Outline

1. Introduction

2. Biblical Response

3. Conclusion

A BIBLICAL STUDY ON THE GIFT OF TONGUES

INTRODUCTION

The Holy Spirit gift of tongues have been an issue of Christian "in house" differences.  It seem as if whenever something is "in-house", Christians generally become dumb minded and jump to a conclusion by "what I feel about it".  When I was still in my first year in Christ, I remember asking many fellow brothers and sisters in Christ about the issue of tongues: Is the gift of tongues as we know it today (such as in the Pentecostal movement currently) biblical?  What I was asking was whether the "ya-la-shah-shi-bah!" stuff recited during a Church service was being Biblically correct, and if so, prove it from Scripture.  A simple, direct and straight forward question.  Yet, I was surprise at the reply given:

• "Uh, you know I spoke in tongues once, in this big conference?"

• "You get different answers from different church."

• "I believe in tongues."

• "I don't believe in tongues."

• "I speak in tongues."

• "Tongues scare people."

• "Yeah.  I could tell you from personal experience that it's real."

Those were the typical reply I got.  It seem as if the two sides (Tongues is legitimate, Tongues is not legitimate) were stuck in a trench warfare of "I this", "I that".  When you look inside the trench, you find people growing fat from all that "I".  Everyone seem comfortable that the fact tongues is a "in-house" matter, so "let's do whatever we want and go party!"  But I guess people didn't hear me right: "My question is, are today's tongues' BIBLICAL?!"  How I love the Bible...

BIBLICAL RESPONSE

It is a gift from the Holy Spirit (1Cor.12:10) given by the Holy Spirit's own choice.(1Cor. 12:11)  It is not necessarily our own choice.  Receiving tongues isn't to a requirement to receive the Spirit's baptism. (1Cor. 12:13)  To say we have to speak in tongues when we are baptize by the Spirit is not only wrong, but unbiblical.  Not everyone therefore, speaks in tongues. (1Cor. 12:30)

The gift of tongues will not last forever, but cease. (1Cor. 13:8&10)  Since I don't know Greek and the tense of these verse to see if it has ended already or not yet, and since I don't know that much of Church history, let's just assume that speaking in Tongues have not cease yet.  So what are the Biblical method of speaking in tongues?

            (Check this out at your church or elsewhere)

• Must be understood by the people (1Cor. 14:9, 11:12, 14:16)

• OR must be interpreted (1Cor. 14:26,,27)

• Helpful (1Cor 14:6)

• Rather understandable language than in tongues (1Cor. 14:19)

• It act as a sign for unbelievers (1Cor. 14:22_

• BUT it must not make people think you're crazy by having everyone speaking in tongues.

• Be done properly in order

• No more than 2 or 3 tongues speakers, and each must speak out one at a time.

 Now, ALL this is required to be Biblical.  If one of these is lacking, then we have a problem: The tongues could not be from the Holy Spirit since God cannot go against his own Word.  In this circumstance, to claim that tongues was from God is to make up lies about God, which is a sin and not approved of by God.  It is either made up by the persons involved in tongues (motive might range from peer pressure, learned behavior, pride, search for "spirituality", or tricked in thinking they are really speaking in tongues) or worst, it comes from another force we wouldn't we really want...

CONCLUSION

If you are allegedly speaking in tongues and you really are not, and you know it, then the thing is to repent!  Come back to God and confess it to him.  He will forgive you.  And remember: Hold on to God's Word, the only thing that is dear and trustworthy.  God bless you. 

By Jimmy Li