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169 | What Is Praying in Tongues—and Is It for Christians Today?
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Growing up in a Pentecostal church, I have witnessed people speaking in tongues many times. But what is praying in tongues, and is it for Christians today? If you've ever wondered what the Bible actually teaches about this spiritual gift, whether the ability to speak in tongues is proof of salvation, or why some churches emphasize it and others don't, this episode is for you.
In this episode, we start with Acts 2 and the day of Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit empowered believers to speak in real languages they had never learned. We'll explore why this moment was so significant—it wasn't just random; it was the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:33, when God's law was written on the hearts of His people. Then we move to 1 Corinthians 12–14, where Paul explains that tongues is just one of the spiritual gifts and that it should be used in an orderly and edifying way. It is not something every believer receives and is not a requirement for salvation.
I also share perspectives from both continuationist and cessationist traditions so you can understand the broader conversation within the church. Whether you're Pentecostal, Baptist, Reformed, or somewhere in between, my hope is that this episode equips you to study Scripture for yourself and approach this topic with humility and discernment.
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Transcript
Introduction to Verity Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Yes, you might receive joy from operating in your spiritual gift. I sure do. Teaching the Bible, that's my gift and it brings me joy. But what's the purpose of the gift? It's not to make me look cool or get me stages or get me applause. The purpose is for the upbuilding of the people of God.
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome back to Verity Podcast, friends. I'm Felicia Masonheimer, your host and the founder of Every Woman a Theologian.
Exploration of Prayer Topics
00:00:30
Speaker
We are deep into our series on prayer, and today we're diving into a little bit of a controversial topic, and that is whether or not Christians should pray in tongues.
00:00:43
Speaker
So we've covered quite a bit of ground in this series so far, talking about liturgical prayers, when you're bored by prayer, how to pray in God's will, and so much more. If you've missed those episodes, be sure to head back over and check them out. We've been building through this series, kind of laying some foundations for our understanding of prayer before we dive into a topic like this one. So I hope you'll listen to the whole series. I also hope that you'll check out the Every Woman a Theologian shop, We just released two new amazing resources, one on praying through the Psalms and another that is a visual guide to studying the Psalms. So it has classic art and worship music built right into the study itself. And I think you will love it. It's called our Not-So-Quiet-Time Guide to the Psalms. And you can find both of those at feliciamasonheimer.com.
00:01:34
Speaker
So we're going to be looking at 1 Corinthians 12-14 today, specifically studying the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. Now, a little context before we dive into this.
Interdenominational Ministry and Audience
00:01:48
Speaker
I run an interdenominational ministry. Many of you who are watching or listening right now are in one of the many Christian traditions that we get to serve. We have those who listen who are Baptist, who are Reformed, who are Presbyterian, who are Mennonite. We even have some Catholic listeners. We have Pentecostal listeners. So we have a wide variety of readers and listeners at Every Woman a Theologian. And if you've read my book by the same name, Every Woman a Theologian, you'll know that one of the things I really try to do is share with you the perspectives of different Christian denominational traditions and help you understand those perspectives, even if I or you don't fully agree with them.
00:02:36
Speaker
At the beginning of this series, we talked about the intercession of the saints. So we looked at Catholic theology on the saints praying for believers. And now we're going to look at another topic that's pretty controversial, and that is praying in tongues. And this is going to take us over to Pentecostal theology. So if you are Baptist or Reformed, some of this you might not fully agree with, but it's good to study it. It's good to understand different perspective so that you can accurately represent that point of view.
00:03:09
Speaker
Now, I grew up in the Pentecostal tradition. In fact, I am a fourth generation, or I was Pentecostal. I'm no longer in the Pentecostal tradition. I'm now in a Baptist church. But that's how I grew up until I was about 13, 14 years old. um My parents are still in that tradition, though I would say it's ah a softened form of the the charismatic church. So my point in sharing that is that I've actually been immersed in this theology, I have seen how it works. And my husband and I also attended a charismatic church um when we lived in Pennsylvania as well. So we we are have been in that continuationist setting that believes in the supernatural gifts of prophecy, healing, and tongues before.
00:03:59
Speaker
I've been prayed over by people speaking in tongues. I have seen people speak in tongues with interpretation. in a worship service. I have seen people give prophetic words in a worship service. So i am familiar with what this looks like in both healthy and unhealthy church settings.
Importance of Scripture in Understanding Tongues
00:04:19
Speaker
And when we talk about this topic, I think it's important um if you've never experienced a Pentecostal church service where these things are practiced, or if you've never experienced it being done in a healthy way, to take a moment to set aside experience and And to simply look at what scripture says.
00:04:39
Speaker
Now, this also goes for those of you who are Pentecostal or charismatic and have your own bias on this topic to set aside what you've been told in your churches. What you have been told is normative practice and to start with what scripture says.
00:04:55
Speaker
So no matter what our experiences are of these things, we need to come back and look at the passages that talk about it first, because this is going to guide what we believe on this topic.
00:05:06
Speaker
So we're going to start with what tongues even is, and the best place to start on that is in Acts
Pentecost and Speaking in Languages
00:05:14
Speaker
2. So we're going to look at Acts 2.
00:05:18
Speaker
Together. I'm reading in the New International Version here. And just to give you a little backstory, at this point, Jesus has ascended. He's no longer on earth. He's completed his ministry on earth. And the apostles are gathered in Jerusalem. with the disciples of Jesus, praying and waving on the Lord, which he had told them to do when he ascended. At this time, the festival of Pentecost is is coming up on the Jewish calendar.
00:05:48
Speaker
So in Acts 2, the beginning says, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Pentecost is an important Jewish festival because it celebrates the giving of God's law, the Torah, to the Jewish people. And that's going to be really significant when we see what happens next.
00:06:07
Speaker
Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
00:06:23
Speaker
That's verses 1 through 4. So what's happening here is profound. There's two very significant things that happen in Acts 2. Number one, we see that the Spirit comes with tongues of fire, if we keep reading, tongues of fire are resting on the heads. Well, we did read in verse three, resting on the heads of each individual person. And the spirit indwells the believers in Christ, specifically at Pentecost. Why at Pentecost? Like, why didn't Jesus just give the Holy Spirit right away? Why at this specific festival? Because the law, which was given at Pentecost with that festival represents the law of God is now being written on their hearts through the Holy Spirit.
00:07:16
Speaker
And this is the fulfillment of prophecy. Pentecost in Acts 2 fulfills the prophecy in Jeremiah 31, 33, which says, after those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it on their hearts.
00:07:31
Speaker
So in this moment, um in the upper room, the law of God is being written on the hearts of the believers. And their response by the supernatural empowerment of the Holy Spirit is to speak in many tongues. And the Greek word here literally means languages, physical languages that exist on the earth.
00:07:53
Speaker
So going to verse five, it says, now there were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. So this means that the the Jews who had left Jerusalem and lived in other nations were were coming back to Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost.
00:08:09
Speaker
And they are speaking a variety of languages because they're living in other nations. Verse 6, when they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked, aren't these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
00:08:31
Speaker
Verse 9 goes on to list about 11 different countries and and um regions that had specific languages represented by the spirit-empowered believers who were speaking. So what we're seeing in Acts 2 is that the languages that are being uttered um are not angelic languages. They are specifically languages that would have been spoken by people living on the earth. They are real languages. from specific regions.
00:09:03
Speaker
So that's our context. That's where we first meet this idea um of speaking in tongues. And then we see it two other places in Acts. We see it in Acts 10 and in Acts 19. In Acts 10, the tongues ah um are spoken by Gentiles who receive the gospel. And in Acts 19, it is spoken by disciples of John who who received the Spirit.
00:09:27
Speaker
So whenever you talk with someone from the Pentecostal tradition about the gift of tongues, they will often tell you that tongues, because of how we see it in the book of Acts, are evidence of
Tongues as a Selective Spiritual Gift
00:09:38
Speaker
salvation. So the tongues that were spoken were proof of true salvation. um And we could go down a path of talking about salvation as it relates to tongues. um We're just going to touch on it. That's a whole other conversation. And I do have an episode on that. If you'd like to listen and more on that topic, believe I talk about it. in my episode on cessation and continuation of spiritual gifts. So you can scroll back um on iTunes or Spotify. It's not on YouTube. And you can listen to that episode or you can grab our spiritual gifts booklet in the shop at feliciamasonheimer.com.
00:10:15
Speaker
So this conversation around speaking in tongues in the charismatic church sometimes attaches tongues to salvation because of what we see in the book of Acts. However,
00:10:28
Speaker
What we see further on in scripture, if we look at 1 Corinthians 12, is that speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift and the gifts are not given to everyone. In fact, 1 Corinthians 12 tells us the opposite. It says that These particular gifts are not the same for everyone. 1 Corinthians 12, 4, there are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. Lord, there are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is the same God at work. Now to each one, the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good.
00:11:09
Speaker
That's important. We're going to talk about that at the end, that it's given for the common good. But I want to stress that this section in 1 Corinthians 12, written by Paul, is saying to the Corinthian church, who, by the way, loved supernatural gifts. They were super into them, like to the point that there was a bit of chaos.
00:11:28
Speaker
The gifts are not for every single person. Like not one person isn't going to have all the spiritual gifts. They will have one or two or three gifts that the Lord has supernaturally empowered them into, but they're not going to have all of them. It's not the same as the fruit of the Spirit.
00:11:45
Speaker
Fruits should all be manifest in a Christian's life. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. but gifts, you will only have one or two. It's not a universally applicable gifting.
00:11:59
Speaker
And this is important because when Pentecostals or Charismatics, I use these two interchangeably, um but Pentecostals a denomination and Charismatic is more of a a general theological structure.
00:12:11
Speaker
Pentecostals and Charismatics tend to look at Acts and say, oh, everybody has to speak in tongues as evidence of
Misconceptions about Tongues and Salvation
00:12:20
Speaker
salvation. And I will tell you right now that what we see in Corinthians refutes this.
00:12:25
Speaker
And it doesn't just refute this. If you look at the broad scheme of church history, there are many Christians, I mean, the majority of Christians who have not spoken in tongues one day in their life, and they are faithful, devout, saved believers.
00:12:44
Speaker
This is very important. So if you are growing up or you grew up or you are in a church that tells you you cannot be saved unless you speak in tongues, I want to tell you right now that is not biblical. And I believe in the gift of tongues.
00:12:57
Speaker
I believe it continues today, but it is not evidence of salvation. It is a spiritual gift that the Holy Spirit will give to specific believers for a specific purpose.
00:13:08
Speaker
So let's move on to this Pentecost moment um where we have everyone speaking in a language. The people are there. They're hearing the language, hearing the gospel spoken to them in that language. There's another significant thing about what happened here at Pentecost, and that's that it was a reversal of the Tower of Babel.
00:13:29
Speaker
If you go back to Genesis, we see that people are coming together after the flood to build this tower and to try to reach the heavens and basically to say that they are God. Well, God sees this and instead of, you know, completely demolishing them, he says, you know what, I'm going to confuse their language so they can't continue to believe that they are God.
00:13:54
Speaker
And he confuses their language and they are divided and they disperse across the face of the earth. But in Acts 2 at Pentecost, there was a great reversal of Babel.
00:14:05
Speaker
Once again, many languages are spoken, but instead of dividing the people, it unites the people under the common banner of Jesus Christ. So when before they their banner was their own selfishness, their own desire to be like God,
00:14:21
Speaker
and they were divided by their language, now we have people who are able to become like God through Christ and his sacrifice, who are his children being united by the different languages.
00:14:37
Speaker
So this is the beginning of the new era, the new kingdom, the kingdom of God coming to earth. And so speaking these languages was significant in the way that the law was written on their hearts, but also in that great reversal.
00:14:51
Speaker
So what we see in Acts 2, people who believe that the gifts of tongues have completely passed away, they're called cessationists, they would argue that this was just for the book of Acts. It was just for a time in the early church, um an era when evangelism needed to happen in that way, and that it passed away. And then they cite 1 Corinthians 13 as proof of that.
00:15:13
Speaker
I'll be open to you. I don't agree with that. I believe that the gift of tongues continues, and I think 1 Corinthians 13 14 prove that. um However, what we see in 1 Corinthians twelve through fourteen tells us that there is an appropriate use for the gift of tongues. So should we be praying in tongues? Well, that's a great question.
00:15:38
Speaker
And a lot of people would say, no, you shouldn't be praying in tongues because they're only for evangelism. That's what we see in Acts. So even if it continues today, there's only tongues are only for evangelism. So how would you arrive at a point where you believe that tongues can be a prayer language?
00:15:55
Speaker
Well, I'll tell you. So if you're a Baptist or Reformed, you know, buckle your seatbelt because we're about to get into some of the Pentecostal theology behind why this is believed, why they think that you can have a personal prayer language.
Charismatic Beliefs on Tongues
00:16:10
Speaker
Charismatics believe that there is not just one type of tongues. There's actually three. So the gift of tongues, yes, can be for evangelism, but the There are actually three types, and these are personal tongues, proof tongues, and prophetic tongues.
00:16:32
Speaker
Personal tongues are for prayer. Proof tongues are for evangelism, and prophetic tongues are for the church with translation. So what we're seeing in the charismatic theology of prayer is based on Acts 2, also on 1 Corinthians 14 specifically. And the idea that these these specific languages can be used for different purposes.
00:17:01
Speaker
So proof tongues are obviously what we see in Acts 2. They're proof of God's grace on a person, his supernatural empowerment on a person. Their purpose is to reach the unbeliever.
00:17:16
Speaker
Prophetic tongues are talked about in 1 Corinthians 14, the appropriate use of them for the upbuilding of the church when there is an interpreter. And in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul talks extensively about prophecy versus tongues and why prophecy upbuilds the church and tongues can only upbuild the church if there's an interpretation. and he kind of goes back and forth on the two gifts and why why he doesn't, it's not that he doesn't like tongues or doesn't think that they're a viable gift, but that he thinks that prophecy upbuilds the church more.
00:17:48
Speaker
And that's because tongues have to be understood. They have to be interpreted. So most people track with those. Okay, proof tongues, prophetic tongues, they have an order, they have a place. But what about personal tongues? What is this about?
00:18:04
Speaker
So personal tongues are based on 1 Corinthians 14, 4. I'm actually going to back up to verse 1. Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
00:18:17
Speaker
For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them. They utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging, and comfort.
00:18:30
Speaker
Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy.
00:18:41
Speaker
The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless someone interprets so that the church may be edified. So that last part confirms what I just told you, Paul's personal opinion about prophecy versus tongues. I want to hone in here on verse 2 and verse 4, because these are the proof texts for prayer languages in charismatic churches.
00:19:04
Speaker
Verse 2 says, anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people, but to God. They utter mysteries by the Spirit. So here what a charismatic would say, looking at this passage, is that a prayer language is a personal language
Personal Engagement in Prayer Language
00:19:21
Speaker
between you and God. It is the personal engagement, the personal prayer.
00:19:26
Speaker
In fact, it they often quote the verse that says, um the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings without words. to support this, that when you don't have the words, the Holy Spirit gives you the words through a prayer language that allows you to communicate to God beyond the realm of English or Spanish or whatever language you speak.
00:19:49
Speaker
Then look at verse 4. says here, anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. This is the other part of a personal prayer language. The idea is that you will be personally edified, personally built up, personally encouraged by your prayer language. So the goal is not proof. The goal is not prophecy. The goal is simply to commune with the Lord. And out of that spiritual communion, you may have this supernatural empowerment to speak in a prayer language.
00:20:25
Speaker
In the charismatic church, it's normative for people to pray in a prayer language every time they pray. They might pray in a prayer language when they pray over somebody. um They might pray in a prayer language when they're fasting and they're extremely grieved over something. Again, seeing that as the spirit interceding um for them on their behalf when they don't have the words to say.
00:20:52
Speaker
So these two texts are the basis for the idea of a prayer language, along with 1 Corinthians 13, the love passage, which says, if I speak in the tongues of men or angels, but I do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a cling clanging cymbal. So this passage is used to say that it's possible to speak in the tongues of angels. And that's what a prayer language is. It's the the tongues of angels. It's something that we don't fully understand um or would not be able to communicate, but is given to us supernaturally.
00:21:30
Speaker
Now, before we get more into um some of what I have here in my commentaries on this topic, I have a couple of commentaries to look at from different perspectives. um I want to talk about where prayer languages go wrong.
00:21:43
Speaker
So if you are listening to this and you have a prayer language, you are praying in tongues, Um, I'm not saying that the Lord is not supernaturally empowering that for you, but I do want to address some really unhealthy theology around this in the charismatic church.
00:22:02
Speaker
I was doing research for this episode. so whenever I do research on specific topics like this that are very controversial, I always go to, to both sides. I look at the side that opposes it and i look at the side that supports it. And so I went to a couple Pentecostal teachers to look at how they were teaching um prayer languages and praying in tongues. And one of these ministries um broke down how to ask for the gift of tongues. And this template actually follows what most charismatic churches um who teach you to pray in tongues would
Critique of 'Training' to Speak in Tongues
00:22:33
Speaker
say. So the first the first point is to to ask. So ask God for the gift of tongues. And this this would not cross the mind of a Baptist, generally speaking. Like, why would i ask to pray in tongues? um But to a charismatic, this is often presented as a very significant, important thing, um even a rite of passage in their Christian life to receive their prayer language or receive the ability to speak in tongues, is this is considered a really big deal. So you would ask for it. If you haven't had the privilege of doing that in a charismatic setting, they would say to ask for it. Quoting Luke 11, you people know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? And this passage is used because of that parallel between the Holy Spirit um in his indwelling and speaking in tongues. So
00:23:26
Speaker
because many charismatic churches do believe that tongues is evidence of salvation. So that includes both proof tongues and also prayer language tongues.
00:23:37
Speaker
So ask for it would be the first step. The next thing that they suggest is that you should just recognize that eventually you will receive this gift. You ask for it. It's the promise and seal of the Holy Spirit in charismatic theology. So you're going to receive it eventually.
00:23:57
Speaker
And then the next thing that's suggested in this particular article is interesting. And it is that if you have not received the gift of tongues, if time goes by and you're not receiving it, there's something blocking your ability to do that. And it's most likely yourself, your pride, your people pleasing, your fear of man. um Something is blocking you from receiving that gift.
00:24:28
Speaker
So this particular author suggested, you know, don't overthink it. Just relax and trust that the Lord will, you know, bring it to you in time.
00:24:39
Speaker
But his next suggestion is one that I have actually heard taught in charismatic churches before. And this is the part that um deeply concerns me.
00:24:50
Speaker
It should concern you because it's not in scripture anywhere. And here is the suggestion. just release the sound. So this author says that the Holy Spirit's not just going to give you the gift of tongues. So he originally said the Holy Spirit will give you the gift of tongues. Now he's saying that he's not going to do it um unless you begin to practice it first. So you begin to just make sounds and eventually
00:25:22
Speaker
you will have the ability to speak in tongues. And he specifically says, praying in tongues is like starting your car. You have to turn the key, but the engine will move the car. Just turn the key. Give him sounds and you'll know by faith he will take it from there.
00:25:37
Speaker
Another article that I read years ago was written by a woman who said she prayed and prayed to receive the gift of tongues and receive a prayer language. She didn't receive it and didn't receive it. And so she was in the shower one day and she just started babbling. And as she babbled, suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon her and she was able to speak in tongues um on her own.
00:25:59
Speaker
This deeply concerns me because this is not how tongues are presented in the Bible anywhere at all, ever. In fact, the opposite is taught in 1 Corinthians 12-14, which is the manual on speaking in tongues. The very passage that's used to defend prayer languages and speaking in tongues is undermining this idea of training yourself to speak in tongues by babbling.
00:26:28
Speaker
This concerns me because what we're teaching people to do is to try to manually engage a supernatural gift.
00:26:39
Speaker
because of the social pressure of having that gift in a specific church setting. This is not how gifts are given. Gifts are given by the Holy Spirit as he chooses, when he chooses. So the greater faith would be if you do not receive the gift of tongues after asking to trust the Lord knows what he's doing and he may have a different gift for you.
00:27:06
Speaker
But if you're in a church setting that says your salvation and you're your ability to have the Holy Spirit depends on speaking in tongues, that's not possible. And thus, people try to force it.
00:27:19
Speaker
So this is why i'm I'm saying as a continuationist who believes the gift of tongues is for today in specific settings and purposes, that forcing it to happen by babbling or practicing or going along with what other people are doing around you is not going to produce good fruit and it is not in alignment with how scripture describes the gift of tongues.
00:27:43
Speaker
So what do we do then about the prayer language? Is it possible to have ah a prayer language to communicate with the Lord? Well, let's look at a couple of commentaries here as we get towards the end of this episode. So I'm looking at 1 Corinthians 14.
00:27:58
Speaker
I want to read from this commentary. This is one of my favorites for context. It's called the IVP Bible Background Commentary. This one was written by Craig Keener, who's one of my favorite commentators. um He says this, although paul is clearly not against speaking in tongues he emphasizes that the value of gifts must be judged by their utility in any given setting intelligible speech profits others in public worship, whereas unintelligible speech, no matter how inspired, is profitable only privately or if interpreted.
00:28:30
Speaker
So he's saying here that when tongues are spoken, they're only profitable when they're understood. And When we pray in tongues over people, specifically, you know, someone who needs healing, someone who needs care, someone who's going through grief, they do not receive the benefit of hearing God's words spoken over them.
00:28:59
Speaker
Again, 1 Corinthians 14 says that when you speak in tongues, you are personally edified. I believe that this passage is talking about the person who is praying in tongues or speaking out loud in tongues or giving proof tongues, evangelistic tongues. In all three of those cases, all three types of tongues in charismatic theology,
00:29:19
Speaker
the The person who is speaking is communing with God, right? They're thanking God. That's what was happening at Pentecost. They were praising God in other languages. They were exalting God. So in that moment, they are being personally edified in their thanksgiving to the Lord.
00:29:35
Speaker
But the people around them who don't understand the tongue are not being edified. So only if they can understand it, can they be upbuilt.
Purpose of Spiritual Gifts
00:29:44
Speaker
And this takes us back to what we read in 1 Corinthians 12 at the beginning of this episode, where I was talking about the purpose of spiritual gifts. The purpose of spiritual gifts is to upbuild the church for the common good.
00:30:00
Speaker
That is what spiritual gifts are for. They are not for you personally. They are not just for your own gain, your own pleasure, your own personal individual spiritual life. Yes, you might receive joy from operating in your spiritual gift. I sure do.
00:30:15
Speaker
Teaching the Bible, that's my gift and it brings me joy. But what's the purpose of the gift? It's not to make me famous. It's not to make me look cool or get me stages or get me applause. The purpose is for the common good of those who I'm teaching. It's for the upbuilding of the people of God.
00:30:34
Speaker
And what happens, especially with the gift of tongues, is it becomes about the speaker. including praying in tongues. It can be a sign of greater spiritual authority. It can be a sign of um greater spiritual maturity. It can be something that people take it that way and treat it that way and say, well, once you're mature enough, you'll receive your gift. Well, maybe you have a different gift.
00:30:59
Speaker
Maybe you the gift of helps. Maybe you of the gift of teaching. Maybe you have the gift of evangelism. Maybe you have the gift of administration. It could be any of those gifts. Maybe it's not the gift of tongues. And that's okay. Because no gift is greater than another in the kingdom of God. And 1 Corinthians 12 talks about that.
00:31:17
Speaker
Romans 12 talks about that. 1 Peter talks about that. It says these gifts. There's no gift that's better than another. So if you've been told you've got to have tongues, you know, you've got to have that spiritual gift,
00:31:30
Speaker
That is undermining what 1 Corinthians 12 says, which is part of the whole letter, the whole section on tongues itself. So my point is, when we're looking at these gifts and when we're looking at praying in tongues, we have to remember that it has a very specific purpose, and that's to upbuild the church, not just to upbuild me. So yes, you are individually edified when you pray, when you when you prophesy, or when you evangelize in tongues, but that's not the point.
00:32:06
Speaker
And it should never be the point. Now let's look at this other um commentary I have. This one is specifically looking at the languages that were spoken. i'm mean to This is from a different perspective. This from a cessationist perspective because this is a moody commentary and they tend to be um do not believe in the continuation of spiritual gifts. um So this one says, if ah is speaking in tongues a normative experience for all believers or a unique phenomenon related to the birth and growth of the early church? The evidence supports the latter. The phenomenon is mentioned explicitly only three times in Acts.
00:32:44
Speaker
The Samaritans and Paul may have spoken in tongues after they received the Spirit, but it is not stated. In reporting dozens of other conversion experiences, Luke did not mention speaking in tongues. Furthermore, none of the major characters in Acts commanded or instructed others on how or whether they should speak in tongues.
00:33:00
Speaker
This fact supports the idea that Luke did not intend speaking in tongues to be understood as normative or binding upon the church perpetually. Instead, Acts simply recorded what did happen, not what should happen consistently.
00:33:12
Speaker
The phenomenon of tongues, like many of the experiences in Acts, is a unique event signaling the beginning of the era of the Spirit who has come to empower believers to take the gospel to all nations.
Continuity of the Gift of Tongues
00:33:23
Speaker
So, what's being said here, in sum, is that tongues were for that early church period for the purpose of the edification of the church, but they are not continuing through the church to today.
00:33:37
Speaker
I disagree with this, but I need to share um that perspective. What I think I would agree with this commentary on is that any spiritual gift is meant to be in submission to the word of God.
00:33:53
Speaker
And if you have been pressured to pray in tongues or told that you can't be saved unless you do, that is not found in scripture. Now, would I go so far as to say we shouldn't pray in tongues at all?
00:34:07
Speaker
I'm not sure I would go that far. I believe that God may possibly equip people to pray to him in a language that he gives them, but I don't believe that will ever be forced.
00:34:23
Speaker
I don't believe it will be in a public way that does not have interpretation. Maybe it will be private. Maybe it is the intercedings of the Spirit for the things we don't have words for.
00:34:38
Speaker
i I believe the gifts pretty kind compellingly um continue to today based on what we see in 1 Corinthians 14. But how that looks, I would say I lean more towards tongues as proofs and tongues as prophecy because those are what are talked about in 1 Corinthians 14.
00:35:00
Speaker
but I would not completely deny the possibility of praying in tongues. So what's your what's the
Encouragement to Study and Seek Perspectives
00:35:06
Speaker
takeaway from this? People are always asking, well, then what all what do I take away from this? You've given me these different perspectives. What do I do now? Well, I'm not going to tell you what to do. As always, I encourage you to study this for yourself.
00:35:16
Speaker
Go look up 1 Corinthians 12 through 14. Study it yourself. Grab a commentary. Grab a study Bible. Get multiple perspectives on it. um But what I want you to take away from this is that The gift of tongues is a gift and it's not a gift everyone's going to have.
00:35:34
Speaker
I have never spoken in tongues in my entire life and I walk with Jesus every day and I love him more every day. I hear from him. I learn to obey him.
00:35:44
Speaker
The spirit convicts me and empowers me. But where the spirit has most empowered me, where I have felt his empowerment and his presence the most is when I'm teaching.
00:35:55
Speaker
That's my gift. And that's where he gives me the ah abilities that I wouldn't have on my own, because that's what a spiritual gift is. It's the supernatural ability of God to do something that we could not do in our natural self.
00:36:10
Speaker
So as we're coming to the conclusion of this episode, I want to read 1 Corinthians 14, 39 through 40, which I think sums this up really well. It says this, Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy,
00:36:23
Speaker
And do not forbid speaking in tongues, but everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. I don't think we can say it better than the Apostle Paul said it himself.
00:36:36
Speaker
So thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, or if you didn't, I hope you'll still share it with others and start the discussion. You can also follow me and our team on Instagram at everywomanatheologian.
00:36:51
Speaker
We also love to read your emails. I take them into account when I'm building out these episodes. And our email is felicia at felicia masonheimer.com. Thank you for listening to Verity podcast or watching on YouTube. Please subscribe if you haven't already. It helps other people find the podcast. And I'll see you next week on Verity.