SPEAKING IN TONGUES
Editor of THE OUTLOOK:
The articles and editorials appearing in THE OUTLOOK on speaking in tongues, with the solicitations for comment, incite one to make an observation.
The miracle wrought by God on that Pentecost day was analyzed squarely by Peter. He resorted to Scripture for the answer. God’s Word is its own interpreter.
There is another miracle in Bible history which has a bearing on this event.
God’s Spirit did not continue to strive with that first ecumenical world. It was wiped out by the flood and God locked the door of His church enclosing eight people.
In Genesis 10, we read the genealogy of Noah’s sons and generations whom God divided according to tongues and nations, the account of which is found in Genesis 11. Unified as they were in language, God obliterated their vocabulary from the memory of this race. That was a miracle of some proportion.
From secular history we learn that a Russian gentleman by the name of Dr. Zamerhof, under the pseudonym “Esperanto,” tried again to establish a universal language. He failed.
God separated mankind to keep them apart and to have a semblance of order in this wicked world.
God can make a dumb animal talk to serve His purpose (Num. 22:28).
In Acts 2 we have the record of a miracle the direct opposite from that which occurred at the tower of Babel. A number of Galileans were qualified to speak foreign languages without any prior schooling. Hearing them, the foreign visitors were amazed and asked: “What meaneth this?”
We ask the same question.
This event was a prophetic miracle conveying that God would make His truth known and proclaimed in all languages. This is happening today. God’s Word has been translated into a thousand tongues or more.
The kingdom of God is not extended by some sort of bombast, or by a grouping of several large denominations into one larger organization, by sitting on the floor strumming banjos, neither by working oneself up into an ecstatic frenzy and uttering guttural sounds. No, God’s Kingdom is advanced in the hearts of men, by a still small voice.
There is an example of this small voice in action in the book of Acts. The Ethiopian riding his chariot searched the Word. The Spirit of God led Philip to his side. They read and communed together, resulting in the Ethiopian being convinced, convicted, and converted.
Proclaim and expose the Word. God will give the increase.
F.J. TEPPER
1300 Northrup Ave., N. W. Grand Rapids, Mich.
Dear Mr. Editor:
The two articles, “The Modern Tongues Movement” and “The Pentecostals – What About Them?” in the August 1971 issue of THE OUTLOOK, were of particular interest to this reader; and, in response to your comment in the last paragraph of your editorial requesting additional information to enable you to find and report the solution or the answer, I would like to submit for your consideration some accumulated th011ghis on the subject of The Speaking With Tongues (I Cor. 12–14).
We all agree that this phenomenon present in the early New Testament Church at Corinth was definitely a gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul practiced it, as he says, more than any of his fellow believers. Also, we know that the gift of interpreting tongues was likewise a gift of the Holy Spirit, as Scripture reveals. Moreover we know that when this gift was practiced, it was to be done under the strict rules which limited its use to the edification of the church and not for personal display of talent.
While much has been said and written on this subject, my particular thoughts center upon an aspect of it which I fail to have yet heard aired. This is contained in I Corinthians 14:21,22:
“In the law (ref. Isa. 28: 11, 12) it is written, ‘With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; find yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying [preaching] serveth not to them that believe not, but for them that believe.’”
There, I believe, we have an explanation of the whole matter. I believe it should settle it for us, once for all. So, I submit the following comments:
a. It was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Isa. 28:11, 12).
b. It is called “a sign.” Signs are temporary and for a specific purpose. It is what might be termed a “contrary” or “negative” sign; i.e., with no positive blessing, but rather a testimony against unbelieving Israel (“not to them that believe but to them that believe not”).
This seems to be similar to another such fulfilled prophecy found in Matthew 13:14, 15: “Hearing they shall not hear, and seeing they shall not see, etc.” (cf. Isa. 6:9).
c. Because of this severely negative, rebuking aspect of this prophecy fulfillment, I believe strongly that this Speaking With Tongues should not he condoned in church circles today, not even granting a possibility that “maybe these people have something which we don’t know about.”
Just an added thought: Chapter 14:23–25, by way of contrast, shows us the beautiful fruits of preaching the Word (prophesying) which “tongues” evidently could not accomplish.
“If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that arc unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.”
ANDREW PETERSON
116 N. Park St., Spring Lake, Mich. 49456
Editor of THE OUTLOOK:
The articles and editorials appearing in THE OUTLOOK on speaking in tongues, with the solicitations for comment, incite one to make an observation.
The miracle wrought by God on that Pentecost day was analyzed squarely by Peter. He resorted to Scripture for the answer. God’s Word is its own interpreter.
There is another miracle in Bible history which has a bearing on this event.
God’s Spirit did not continue to strive with that first ecumenical world. It was wiped out by the flood and God locked the door of His church enclosing eight people.
In Genesis 10, we read the genealogy of Noah’s sons and generations whom God divided according to tongues and nations, the account of which is found in Genesis 11. Unified as they were in language, God obliterated their vocabulary from the memory of this race. That was a miracle of some proportion.
From secular history we learn that a Russian gentleman by the name of Dr. Zamerhof, under the pseudonym “Esperanto,” tried again to establish a universal language. He failed.
God separated mankind to keep them apart and to have a semblance of order in this wicked world.
God can make a dumb animal talk to serve His purpose (Num. 22:28).
In Acts 2 we have the record of a miracle the direct opposite from that which occurred at the tower of Babel. A number of Galileans were qualified to speak foreign languages without any prior schooling. Hearing them, the foreign visitors were amazed and asked: “What meaneth this?”
We ask the same question.
This event was a prophetic miracle conveying that God would make His truth known and proclaimed in all languages. This is happening today. God’s Word has been translated into a thousand tongues or more.
The kingdom of God is not extended by some sort of bombast, or by a grouping of several large denominations into one larger organization, by sitting on the floor strumming banjos, neither by working oneself up into an ecstatic frenzy and uttering guttural sounds. No, God’s Kingdom is advanced in the hearts of men, by a still small voice.
There is an example of this small voice in action in the book of Acts. The Ethiopian riding his chariot searched the Word. The Spirit of God led Philip to his side. They read and communed together, resulting in the Ethiopian being convinced, convicted, and converted.
Proclaim and expose the Word. God will give the increase.
F.J. TEPPER
1300 Northrup Ave., N. W. Grand Rapids, Mich.
Dear Mr. Editor:
The two articles, “The Modern Tongues Movement” and “The Pentecostals – What About Them?” in the August 1971 issue of THE OUTLOOK, were of particular interest to this reader; and, in response to your comment in the last paragraph of your editorial requesting additional information to enable you to find and report the solution or the answer, I would like to submit for your consideration some accumulated th011ghis on the subject of The Speaking With Tongues (I Cor. 12–14).
We all agree that this phenomenon present in the early New Testament Church at Corinth was definitely a gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul practiced it, as he says, more than any of his fellow believers. Also, we know that the gift of interpreting tongues was likewise a gift of the Holy Spirit, as Scripture reveals. Moreover we know that when this gift was practiced, it was to be done under the strict rules which limited its use to the edification of the church and not for personal display of talent.
While much has been said and written on this subject, my particular thoughts center upon an aspect of it which I fail to have yet heard aired. This is contained in I Corinthians 14:21,22:
“In the law (ref. Isa. 28: 11, 12) it is written, ‘With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; find yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying [preaching] serveth not to them that believe not, but for them that believe.’”
There, I believe, we have an explanation of the whole matter. I believe it should settle it for us, once for all. So, I submit the following comments:
a. It was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Isa. 28:11, 12).
b. It is called “a sign.” Signs are temporary and for a specific purpose. It is what might be termed a “contrary” or “negative” sign; i.e., with no positive blessing, but rather a testimony against unbelieving Israel (“not to them that believe but to them that believe not”).
This seems to be similar to another such fulfilled prophecy found in Matthew 13:14, 15: “Hearing they shall not hear, and seeing they shall not see, etc.” (cf. Isa. 6:9).
c. Because of this severely negative, rebuking aspect of this prophecy fulfillment, I believe strongly that this Speaking With Tongues should not he condoned in church circles today, not even granting a possibility that “maybe these people have something which we don’t know about.”
Just an added thought: Chapter 14:23–25, by way of contrast, shows us the beautiful fruits of preaching the Word (prophesying) which “tongues” evidently could not accomplish.
“If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that arc unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.”
ANDREW PETERSON
116 N. Park St., Spring Lake, Mich. 49456