Speaking in Tongues
September 24th, 2006 by Stephen
I have often been told by Pentecostals: “I believe that it is absolutely necessary for all to speak in tongues to God”. That is an exact quote from one such person.
My response is to ask: “Did Paul say that everyone must, as a part of the normal Christian experience, speak in tongues?”
Why is it necessary that I speak in tongues? Won’t prayer and praise to God do just the same, and yet with the engagement of my mind?
If it is necessary that we all speak in tongues, how did John Wesley survive as a preacher without doing so? How did George Whitefield so faithfully serve his God? How could Jonathan Edwards deliver his great sermon: “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God”, without speaking in tongues?
In fact, if tongues are “necessary” for all Christians, then how is it that there are so few “tongues-speakers” of stature in the Christian church?
There are of course notable exceptions: Stephen Jefferies for instance, who (according to D. Martyn Lloyd Jones) did more to spread the gospel in the 1930s then any other man in the church of that day. We might also look at Paul Y Cho, or David Wilkerson.
When one takes a balanced look at church history I think it is evident that tongues speaking neither adds to, nor detracts from the life and work of the saints. It is no more necessary then the ability to sing well, but both tongues and singing voices are gifts of God, and both are edifying and intensely spiritual experiences.
If God gives one the ability to speak in toungues, who am I to say that the experience is wrong, but who is he to say the experience is necessary?
I was once in conversation over IM with a person that told me that I could not be truly filled with the spirit unless I spoke in tongues. The person eventually became frustrated enough with me to stop the conversation, but this is definitely where I see a huge section of the pentacostal movement putting their emphasis.
We’ve done a lot of writing this past week on whether or not the gift is still available and around at this time– and I fear that we could go a whole lot longer hashing it out. When put into practice, I believe that we can agree that most of the current usage of tongues is without understanding or is wrong.
It is not true that all Christians need to speak in tongues or that one cannot be filled with the Spirit unless they speak in tongues. Just like all Christians will not have the gift of Administration, or all of them have the gift of helps.
Thanks for the comment. I think it is probably time to talk about other issues for a while, otherwise people will think I am riding a hobbu horse here!