Tongues: a Gift of God Today?
A study on the use of tongues as taught in the King James
Bible.
Are tongues a gift today? Do we really want to
know the truth? Are we willing to obey our precious Lord
when we realize the truth? Let's get our Bibles and read
from God's Word. This study is an open Bible study and
will not work unless your Bible is open.
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter
times some shall depart the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils" (1 Timothy 4:1).
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1).
Greek: Strong's 1100
Greek: glossa Phonetic: gloce-seh'
Of uncertain affinity; the tongue; by implication, a
language (especially, one naturally unacquired): --tongue.
Strong's: 1258 Greek: dialektos Phonetic:
dee-al'-ek-tos
from 1256; a discourse, i.e. dialect; --language, tongue.
Throughout history ecstatic tongues have been
existing in various religions, but only in this century have
they been introduced and become popular in the
blood-bought church of Jesus Christ. Paul warned Timothy
of the perilous times the would come in the last days, the
time that we now live (2 Timothy 4:1). The word perilous
means demonic. These last days are to bring about an
outpouring of demonic workings such as never been seen.
There are people of heathen religions speaking in
tongues. Missionaries have reported natives from idol
worshiping countries speak in tongues. If tongues are
manifested by God to the Christian church, would they not
be limited to it?
Let's start from the first mention of tongues. It
might be interesting to note here that tongues as a sign or
gift is mentioned in only four of the 66 books of the Bible.
It is mentioned once in Isaiah as prophecy, once in Luke as
prophecy, and several times in Acts as fulfillment of
prophecy. The last mentions are in two chapters of 1
Corinthians as rebuke for the misuse of tongues.
Isaiah 28:11- The first and only time God referred
to "speaking in tongues" in the old testament, other than the
Tower of Babel, was in Isaiah. We know Isaiah was a
prophet and a prophet foretold the future. He preached
precisely what God said, and his prophesies were totally
fulfilled.
First we must understand the history of Ephraim.
Open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 28. Verse one tells to
whom the prophecy is about. Ephraim is the subject matter
of Isaiah's prophecy. They had become as a fading flower.
Doom is their future. They were out of God's will and God
was beginning to get weary of them rejecting him for false
idols.
"In that day" of Verse five refers to a coming day.
A day is coming when God will give Ephraim a final
chance. They will not heed to anything God says to them
(Sounds like today). He will converse with them as babies (
Vs.9). In Verse ten He tells them that he will have to teach
so simply that anyone could and should believe in the
Word of God.
Yet they still will not regard his words.
As a sign to the Jews that the day has come, he will
speak through his people in tongues as a last endeavor to
save Ephraim. They will hear the tongues (languages
unaquired naturally, but given by God through a usable
man), but they will not remember what the prophet Isaiah
said. They will still travel the ways of sin.
The prophecy was a sign for Ephraim only. This
means that it as a sign for Jews only. You will never find
tongues any where as a sign for the saved or the Gentiles.
You will find that Jesus, in addition, said that they
would speak in tongues in Mark 16:17 (Strong's 1100).
This, again, was to be a sign. The Devout (devoted)
Christians would speak in tongues after the Holy Spirit had
come, as a sign for the Jews.
Was this prophecy ever fulfilled or is it still being
fulfilled today?
Turn to Acts 2:4-18. (Strong's 1100)
On that day (Isaiah 28:5) of Pentecost the apostles
and 120 others were together in one place, in one accord.
(How often do you find that today?) They had been
praying for the Holy Ghost to come. Jesus had told them
they would have Power to be witnesses after the Holy
Ghost came. This holy power was sent so they could be
effective witnesses (Acts 1:8). The power was important
because in those days you died for being a Christian! They
knew the Holy ghost was coming because Isaiah and Jesus
had both prophesied it. Only those Jews who saw the sign
were likely to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, however,
most would not! IT WOULD ALSO BE GOOD TO NOTE
HERE, THAT TONGUES WERE ALWAYS A
LANGUAGE. It was never ecstatic gibberish.
In Jerusalem, gathered for the Passover feast at that
time, were devout Jewish men. These men were the finest
of Christians because they had traveled many miles to
participate in the Passover and fifty days later, Pentecost.
There were Jews of several nations (Acts 2:8-11) and
everyone spoke a different language. These Jews were not
living in Palestine, because through captivities and
persecutions they had been dispersed throughout the world.
Naturally they had not intended on hearing the gospel in
their own language. They were planning on sacrificing just
as they had every Pentecost. This year; however, God had
a surprise for them. The day Isaiah spoke of was here, and
the time had come for the Gentiles. The Jews were to have
one conclusive chance. Prophecy was about to be fulfilled.
But, again, many did not believe. So, we can
conclude here that tongues were given not only as a sign,
but also for propagation of the gospel.
The reference of tongues in Acts 2 is the first
mention of the use of tongues anywhere in the Bible.
In Acts 10:46, notice, whom was Peter speaking to?
Verse 45 tells us he was speaking to the circumcised.
These were the Jews. Who was doing the speaking? Peter,
a devout Christian. Because of this sign to the Jews, many
were saved.
Acts 19:6 Paul was introducing the gospel to the
Ephesians (Jews). They had heard of the prophecy of
Isaiah and Jesus, yet they had not received this power.
Upon their salvation they received the power and in Verse
seven we understand that it was men. Verse eight tells us
they began to speak boldly and Verse nine tells us some
still would not accept.
The misuse of tongues
We have already established that there was
definitely a gift of tongues at one time.
Tongues was a gift for three reasons:
1. To complete prophecy
2. To be a sign to the Jews
3. To have the gospel presented to the world allowing
those at Pentecost to hear it in their individual language
and then take it back to their lands.
Before we begin in the book of Corinthians, let's
again notice that there are sixty-six books in the whole
Bible. Four times are prophesying. The book of Acts
mentions tongues six times and all six of those times were
the fulfillment of the prophecies of the preceding two
books. The final book, 1 Corinthians, mentions tongues
twenty times.
One thing we fail to establish when we mention
those verses in Corinthians is the fact that Corinthians was
one of the first books, some say fourth and some scholars
say the sixth, written in New Testament. It was written
before the book of Romans and the book of Acts. It seems
incredible that if tongues were to persist they were never
mentioned in the later Epistles of Hebrews, Galations,
Timothy, Ephesians, and Philipians.
Corinthians was also written to carnal, baby
Christians. They were fighting (1:11), fornicating, full of
pride, and bringing reproach (5:1-3). Paul called them
carnal (3:1-4). Carnal means fleshly, lustful, or worldly.
He had to write this in his letter to them because
they were ignorant. In chapter twelve he is telling them,
yes, tongues is a gift for now. Yes, some will speak in
tongues. But you will notice that in verse ten tongues is the
last on the catalogue of gifts. Verse twenty-eight, again,
puts tongues at the bottom of the list.
These two lists are the early lists of gifts. God
changed these two lists of gifts after the tongues's prophecy
had been fulfilled. The second two lists are in Ephesians 4:
8-12 and Romans 12:4-8, which were written later.
Tongues are not mentioned in these later lists for a reason.
God considered the gift of tongues fulfilled and had
stopped them completely by the time the Bible was
completed.
Verse ten proves that not all will should speak
tongues. I am sure they were trying to persuade people
that all should. (Do they not do that today?)
So . . . Do people still have this gift today?
1 Corinthians chapter thirteen verse one says if you
do not have love, you are not speaking God's tongues. How
many people do you know today who really love?
Verse eight plainly tells us that tongues will be
done away with. When? Read verse ten, "When that
which is perfect is come" then tongues will be done away
with. What is the "THAT" this verse is speaking of? It
certainly can't be Jesus because Jesus is not a THAT! The
only thing perfect in this world is the Word of God (Psalms
19:7-11) (Revelation 22:18-19). When Paul received his
last Revelation from God Almighty, the written Word of
God was completed and sealed. It was reserved forever. It
is perfect, finished, faultless. All complete. All those
things performed in part for the propagation of the gospel
were done away with. Tongues was one of the things
accomplished in part. Therefore, tongues are now out of
order with God's Word.
Let's pretend that tongues are still in effect today.
Do the churches using the gift of tongues comply with the
rules? If they Tongues) are still in effect today, so would
be the following regulations:
1 Corinthians 14:
1. Are they being used as a fulfillment of prophecy?
(14:21)
2. Are men coming unto salvation? (14:22)
3. Are these Jews present? (Remember that God's hand has
passed from the Jew to the Gentile). (14:22)
4. Are there unlearned in the building? God said they will
think you are mad. (14:23)
5. Is it edifying (14:26) (The word edify means to build
up)? Are you building people up? I find that most tongues
speakers tear down others that do not believe in speaking in
tongues.
6. Can you interpret your own tongues? (14:13)
7. Are there ever more than three at a time speaking in
tongues? If there are more than three, it is a false doctrine.
They have disobeyed the Bible. They are false prophets.
God would never, ever go against what he has already
established in his word.
8. Are they speaking in succession? If they are speaking
at the same time, it is a false doctrine. Run, get out of it.
(14:27)
9. Is there an interpreter? (14:28) These tongues were
always languages someone could understand. Is there an
interpreter?
10. Are you confused? (14:33)
11. Are the women speaking in tongues in the church? If
the women are speaking in tongues then God lied in the
Bible. We might as well toss it out. God said,"No women
will speak in tongues! " If they do, that church is an
erroneous church. Any child can see that! Do not try to
modify the Word of God! There is never one instance or a
woman speaking in tongues.
Verse thirty-nine said to not forbid it. This is
provided they were following the rules of the Bible. God
did not want them to continue seeking after a sign. He told
them that there would come a day when there would be no
more signs, apart from the signs of the end times. (Matthew
12:38)
Every man that spoke in tongues was devout. This
is not your average tongue speaker today. A devout
Christian would not smoke, cuss, drink, lie, steal or gossip.
If they did these things they would not be considered
devout. Most tongue speakers now days are baby
Christians who do one or more of those things. If you can
watch a TV show with cussing or sex, you are NOT devout.
Therefore, you will not speak in tongues (True tongues of
God).
Tongues are not mentioned in the fruits of the spirit.
If the church you go to has disregarded even one
rule for tongues, it is not a genuine, truthful church. If you
examine it carefully, you will find that it has broken the
rules! And so have all the others across America.
There are no more signs except Jesus. Simple,
childlike faith is what saves. Asking and Receiving is
purely all we need today. My friend, Jesus never spoke in
tongues! Aren't we to try to be like our precious Savior?
Questions:
If tongues are not in effect today, please tell me
what I did?
Tongues can be faked because of spiritual pressure
or spiritual pride. When people feel they are not spiritual
to receive the gift, they usually fake to save face.
It is taught in many cases. My mother-n-law said
she got out of
the tongues movement when they tried to teach her to
speak in tongues.
They will have you to repeat words such as "praising God"
or "Jesus, fill me." Eventually you will get caught up in it
and speak in tongues.
Hyper-emotionalism; you became so caught up in
the emotion of it all that you just do it. Many people who
experienced tongues this way say they really don't
remember what happened. The Holy spirit is not a
seducing spirit. He will not take a person by force or take
over their senses, leaving them out of control. There are
seducing spirits, but they are not from God.
Satan; you saw it, you accepted it, Satan convinced
you it was all right. You let Satan make use of your mouth
to speak through you in tongues. Remember there is only
one gift Satan can't fake, raising the dead. Didn't we
believe Satan when he told us smoking was ok? Didn't we
believe Satan when he lied to us about alcohol, TV, music,
child discipline, and gluttony? How about the time we
believed it was ok to look at just one pornographic
magazine. And now we are trapped. Why couldn't Satan
lie to us about tongues if it could get our eyes off the truth.
Anyway, it doesn't matter what your body tells you
is right or wrong. Our emotions will lie to us. Our mind
will deceive us. Our bodies will lust for excitement. The
only thing that matters is THE WORD OF GOD!!! What
does God say? Not how do I feel. (We walk by faith not
by sight). The just shall live by faith. What is faith?
(Hebrew 11:1)
Why can't people just accept the simple truth of
God's salvation? If Jesus never spoke in tongues, then why
should we? All the tongues movement is doing is taking
people's eyes off Jesus' uncomplicated, simple plan of
salvation. God said even a child could be saved, yet how
many children speak in tongues? (II Timothy 3:15)
How many will miss salvation by grace through
faith because they've been told "You must speak in
tongues!"
Bibliography
KJ Bible
Multimedia Encyclopedia
Modern Day Tongues by Dennis Corle
Wilmington's Guide to the Bible
Strong's Concordance
The Pulpit Commentary
Matthew-Henry Commentary
and several tracts.
