Tongues in Plain English

n the past, we’ve had lots of questions about speaking in other tongues. Many people are interested in the Baptism experience. Given the number of questions, we thought it’d be good to have this page about Tongues in Plain English. Instead of a formal Bible treatise on the subject, we’ve cobbled together some off-the-cuff comments that should be responsive to most of the questions that people have.

Personal Experience

Personally, I was raised in the Roman Catholic church and came into the Pentecostal experience in my late teens. During my teenage years I heard about people “speaking in tongues” and healings and was intrigued about it. Sometime when I was 16 or 17, I attended a small Assembly of God church whose pastor was a former Methodist minister who was asked to leave the denomination because of his baptism experience. During one of the services, the pastor laid hands on me and I was baptized in the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. I have been praying in other tongues virtually every day ever since.

Some of the “tongue” critics imply that one can’t be intelligent and believe in the experience (for a funny story on this click here). That’s just not true. Since my baptism in the Spirit I’ve gone on to college and law school and graduated with honors in both. I’ve practiced law for over 12 years and have been given an AV rating by Martindale-Hubble which is its highest rating for legal acumen and ethics. There is nothing mutually exclusive about tongues and intellectuality. The Apostle Paul was one of the most eminent scholars of his day and it is evident that he also prayed in tongues.

Is Tongues Scripturally for Today?

There are several prominent preachers who have not experienced the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and who preach that the experience was just for those few folks we read about in the Book of Acts. In this series of essays, I address the primary argument raised by these preachers about the cessation of tongues. The series is not for the weak at heart (contains some Greek), but the entire gist of the series is that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost is specific for the entire church age and it did not die out or cease to exist with the last breath of John the Apostle (or the Apostle Paul who lived later).

Paul Gave Prominence to Tongues

I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all - (1 Corinthians 14.18, NASB)

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul provided some admonition on the different purposes of speaking in an unknown tongue. The Corinthians had expressed such an exuberance for tongues at any place and at any time that Paul had to instruct them on the different purposes and uses for tongues in the personal life of the believer and in an assembly. In laying out his instructions, Paul says, “I speak in tongues more than all of you” which means that praying in tongues was prominent in both his ministry and personal life. John Lake once said that tongues were the making of his ministry; a ministry marked by extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit.

Tongues Doesn’t Involve Only Worldly Languages

For one that speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. (1 Corinthians 14.2, NASB)

There are a great many preachers (those who haven’t received the Baptism in the Spirit) who say that tongues is a supernatural manifestation, but only in languages known to men. They base this on the account of Pentecost in Acts 2.

In this verse in 1 Corinthians, Paul illustrates the heavenly nature of tongues. The tongue speaker “does not speak to men … for no one understands” which means that he does not speak in a worldly language. Paul also says that the tongue speaker “in the spirit speaks mysteries to God.” That is, the tongue speaker prays in a way that goes beyond his own understanding (otherwise it wouldn’t be a mystery, would it?). One other thing to note is that the tongue speaker prays out “in his spirit,” not his mind.

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.  (1 Corinthians 14.14, NASB)

When you add all of these things up, it amounts to the tongue speaker praying in a language that goes beyond his own understanding (his own known languages) and everybody else’s.

Of course there are times where we see something like Pentecost happen. When I was nineteen or twenty, in a meeting a traveling evangelist laid hands on me and gave a direct and succinct prophecy in an unknown tongue (unknown to me). As I made my way back to my chair, a man (a church visitor) tugged me on the arm and said, “Did you know that he spoke perfect Italian about you?” I told him that I didn’t know that and he proceeded to summarize the prophecy for me. Later on I had the opportunity to ask the evangelist whether he knew Italian and he looked at me like I was a stupid cow.

Sure there are Pentecost-like events where God wants to bear witness to outsiders, but Paul makes it clear that the primary function of other tongues is private prayer unto God.

Tongues as a Means of Spiritual Edification

One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself … (1 Corinthians 14.4, NASB)

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 20, NASB)

As tongues is primarily personal, it is a means of spiritual edification.  It’s a means of magnifying God:

All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.  For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.  (Acts 10.45-46, NASB)

And it helps us stay conscious of God’s presence:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.  (John 14.16-17, NASB)

In more than twenty years of being Pentecostal, I believe that I’ve heard it preached that praying with tongues “charges you up like a car battery” over a thousand times.  I don’t know where the analogy came from, but I don’t care for it.  As Paul states in 1 Corinthians, when a saint prays in tongues, he is praying out secrets.  While there is not a direct verse of scripture on it (except for that one), I believe that praying in tongues gives one a greater capacity to understand the Word, especially Paul’s revelation.  Very often in the past I’ve set myself to pray in tongues over certain doctrines or teachings that either didn’t set well with me or I didn’t understand.  Invariably, over the course of time and prayer, I received “light” on the subject which edified me spiritually.

One example of this is the truth of Jesus becoming sin (2 Cor. 5.21 and Gal. 3.13).  On one hand were the Word of Faith teachers who have preached that those two verses are to be taken literally.  On the other hand were virtually everyone else and their dog who not only said that the verses could not be taken literally, but added that to do so is outright heresy.  Years ago I set myself to pray in tongues over the subject and our essays on Jesus becoming sin, which are pretty extensive, are the fruit of those prayers.

[Note: More information to come. As I have reconfigured the site, I am having to reconfigure some of our prior pages. This page will become a link in our Info page.]

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