CHAPTER TWO

Tongues: Sign and Gift

The Pentecostal movement is known throughout the world as "The Tongues Movement". This is because from the beginning of the century ever-increasing numbers of Christians have received an experience of God, which has included uttering His praises in a language hitherto unknown to them.

       Many Christians both before and after this outpouring have preached a Baptism in the Holy Ghost as a Scriptural and desirable enablement which they had themselves received, but of which they had no tangible evidence to give to others. This blessing was normally connected by them with sanctification or a clean heart. Such experiences are undoubtedly true and scriptural; e.g. Isaiah 6:1-8; but the Pentecostal Baptism in the Spirit was connected in Scripture not with sanctification but with supernatural power, not with a clean heart but with a miraculous enablement.

       Pentecostals did not deny the need for sanctification and a clean heart, but they stressed that these blessings were not enough. Our Lord was always sanctified and the possessor of a clean heart, but He needed His experience at Jordan before He possessed power (Luke 4:14). The Apostles had clean hearts and sanctified souls before Pentecost (John 15:3 and 17:19) but they

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too lacked supernatural power till the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:8). The Baptism in the Holy Ghost in the teaching of the Scriptures, and of the Pentecostal Movement, pointed, not to holiness but to miraculous power. Our Lord had said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father", and then will send to them the same Holy Spirit who came and empowered Him at Jordan (John 14:16).

Tongues: Initial Evidence

       Sanctification is the work of the Spirit on the soul through the word of Truth (John 17:17-19). The evidence of this is the devoted life of the Believer. But the Baptism in the Holy Ghost was to impart supernatural power to the spirit, and the initial evidence of this was the ability to speak in an unknown language. Here was the proof that there were now two persons living in one body, the one speaking as before his own language, the other using the same tongue to speak a new language known to Himself.

       Here, as Paul pointed out to the Ephesians (Eph. 1:13-14), was the seal upon the Sons of God of the new birth and its accompanying inheritance, though they still had to live for a moment in the old body of their humiliation. It is a clear sign that God, The Holy Ghost, has entered His Temple and is speaking from it (1 Cor. 6:19). It is not the sign, the speaking in an unknown tongue, that is the important thing about the Baptism in The Spirit. It is the amazing, almost incredible, fact of which it is the sign, that God is now in residence

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in His new Temple. He does not enter because we are especially virtuous, or successful. He enters because we have been bought by the Father through the costly sacrifice of His Son, and belong to Him for ever as His own Family. We may only be babes of an hour old, but we are Sons nevertheless, and The Holy Spirit witnesses to this overwhelming fact without delay (Acts 10:44-47). It is, as it were, God's Heavenly acknowledgment that a Son has been born (Rom. 8:16; Gal. 4:6; Acts 2:38; Eph. 2:22).

Kinds of Tongues : Gift of the Spirit

       This ability to speak in one unknown tongue is then the initial sign that The Holy Ghost is now in His Temple: but it is only the initial sign, and is meant to be followed by other gifts of more practical importance. The first of these to be considered is "kinds of tongues", i.e. the ability to speak in more than one new language. The initial sign of the Baptism is not "speaking in tongues", but "speaking in a tongue". "Speaking in tongues" i.e. more than one tongue, is one of the nine Gifts of The Spirit.

       The value of speaking in one tongue is that we speak words, which we do not ourselves understand, to God, and so edify ourselves by pouring out our heart to Him in praise. So far however as our neighbour is concerned it will only mystify him, and he will say we are mad or drunk, and not be edified (1 Cor. 14:23) unless he may happen to understand the language we are speaking, in which case of course he will be forced to think, and ask what it is and what it means, as happened on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:7-13).

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       When however we are enabled to speak in more than one language by The Spirit, it is clear that much greater possibilities of usefulness are opened out to us. Some years ago this Magazine contained an account of a lady visitor, who in the course of her work came across a Chinaman dying in an attic. He could not understand her English and paid no attention to her, until she was able to speak to him in Chinese, a miracle which resulted in his salvation. The lady on leaving him was directed by the Spirit to talk to two Japanese, who were standing on the street, in their own language, and one of them was thus led to the Lord.

       It is stated that quite recently a Pentecostal Evangelist preaching in Russia, whose interpreter spat at him and refused to continue interpreting, was enabled by the Spirit to finish his sermon in Russian. But wherever Missionaries have thought that this gift would spare them the trouble of learning the language of those to whom they went, they seem to have been disappointed: doubtless because a knowledge of the language was necessary if the Scriptures were to be translated, and also the gift was not meant to enable us to carry on the ordinary conversation of life, but to convey the thoughts and needs, not of the Missionary but of the Holy Spirit. It must always be kept in mind that the Gifts of The Spirit are to express the desires of The Spirit, not of the possessor of the Gift.

       It would seem however that, when it is the will of the Holy Ghost, the possession of this gift can counteract the curse of the confusion of tongues, and enable the Gospel Message to be made known, to the salvation of souls. Of this there are modern

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examples. As I write my attention is drawn to an instance of this given in the C.E.M. magazine (Page 7) for March, 1960 in which a young native boy, speaking in a native language that neither he nor the others around understood, was yet speaking to a native woman who did happen to come from where that language was spoken. She understood him and found that through him God was answering all the arguments she had used against Christianity! As a consequence she gave her heart to the Lord.

Tongues in the Assembly

       The ability to speak in a foreign language however is of no profit in an Assembly unless:

       (a) there happens to be a stranger present who knows the language spoken: in this case of course he will be astounded at the miracle and acknowledge that God is in the midst and so he may be converted; or

       (b) there is someone in the Assembly to whom the Spirit gives the interpretation of the tongue in the language of the listeners. In which case it may be linked with prophecy, as a presentation of the mind of the Spirit. The Greek word translated "interpretation" does not primarily mean "translation". It is used for example in Luke 24:27 of Our Lord "expounding" the Old Testament Scriptures (cf. verses 32 and 45) and it is normally translated "expound", "explain ", "give the meaning of". The interpretation may then be longer or shorter than the tongue of which it may give a shorter or longer exposition. The interpreter may receive his gift before, during, or after, the tongue: he may launch out upon a single sentence, and

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receive the rest thought by thought as he is speaking. In any case he recognises the reception of the gift, whenever or however it is given, by the unction which is coming upon him: and this unction abides also upon those listeners who are filled with the Spirit. As Peter says, 2 Peter 1:21, "Holy men of God spake as they were carried along by The Spirit". There is no effort in such speaking: no searching for words, no wondering what to say next. As long as the unction is upon you you speak with ease and delight. When it lifts you have no more to say and come to a stop. This is a beautiful gift since it brings two members of an Assembly into a combined ministry of love and edification for the rest of the Church.

       The one member may not have the faith to speak in his own language words which can be understood, and yet be free to speak in a tongue words of which he does not know the meaning. For, as soon as one utters words which one understands, one is responsible for what one says: but when one speaks in a tongue the responsibility for the meaning of the words rests upon the interpreter. And it is indeed a very responsible thing to utter words which purport to come from the Almighty.

       There seems therefore to be as it were an increase of responsibility in the use of the gifts of the Spirit; and, as the Scriptures say, he that has faith to speak in a tongue should pray for the faith to interpret his tongue, and so edify the Church, and not only himself. We see here then the first steps in the ascending scale of usefulness in the gifts: "greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks in tongues, except he interpret"

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(1 Cor. 14:5). And so we are to covet earnestly "the greater gifts" (1 Cor. 12:31). It is clear from Our Lord's ministry that His power too increased, for example from the raising of a little girl just dead on her bed, through the raising of a young man being carried out to his burial, to the amazing raising of a stinking corpse, which caused, in the words of his enemies, "the world to go after Him". In the same way Moses' power advanced from turning a rod into a serpent, through the various plagues in Egypt, up to the drowning of the armies of Egypt in the Red Sea. There is in the Bible no limit to the gifts which the Lord is willing to give to His brethren, except the plain statement of 1 Cor. 12:23-25, that the greater gifts are especially for those that lack any other useful endowment.

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