Before I start, let me clarify my motives. I am not writing this to discredit anyone’s beliefs. I have two motives: Truth and Unity. Speaking in tongues is a doctrine that has been incredibly divisive to the Church over the past century; our unity has gone to the wind. Have we gotten so disconnected from the spirit of Christ whose last prayer for the Church was that we would be completely unified? I believe that the remedy for this disunity is a love for Truth. Can we value Truth and Unity more than our petty beliefs, seeking Truth together and allowing it to transform us into God’s likeness—his oneness? Truth is out there, I believe, if we will only examine the biblical text and think critically about it. (If the Truth is too mysterious, if it is out of our mind’s grasp to yet know, it is unessential, and not worth being divided over.) So, as I said, I do not want to discredit anyone’s beliefs. But if Truth discredits them, so be it. It is not acceptable for us to promote a belief that has no scriptural or logical basis, allowing it to divide Christ’s Body. If we truly love Christ, we will want to heal the brokenness of his Body and the pain that must result for Him.
If we are going to understand what speaking in tongues truly is, we must set aside all of our preconceptions. Go ahead. Do it. Wash your mind of all you’ve ever thought or believed about tongues. We cannot interpret the biblical text in light of our cultural experiences; instead, we must interpret our cultural experiences in light of the biblical text. Forgive me for dumbing this down, but I had to do so in order to understand it myself; so if you can, imagine what it must have been like to be one of disciples at the time of the beginning of Acts. You’ve just experienced something extraordinary and transformative, witnessing the death and resurrection of God-in-Flesh, the Messiah—though his Messiah-ness looked nothing like what you expected. Instead of coming to transform the world, it seems that the Messiah came to empower you to transform the world. Before he mysteriously disappears into the sky (ever seen someone fly before?), he tells you to wait in Jerusalem until you receive the promised gift, which you remember is the Holy Spirit—whatever that is. There will be a new baptism—not John’s baptism of water, but the Spirit’s baptism of wind and fire. Beautiful concept, you think, but weird—and it sounds painful. You’re still wondering when the Messiah is going to establish his promised kingdom (you’ve forgotten that he already told you that it was at hand, ready to be reached out and grasped onto), so you ask. He says that it’s not for you to know, but that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1.8, Today’s New International Version). And then he disappears into the sky. “Awesome timing, Jesus,” you think. “I kind of had one or two questions . . . the main one being how in the heck are we supposed to tell everyone to the ends of the earth about your kingdom when we don’t even speak their languages?” But you remember the word he spoke: dynamis. You will receive dynamis to do these things. You know that it means “power” or “ability.” So you trust him; you go to Jerusalem, and you wait.
You wait, and you wait, and you wait. When the time finally came, it had been about seven weeks—forty-nine days—since the Passover festival dinner you ate with Jesus. You’ve been meditating about that dinner, thinking about how Jesus was like the lamb that the original Israelites had slain, putting its blood over the doorposts so that death would pass them over. Your mind reels at this. Was that just a picture, you wonder? A symbol that we didn’t yet understand? Mind-boggling. Something only the Author of Salvation could have conjured up. During the forty-nine days since then, you have been observing the Counting of the Omer, diligently counting each of the forty-nine days—awaiting the fiftieth day—until the festival of Shavuot, or Pentecost, the harvest festival that you hold in remembrance of the giving of the Torah. You feel a mounting desire for God during this counting, preparing your spirit in anticipation for the fiftieth day. You begin to wonder if maybe something special will happen on this fiftieth day. Maybe God’s new way, his new “law” and grace, will be given; you remember that Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be given as a new Advocate for you. You ponder the fact that Pentecost is a festival of harvest. You remember Jesus’ symbolic teachings about the harvest, saying things like, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matt. 9.37). Your spirit swells as you wonder if this will be the culmination of all God’s work throughout history, his harvest, and if you are one of the workers that he is sending out to sweat and toil so that the harvest will be accomplished, God’s storehouses made full. Is it possible that this is the beginning of the end of God’s redemption history—that all of his thousands of years of tears and blood will have paid off, his purpose accomplished, humanity redeemed to him, finally? The fiftieth day comes, and your spirit is burning within you. You pray to God to give you the dynamis—the ability—to accomplish this.
When Pentecost comes, you are with the other eleven disciples in a house. You had been talking and meditating for hours, wondering aloud if today could be the day—and what it would mean if it was. In the middle of your conversation, a violent pneuma, a Spirit or a wind like a hurricane, suddenly enters the room and floods over you. Knocked back, you barely have time to catch your lost breath when fire like tongues comes and rests on each of your own tongues. Pain overwhelming you, you remember John the Baptists words: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3.11). Wind and fire. When the pain subsides, you feel different, empowered, as though you had been washed in the wind and refined by the fire. In your mind, you know that everything has changed, that the New Covenant, the New Torah, is fully upon you. The harvest has begun—you are sure—but you still wonder what your new ability will look like.
Behind you, you hear a strange language that you do not understand. Everyone spins around to face the speaker; you are shocked to see that it is your fellow disciple. Everyone begins to speak at once—and all in different, strange languages. Your mind reels to make sense of this, but all you can think about is the Tower of Babel. “Is God scattering us again?” you wonder. “Have we overstepped our bounds somehow?” You begin to feel frightened and distressed, and you hear a similar distress in the voices of your friends—but still you cannot understand a word they are saying. As all of you wander outside, people begin to crowd around you—foreigners. They look at each other and at you with a strange mixture of confusion and understanding. The crowd increases, and they begin murmuring amongst themselves in their own languages. You even think you make out a language that sounds like the one you are speaking. Finally, someone who speaks your native language comes up to you and asks, confused, “Aren’t all of you Galileans?” You open your mouth to answer and are relieved to hear your own language come out: “Yes. We are.” “How is it possible that you are speaking my native language?” he asks. You try to reason out how to explain something to him that you don’t fully understand yourself. Before you can, Peter rises to speak. As he speaks, explaining what these strange occurrences mean, you begin to think to yourself. You think of the word dynamis. Ability. Power. “But you will receive dynamis when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” You understand now. Could it be any simpler? You now have the words to explain the Kingdom of Heaven to anyone in the world. But you sense that there is more than that, that other challenges will come up—perhaps even bigger ones than language—but you have confidence that the Holy Spirit will give you the dynamis to deal with those dilemmas as well. As Peter ends his address, you see people following him to be baptized—thousands of them, from every nation on earth. You think again about Babel, and you understand. What you just experienced was a healing of Babel, a redeeming. The scattered nations are coming together to build the Kingdom of God.
There are several points that we must note from this beautiful story. First of all, speaking in tongues has a very clearly defined purpose. It is to express Truth to those who do not speak your language. It is a symbol that the entire world is now welcome to participate in God’s redemption history. That’s it. At this point in our exploration of tongues, there is no reason to assume that speaking in tongues has any other purpose. There is no indication of anything like “a prayer language” or “an angelic tongue.” (Anyway, why would we need to express Truth to angels?) From what we now know, speaking in tongues is nothing other than an ability (dynamis) given to communicate the Gospel to those who speak another language. What else would we expect the purpose of speaking in other languages to be? What else would we want it to be?
There are five other instances in Acts when someone is directly filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4.31, 8.17, 9.17, 10.44, and 19.6), four more where it is noted that someone is “filled” or “full” of the Holy Spirit, giving them power to do something (Acts 4.8, 7.55, 13.9, and 13.52), and two others that mention being “full of the Holy Spirit” as a characteristic of a leader (Acts 6.5 and 11.24). Only two of all eleven of these (Acts 10.44 and 19.6) mention tongues, and neither of these stories gives any indication at all that speaking in tongues is anything other than speaking in a different, human language for a direct purpose. Still, the question of whether speaking in tongues is always the “initial evidence” of being baptized in the Holy Spirit remains. This question is difficult to answer when certain preconceptions still linger in our minds. We still wonder if maybe it is possible that there is a time when speaking in tongues is a personal “prayer language.” And we make the mistake of superimposing our current experiences of tongues in the modern charismatic church over the biblical text, obscuring what is really happening. To correct these problems, we must first turn to 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, where Paul directly addresses the ways in which the Corinthian church is misunderstanding and misusing the gift of tongues.
To be honest, this is the part that, before last night, has always given me the hardest time. In my mind, it seemed like two very different things were going on in Acts and Corinthians. It seemed as though speaking in tongues consisted of real, human languages in Acts—but then there was a shift, and there was something mystical and strange taking place in Corinthians. Prayer languages? Angelic tongues? These are the explanations I’ve always heard in Pentecostal churches—but there is a problem with our interpretation of this text. It is the one I pointed out at the beginning of this essay: We cannot interpret the biblical text in light of our cultural experiences; instead, we must interpret our cultural experiences in light of the biblical text. When I remembered this and read 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 in this light, I discovered that Paul could not explain speaking in tongues any more coherently than he does here. He dumbs it down to the point where it is painful. When I realized this, I was incredibly ashamed; I had read this passage countless times, but my vision had been obscured. No matter how hard I tried, my cultural experiences inhibited me from making sense of this incredibly coherent text. But through my shame, I could not stop laughing hysterically. I felt as though I was losing my sanity—or, more accurately, that I had finally regained it.
In chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, Paul discusses spiritual gifts and how each member of the Church—each limb of the body—is given a different “manifestation of the Spirit . . . for the common good” (12.7). In Greek, the word for “gifts” is “charisma,” which comes from the word “char,” meaning “grace.” Spiritual gifts, then, are outpourings of the grace given to you. It is, beautifully, a gift that you receive and then give to someone else. In verses 8 through 10, Paul lists several snapshots of what these gifts could look like—including “speaking in different kinds of tongues” and “the interpretation of tongues” (12.10). Paul points out that “all these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines” (12.11, emphasis added). I think that it is important to note that God is the determiner of which gift is appropriate for which person. As is pointed out later, not all people will speak in tongues. “Do all speak in tongues?” Paul asks, implying a definite no (12.30). If this is the case, why do we insist that—actually—everyone who is baptized in the Holy Spirit will speak in tongues as initial evidence? What about the people that prophesy, yet do not speak in tongues? Those who heal? Those who teach? Aren’t these people also baptized in the Holy Spirit? If everyone had to speak in tongues at least once when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, wouldn’t Paul make this clarification? Or was it merely common sense? “Do all speak in tongues?”
At the end of chapter 12, Paul lists a very clear hierarchy of spiritual gifts. At the top of the pyramid are apostles, messengers of the Kingdom of Heaven who came in direct contact with Jesus. Second in line are the prophets, those carrying on the legacy of passionate, strange, and challenging men such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Jesus. Third are teachers, those who, as the Strong’s Concordance has it, “provide information in a manner intended to produce understanding.” Fourth are those who work “miracles.” Guess what the Greek word for “miracles” is. Dynamis. The power. The ability. The miracle. This, then, tells us that dynamis can look like many different things; in no way is it bound in the early Christian’s mind to speaking in tongues. Fifth are those who heal, freeing people from sicknesses and afflictions. Sixth are those who “help.” This is my favorite one. The Greek word that Paul uses here is “antilempsis.” It is unique, used nowhere else in the Bible. Perhaps Paul even coined it, as he has been known to do. According to the Strong’s Concordance, it is a combination of two other Greek words: “anti” and “lambano.” We all know what “anti” means. “Lambano” means “to take or receive.” The word literally means “instead of receiving.” Helping is the anti-receiving. Beautiful. Seventh in line are the guiders. This is often understood as meaning those with a knack for administrative positions. The Greek word here is “kybernesis,” also unique to the biblical text. It is derived from the word “kybernetes.” “Kybernetes” are sea captains. The picture that Paul is providing is of one who steers a ship. (Who doesn’t want to be a sea captain?) Eighth, coming in dead last—but still a beautiful and legitimate gift—are those who speak in “different kinds of tongues.” Here is the revelatory moment. What does Paul mean here by “different kinds of tongues?” Is he still talking about genuinely human languages, as Luke did in Acts? Or has the gift somehow evolved into something including “prayer languages” and “angelic tongues?” The phrase “different kinds” of “tongues” (also used in 12.10) translates into the Greek as “genos” of “glossa.” “Glossa” either refers to an anatomical tongue or, as is the case here, to a language. But what kind of language? Genos clarifies; it is defined by the Strong’s Concordance as “family, offspring; nation, people, native (of a region); classification or kind.” A sound interpretation of “genos” of “glossa,” then, is that the one who receives this gift is speaking in languages of different nations. They are “genetic” languages, according to Paul—and nothing more.
Paul wraps up chapter 12 by encouraging the Corinthian church to “eagerly desire the greater gifts” (12.31). We now know what the greater gifts are, for Paul has given us a very clear hierarchy. The highest one we can aspire to is prophecy; the lowest, tongues. Then, after going through all the trouble of making this hierarchy clear, Paul supersedes everything, saying, “And yet I will show you the most excellent way” (12.31). Keep in mind that the Greek word for “excellent” is “hyperbole.” We have a pun here. We now know that Paul is about to show us a way that is, as the Strong’s Concordance has it, “all-surpassing, surpassingly great, most excellent, beyond measure.” We also know that he is going to use some extravagant overstatements. He is about to show us the way of hyperbole. This is important to remember as we try to understand the first verse of chapter 13: “If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” Is Paul really suggesting that we can (or should) speak in “angelic tongues?” No! It is a blatant overstatement. It is hyperbole. The point here is love, not tongues of any sort. In order to make the point that love is all-surpassing, Paul is showing here that, even if someone could speak in every human language—heck, even if they could speak in every angelic language!—it would be worthless if it lacked love. In the following verses, is Paul literally suggesting that prophets “can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge” (13.2, emphasis added)? No! That is ludicrous. Any prophet would laugh out loud at Paul’s blatant hyperbole. Can someone literally have “faith that can move mountains” (13.2)? No. This is all hyperbole, as Paul warned that it would be. Can someone literally speak in “angelic tongues?” No. I believe that it is a horrendous misinterpretation of the biblical text to assume so—especially since nowhere else in the Bible are “angelic tongues” even hinted at. If this was possible, people would be talking about it! Talking to the angels about it, nonetheless!
The bottom line is this: love is the point. All spiritual gifts are to be an outpouring of love. They are not for ourselves. They are for others. We are given these gifts so that we can give them in return. Using them for ourselves is nothing but selfishness. Chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, which we are about to dive into, expands upon this. Are you ready? I’m going to let Paul speak for himself, while adding some notes in brackets, because there is no way that I can make it any more coherent then he does. Remember to put all of your preconceptions away, especially those that have no scriptural basis up to this point. Tongues are, remember, a real, human language intended for communication. In order to emphasize this, I am going to replace “speaking in tongues” with “speaking German” in my discussion of the text. This is not to be jokey; it is merely for clarity. I am assuming that you can not root out your preconceptions any better than I could. Clarity is a must, so speaking German it is. Ready? I hope that this is less painful for you than it was for me, but just as hilarious.
Paul says, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. For those who [speak German] do not speak to other people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them [Because they don’t speak German! The only one who speaks German in the room is God! Remember that Paul is speaking in the context of Church meetings.]; they utter mysteries [secrets, things that are not understood] by the Spirit. But those who prophesy speak to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort. Those who [speak German] edify themselves, but those who prophesy edify the church. [“Edify” means to build up. We have a problem here: somehow, we have misinterpreted this verse to mean that speaking in tongues—as a personal “prayer language” that is nowhere supported in the biblical text—in order to build oneself up is acceptable, and even good. It is not. According to the Bible, there is no such thing as a personal prayer language. And, in light of what we have just read, spiritual gifts are for giving; they are for love—and not love of oneself. In 1 Corinthians 8:1, Paul says, “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up.” Paul is not saying, “Well, I guess you can speak in tongues sometimes to build yourself up, but prophesy other times to build others up.” A more accurate understanding, I believe, is that he is saying, “Quit puffing yourself up! Nobody understands what you are saying! You are only doing this to feel ‘holy’ and ‘spiritual.’ Stop it! The point is love. Prophecy is the better way!” Not once in Scripture are we told to edify ourselves. We are to edify others. We are taught emphatically to edify the church.] I would like every one of you to [speak German], but I would rather have you prophesy. Those who prophesy are greater than those who [speak German], unless they interpret, so that the church may be edified. [Paul would like every one of us to speak in tongues—but it must be in the right context. That context, as we know, is a context of communication. Either it must be directed towards someone who speaks a different language, or it must be interpreted.]
“Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and [speak German], what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction. [Brace yourself for what is to come.] Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? [Ouch.] Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? [Double ouch.] Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. [Unbelievable ouch. Can you believe how much he is dumbing this down? And I needed him to.] Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. [Speaking in tongues is speaking in one of these languages of “the world.” It has meaning. It has a real, human translation. If a German translator was in the room, he would know exactly what the German tongues-speaker was saying. Here’s the rub: many linguists have been in the room when Pentecostals have been speaking in tongues, and way too often, they had no idea what the people were saying. Worse, they could not even classify it as a real language.] If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. So it is with you. [Paul’s tone is blatant: he is saying that this is completely unacceptable. There are no “foreigners” in the kingdom of heaven. All are of one Nation, and one King.] Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.
“For this reason those who [speak German] should pray that they may interpret what they say. For if I pray [in German], my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. [This statement is thoroughly negative. It does not say that the spirit is fruitful, as some have inferred. It says only that the mind is unfruitful—if that is the case, this sort of prayer is not helpful at all.] So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. [He will pray or sing with both his spirit and his understanding—at the same time. The KJV and other translations make this clearer by replacing “but” with “and.” Interpretation is always a must when speaking in tongues to someone who does not speak another language. Understanding is a must.] Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can the others, who are now put in the same situation as an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? You are giving thanks well enough, but the others are not edified. [Speaking in tongues when no one else can understand alienates your fellow believers, making them like an “inquirer,” someone who comes into a Church meeting who does not believe but would like to see what is going on. This is not acceptable. Edification is a must.]
“I thank God that I speak [German] more than all of you. [Of course he does! He is constantly out ministering to people, spreading the Kingdom of Heaven—often to people who do not speak in his language. Tongues must have been an essential dynamis for him.] But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. [I’m not sure if I can clarify this any more. Paul has little, if any, desire to speak in tongues in a church setting, where everyone speaks the same language.]
“Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. [That hurt me.] In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. In the Law it is written: ‘With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.’ [Their deafness and misunderstanding has caused the Corinthian church to think like children. When God’s people—the Jews—would not listen to him, God opened the door to Gentiles. Now Gentiles are speaking the Truth of God to Jews in Gentile languages. And still some Jews do not believe. This is how the Corinthian church is acting.]
“[Speaking German], then, [is] a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers. [Of course! Tongues, in its purest form, is communication to unbelievers who do not speak the tongues-speaker’s native language. On the other hand, prophecy is, in the Old Testament, almost always directed towards God’s people. One exception that comes to mind is when Jonah prophesies to Ninevah. Paul is also likely commenting on the passage he just quoted from Isaiah 28. Tongues, then, are also a sign towards those who do not believe that the Gospel is for Gentiles as well as Jews. Now God’s Truth is being spoken in all languages, so that no one can deny that the Gospel is for everyone. The best example of how this works is with Peter and Cornelius, as we will see later.] So if the whole church comes together and everyone [speaks German], and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will not they say that you are out of your mind? [Can you imagine? All of that babbling and absolutely no communication.] But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. [The KJV translates this as, “he is convinced of all, he is judged of all.” It is not the Church members that are judging; what Paul is saying is that the unbeliever is judged by what he understands. There is communication happening here. Powerful communication.] So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!’ [What a powerful difference between the effect of speaking in tongues and of prophesying! Is there any doubt what Paul wished the Corinthians would do?]
“What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. [How beautiful to bring a different language into the church! Every time someone does so in our Church meetings, it should remind us of the vastness of the Kingdom of Heaven; it should center us; it should change our focus from a selfish one to one compelled to ever-outward action. But if it is really the gift of speaking in tongues, that tongue will be a real, human language. And there must be an interpretation. From 1 Corinthians 14:13, we are to understand that the weight of interpreting rests on the person who brings the tongue into the Church—unless, I suppose, they can be certain that someone else can and will translate (1 Cor. 14.28).] Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. [Everything. That excludes the things that are done so that one’s self is built up.] If anyone [speaks German], two—or at most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church; let them speak to themselves and to God. [We need to understand that tongues were out of control in this Church. Paul’s intention is to bring things back into order. He seems to believe that God would not give any more than three—and probably no more than two—people a genuine message in tongues in one Church meeting. Note that, by saying, “let them speak to themselves and to God,” he is not suggesting that one should pray to God in their “personal prayer language.” He is merely saying that that person should keep quiet, thinking silently to himself and praying silently to God. Concerning a “personal prayer language:” If communicating in another language to people that all speak your language is questionable, how ridiculous would it be to speak in another language when you and God are the only ones in the room?]
“Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to a person who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. [How beautifully holistic! What if our Church meetings looked like this, with everyone having their needs met by others?] The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. [You are in control of the spirit that allows you to prophesy. It is probably safe to say that the same is true of speaking in tongues.] For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. [This is essential to get. God is not a God of disorder. Order is a must. Peace is a must. Babbling in languages that do not exist is simply not acceptable.] . . . [I’m going to skip the short passage on women, since that is a wholly different can of worms—other than the fact that the women in the Corinthian church were causing disorder, so something had to be done about it.]
“Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If any think they are prophets or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. Those who ignore this will themselves be ignored. [Basically, quit being arrogant and puffed up. Things are bigger than just you. Spiritual gifts are not for you. They are for you to give. Love is the point. Paul is emphatic that he is telling them the solemn truth. The KJV translates the last verse, “But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.”]
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid [speaking German]. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. [This is the bottom line: Everyone should be eager to give the gift of prophesying. Everyone must also follow the guidelines Paul has provided concerning speaking in tongues, so that everything is done—as the KJV puts it—“decently and in order,” but nobody should take those guidelines any further; tongues must not be forbidden. They are a beautiful and legitimate gift of God to give to others, if that gift is given in the right context—a context that makes sense.]”
Phew. Paul is exhaustive—and then I go and add to him! I believe that there are three things that we absolutely must take to heart about speaking in tongues from this chapter. First, understanding is absolutely necessary. Tongues are meant for communication. If there is no one who understands the language you are speaking, or if there is no one to translate, speaking in other languages should not be done. Therefore, we can know for sure that, in the stories from Acts that we are about to turn to concerning tongues, true communication must be taking place. Second, someone must be edified by your tongues, and that person should not be yourself. I can’t say this enough: Love is the point. Therefore, we can know for sure that, in the stories from Acts, there is a point to the speaking in tongues, and edification is that point. Third, tongues must be used in an orderly fashion. If they are not orderly, they are not of God, “for God is not a God of disorder.” Therefore, we can know for sure that, in these next stories from Acts, the speaking in tongues happens in an orderly fashion; it is not chaotic. With that said, let us turn to our last two stories.
The first story takes place in Acts 10. Up to this point, only Jews have been added to the Kingdom of Heaven and baptized in the Holy Spirit. That is about to change. Cornelius, a Gentile, has a vision in which an angel commends him for his gifts to the poor and tells him to call for Peter. The angel tells Cornelius exactly where to find Peter. While Cornelius’s messengers are traveling to meet Peter, Peter has a vision that symbolically prepares him for the inclusion of Gentiles into the Kingdom of Heaven. Three times, a voice tells Peter, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (Acts 10.15). Immediately following this vision, Cornelius’s messengers arrive and take him to Cornelius’s house, where Peter asks Cornelius why he sent for him. When Cornelius tells him, Peter responds, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts those from every nation who fear him and do what is right” (10.34). Peter then confirms, as a witness, the Gospel that Cornelius has heard. As he is doing that, “the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.”
What is happening here? Is this evidence that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? By no means! As I mentioned earlier, there are many other stories of people being baptized with the Holy Spirit, at least four of which were for the first time. If speaking in tongues were essential to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, why would only two of these stories mention tongues at all? Wouldn’t Luke have been clearer as a writer about something so essential? Anyway, why would God cause everyone who is baptized in his Spirit to speak in tongues—even when there is absolutely no purpose? Remember the three essentials: understanding, edification, and order. In the story of Cornelius, we can be confident of these things. First, we can know that something was communicated with those tongues. If nothing else, this is that Gentiles can be baptized in the Holy Spirit as well. An obvious, outward sign was essential in this case so that there would be no doubt in any mind that the baptism is for everyone. As Peter says in the next chapter, explaining what happened to doubters, “the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning” (Acts 11.15). Pay careful attention to what he says here. He does not say, “The Holy Spirit came on them as he has come on everyone who has been baptized in the Holy Spirit.” At least two times between Pentecost and the events at Cornelius’s house, people have been baptized with the Holy Spirit for the first time. It is not a logical inference that these people spoke in tongues as well. It is, at best, a logical leap, one that must ignore Peter’s above-cited words. Second, we can know that someone was edified by the speaking in tongues. In this story, the entire Church was edified, as all believers now have evidence of the Truth that the Gospel is for everyone, both Jew and Gentile. This is quite possibly one of the best edifications ever. Third, we know that what happened at Cornelius’s house was orderly. We need to be careful not to superimpose any chaotic “Pentecostal” experiences we may have had over the biblical text. “For God is not a God of disorder.”
Finally, we turn to Acts 19. In this story, Paul runs across some disciples in Ephesus. (Speaking of Paul, it is interesting to note that there is absolutely no evidence that Paul spoke in tongues when he was baptized with the Holy Spirit in Acts 9.) In speaking with them, he discovers that they did not “receive the Holy Spirit when [they] believed” (Acts 19.2). In fact, they had no idea that there even was a Holy Spirit! They had received “John’s baptism,” a baptism, Paul notes, “of repentance”—and a baptism that is only preliminary, foreshadowing what was to come (Acts 19.4). When they heard this, they immediately were baptized in water “in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 19.5). After this, Paul laid hands on them (an action that, in the Old Testament, confers both a blessing and a responsibility), and “the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues, and prophesied” (Acts 19.6). First, we need to note that they both spoke in tongues and prophesied, both of which are communicatory and were surely aimed towards others (We can know this from our study of 1 Corinthians 12-14). This leads one to wonder: did all speak in tongues first and then prophesy? Or did some prophesy first and then speak in tongues? Did some not speak in tongues at all? I suppose one could assume the first, but this assumption is no more legitimate than the other two, especially since we have no compelling (or even adequate) reason at this point to believe that someone must speak in tongues when they are baptized in the Holy Spirit for the first time (and since this is the last point in the Bible that we haven’t discussed yet to mention speaking in tongues, the “initial evidence” argument is, I think, looking more than a little shaky. Not that one can’t still believe that if they so desire. They can. But it is only a belief, not Truth, and it is—unless there is compelling evidence to the contrary that I am completely missing—an unfounded belief). So, in conclusion, let us apply the three essentials to this story. First, we know that there is understanding happening here. They must be speaking in tongues to someone who speaks another language, or there must be a translation. Second, there must be someone who is edified in this story. This could possibly be other disciples present, if there is a translation—but since interpretation isn’t introduced to our knowledge until 1 Corinthians as a response to the chaos of that congregation, this doesn’t seem all that likely. More likely, they are actually edifying people who speak different languages and could be edified in no other way. (I think it is important to note that we do not know that they spoke in tongues and prophesied instantaneously after Paul laid his hands on them. It is just as likely that they were baptized with the Spirit when Paul laid their hands on them, and then they went out and spoke in tongues and prophesied later to other people. Paul would have been a witness of this since he stayed with these disciples for three months.) Third, the speaking in tongues must have been orderly. Again, this likely looked little (if any) like what the modern Pentecostal thinks of when she or he thinks of speaking in tongues. It was a real, human language, spoken coherently for the purpose of communication and edification.
With all this said, we must reexamine our beliefs in light of the biblical text. As I started this essay by saying, it is not acceptable for us to promote a belief that has no scriptural or logical basis, allowing it to divide Christ’s Body. I may or may not have come to exactly the right conclusions in my search for Truth. If you see an error in my reasoning or have other evidence that would contradict my conclusions, please continue the conversation with me. But please take what I have said into consideration. I say none of it lightly, and I say all of it in the hope that it will bring Christ’s Body further into the light of the Truth. I say all of it in the hope that it will serve to restore some Unity to the Body. At this point in our history, we have divided into so many sects that I fear little is left of us but a dismembered corpse. Only Truth can set us free. What do I think should happen in light of the Truth concerning speaking in tongues? First, I believe that we must provide sound teaching on the topic, teaching that is based firmly on good scriptural interpretation—an interpretation that places the biblical text before our cultural experiences. Second, I believe that we must change the way we handle tongues in our churches. We must strive to root out any more instances of “speaking in tongues” when that tongue is not a real, human language. There is absolutely no scriptural support for such “tongues.” This cheapens a beautiful and genuine spiritual gift. We must strive to understand the purpose of spiritual gifts: to be given. We must strive to get rid of selfish uses of this powerful gift. There is absolutely no scriptural support for a “personal prayer language.” There is absolutely no scriptural support for speaking in tongues in a context where the language will not be understood and edify. Love is the point, the sole purpose for spiritual gifts. Third and finally, we must perform ardent searches for Truth in all of our deeply held beliefs—no matter how certain we are of them. God only knows how many unfounded beliefs we hold and how these serve to divide His body. God only knows, and I’m sure He must be frustrated—and he probably weeps. Christ’s final prayer, likely the one he bled over, was for our Unity. We must learn to value this Unity as much as He does. At the Tower of Babel, God confused our language and scattered us over all the earth. At Pentecost, he redeemed our language, and he is slowly bringing us back together, molding all of our broken pieces into his kingdom, the one Kingdom of Heaven.
