Speaking In Tongues--Part 1

Read Acts 2 and I Corinthians 14. These two chapters are the main portion of Scripture that deals with the subject of tongues. The Greek word glossa cannot reflect to both unknown ecstatic utterances and foreign languages. It is used of the physical organ which gave forth audible, known sounds of various human languages and dialects. In Acts 2:1-11, the reference is to different languages from different countries.

Tongue-speaking practiced among religionists is high on the list of demon activity. Demons speak: “And when they say to you, Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. And they will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness” (Is. 8:19-22 NASB). Demons operate like ventriloquists. “Mediums” translated into the Greek connotes ventriloquists. These demons are described as spiritists or wizards that whisper and mutter (v. 19 ). A wizard is a demon possessed medium. “Wizard” means “much knowing”; therefore, demons have supernatural intelligence. Their whispering is low sounds; and their muttering is high sounds; but these sounds are not of their own making.

Paul sought to correct an exaggerated concept of the gift of “tongues” (languages). The relative importance of “tongues” (languages) appears in their being mentioned in only one of the assembly Epistles (I Cor. 12-14), and Corinth was the only assembly said to be fleshly (carnal in KJB) (I Cor. 3). In each of the lists of gifts, language is at the bottom, calling attention to its lesser importance. The gift of languages was not for all people (I Cor. 12:8-10, 30). Every reference to languages in I Corinthians 14:1-28 is compared unfavorably with prophecy. Paul warned those desiring languages of their impotence (14:21) and of their little or no benefit to the assembly (I Cor. 14:2, 4-6, 9, 16, 19, 22, 23, 28). The apostle’s highest commendation of the gift of languages was negative (I Cor. 14:39).

In the New Testament, miracles, wonders, and signs were given to confirm God’s word. Jesus Christ was confirmed by miracles, wonders, and signs: “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22 NASB). He promised the disciples that they and their message would be confirmed by signs: “And these signs will accompany [future active indicative of parakoloutheo] those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues [languages], they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17, 18 NASB). You are a believer. Do these signs follow you? Some promises of God are conditional, and others are unconditional. The unconditional promises are what God has predetermined to carry out His eternal purpose. The conditional promises are dependent on what recipients of grace do about the provisions God has made for us that we may be sanctified and grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord.

God’s promises are filled with “I will.” The “will” of Mark 16:17 denotes determination. When used with pronouns, other than “I” or “we,” it denotes command and determination in formal writing or speaking. In this instance, the speech of the Lord Jesus is under consideration. Christ was speaking primarily to His disciples. Signs were promised to the disciples to confirm the message: “And they [the disciples] went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them [the disciples] and confirmed the word by the signs [attesting miracles] that followed” (Mark 16:20 NASB). Believers today cannot claim the promise of these extraordinary signs. We have the complete message to which no one can add and from which no one can take.

Speaking in foreign languages that had not been learned was a sign to confirm the word in apostolic times. Languages must be evaluated by the objective standard of God’s word in its completed form (Jude 3). It is logical to assume that God would institute a miracle that men could not duplicate through human stimulation. Only one recorded miracle involved language and speech prior to Pentecost. Because of man’s sin, God gave men confusion of languages at the tower of Babel (Gen. 11). He changed the single speech and the one language of the world into many languages (Gen. 11:1-9). This was a change into foreign languages, not aesthetic utterances. God repeated the basic nature of that miracle at Pentecost. Christ outlined the future relationship of the Holy Spirit to the believer without any reference to languages in John 14-16.

Biblical glossolalia had its source in the sovereign God. The word glossolalia is made up of two Greek words—glossa, the physical organ, speech, or language, and laleo, to speak. The fifty occurrences of glossa in the New Testament are divided into six categories: (1) Fifteen refer to the organ of the body used to speak. (2) One speaks of the tongue of the rich man in Hades (Luke 16:24). (3) It is used once figuratively of tongues as of fire (Acts 2:3). (4) One contrasts speech with action (I John 3:18). (5) Seven times in Revelation it is connected with kindreds, people, nations, and multitudes to describe ethnic groups characterized by speaking certain foreign languages. (6) Twenty-five times it describes the actual phenomenon of the gift to speak in a foreign language. Interpretation of obscure passages must always be determined by connotations in clear passages.

The most dominant opinions of the interpretation of glossolalia are that (1) it consists of foreign languages by Christians and (2) it is aesthetic, subject to a state of ecstasy, overpowering emotion, or speeches correctly labeled by the supplied word, “unknown.” Those who think the italicized word “unknown” in I Corinthians 14 in the King James Bible is there for emphasis fail to see that it is a supplied word. As a consequence, many believe the word “unknown” is inspired. The notion that “tongues” (languages) were a kind of exciting gibberish is rationalistic. How ridiculous to think that Paul thanked God that he spoke more kinds of gibberish than all others (I Cor. 14:18). How can anyone interpret unintelligible gibberish?

History shows that the occurrence of the Charismatic glossolalia has been found in non-Christian religions. Non-Christian glossolalia has its source in Satan. Aesthetic speech is found among the Mohammedans. The Mormon’s seventh article of faith states that they believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc. Tongue and non-tongue speakers alike admit that the phenomenon can be Satanically, psychologically, and artificially produced. Some say that foreign languages are usually identified with the phenomenon in Acts, and aesthetic speech is brought out in I Corinthians 14. However, as mentioned earlier, glossa cannot refer to both foreign languages and some unknown or aesthetic utterance.

Balaam’s ass spoke in a tongue (Num. 22:28-30), but it was a language that could be both understood and interpreted. The burden of proof is on the modern tongue-speaker to show that Biblical glossolalia also includes unknown aesthetic utterances. Advocates of tongue-speaking agree that glossolalia first happened on the day of Pentecost. Languages were distributed like fire. They were spoken with an organ of speech. Languages were a supernatural gift of speaking in an untaught and unlearned language.

Our Lord told His disciples that they would be able to speak with “new tongues” (Mark 16:17). Christ used the word kainos instead of the synonym neos for “new.” If speaking in “tongues” had involved unknown languages never before spoken, Christ would have used neos, which means new in respect of time or what is recent. The “new tongues” are the “other tongues” of Acts 2:4—“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues [languages] as the Spirit was giving them utterance” (NASB). These languages were new and different to the ones speaking them. They were not new in the sense that they had never been heard or that they were new to the ones hearing them.

The disciples spoke with “other tongues,” not “new tongues.” There are two different Greek words for “other.” Allos expresses a numerical difference and denotes another of the same kind. Heteros expresses a qualitative difference and denotes another of a different kind. For example, Christ promised to send another (allos), one of the same kind, Comforter (John 14:16). Paul said he saw another (heteros) law, a law different from the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 7:23). He also spoke of a different (heteros) gospel from the one he preached, which is not another (allos) (Gal. 1:6, 7).