Tongues

I am reading a book titled The Gifts of the Spirit by Derek Prince, and am finding it very insightful with regards to the workings of the Holy Spirit. It is fun to awaken some old memory files (from high school) with regards to some of the information contained therein. Such as ministry gifts (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers), and the nine gifts of the spirit; the revelation gifts (wisdom, knowledge and discernment), the power gifts (faith, healings and workings of miracles), and the vocal gifts (tongues, interpretation and prophecy). It is the latter gifts that were and still are a tad confusing to me. It is this confusion that brings me to ask for some clarification.

Mr. Prince gives a basic definition to the vocal gifts and notes that they “are not intended to be all-encompassing, but rather practical introductions.”

Kinds of tongues – ability given by the Holy Spirit to speak in a language not understood by the speaker.

Interpretation of tongues – ability given by the Holy Spirit to speak, in a language understood by the speaker, the meaning of words previously spoken in an unknown language.

Prophecy – ability to speak words given by the Holy Spirit in a language understood by the speaker.

These gifts are under our control and we are therefore responsible for what we do with them. This I understand. What is troublesome to me (lack of understanding) is “kinds of tongues”. Prince states that there are two kinds – that which is private versus public. Private would be like deep spiritual conversations with God alone and not edified publicly. Public gift is for the edification of an assembly of believers. As the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Cor 12:8-10 (I think) ‘first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after those miracles, the gifts of healings…” Basically the ministry of the word takes precedence over all other forms of ministry and has final authority. I have paraphrased what Prince has in his book, but I understand the basic concept here. It is the tongues for public assembly that have me perplexed – is the speaking of tongues publicly the use of a language not familiar with the speaker (e.g., my native tongue is English but when so directed I start speaking in say the native tongue of a group of Africans while I was on a mission trip to that area). OR would the kinds of tongues mean the ability to praise the Lord in a meaningful way or the ability to all of a sudden give a specific prayer that a person or situation needs or for the group as a whole (intercessory tongue) to be directed rightly and know the will of the Lord?

In his book Prince talks about four kinds of tongues: praise, Intercession, rebuke, and exhortation which is to be followed by interpretation in order to be fully understood. There are examples of each which make sense – again my confusion is over the language used unknown to the speaker but understood by the listeners (example above) or is it in the language of the speaker and understood by like users of the language?

Perhaps I am being nit-picky here and if so then I have been since high school, although at the time I just let it roll off my back.

Any thoughts to this would be appreciated. Thanks - Cecelia

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Thank you, Cecelia, for a great question that gets our Granbury group ready to study Acts 2.

The doctrine of "tongues" can be a touchy subject, one that has divided Christians for quite some time, especially since the rise of Pentecostalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Derek Prince was a well-known charismatic leader who influenced millions through his books and radio broadcasts. Although his theological categories were not similar to my own Reformed perspective, he was a deeply respected Christian leader and became actively involved in trying to heal some of the excesses of the charismatic movement.

My own position on the doctrine of tongues has yo-yoed over the years. I've seen its divisiveness in churches I have pastored and I've seen it's blessings in the believers of many different churches who genuinely love the Lord. My own study leads me to conclude that there are, as Prince states, two kinds of "tongues" mentioned in the New Testament: the private "groanings too deep for words" (Romans 8) and the public miracle of language as described in Acts 2.

Luke describes the miracle of tongues as happening when new believers believe the Gospel and receive the Holy Spirit. There is no normative pattern of Holy Spirit filling in the book of Acts, but Luke clearly understands the gift to be one of speaking in authentic languages. It's possible for example that Cornelius, a Roman, begins to recite Jewish Scripture in praise of God. He was a God-fearer who knew the Psalms and it seems perfectly reasonable to expect he began to sing or pray the Hebrew words of God in joy inexpressible in his native Latin.

The letters of Paul deal with a different matter. There was (and still is) a phenomenon among the Greek mystery religions of people speaking gibberish when in a state of emotional ecstasy (much like a sports fan may let go with a stream of unintelligible syllables at a game-winning play). Converts in Corinth were bringing this behavior into public worship and creating chaos in the assembly of believers. Paul is willing to acknowledges the private gift of prayer language that edifies the believer, but he strictly regulates public expression in worship to real languages capable of being translated.

Charismatics sources have always supplied anecdotal evidence of people in prayer meetings suddenly speaking a language unknown to them and people from another place in the world understanding what is being said. However, at my last study of this subject, all of those instances were undocumented and fall into the category of urban myths.

But God's call is not limited to our human skills. The Scriptures say that speaking in languages not known to us but known to God and sometimes to others is a gift of the Holy Spirit, although described as the least of the gifts. I Corinthians 13 was not written to be read at a wedding, but the description of how God's gifts function, most especially the gift of tongues.

"If I speak with the tongues of men or of angels (there's the two types)..., but have no love, I am a noisy gong or crashing cymbal."