Jesus Never Spoke In Tongues

Chapter 7

On Thursday, October 24, 1974, forty persons gathered in Richardson, West Virginia to pay their last respects to Lonnie Richardson. It was the second funeral in two months for the family. Both Lonnie and his father-in-law, Talmadge Adkins, died because they believed that the New Testament signs are for our day.

Mark 16: 17,18 said, “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.” They believed this verse applies to all Christians in all times.

They picked up large deadly rattlesnakes. They were bitten. They both died. But deaths do not discourage the others. The sect goes right on “taking up the serpent.” “Didn’t Paul survive the viper’s deadly bite? God is the same today as he was then.

Here the error of the tongues people and others who teach that God must still do today what He did in New Testament times is very clearly seen. Tongues, like Paul’s survival of a vipers bite, was a sign, “Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not …” (1 Cor. 14:22).

 

Like all of God’s signs they cease. “Signs” are rare, unusual events.

The present fascination with the “‘tongues” at Pentecost is understandable. Men are naturally intrigued by signs. The heathen are amused by them. The saints prefer them, choosing rather to see something than just to believe what God says. Herrod, who beheaded John the Baptist, “Was desirous to see him (Jesus) of a long season, because he had heard many things of Him, and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by Him” (Luke 23:8). The disciples, pressed Jesus with this request, “What shall be the sign of thy coming” (Matt. 24:3).

The intriguing thing about a sign is its uniqueness. It is something so unusual it grabs attention. Most signs from God were seen only one time. Non of them were given more than a few times. Had it been otherwise, they would have soon lost their effectiveness. When the unusual is repeated until it becomes common, it no longer qualifies as a sign. The very definition of the word “sign” demands it must cease.

I.   Tongues Have Ceased Because Jesus….is the Same Yesterday, Today and ForeverIt is a very hard thing for men to accept, but God only gives signs when “He pleases.” The Pharisees and the Saducees forgot their “denominational” differences when they came to Jesus to request a “sign” (Matt. 16: 4). Jesus said to them, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas…” (Matt. 16:4).     

 

When signs have served their purpose they cease. God never changes this. God parted the waters of the Red Sea, but that ceased as they came back together to part no more. A sign appeared to the children of Israel when a cloud guided their journey by day. When its purpose was served, the sign ceased.

A sign was given to Jonas when a great fish rescued him from drowning and delivered him to shore. Preachers today have to cross the water by ship or lane, the sign has ceased. A sign appeared to the wise men . A star guided them to Jesus. When its purpose was finished such a sign was to be seen no more. It ceased. Over nineteen hundred years ago a sign was given to unbelievers as they heard men speak in their own language wherein they were born. (I Cor. 14:22).

When its purpose was completed it ceased (I Cor. 13:8). Now if God has not changed, He still gives his “signs” only for a very brief time. The disciples had to wait 50 days until Pentecost because God NEVER gave signs for “all” times. Signs have always been for unusual, rare occasions.

The strongest reason I have for believing that tongues have ceased is Hebrews 13:8. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.” If signs were rare things in olden times I certainly don’t believe God has changed in modern times and extended one “sign” for 2,000 years.

 

If God is Still Doing What He Did in Apostolic Times, Why Aren’t We Raising the Dead Like Peter and Paul?

God’s word says, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven” (Eccl. 3:1). In New Testament times they were reading the promise in Isaiah 31 that the desert of Israel would bloom and bring forth abundantly after the Jews returned. They could not see this fulfilled because it was not the season God had willed. We can see this sign today, but they could not. Likewise, we can look back and say, “I want to see all the things fulfilled that were done in New Testament times.” But we will not. The season for these things has past.

I am continually challenged by people who want to argue that all the New Testament signs are for our day. My first reply is always the same. “If you believe that lets head out to the cemetery and you raise someone from the dead. Then I will believe what you say. If you cannot raise someone from the dead then it is very evident that God is not still doing what He did in New Testament times.”

Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after his body was decomposing (John 1 1:43, 44). Likewise, Peter raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts C):39-41). Paul restored the dead to life (Acts 20:9-12).

It is always tragic to see cases where sincere people have been successfully deceived and deluded into believing God is still doing what He did in New Testament times. We could all weep over the sincerity and tragedy of the family in West Virginia that refused medical treatment for their boy believing God was going to heal him. After he died they prayed for days declaring God was going to raise him from the dead. God did not. How tragic the disappointment that is fostered by false beliefs.                                                                                         

Sincere people who have trusted their leaders to tell them the truth and have believed God is still doing what He did in New Testament times are easy prey for religious “conn-men.”

Missionary, N. I. Saloff-Astakhoff relates a case that was reported in a 1926 edition of the Russian magazine “The Baptist.” It reported, “The zenowev district is swarming with Pentecostals. There is much disorder and confusion. Before Easter the prophetess of the Pentecostals, Antonia, announced that she would die. She called the relatives together, then she stretched out on the floor and became quiet. A crowd gathered. They felt her feet and hands, they were cold. The only warm spot was at the throat. Then the prophet Dvorsky spoke, commanding silence, he said, ‘Sister Antonia, I say unto you, arise. ”The dead woman sat up, and with closed eyes told the assembled people that she had been in the third heaven, had heard much, had seen Jesus and the angels.” In two days she told her husband that she was now his wife only in spirit, after the flesh she belonged to the prophet who had raised her from the dead. She soon left her husband for the prophet, bringing disgrace upon her family, and the Lord Jesus.

These are the kind of rip-offs that have occurred among people who believe God is still doing what He did in New Testament times.

In New Testament times God was revealing himself through books in the Bible. Are any books being written today? God was healing by means of a shadow of a man and allowing the disciples to walk on water, is He still doing what He did in New Testament times, allowing someone to walk on the water?

 

The Bible plainly says that, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8). Christ is always the same. His dealings with men change. Thank God they do. For thirty years Jesus walked on earth without healing or performing miracles. Then He CHANGED His dealings with men. He started healing and performing other miracles. Jesus did not change at the age of 30. He only changed His dealings with men. He still changes this just as always.

We could all respect the tongues teachers as honest men if they would either raise the dead, heal with their shadow, walk on water, bring us some new epistles for our Bible or stand up and admit the truth that God is not still doing what He did in New Testament times.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Eccl. 3:1). The season for the particular New Testament miracles, tongues included, has passed. God is performing miracles today, many of them, and giving signs. But the ones for our day are new, they are different, they are unique. God is not still doing the same things He did in New Testament times.

 

1. The Purpose For Tongues Has Been Realized. There is No Reason For Them Now.

 

One of the prime reasons people believe that the gift of tongues is for today is that they do not understand why God gave the gift of tongues. The key to understanding the purpose of tongues is I Cor. 14:22. The passage says, “Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not:…” Here it is made clear so that anyone can understand that tongues are a “sign.” And it tells us who it is a sign to “to them that believe not.” The tongues people today say that it is a sign that someone has received the baptism.        

This is error. This is a modern, man-made teaching. This hides the reason that God gave the gift of tongues. They were a sign, “to them that believe not.”

 

At Pentecost tongues (the gift to speak unlearned foreign languages) were a sign to the unbelieving Jews. The scripture says, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). The sign astonished the unbelievers: “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilean’s” (Acts 2:5-7)?

Tongues were a sign to the unbelieving Gentiles in Caesarea. Peter went down to the household of Cornelius. He preached to them. “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we” (Acts 10:44-47)?

 

Now God first gave a sign to the Jews who did not believe in Christ that this was the Messiah when He enabled the Galileans to speak in the languages of all nations. Again He astonished the Jews (who did not believe God would accept Gentiles) by repeating the exact same miracle among the Gentiles.  Acts 11:1-8 is Peter’s argument that God had accepted Gentiles because they had received the Holy Spirit, as confirmed by the super-natural language gift.

The sign was effective for when Peter got up before the unbelieving Jews at Jerusalem (Acts 11:2) we read, “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I, that I could withstand God? When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life” (Acts 11:17, 18).

And so the Jews who did not believe God would grant grace to the Gentiles were convinced. The sign of tongues was a success.

 

The only other case where tongues speaking is recorded is at Corinth. Once again it was a “sign” to unbelievers. “And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue” (Acts 18:5-7).

When Paul testified in the synagogue that Jesus was the Christ the unbelieving Jews opposed and blasphemed. So Paul just moved next door to the synagogue into a man’s home and started a church. Here again God gave these unbelievers a “sign.” Men spoke in languages they had not learned. As Paul’s letter to that church in Corinth said, “Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe Ilot: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe” (I Cor. 14:22).                                        

 

Some have raised the question of why Paul spoke in tongues more than all the Corinthians. “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:” (I Cor. 14. 18). The reason is obvious. Paul, a missionary, was constantly invading the territories of unbelievers. Therefore he could have used the sign God had given for these unbelievers, speaking in their own language. Of course, Paul could have “learned” his many tongues. We have no way of knowing which it was.

In Hebrews this purpose is clearly explained again. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will” (Heb. 2:3, 4).

And How Hear We Every Man in Our Own Tongue,

 Wherein We Were Born?

 

Two very important things regarding tongues are said here. First of all their purpose was to bear witness and confirm the words spoken by Jesus about this great salvation. The rushing, mighty wind, the tongues of fire, and the super-natural gift to speak languages they had not learned, were all given as a witness from God that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the true salvation. Second, we are reminded these gifts are given according to His will. Just because we might want one of them, or think we need one of them, it does not mean that God will give it. It’s according to “His'” will, not “ours.”

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry God bore witness to confirm His Son. At His baptism a voice spoke from heaven saying, ” … This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). We do not hear a voice coming out of heaven today saying “This is my beloved Son” because He confirmed it once, that was enough. The purpose for that witness was completed. God has never chosen to bear that witness again; In the New Testament He bore witness to the gospel of Christ with the gift of tongues. He did it then, that was enough.

 

When the church began its ministry to the Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles and pagans, God confirmed them with tongues, signs, wonders, divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Now once something has been confirmed, once it has been documented, written down and recorded, it does not need to be repeated. Unless, of course, a man did not believe the record. There is no possible reason for tongues being needed again, except in a case of someone who did not believe the Bible record.

 

III.   If Tongues Have Not Ceased Why Aren’t the Heathen Marveling as They Did at Pentecost ?

 

Have you ever seen great crowds gathering of unbelieving heathens from many different nations and all of the unbelievers exclaiming “now hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born?” Men have not changed. The super-natural gift of being able to speak in tongues that had never been learned would still be amazing. The reason we are not getting Pentecostal reaction is because we do not have the Pentecostal tongues. We are not hearing “Every man in our own tongue wherein we were born” (Acts 2:6).If the sign of tongues was the same today wouldn’t you expect the results to be the same today? The Pentecostal gift of tongues produced a very clear reaction. “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? … we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:5-8, 11).    

 

IV. History Establishes That Tongues Have Ceased

 

The two great knowledgeable leaders of the post apostolic church were Chrysostom and Augustine.  Chrysostom represented the Eastern section of the church. Augustine represented the Western section of the church including North Africa. If tongues speaking had been going on anywhere in this Christian world after the apostolic days they would have undoubtedly known about it.

But Chrysostom who lived from 345 to 407 AD), said in his commentary on I Cor. 12:1,2, “This old place is very obscure; but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such then used to occur but now no longer take place.”

Augustine, who lived from 354 to 430 AD, comments on I John, “The earliest time, the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed and they spoke with tongues which they had not learned, as the Spirit gave them utterance. These were signs adapted to the times, for there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to show that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth. That thing was done for a betokening and it passed away.”

 

If tongues had been going on anywhere in the post-apostolic church it is evident Chrysostom or Augustine would have known of it. They said it had disappeared. John Calvin, who was referred to as the theologian of the Holy Spirit, regarded tongues as “temporary.”

No one could doubt that the Holy Spirit did a marvelous work during the days of the Reformation. But not one of the reformers spoke in tongues. Johnathan Edwards, who lived in the time of the great Early American revival, wrote that prophecy and tongues were for the infant church and with the completion of the New Testament Canon were no longer necessary.

At the beginning of this century there were great revivals in China and Korea. But the sign of tongues did not appear. Dr. Jonathan Goforth who was very much a leader in Honan was strongly opposed to all such manifestations.

At no time since the days of the Apostles has history recorded that Christians received the ability to speak in languages they had not learned.

 

1. If Tongues Have Not Ceased Why do the Charismatics Practice Such Absurd “Pump Priming”

 

Andrew Jackson Roddy use to speak in modern, so-called; tongues. He served as a minister in the Pentecostal movement. In his printed testimony Mr. Roddy reveals that the ridiculous methods of promoting tongues in a congregation helped him see through the fakery of it all. After serving as a missionary in Panama and Cuba he visited a church in South Carolina.                                    

Roddy said that during the message and the invitation the church evidenced no concern in getting anyone to surrender to Jesus. After a dead service and a dead altar call old Brother Joe would take out his battered guitar rest his big right foot on the altar rail and start singing some tuneless, rhythmical song.

Roddy relates, “He strummed his guitar and sang in his hoarse voice pounding the time into the rostrum with his left foot. One could seldom hear the words or distinguish the melody, but the rhythm was there, which was apparently the only needed factor. One by one those Holy Ghost people who would not witness now began to jerk, then they yelled Glory! or some such expression then to rise and begin the jumping, finding their way to the isle somehow. Invariably there was jumping, hand clapping, singing, tongues, and all the other proofs of the Spirit, until Joe stopped his music. Then the demonstration subsided. This began to disgust me. I began to see through it all. I observed that there is an inseparable connection between Stamps Baxter… and the physical demonstrations of the Pentecostal movements. “

 

Wynn A. Robinson tells of an interesting three day conference on tongues in a Midwestern city. One of the women at the conference had not received the gift of tongues. A pastor used a phrase he likened unto “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” The woman said she had never been able to say this without getting the words mixed up. “Exactly!” he exclaimed. He then proceeded to order her to march around the room following him and repeating the words, “Blessed Jesus suffering Saviour, save the sin sick souls of sinful sinners.

We wait, willingly, wantingly, wonderfully, wistfully right now. Sure enough she marched around the room repeating the words fast, then slow, then fast again, and finally lost control.

Her tongue went to making strange noises. The pastor announced what they were hearing was what happened on the day of Pentecost. She had the gift of tongues.

One man told me they got him to an altar during a Full Gospel Businessmen’s Meeting in Texas. They encouraged him to speak in tongues, but nothing happened. They held his hands up over his head, but nothing happened. They prayed for him and laid hands on him, but nothing happened. They had him repeat words faster and faster, but nothing happened.

Finally in desperation one brother shouted, reached into his mouth with his fingers, took hold of his tongue and started shaking it and commanding, “Lord loose it.” The friend told me he got up and left. He could not believe that all this would be necessary to receive a gift from God.

 

In “Christianity Today” Edward Plowman told of a book by a charismatic priest in which youths preparing for conformation are advised to make sounds like baby talk, gibbrish, or to copy someone who speaks in tongues until your gift flows.”

As a boy in the country, when I saw a man out priming a pump I knew that the water was not flowing. After watching all of the absurd fakery and ridiculous “pump priming” in the charismatic movement I am certain that the gift has ceased to flow and the sign of tongues is not being given today.

 

VI.  The Word of God Plainly Says That Tongues Were Not a Permanent Gift

 

Tongues Were Not a Permanent Gift, that they would cease. Paul devoted the entire 13 chapter  of  the book  of  I Cor.  To one point, “love is the proof of spirituality.”   Jesus said it in the verse, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). In I Cor. 13 Paul spends 13 verses saying the same thing. The test of spirituality is love. He very pointedly says “though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, (or love) I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal”.

One of the reasons Paul gives for the superiority of love over tongues is, it is permanent, while tongues will “cease;” “‘Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (I Cor. 13:8). There it is very plainly. Tongues do not prove anything. You could be a tinkling cymbal or sounded brass and have tongues. And then too, tongues will not last. They will pass away. Men will not speak in them any more. They are a temporary gift. Pat Boone left his entertaining long enough to enlighten us by his book entitled “A New Song.” In it he presented the typical glossolalia twisting of this passage of scripture. Mr. Boone, in presenting the usual glossolalia position says that tongues will cease, but not until Jesus Christ returns. In attempting to use I Cor. 13 to prove that tongues will not cease until Jesus returns, Mr. Boone has fallen into five errors.

 

The same five errors all the others who hold a similar position make. ‘The first error is in applying the ninth and tenth verses to tongues. I Cor. 13.9 says, “For we know in part, and we prophecy in part.” It does not say that we speak in tongues in part. The tenth verse continues, “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”

Now what is it that is going to be done away with when that which is perfect is come? The Bible answers, “that which is in part.” And what is in part? Verse nine tells us we know in part and we prophecy in part. To apply the 10th verse to tongues is a clear failure to rightly divide the word of truth. The things which will stop when that which is perfect is come will be the two things the Bible has listed: knowledge and prophecy, which is all it says. To apply it to tongues is certainly to add to the word of God.

Mr. Boone’s second mistake is a grammatical error. He says the antecedent “that” refers to Jesus in verse 10 “that which is perfect.” But it is neuter gender, referring to an inanimate object, not to a person. Obviously, “that which is perfect” could not refer to Jesus Christ. (Most Biblical scholars understand this, “that which is perfect,” as a reference to the revelation of God which we have now compiled in the Bible).

The third error is a logical error. If knowledge and prophecy were to be done away with at the coming of Jesus it does not necessarily mean that God will keep adding to the prophecies and the super-natural knowledge given us in the New Testament days until the day Christ arrives. I once did away with an automobile that was twelve years old but it was built in a matter of weeks and remained as it was twelve years. Then it was done away with. We did not keep adding to the automobile for twelve years. Likewise, the fact that prophecy and knowledge will be done away with at some point in time does not necessitate that God keeps adding to the prophecies and knowledge until that point. It only necessitates that whatever knowledge and whatever prophecy had been given at some point in the past would no longer be needed because of a new revelation.                           

 

Mr. Boone’s fourth error in applying verses 11 and 12 to verse 10 is evident. Verse 12 says, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” You cannot prove by any means that this necessarily refers to verse 10 which says “when that which is perfect is come.” It could refer to it. Or it could not refer to it. Mr. Boone does not allow for both possibilities.

The fifth error is a Biblical one. To teach that tongues, knowledge and prophecy will not cease until Jesus comes is to plainly ignore Revelation 22: 18. “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.”

Now nothing could be plainer. The Revelation John received from God on the Isle of Patmos wraps it up. The gift: of prophecy has ceased. Any man that brings forth any new prophecies to add to the Revelation of John will receive the plagues that are written in the Book of Revelation. Prophecy has ceased.

 

John Smith, the founder of Mormonism fell into the same error of Pat Boone. He believed that the gifts of tongues and prophecy were to continue to the Lord’s return. He even came up with new prophecies and new revelations which he said allowed us to take many wives.

‘And now we have a modern parallel to Smith. An oriental Guru has come prophesying that he’s taking up where Jesus left’ off. He says he will succeed where Jesus failed. Millions are following him. (It is one of the fastest growing errors in our day. Millions of dollars are being poured into his ministry).

 

All of this because men have failed to rightly divide the word of truth. Tongues shall cease and prophecy shall cease as the Apostle said. “If any one adds to the words of the prophecy of Revelation they will receive the plagues of Revelation.”

 

VII.   It Has Been Thoroughly Proven by Linguist That No One Today Can Speak in Tongues

 

If you listened to countless rumors circulating in the glossolalia circles you would believe they actually have the gift of Pentecostal “tongues.” Pat Boone goes so far as to claim that his wife miraculously received the gift of the Latin language.

Now the facts are that since the invention of the tape recorder many, many missionary organizations, universities and individual Christians have recorded tongues and sought to prove a repetition of the miracle at Pentecost. Not one of them has ever established that God had given any of these glossolalist the gift of tongues. The American Bible Society has spent many hours listening to live recorded tongue speaking. To this date not one single example has ever been identified as any known language modern or ancient.  The Toronto Institute of Linguistics played the tapes of tongues and never found one to be a language.

 

A group of governmental linguists at our nations capitol studied tapes of tongues and never found one case of any kind of language.

Cutten cited that Mosiman traced every claim he could find of people speaking in foreign languages by the Spirit of God. After years of searching he failed to find one single case that was authentic.

Later, Mr. George B. Cutten examined many claims of foreign languages given by the Spirit of God. He too failed to find one single authentic case.'” Not only can modern tongues not present, they bear none of the marks of any possible language. William E. Welmers, Professor of African Language at the University of California has had personal contact with and knowledge of over 100 languages representing most of the world’s major language families. We has never been able to find a language or a similarity to a language. Mr. Welmers pointed out some interesting facts, like tongue speaking today contains no more that two contrasting vowel sounds and a very few syllable clusters which reoccur many times in various orders! (Even if they discovered they were using an “ancient” language, it would not duplicate Pentecost where “current” languages were spoken).

 

There is one very interesting thing these studies have turned up that makes us more suspicious of the modern tongues. Whatever country you are in the tongue speaking in that country is akin to their “native language.” Mr. Welmer concluded that in the American Pentecostals the intonation patterns are completely American English. Mr. Waiter A. Wolfram analyzed glossolalia and discovered that the tongues speaking was clearly related to the language background of the speakers. He said they had obviously drawn’ “phonemes” (speech sounds) from their own native language. This is, to say the least, most suspicious!

Another fact the glossolalia people cannot escape is there is no match between the tongue and the interpretation. Often the message in tongues will be given and then the interpreter will repeat it in English and it will be so much longer that linguistics rule it completely impossible for there to be an honest link between the two.

On the day of Pentecost God gave a sign. The people heard them speak in their own languages in which they were born (Acts 2:6-8). It was a miracle. Whatever today’s strange noises may be they most definitely are not those heard at Pentecost. The gift of tongues has ceased.

All the zealous substitutes that may be offered will not do. God is not opening the Red Sea today. He’s not transporting preachers in a whale today and He is not giving the super-natural gift of languages today. Wisdom demands that it is time that we got in on what God is doing today such as miraculously converting wicked sinners, healing the sick when the elders pray for them and fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East, etc. God is doing a “new work.” This is a day of miraculous fulfillment of prophecy. Miraculous healings are happening.

Miraculous conversions are taking place. We live in a day of fantastic signs and wonders. But the sign of speaking in tongues we have not learned is not one of today’s signs. God never changes. He once transported a man inside a fish.

Then “inner-fish” travel ceased. He onced opened the Red Sea to let, a nation through. Then “across the sea” walking ceased He once gave a group of Galileans the ability to speak 16 languages they had not learned. Then tongues ceased. God NEVER changes. His signs always, always, CEASE!

—Copyright, M.A.E.A.

 

FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH

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