sign of God's judgment would be unintelligible foreign languages spoken on the streets of Israel sounding like stammering lips. Third, Isa 33:19 says that the stammering tongue (a tongue, language not understood by the average person) is a sign of judgment upon God's people for rejecting His authority over them. Fourth, Jeremiah 5:11-15 gives the same warning as does Isaiah. Clearly, God is telling His people who have rejected Him that a sign of His judgment against them is a strange people within their land speaking in a language which they do not understand: a foreign invader. At least four times in the OT law and prophets, God points to a language which they cannot understand, for which they need an interpreter, as a sign of judgment upon His people Israel for rejecting His message to turn back to Him.

Notice the statement will I speak unto this people, 1 Cor. 14:21, 22; the message of judgment was specifically to the OT covenant people of Israel: the people of the circumcision. Tongues were never to anyone else but to Israel who had rejected God's messengers and message. Paul points out that the message of judgment, as represented by tongues, was only to the unbelieving Jew who knew the law and prophets, to the ones who could and would make the connection. The Messiah Himself took the message to this people, and they treated Him worse than they did the OT prophets by crucifying Him. There is no Scriptural hint that the message represented by tongues was ever meant for the uncircumcised, the Gentiles or the NT church.

Paul's thought moves right from v. 21 to v. 22 with Wherefore, or because. Tongues are for a sign.. to them that believe not. When a Jew who had been brought up in the law and the prophets heard the other tongues (languages, not ecstatic utterances), they knew beyond any doubt it meant that judgment was coming according to the Scriptures. (Acts 2:37, they were pricked in their hearts [the Jewish hearers who knew the law and the prophets because they were gathered for the feast of Pentecost according to the law], and said...what shall we do. The tongues [and the message] brought conviction upon these learned Jews.)

Paul moves to v. 23 referring to the Jew who is unlearned in the law and the prophets and to the Greek (Gentile) who would be unlearned in the law and the prophets. When the unlearned heard the unintelligible foreign languages, they would say, "These people are mad." Thus, tongues were a sign for the people of Israel who were learned and knew the prophecies; they had nothing to do with the Gentiles or with the new church. To them, the tongues would be a mark of madness. In every case of tongues in the book of Acts we see an Israelite of the circumcision present and at least one Apostle.

In Romans 11, God broke off the natural olive branches because of their hardness and rebellion (unbelief) against their rightful King. He then grafted in the wild olive branch: the people who were not searching for God, the Gentiles (Rom 9:25, 26; 10:20, etc). God also included the promise that those of the circumcision could (and would, according to God's election) be grafted back into their own olive tree. (Notice that they must be grafted back in; they must turn from their hardness and unbelief to Christ just as the uncircumcised (Rom 11:23, 24). When threatened with judgment, these Israelites said, "Nay, God wouldn't do that to us. We are the seed of Abraham; therefore, the heirs according to God's promises to Abraham. He won't judge us because to do so would be to break the promise to Abraham." 6

We also find this thought prevalent in the OT, eg. Jer 5:12. God, with tongues, reminds the hardened Jews of the sign which proves that He is about to judge their hardness by breaking off the natural branches for their rejection of His message and His Messiah. Then He is going to graft the church in their place through Christ, but if they will repent and turn from their unbelief, they also can be grafted into the root (Christ). When Israel heard the foreign languages in Acts 2:11-12, it knew exactly what God was doing in light of Jer 5:11-15. Lk 20:16, because Israel rejected their true heir, the husbandmen were destroyed and the vineyard given to others, the church made up of both Jews and Gentiles. 7

God used Titus to break Israel off in 70 A.D. When Titus destroyed Jerusalem (and the Jewish race), he scattered the remaining Jews over the whole earth, thereby completely fulfilling the OT prophecy of judgment for their unbelief.

1 Cor 13:8: tongues, they shall cease (never to return). The reason for tongues was completely fulfilled in 70 A.D.; therefore, tongues have ceased because God does not leave unneeded signs. They were not toys, but something very serious. When the need ceased, so did they. The "sign gifts" (as they are called), tongues, interpretation of tongues, healings (other than Ja 5), all ceased when the need was fulfilled; they were given to confirm the new message of the apostles (Rom 15:19; 2 Cor 12:12). Furthermore, the Lord said that it was an evil generation which seeks after a sign (and only one sign was given- Lk 11:29). Paul goes even further saying that one who requires a sign cannot be saved (Rom 8:24). The generation to whom Christ appeared and which the apostles warned, rejected the message and was judged.

In Matthew 24:24 Christ warned of the rash of false teachers and false prophets who would show great signs and wonders (Mk 13:22). Josephus points out that while Rome had Jerusalem closed up for destruction, there were many false prophets which appeared within the city, trying to convince the Jews who wanted to defect to Rome that the Messiah would soon appear and deliver the city from Rome (Again, see our paper on Mat 24). We see other warnings throughout Scripture. 2 Peter 2 warns of false teachers using fair words and good emotions to influence God's people away from the word of God.

The apostolic gifts were for a purpose, and when that purpose was fulfilled, they ceased. Corinth's ecstatic utterance was no more than an overflow from the prevailing pagan worship with no spiritual significance toward the God of heaven. The ecstatic utterance prevalent today is practiced by pagans and "Christians" alike; therefore, how can one say that it is a Holy God when the antichrist crowd practices the same thing? It is an ecstatic speech which anyone can take part in if the conditions are right. (There was a sign in the front of a local church advertising classes in the use of the "spiritual gifts.")

Footnotes

1. Barnes' Notes, 1 Cor, pg. 252. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Back

2. Thayer's English Lexicon, Republished by AP&A, Lafayette, IN, 47903, pg. 5521. Back

3. Mat 13:14; Rom 12:6; 1 Cor 12:10; 13:2, 8; 14:6, 22; 1 Thes 5:20; 1 Tim 1:18; 4:14; 2 Pet 1:20, 21; Rev 1:3; 11:6; 19:10; 22:7, 10, 18, 19 (note the plagues promised to anyone who would attempt to add any "divine prophecies").Back

4. I make no claim whatsoever of being knowledgeable in language studies, but there are many books available dealing with the grammar in this text. Two sources are: The Corinthian Catastrophe, pg. 34, "Far from linking tongues, prophecy and knowledge together, he separates tongues from the others by using the transitive and intransitive. In addition, even the voice is different. The statement about prophecy and knowledge are both in the passive voice whereas the statement concerning tongues is in the middle voice." & Charismatic Gift of Tongues, pg. 57-64. Spiros Zodhiates also has material dealing with the grammar and word usage in this passage.

5. Thayer's, pg. 336. New Englishman's Greek Concordance, pg. 476. Back

6. Mat 3:9; Lk 3:8; Jn chp. 8. Paul is dealing with this in all of Rom chp. 9, as well as Gal chp. 3. The Jewish pride in being the seed of Abraham is not hard to follow throughout the Scriptures. This was a major obstacle which Christ confronted. Back

7. Mat 21:33-46. See our work on Mat 24 where we go into this in great detail, including the destruction by Titus. Also see 1 Pet, ch.2. Back

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