More About Tongues

1- Biblical Tongues are known world languages, and only known languages, as evidenced in and by Acts 2.

2- God used world tongues (unknown to the speaker and even most of times to hearers which needed interpretation), along with sign, wonders, and miracles to substantiate the proclamation of the gospel during the church's infancy and subsequent growth - Heb. 2: one of the first verses in that chapter.

3- Therefore, once the church got going, there is no more "dependant" need for such gifts in the same way they were needed in the first century.

4- God sovereignly grants Spirit-gifts (1 Cor. 12:8 I think). You never ask for a gift to receive. This verse alone should put an end to all unnecessary confusing teachings about tongues being ecstatic utterances. We can never ask for a gift since He distributes them to us as He wills. No one can "learn" how to speak in tongues. There are no steps or prayers of request that can be said to "receive it." We desire to have gifts, and nothing wrong with that, but that does not mean our desires will eventually match what God sovereignly bestows.

5- God can still use miracles, signs and tongues if and when He wanted to, even though it is clear that such gifts are not normative anymore. I mean, such gifts does not necessarily mean that they have fully stopped, but that they have stopped in the sense of not being as common as the other gifts. If they occur, they are rarities.

6- 1 Corinthians is the only place outside of the narratives of Acts where this gift is mentioned. These Corinthians were mostly carnal. Therefore, speaking in tongues was not necessarily a sign of spirituality as far as they were concerned, though Paul spoke too in tongues. Emotionalism should not to interpreted as spirituality.

7- Jude 1:20 does not mean you may pray in tongues. To do so is an exegetical violation of the text. It simply means to pray in line with the will and leading of the Spirit. Otherwise, if praying in the Holy Ghost were to mean praying in tongues as a private prayer language, then what does the command "walk in the Spirit" in Eph 5 mean? Walking in tongues?

8- Romans 8:26 is not a reference about praying in tongues since it is the Holy Spirit who is doing the intercessory praying on our behalf, and not us doing the praying. Then what about the "groanings which cannot be uttered?" Tongues are uttered!!!

9- There is no such a thing in the Bible as prayer in tongues being a private prayer language. 1 Cor. 14 does not teach anything like that, neither the preceding verses above in points 7 and 8.

10- We know Paul said it is better to speak 5 words in normal language than to speak 10,000 in tongues.

11- Human and angelic languages are known languages (1 Cor. 13:1). Please notice the use of the plural for both groups of beings. Keep also in mind that each time the angels spoke in the Bible, it was a known world language to the hearers.

12- Tongues were always at the foot of the gifts-list, as evidenced by Paul's writings.

13- Tongues as related to the Baptism of the Spirit were the sign of the Spirit's being officially received by different groups (Acts 2 Jews, 10 Gentiles, 19 OT saints - John's followers - who had not yet believed in Christ). In fact, in chapter 8, when the Spirit was inaugurated among the Samaritans (half-Jews, half-Gentiles), there no indication of speaking in tongues.

14- The Baptism of the Spirit is a deposit in the believer at the moment of salvation or else he is not Christ's (Rom. 8:9; Eph. 1:13-14). In 1 Cor. Paul mentions that we were all baptized in or by the Spirit - 12:13 I think. To teach otherwise is to bring in a teaching which divides believers into two categories, something foreign to scripture.

15- Tongues were meant for unbelievers only 1 Cor 14:22, spoken as a reminder of the coming condemnation if they do not believe, and meant for Jews especially, as foretold by Peter in Acts chapter 2:14-40 where he quotes from Joel 2:28-32 in the partial fulfillment of this prophecy at Pentecost. God used the tongues of different nations to rebuke in particular His own Jewish nation whose Messiah they had rejected, and to call them to repentance before the great judgment day of the Lord comes (Joel 2:31-32).

O.B