I can still vividly remember my first encounter with the charismatic phenomenon and the accompanying pressure to conform. I’d recently become a Christian and had taken the momentous decision to go along to the University Christian Union. The visiting speaker gave us prophetic visions, words of knowledge and then he spoke in tongues and interpreted those messages for us. I cannot remember a single word that was said. Though there may have been something about a picture of a pumpkin in a large field but I’m still not sure of the connection with our Christian Union! I do remember that the Bible wasn’t opened once. Later that night I spent an age on the phone, talking to an older friend who’d been instrumental in my conversion. I pressed him to explain what I’d just witnessed and to make sense of it. The issue that dominated my thinking was ‘is this normal for Christians?’ and ‘if it is should I be doing it?’ Nicky Gumbel, the author of the Alpha Course, seems to think so. He suggests that all Christians should expect God to give us the gift of tongues. In his book Questions of Life he writes,

‘Ask God to fill you with his Spirit and to give you the gift of tongues. Go on seeking him until you find him. Go on knocking until the door opens. Seek God with all your heart. Open your mouth and start to praise God in any language but English or any other language known to you. Believe that what you receive is from God. Don’t let anyone tell you that you made it up. (It is most unlikely that you have)’.[1]

But is he right? Is that what the Bible teaches? This article attempts to answer those questions and in so doing explore a little more of what the Bible teaches about this phenomenon.

Much to our frustration the Biblical data is scarce. There’s not enough for our appetite for fascination with this subject to be satisfied. But that in itself is important. Because of the pervading influence of the charismatic church this issue has become a presenting one. But we’ve got to get this issue into perspective. We’re not talking about an issue that the Bible gives a lot of attention to. Presumably that’s because it’s not as significant for our discipleship as, say, the battle against our sinful nature. And we mustn’t pass over that implication too quickly or we’ll miss what the Holy Spirit is really concerned with.

The first occurrences of ‘tongues speaking’ occur in Acts. These are closely tied to the unique salvation historical event of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was first poured out. Throughout that book there are re-runs of that event as the gospel crossed theologically significant boundaries (Acts 10 & 19). The only other place where the issue is addressed occurs in 1 Corinthians 12-14. The content of this article has been shaped by a study of the Corinthian material in particular. Biblical references, unless otherwise stated, refer to the letter of 1 Corinthians.

There are four important principles to bear in mind.

1. Tongues are un-interpreted languages

Trying to work out what is meant by speaking in tongues is straightforward in Acts, more problematic in 1 Corinthians and speculative in the contemporary church. In Acts it’s clear that speaking in tongues refers to human languages. The Apostles declared ‘the wonders of God’ and they were understood by people gathered in Jerusalem from different countries (Acts 2:8-11). In 1 Corinthians it appears that speaking in tongues is a form of coded communication with cognitive content that can be translated into intelligible speech. In the contemporary church it’s anyone’s guess. This leads Don Carson to write that, ‘distortions of interpretation are sufficiently frequent, and the interpretations themselves so pedestrian, that at some point the gift of tongues must, in some cases, also be called into question’.[2] John Stott says that whether the contemporary phenomenon can be equated with the New Testament gift is questionable.[3] Jim Packer agrees but he suggests that since the modern phenomenon seems to do more harm than good and has helped many believers in their walk with the Lord it should probably be welcomed as a good gift from God.[4] Vern Poythress has written an article in which he explored the possible options for the nature of Corinthian tongues speaking and he makes the following five conclusions.[5]

• The tongues speaker was not in a psychologically ecstatic state since they were able to control their speech (14:28).
• The tongues speaker was unaware of what they were saying (14:14).
• The speech was a connected pattern of sounds that sounded like a human language they did not know (14:13&28)
• Precise classification of tongue speaking in modern scientific terms is impossible since a range of alternative analyses are legitimate from the Corinthian material.
• Paul’s phraseology suggests a language like speech pattern intelligible to God but further than that he seemed to show no particular inclination to define the phenomenon more precisely.

In other words, 1 Corinthians is not too interested in defining the exact linguistic status of tongues. For the Corinthian Christian therefore, anything that sounded like speaking in tongues and functioned like speaking in tongues was to be taken as ‘speaking in tongues’. In dealing with tongues Paul affirmed that they were a gift of the Spirit (12:10&30) and then distinguished between their proper and improper use (14:26-33).

2. Tongues are for private personal benefit

Paul spoke in tongues (14:18). But it seems as though he did that primarily, if not exclusively, in private. Accordingly he permitted other tongue speakers to exercise their gift in the same way (14:28). He admitted that tongue speaking had some value for the edification of the individual as they directed their prayers and praise to God (14:2&4). But he also conceded that the benefit of tongues speaking without the accompanying gift of interpretation was somewhat limited. Therefore he encouraged the tongues speakers to ask God for the power to interpret. Without this the spiritual activity of praying and praising in tongues would occur without understanding (14:13&14). Paul’s’ own assessment of the value of tongue speaking without interpretation did not permit him to exercise that gift in the church meeting (14:19). And anyone who had drunk deeply from the wells of love in chapter 13 would agree. In its un-interpreted form, tongues excludes the hearers from its benefit (14:6).

So, if God has given you the gift of tongues there is the freedom to exercise that gift in a private setting. But I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on it. It’s not our giftedness that strengthens our relationship with God but our faith. A relationship with God that warms the heart but bypasses the mind is not really a basis for growing in Christian maturity.

3. Tongues are not for every Christian

In His sovereignty, God decides who gets what gift (12:11). Everyone gets at least one of them but no one gets all of them. We can pray for a particular gift. In fact Paul explicitly encourages us to seek the greater gifts (12:31). But greatness has to do with serving the church in such a way to build it up not serving ourselves with a preoccupation with the spectacular. Paul’s desire that all his readers speak in tongues must not be ripped out of its context and absolutized (14:5). He is not saying that his considered theological conviction is that every Christian should speak in tongues. That would contradict his earlier teaching (12:29&30). Paul is a better theologian than that! His point is that since the gift of tongues was a good gift of God he wanted these church members to enjoy as many of the blessings of God that He was willing to provide. God decides and He will not be manipulated. No one should be deceived. Not even Nicky Gumbel can guarantee that we’ll speak in tongues. However, a Christian friend at University mischievously suggested that if I was feeling excluded from my charismatic Christian brothers and sisters I could pretend to speak in tongues. He argued that it could be faked simply by repeating the words ‘moped, motor and calor gas heater’ very quickly! I’ll leave it up to your imagination to decide what I did with his advice!

Given that God does not give this gift to everyone we must not use it as a criterion for anything. It doesn’t reveal who has been converted. It doesn’t tell us who has reached maturity as a Christian. It just tells us that God has given someone that gift.

4. Tongues are inferior to prophecy

In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul begins a protracted treatment of the relative value of tongue speaking and prophecy in the congregational setting. It appears that the Corinthian church prized tongue speaking more than prophecy. It’s not explicit why that might have been the case. However, given what we know about this congregation and their preoccupation with the spectacular they may well have felt that tongue speaking was the more impressive activity. Paul compared the relative merits of the exercise of each gift. Essentially he taught that tongue speaking is inferior to prophecy. He reached that conclusion for two reasons. First, tongues are unintelligible unless they’re translated (14:9). Therefore in their un-translated form they have no benefit for the edification of the congregation (14:17). In Paul’s apostolic judgement tongues rank pretty low in their ability to mature the church. Secondly, tongue speaking is evangelistically hopeless (14:22). Paul asked the congregation to imagine a situation where an unbeliever was to enter the congregation. Upon hearing tongues they’d simply conclude that the church had lost the plot. Un-translated tongues leave the outsider bemused. Worse than that they condemn the unbeliever to judgement since they’re not able to work out what’s being said. Tongue speaking is therefore profoundly limited in its usefulness.

Given that tongues won’t edify the church and can’t help the unbeliever no Christian should seriously press the tongues speaking agenda. A Christian who is in step with the Spirit won’t campaign on this issue. They’ll be more concerned that the church matures and unbelievers hear the gospel instead of lobbying for a tongues slot in the church meeting.

Conclusion

‘So much for the theory’ you might say but what would you do in practice if someone wanted to speak in tongues in the congregational setting in Balham?

1. At some point we’d need to help people see that there is no biblical warrant for assuming that what is described as speaking in tongues in the contemporary church is the equivalent phenomenon that was witnessed in the Corinthian context. We just don’t know if what we hear today is what went on back then. Nevertheless we can proceed with caution. We should be aware that God can speak in any way that He chooses. But we should also be open to the possibility that this could be a distraction that could undermine people’s confidence in God’s habitual practice of speaking through the bible.

2. If someone stood to speak in tongues I’d ask them to stop whilst we found out whether there was someone who could interpret what was being said. How we’d proceed depends on the answer.

3. If there was no one gifted in interpretation I’d politely ask the tongues speaker to exercise restraint and keep quiet. I’d encourage them to exercise their gift in private. I’d reassure the congregation that this is one of a number of gifts that God gives and despite its spectacular appearance shouldn’t be exalted over others.

4. If there was someone else who could interpret we’d allow the tongues speaker to speak and then ask the interpreter to provide a translation. The elders would be asked to evaluate the interpreted message. Tongues appear primarily to be spoken to God nevertheless we’d like to give people the opportunity to say ‘Amen’ to what has been said (14:16). If what’s been said is theologically creative we’d need to correct that. If what’s been said is theologically sound we’d want to commend what had been said and encourage others to support it.

References

[1] N Gumbel, Questions of Life, Kingsway, 1997, p167

[2] DA Carson, Showing the Spirit, Lancer, p87

[3] JRW Stott, Baptism and Fullness, p112

[4] JI Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, p207f

[5] VS Poythress, ‘The Nature of Corinthian Glossolalia: Possible Options’, Westminster Theological Journal, Volumes 40 Issue 1, Fall 1977, pp 130-135

Further Reading

DA Carson, Showing the Spirit, Lancer Books

JRW Stott, Baptism and Fullness, IVP

JI Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, IVP