SPEAKING IN TONGUES: Part I

Many Christians today feel like they are not filled by the Holy Spirit until they speak in tongues. Their teachers have told them that speaking in tongues is the sign that reveals that a person has been filled with the Holy Spirit.

First of all, it all begins in our poor Pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit). It is unfortunate that many Christians, and scholars inclusive, consider the Holy Spirit to be some sort of power from God and not God himself.

What you may or may not know, my friends is that there is one God, who became flesh and dwelt among us, and we called him Jesus Christ. It is that very same God who died an eternal death for us at the Cross (vicarious death), and he is the very God who resurrected and got out of the grave for those who believe in him to attain eternal life, and he is the same God who ascended into the clouds, promising to be with us wherever we are gathered two or three.

It is this very God who dwells among us and in us as the Holy Spirit.

So I think we should begin from this point of view. The Holy Spirit is not an instrumental divine power but God himself who instrumentally operates in, and with, Christians purposefully.

Until we understand this truth that God is one and he is the creator (Genesis 1:1) and the redeemer I AM (Exodus 3) who has always manifested himself in the form of flesh and we called him Jesus (John 1:1-3, 14, Titus 2:14), and the same God, after death, resurrection and ascended in the flesh has come again (descended= Ephesians 4:9-10) to us differently and we have now called him; Holy Spirit (John 14, John 16:7-15, Mathew 18:20, John 4:24), we will continue pursuing wrong things in our Christian walk.

The knowledge that the Holy Spirit is GOD ALMIGHTY himself (John 4:24, 6:63) and not just a divine power will help us understand what speaking in tongues is and what these tongues are for.

When Jesus disclosed this truth that God is Spirit, he didn’t intend to say that God is flimsy or essentially ethereal. What Jesus communicates is that God almighty as the Holy Spirit is not limited by physical corporeality (Mathew 18:20, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Psalm 139:7), and he is life-giving (John 6:63), and incomprehensible (John 3:8).

With this knowledge at hand, I do not have to labour much to get you to understand that the Bible does not teach anywhere that once one is filled with the Holy Spirit, he will speak in strange constructs of words and sentences that have no designated language within the languages on Earth.

The speaking in tongues as taught in the Bible is not unintelligible ecstatic utterances like YOKOROBASHARABA-YESHETE-ROBOYESHARATA…etc.

According to the gospel of Mark, unlike that of Mathew, the great commission had its identifying signs and this is how it is stated:

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name, they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; (Mark 16:15-17).

It is true that one of the signs of the believers will be speaking in new tongues. However, we must understand what these new tongues are before we begin invoking God to make us utter them.

The Greek word translated as tongues is Glossa. Literally, the word means the physical organ in our mouth for speech and taste (Mark 7:33, James 3:6). However, the applied meaning of the Greek Glossa is a communicative language as used by a particular people in distinction from that of other nations.

The glossa of us Banyarwanda is Kinyarwanda and the glossa of Baganda is Luganda. The Glossa of Angels is Angelic (1Corinthian 13:1).

The Banyarwanda need the glossa of Baganda to speak to the Baganda and people need the Glossa of angels to speak to Angels and so did all the Angels that visited people in the Bible.

When the Angels spoke to the people in the Bible, they did not use heavenly languages but the language of their audiences.

The Apostles Paul fluently spoke all major languages (Glossa) of the then world. He spoke Greek, Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic (Acts 21:37-40; 22:2, 25-29). This is why he had the audacity to tell the confused Christian Church about the issues of speaking in tongues that:

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all. (1Corinthians 14:18).

The Apostle was blessed by this gift (1Corinthian 12:10) for his ministry to the gentile world (Galatians 2:7).

All the verses in the New Testament that report people to speak in tongues are communicable languages known and spoken by ethnic groups in the then world.

In Acts 2:1-11, the eleven Palestinian Jews led by Peter spoke in languages they never knew and neither studied. Everyone heard in their own native languages.

The mixed ethnic multitude at Cornelius spoke directly to each other without a translator (Acts 10:44-46).

The same happened with the disciples of Paul in Ephesus Acts 19:1-7.

The languages here were given by the spirit in case there was a barrier in communication (1Corithians 14:22)

The church at Corinth suffered many strange practical and spiritual problems (1Corinthians chapters 1-11) and one of them was this gibberish charismatic movement which he addressed in chapter 14.

People in church claimed they were anointed by the Holy Spirit and since speaking in tongues was the New Testament primitive confirmation of being filled by the Holy Spirit, these masqueraders endorsed their unintelligible ecstatic utterances as tongues of heaven and angels.

Next, I will address key verses in 1Corinthians 14.

God bless you, I Invoke, TRUTH, REASON and FAITH.

Pr White
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)