CHARISMATIC TONGUES EXAMINED (II)
A Sign-Gift
“Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not” (1 Cor 14:22). What did Paul mean when he said that “tongues are for a sign?” In verse 20, Paul chided the Corinthians, “Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.” In other words, Paul was telling them, “Know your Bible! Don’t you see the purpose of tongues?” Paul then drew their attention to the Old Testament. In verse 21, the Apostle cited Isa 28:11-12b. The context of Isa 28 is that of judgment. The Israelites have repeatedly refused and stubbornly rejected the clear admonitions of the Lord through His prophet. Since they would not heed the word of the Lord spoken to them in their own native tongue, namely, Hebrew, they would now have to hear it in another language, namely, the Assyrian. “But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken” (Isa 28:13). It was a word of judgment against the unbelieving Israelites.
Therefore, tongues were a sign to unbelieving Jews. The Jews thought that they were the only people to whom God extended salvation. This was a misconception. The gift of tongues was meant to correct this erroneous idea. Consider Peter’s experience in Acts 10. The Lord wanted Peter to preach the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile. As a full-blooded Jew, Peter would have nothing to do with a Gentile. But the Lord spoke to Peter in a vision commanding him three times to eat the foods the Jews classified as unclean (Acts 10:11- 16). This was to prepare Peter to minister to Cornelius, an unclean person in the eyes of the Jew. When Cornelius sent for Peter, Peter in obedience to the Lord went to see him, and the Scripture says, “While Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed (i.e. Christian Jews) were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God” (Acts 10:44-46). When Peter returned to Jerusalem, he was summoned by the Council to account for his visit to a Gentile home. His fellow Apostles and Elders were angry with him because he preached the gospel to Cornelius. How did Peter vindicate himself? Peter told them the whole story, how God spoke to him, and how the Spirit led him to Cornelius’ house. Peter testified, “And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15). Peter saw Cornelius and his household gloriously saved as evinced by their speaking in tongues just as he did at Pentecost. Peter went on to say, “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift (i.e. the Holy Spirit) as He did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?” (Acts 11:17). What was the response of the Jerusalem Council who took Peter to task? “When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). Herein is the purpose of the gift of tongues—a sign to unbelieving Jews. To Peter and the Jerusalem saints, it was a sign of confirmation, but to those who refuse to believe, it is a sign of judgment.
Is there still a need for God to convince Jews that the gospel is also given to Gentiles? There is no need. No longer are Jews preaching the gospel to Gentiles, but Gentiles to Jews! What then is the purpose of tongues today? Since it has accomplished its purpose, has it been withdrawn?
Have Tongues Ceased?
The Apostle Paul, in the first century, told the Corinthians that revelatory gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and knowledge, will cease: “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” (1 Cor 13:8).
Before we discuss the cessation of tongues, let us deal with the cessation of prophecies and knowledge. Paul said that prophecies “shall fail,” and knowledge “shall vanish away.” The words “fail,” and “vanish away” are the same word in Greek, katargeo, which is a very strong word of cessation. It basically means “to destroy” (cf 1 Cor 15:24, 26). The word katargeo (to destroy) is written in the Greek passive voice. This indicates that there will be an outside agent which will cause prophecies and knowledge to cease. What is this external element? Verses 9-10 give us the answer: it is “the perfect thing” (to teleion). What is this “perfect thing?” It is the completion of the canon (i.e. the 66 books of the Bible). When Paul wrote his epistle to the Corinthians, the New Testament was in the process of being written. Once it is completed—the last book written—revelation will cease. All that God wants man to know concerning Him and us is found in the Bible. It is sufficient and authoritative. It is God’s complete and final revelation to man (2 Tim 3:16-17, Rev 22:18-19).
How about tongues? Paul wrote that tongues “shall cease.” The word “cease” here is the Greek pauo which means “to stop.” Unlike the gifts of prophecy, and knowledge, which require an external force to cause their cessation, the gift of tongues will cease by itself (Greek middle voice). It will automatically fade away in the course of time when it has served its purpose. G F Rendal, a former Charismatic, commented, “This purpose was fully achieved when it was fully admitted that the nations, as well as ‘this people’ (the Jews), benefited from Jehovah’s salvation. When this fact was universally believed, accepted and no longer contested by anyone, this gift was no longer needed. … Stars, as everyone knows, are visible and useful only at night. When the sun rises they disappear. So it is with the gift of tongues. It was only useful during the darkness of an unbelieving Israel who opposed the nations’ salvation. The gift faded out very simply when the Gentiles’ calling came to light. This is what finished off the last of my resistance” (I Speak in Tongues More Than You All, 80-1).
Does history confirm the early cessation of tongues? The famous Church Father, Augustine, wrote in the fourth century, “In the earliest time the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spake with tongues, which they had not learned, ‘as the Spirit gave them utterance.’ These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, and to shew that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth. That thing was done for a betokening and it passed away” (‘Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John,’ Vol VII, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, VI, 10). The greatest revival of the Church since Pentecost, namely, the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation, was not characterised by tongue-speaking, but powerful preaching. Luther, Calvin, and Knox did not speak in tongues.
The Apostle Paul was trying to drive this point home: the sign gifts which belong to the Apostles (2 Cor 12:12) will pass away. They are temporary gifts. The Church should not pursue them. Christians should rather seek after these three Christian graces: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Cor 13:13). The temporariness of the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge is contrasted with the permanency of the virtues of faith, hope, and love. It is crucial to note Paul’s three-tier argument: (1) Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will cease upon the completion of the Bible, and passing away of the Apostles; (2) Faith, hope, and love are virtues which will remain throughout the entire Church Age; (3) Faith and hope will be realized when Christ returns. But the greatest of these is love because love, being a divine virtue, will remain forever.
It may be clearly seen, in the light of Scripture, that the tongues of the Charismatic Movement are not the same as the tongues of the New Testament. They are not from the same Holy Spirit. God will not confuse His Church for He “is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints” (1 Cor 14:33). What is the solution to the Charismatic confusion? The key is love, for love “rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth” (1 Cor 13:6). JK
SPEAKING IN TONGUES
Wang Ming Tao
ln the matter of tongues I not only received the Pentecostal teaching at the time of my baptism but I also proclaimed it for more than a year. What I preached was this: “When a believer receives the Holy Spirit he must speak in tongues, because speaking in tongues is the sole evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit; it means that all believers who have not spoken in tongues have not yet received the Holy Spirit.” Some testified that when they spoke in tongues they also acquired very great strength and that they spoke in tongues because they could not contain themselves, just as if there was a power controlling the tongue. With me it has never been like that. I uttered sounds which I did not understand by reason of endlessly repeating the word “Hallelujah” as described earlier. At first I had no doubts. But doubts arose because some people simply repeated one sound such as “Ba-ba-ba-ba” or “Da-da-da-da” or “Co-di, go-di, go-di!” for several minutes or even several tens of minutes, always repeating the same sounds. I ask, how can you call this “tongues”? Even when angels speak they cannot use just one or two sounds to express many meanings.
Another problem is that the manner of life of many who speak in tongues is particularly bad. During the two years 1921-1922 I knew a young man who had an intensely fierce nature. He ill-treated his wife so cruelly that it was enough to make a man’s hair stand on end. He also had many other evil ways and could by no means be called a Christian. But as soon as he sat down he was able to speak in tongues. What he uttered was, moreover, not just a succession of similar sounds but something which sounded like a language. Looking at the question from another point of view I have also seen many sincere believers, devout in their manner of life, and zealously serving the Lord, full of the fragrance of Christ, and others who work for the Lord with power and authority, who have never spoken in tongues. Can it be that they do not possess the Holy Spirit? All these considerations caused me to give up the kind of teaching which I had received on being baptised.
The years that I spent at home devoting myself to the study of the Bible determined my subsequent attitudes. It was through this that I had to reject some of the teaching in the church which I had received when I was young. What I found in the Bible I received. What I did not find in the Bible I rejected.
[Wang Ming Tao, according to missionary historian Leslie Lyall, was one of China’s three “Mighty Men”, the others being Yang Shao Tang and Watchman Nee. According to Lyall, Wang was “chief among the three.” Source: Timothy Tow, Wang Ming Tao and Charismatism (Singapore: Christian Life Publishers, 1989), 49-50.]
