Tongues

“They” say that Apostolic Pentecostals are wrong. “They” say that they Holy Ghost infilling isn’t for today, that it was only for the Apostles. “They” say that tongues are gone, that they’re not needed or used any more. “They” are the ones who are wrong. But don’t just take my word for it. (I doubt you would anyway.) I want to tell the arguments I’ve heard against the sign of tongues as the evidence of the infilling of the Holy Ghost, and show why they are wrong.

Tongues have “ceased.”

I heard this one from an older gentleman who had a dotted line to me back at GrimmerSchmidt. He had pledged a couple bucks to me for a church bike-a-thon, then balked when he found out that my church was Pentecostal. That led to a series of discussions about religion. And he was an expert. After all, he had started his own church, in a little garage, just across the road. He even had booklets made up, one of which he grudgingly gave me after I promised to actually read it. (I did.) His whole case rested on the following scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:8-10, “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”

He claimed that the finishing of the writing of the New Testament was the “perfect” that was to come, and that, since the “perfect” is here, tongues have been retired.

The problem with this interpretation is that verse 12 goes on to talk about seeing “face to face.” To me, it’s clear that the passage is talking about the second coming of Christ as that which is perfect. How can you talk about the finishing of the bible as being “face to face?” If this really referred to the close of the cannon, which is already complete, we would also have an end to prophecies, and that can’t be right because we still have unfulfilled prophecies. Prophecies were given to chart the course of church until the end times. When Jesus comes, there won’t be a need for them because we’ll have the embodiment of all knowledge dwelling among us. Only at the establishment of God’s kingdom on Earth will we no longer have need of any of these things. Until then, we need prophecy to give us direction. And if we must have the one, then the other two are necessary too…

Tongues were only given to the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Samaritans, and to each only once, in order to prove that God had opened salvation unto all peoples.

I heard this one from the minister of one of the biggest churches in Columbus. He was Susan’s minister while she was growing up, and she arranged for us to give a bible study to him and his wife. I was obviously a little intimidated. After all, I had just “gotten in church;” he was an extremely well-respected minister of a large congregation who had a theology degree and had spent years studying these things, no matter what side of the issue he favored. I don’t know if that threw me off, but I missed an obvious one here. As we studied, we looked at Acts 2, which shows the baptism of the Holy Ghost given to the Jews, Acts 8, which shows it being given to Samaritans, and Acts 10, which shows it being given to Gentiles. Now even way back then, I understood that the bible basically had three types of peoples: Jews, God’s people, Gentiles, the unwashed heathens, and Samaritans, which are a mix of both. So when he said that, it made some sense from a certain point of view.

The problem with his interpretation is that in Acts 19, the Holy Ghost is being poured out again on the Gentiles, this time in far-flung Corinth. The fact that the infilling of the Holy Ghost happens 4 times in the book of Acts ruins his theory. And, when you think about it, why would God stop with just 3 incidents, one for each “type” of people in the bible? Didn’t Acts 2:39 promise that this gift was “unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call?”

Tongues are a gift, and not every one will be given that gift.

I personally think that this is the single most difficult topic in the entire Bible. I fully understand the confusion that arises here. Luckily, I didn’t encounter this until after I had been filled with the Spirit, and, according to what I believe about the Spirit leading and guiding into all Truth, it quickly resolved itself. As stated in my study on the baptism of the Spirit, speaking in tongues was a sign associated with 3 of the 4 incidences of people being filled therewith. (And there was some kind of external evidence in the fourth.) But this initial evidence is different than the gift of speaking in tongues.

I have heard people take some of the scriptures in 1 Corinthians 14 out of context and say that tongues are useless, even as a gift. But doesn’t Paul say that a person who speaks in tongues edifies his own spirit, whether or not it edifies anyone else? Indeed he thanks God Himself that he speaks in tongues more than anyone else. So let’s settle this: speaking in tongues is a good thing.

All you need to do is believe and you’ll be saved; there’s nothing to this whole “tongues” thing anyway.

Instead of quoting scriptures to that effect right off, let’s start at a different place and work through those references. Please consider the following.

Revelation 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

If you just take this one scripture about what will send a person to Hell, you might say that a complete drunkard could make it to Heaven. But we know that’s not true. How?

Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Here again is a list of things that will keep a person out of Heaven. Notice that drunkenness is a sin listed here. If we would have stopped at the previous scripture, we wouldn’t have seen the whole picture. We need every scripture in the bible. They all apply to give complete Truth.

Romans 10:9-11, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”

There is no argument that this step of confession is part of salvation. However, the apostles did not stop there. Other scriptures in the bible talk only about baptism.

1 Peter 3:20-21, “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto [even] baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:”

Or about believing and baptism and not confession.

Mark 16:15-18, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

An in-depth study of God’s Word would show that all of these things are needed for salvation: God’s grace, our faith, confession, repentance, water baptism in the name of Jesus, spiritual baptism by the Holy Ghost, and steadfastness to the faith.