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Speaking in Tongues in the Bible

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Early in my ministry I found myself talking to a man who felt he was led by the Spirit because he spoke in tongues. However, it was not the Bible version of speaking in tongues, where “every man heard in his own language.” He was speaking things no one understood. He told me about a Pentecostal prayer meeting he recently attended, where he was “filled with the spirit,” spoke in tongues and ended up at a hotel with a lady he met at the meeting! I assured Him the Holy Spirit would not have led him to do such a thing. He would not listen to me. He was on an emotional high, going strictly by feelings.

This man was not the only one who put emotions and feelings above Scripture. Not long after, I began studying with three members of a 7th-day Pentecostal church in west Texas. They explained the wonderful emotions that overtakes them when speaking in tongues. Interestingly enough, I preached in their church a handful of times, but they never spoke in tongues while I was there. Still, for years, they put their emotions over Scripture, telling me they knew it was real because they felt it. I sure am glad Jesus did not put feelings above the Word of God, after fasting 40 days in the wilderness, when Satan questioned if He was really the Son of God. I am glad I don’t need to consult my emotions before the Scripture, when John tells me that when I confess my sins, God is faithful to forgive me. I can believe that God forgives even though I still feel terrible about what I have done. It took me several years of study and friendship before this trio were convicted and put God’s Word above their feelings and were baptized and joined my local Seventh-day Adventist Church.

What I find ironic, is how many people sincerely believe that a church has to speak in tongues in order to be spirit-filled, while at the same time scoffing at the Seventh-day Adventist Church for claiming to have the Spirit of Prophecy. However, we read in the book of Revelation that God’s “remnant” or last-day church will have the “Spirit of Prophecy,” as indicated in the texts below. (The gift of tongues is not specifically mentioned. )

And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.  Revelation 12:17 NKJV

the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Revelation 19:10 NKJV

Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1 NKJV

God’s last-day church has the Spirit of Prophecy, and the Spirit of prophecy is the gift the Bible tells us to pursue above all others, and not speaking in tongues. Why?

Because…

Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers but for those who believe. 1 Corinthians 14:22 NKJV

According to Acts 2:6 Biblical speaking in tongues is when people hear the gospel in their own language.

About ten years ago I heard a young lady preaching. She was a student at Southern Adventist university near Chattanooga Tennessee. She spoke of a mother she knew who was at a local park with her 6-year-old English-speaking daughter. The daughter met a little Spanish girl at the swings, and started talking to her about Jesus. The two little girls continued talking, and both of the girls’ mothers were amazed to hear them  speaking to each other, because the English girl only knew English and the Spanish girl only knew Spanish! God created a miracle so the little girl could hear about Jesus in her own language just like on the day of Pentecost. According to 1 Corinthians 14:22 speaking in tongues is for the unbelievers to hear the gospel in their own language. It is not for the believers in church, because they have already heard the gospel. That’s why they are there.

By contrast, prophesying is for those who already believe. This is very important to understand. We are not supposed to use the Spirit of Prophecy to convince unbelievers. The Testimonies for the church are directed to the church, not unbelievers. It was the same in Isaiah’s day.

Tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Isaiah 58:1 NKJV

Isaiah was given the Spirit of Prophecy to show the church its sins, not the world. The world is to be told there is a Savior, and then they can be instructed through the Spirit of Prophecy, not before. What that means to us today is that we need to be telling our neighbors that Jesus loves and died for them, and not that they need to stop eating cheese or drinking with their meals. But I digress…

So Biblical speaking in tongues is when someone hears the gospel in their own language. Speaking in tongues does not need to be used in the church. It needs to be used outside the church to share the gospel with unbelievers in their own language. When unbelievers accept the gospel and become believers, they are welcomed into the church, where the gift of prophecy is shared with them.

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Speaking in Tongues in the Bible — 9 Comments

  1. Pastor William 🙂

    We missed your article last week, but we were well fed by Lillianne Lopez's "And How Shall They Believe? - Wall Flower" article.

    After receiving The Holy Spirit on the 10th of May 2013, and subsequently getting married (for the 2nd time) this time under Christian rights (on the 2nd of June 2013) at my wife's original home in Bezuidenhout Valley, Johannesburg, South Africa, I then attended church (Kensington Community Forum) for the first time on the 9th of June 2013.

    A few weeks later, a pastor-in-training started using "tongues" during his sermon. So being a young Christian (and not even having read my Holy Bible as yet (my wife gave me a KJV version as a wedding present)), I stood up (much to the horror of my new wife) and I asked pastor Justin what : "Sa Ta Ta Ba Ba" meant (I repeated syllable for syllable what he had said) and waited patiently and silently for his answer to come.

    He could not answer me in a congregation of ~300 people. I looked around if anyone else to could. No one ventured an answer. An usher was then dispatched to ask me to politely sit down. Bewildered, I complied.

    I don't have the "gift of tongues" nor "interpretation of tongues" but I have learnt King Jesus' words in Matthew 6:12 KJV in 11 official languages of South Africa (which I use in my lay ministry to everyone that encounters me). I am yet to learn it in South African Sign Language though.

    "And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.", King Jesus in Matthew 6:12 KJV

    This is sufficient for me & for Him to use me as a conduit for others to come to have a relationship with Him.

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  2. Thank you for the timely message. I just struggled explaining the same to a friend last week. I couldn't put it this plainly. Now next. What is prophecy?

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    • I don't know if this answers your question about prophecy but this is my understanding. All prophecy points to Jesus no matter where it is found in the bible. It is the "testimony of Jesus" and is how we know that He was the messiah and is the Son of God. Hope this helps 🙂

      Revelation 19:9-10
      9And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. 10And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

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  3. Thank you William for differentiating between the two. It's my first time to hear that explanation. How I wish all brethren could hear this cause we sometimes schedule one week evangelistic campaigns for Daniel and revelation explaining prophecy to none believers.

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    • Hi Norma,

      It appears I may not have been clear enough and caused some confusion. The prophecies in Daniel and Revelation are very crucial in presenting Jesus to non believers. Especially Daniel 9 which I am sure Paul used when preaching Jesus. However Paul also pointed out sin to the church members and judged them differently than those without the church.

      " I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people. It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:11-13 NLT

      Just like Isaiah 58:1 says show my people their sins. The testimony of Jesus to sinners is their is a Savior. The testimony of Jesus to the church includes more instruction and pointing out sin. Yes people need to be made aware of their sin and need of a Savior before coming to Christ, but the more specific instruction from the Spirit of Prophecy is for more seasoned believers. For example we need to be telling people about Jesus dying for them before we tell them cheese is bad for you.

      The gift of tongues is to tell the unbeliever there is a Savior. The gift of prophecy is the extended instruction for those who now believe. But the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation help us to believe in Jesus..

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  4. Speaking in Tongues was prominent at the birth of the Church and its use is not diminished by the passage of time. The gift of Tongues has a described role in Church meetings, and its significance for the individual believer is amply demonstrated by the momentous timing of its introduction. Indeed, Paul the apostle, in the midst of instruction to a church that had ‘gone overboard’ in its use of speaking in tongues in public meetings, nevertheless made this statement:

    I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all – Paul the Apostle (1 Corinthians 14:18)

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    • "Tongues" also meant and means "languages." For instance, we still refer to our "mother tongue," that is our first language.

      That gift of languages was necessary to spread the Good News of salvation to the whole known world. I believe God granted the ability to speak not only their "mother tongue" accurately, but also other languages, to the apostles.

      To every genuine gift, the devil has a counterfeit, and that's the language-like gibberish known as "tongues" in modern churches. I taught for 8 years in a school run by a church that believed in speaking in tongues, and I had occasion to observe the phenomenon. Most "tongues speaking" was in unintelligible language-like syllables, with the intonations and rhythm of the English language. I remember one boy saying actual English syllables and words in the same manner.(I'm fairly certain that "tongues" would have different intonations and rhythms in German or in Chinese.) This sounds exactly the same as the "tongues" demonstrated in any occult/psychic/paranormal fair. (I don't recommend going to such. I got my information second-hand from the principal of the school where I was teaching.) It was also practiced by the famous "oracles" of Delphi, on the slopes of Parnassus. It is clearly not an exclusively Christian phenomenon.

      Granted, I'm not altogether sure what Paul is talking about in 1 Cor. 14:18-19. But I know of a number of instances where God supplied the gift of "tongues" or the gift of "understanding" - cases where the truth was preached in one language and perfectly understood by speakers of another language. I have read accounts of people given the gift of learning a language extraordinarily fast, as well as of one instance where a woman was given the gift of reading because she wanted to read the Bible. God answered her prayer by giving her that gift, with perfect understanding, while she was unable to read anything else. God is still able to give us what we need to fulfill His mission, and William just told the story of two little girls being given that gift to talk about Jesus!

      Our Lord still gives gifts to those who want to fulfill His mission to this planet. The Bible makes clear that His charismatic gifts are given to different individuals, according to need, and those churches who teach that the gift of tongues is always given with the baptism of the Holy Spirit open themselves up to being controlled by the spirit of the arch enemy of Christ.

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      • Hello, I was wondering how you could say something like this “To every genuine gift, the devil has a counterfeit, and that's the language-like gibberish known as "tongues" in modern churches.”Referring to tongues that you can’t understand when 1 Corinthians 14:2 literally states “2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.“ yes I understand some people who really want to speak in other tongues may pretend to but if you are Bible believer you simply cannot say just because you don’t understand a word they said it’s not biblical tongues as we see in the above passage.

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