The Gift of Tongues – Part III

What Was the Purpose of Tongues in the New Testament?

We have shown so far that while the circumstances varied, the substance of tongues in the book of Acts and in 1 Corinthians 12-14 were essentially the same. They were all ordinary human languages. But now we move on to the purpose of the gift of tongues. Do those purposes change from what we read in Acts to what we see in Paul’s words to the Corinthians?

For the answer to that question, we might return to that most signal event at Pentecost in Acts 2. In discussing the nature of tongues, we have already seen that the gift of tongues were ordinary human languages given for the primary purpose of advancing the Gospel among various linguistic groups (vv. 6-11). However there is a second purpose intended that the Apostle Peter states in Acts 2:16-21. It relates to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy:

But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The son shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Peter enlarges our understanding of the significance of what is happening at Pentecost when he quotes this prophecy of Joel and then prefaces it by saying, “this is that.” We might have otherwise understood Pentecost to be a miraculous event wrought of God but fail to appreciate its significance. The quotation of this old prophecy and Peter’s additional assertion as to its fulfillment opens to us a more perfect understanding of the scale upon which Pentecost rates in the full view of redemptive history.

 

Now this is not all. Although the Apostle Peter is moved to only cite this particular passage from the prophecy of Joel, the fulfillment of other prophecies hinged upon this event as well. We will look to another Old Testament passage in a moment. Of interest to our present discussion on the gift of tongues, however, there is the prophecy of our Lord Jesus in Mark 16:17. Although tongues are not specifically mentioned by Joel as one of the signs to be expected in the last days, the Lord Jesus gives us another list that does:

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

 

A third purpose for the gift of tongues in the New Testament appears in all three of our cases where the gift appears in the book of Acts. At those times, the gift of tongues appears to signify the arrival and presence of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit is given at Pentecost, the sound of rushing wind and shaking buildings accompanies the tongues that are then spoken by all. At the home of Cornelius, it is when the Gentiles begin to speak the gift of tongues that the Jews present acknowledge that the Holy Spirit has been given to them also. Then when the Ephesian disciples of John the Baptist speak in tongues, it appears to be a direct result of the Apostle Paul having laid his hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit.

This reason is not so apparent later in the Corinthian context. In that passage, we learn that tongues can be spoken to no effect and even in a manner that is contrary to the Spirit of God. At this point in the unfolding of divine revelation to His Church, God is pleased to gift only select individuals with the ability to speak in tongues, but it is with tight controls, such as the kind Paul commands in 1 Corinthians 14:28.

Although this distinction exists between the purpose of tongues in Acts and 1 Corinthians 12-14, some have argued from 1 Corinthians 14:21 that the prophecy of Isaiah in 1 Corinthians 14:21 indicates that there is yet another purpose for the gift of tongues: a sign to unbelievers.

In the law it is written with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and 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.

It is possible that the Apostle is describing another dimension of the gift of tongues that the Bible has elsewhere yet to introduce to us. But it is also possible that by shifting the discussion somewhat to the superiority of prophecy, the apostle is not currently speaking about the actual gift of tongues in the same way he did before. Commentators differ upon this question. Wayne Grudem has criticized cessationists that believe that this text speaks of a covenantal curse upon Jews that reject the Gospel. He has rightly pointed out that in 1 Cor. 14, Paul makes no distinction of Jews and Gentiles at Corinth and therefore nothing is being fulfilled here at Corinth as it was in Acts 2 with the Joel prophecy. Charles Hodge, distinct from these others, argues that the key to unlocking this passage is the context of Isaiah chapter 28:

He does not quote the passage as having any prophetic reference to the events in Corinth; much less does he give an allegorical interpretation of it in order to make it a condemnation of speaking with tongues. It is a simple reference to a signal event in the Jewish history from which the Corinthians might derive a useful lesson. The Jews had refused to hear the prophets speaking their own language, and God threatened to bring upon them a people whose language they could not understand. This was a judgment; a mark of displeasure designed as a punishment and not for their conversion. From this the Corinthians might learn that it was no mark of the divine favour to have teachers whose language they could not understand. They were turning a blessing into a curse. The gift of tongues was designed, among other things, to facilitate the propagation of the gospel, by enabling Christians to address people of various nations in his own language. Used for this purpose it was a blessing; but to employ it for the sake of display, in addressing those who could not understand the language employed, was to make it a curse… By tongues, however, is not to be understood the gift of tongues, but, as v. 21 requires, foreign languages, i.e. languages unknown to the hearers. The meaning is, that when a people are disobedient, God sends them teachers whom they cannot understand; when they are obedient, he sends them prophets speaking their own language. This is the natural conclusion from the premise contained in v. 21… It must be remembered that it is not the gift of tongues of which the apostle speaks, but speaking to people in a language which they do not understand. And therefore this interpretation does not imply any disparagement of the gift in question.

If Hodge is correct, then the apostle is not speaking of the fulfillment of a prophetic curse on the Jews, as current cessationists such as Walter Chantry argue.15 But nor would the absence of Jewish hearers in the Corinthian church strengthen the case of continuists such as Wayne Grudem. The apostle Paul would be doing something far more simple. He references Isaiah only in order to teach his Corinthian flock a lesson from biblical history.