The Spirit's Ministry - Tongues and Prophecy

ow shall we conclude our study? We have discovered that the Holy Spirit has been ministering since the creation. The Old Testament scriptures reveal that He came upon men. Some of them prophesied. Others were given supernatural abilities to judge, to provide wisdom, to exercise great leadership, and to perform exceptional feats. The Holy Spirit did not necessarily remain with them. In fact, He left King Saul (1 Sam. 16:14), and David was concerned that He might leave (Ps. 51:11). The Holy Spirit moved both holy prophets and one false prophet to prophesy. The Old Testament books were written by men who were moved by the Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21).

Scripture is silent for about 400 years between the book of Malachi and the time of the New Testament. We have no visibility of the activity of the Holy Spirit, but it is clear from the apostles that no man or woman can come to God without the Holy Spirit helping them to understand (John 16:7-11; 1 Cor. 2:11-15; 12:3). The Holy Spirit has been helping people believe in God since Adam and Eve.

Spirit’s Ministry Changes. Yet Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come. The coming of the Holy Spirit was unique. The prophet Joel had predicted His coming would occur in a new and unique way. That was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:16-21). The Spirit was the Helper or Comforter. When He arrived, the apostles spoke in tongues. Tongues were new. They had not occurred before. The ministry of the Holy Spirit changed on the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit now lives inside Christians. Depending upon the spiritual walk of believers, they can be filled with the Spirit and experience special empowerment. The Spirit starts living inside men and women when they truly believe, and He continues living inside them until they die and meet their God face-to-face (Rom. 8:11).

The ministry of the Holy Spirit has changed with time: Old Testament to New Testament. While His ministry of imparting saving faith continues, other aspects of His ministry among us have changed. It is an error to assume that His ministry has not evolved in the past and it is an error to assume that it will not change in the future too!

Yes, Jesus Christ’s divine attributes - His essential being - are the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). Yet His activities have changed. He lived in the heavens before He became a man (John 6:38). After He died, He returned to heaven (Acts 1:11 ) and now sits at the right hand of the Father (Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20). Some day He will come at the end of the world and reign as a king on a throne during the millennial kingdom (John 18:37; Rev. 20:6). Jesus’ ministry has and will continue to evolve. The Holy Spirit is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but how He ministers has changed and may continue to evolve.

What Will Change? When the Spirit came, we discovered that He now baptizes, convicts, seals, indwells, helps believers pray, teaches, gives spiritual gifts, and empowers believers by filling them with Himself. We have discovered that the new gift of tongues, which was one aspect of Joel’s prophecy, was used in the book of Acts to prove to the apostles that salvation was given to the Gentiles and not just the Jews. Salvation was for both Jews and Gentiles.

Tongues was recorded three times in the book of Acts (Acts 2:1-13; 10:46; 19:6) and possibly a fourth in Acts 8:18. Those are the only occurrences of tongues in the New Testament, except for 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Cor. 12-14 is the major discussion about tongues in the New Testament. From a historical point of view, the last recorded event of tongues in the New Testament occurred about one year after 1 Corinthians was written in about A.D. 56.

Tongues Will Change. We have discovered from 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 that while prophecy and knowledge will continue until we see Jesus face-to-face, tongues will cease some day on its own. The Holy Spirit wanted to teach us that love will continue forever; but other things such as the spiritual gifts of tongues, prophecy, and knowledge will not.

He used two different Greek words and one illustration to make His point. Why different verbs? He did not need to use different verbs unless there was a difference. One verb, KATARGEO, revealed that Jesus Christ will force prophecy and knowledge to stop when He returns. The other verb, PAUO, indicates that tongues will cease or stop on its own. PAUO ceases by itself, but prophecy and knowledge must be stopped.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. (NASB) 1 Cor. 13:8-10

The illustration is significant because it supports the Holy Spirit’s point that love continues. Even though prophecy and knowledge will continue, they will not continue forever. The Spirit does not mention the spiritual gift of tongues because it does not compete with love for longevity. Only prophecy and knowledge do. Tongues will cease on its own early. But even though prophecy and knowledge continue, they will not continue forever. They will be stopped when we see Jesus. Only love continues. That is the Holy Spirit’s message! That is what He wanted to demonstrate.

A study of the early church fathers reveals that prophecy and knowledge continued, but tongues slowly disappeared. Origen referred to only traces of tongues existing, and Chrysostom said that it had disappeared. Other scriptural references to tongues were included in sermons and teaching materials, but not one reference can be found of a personal eye-witness account of tongues, except in references to a false teacher called Montanus.

Tongues Will Stop? Why will tongues stop? First, tongues was used to authenticate the ministry of the apostles and others in the early church (Acts 2:1-13; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2: 3-4). Second, tongues was primarily a sign for unbelievers (1 Cor. 14:22). Prophecy and knowledge were for believers. Third, tongues must be interpreted (1 Cor. 12:30; 14:5, 13, 27). Prophecy and knowledge do not need to be interpreted. Fourth, tongues authenticated that salvation was for everyone (Acts 10:1-23). Fifth, God never commands us in the New Testament to speak in tongues, but we are told that it is the will of God to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:17-18). The results of being filled were discussed earlier. It did not include tongues. Tongues is not required to prove that a person is a Christian nor is it a sign of empowerment. 1 Corinthians 12:3; Galatians 5:22-23 and 1 John gives us the marks of a Christian (1 John 5:13).

Has tongues already stopped? If tongues are present today, it will be a known language and not an unknown utterance. The spiritual gift of tongues is not an angelic language either. That would be an unknown utterance to humans. Will it stop some day? A careful reading of 1 Cor. 13:1 reveals that the Holy Spirit did not teach that the spiritual gift of tongues included angelic language. The Greek word for tongues in Acts 2 is GLOSSA. The word refers to “language, dialect, or tongue.” Depending upon the context, it could refer to the physical tongue in one’s mouth or to a spoken language. At Pentecost the apostles spoke in a known language.

And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs - we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” (NASB) Acts 2:8-11

In the writings of the early church fathers, GLOSSA was repeatedly used in the same way. 1 Cor. 14:22-23 says that GLOSSA are a sign to unbelievers. If the spiritual gift of GLOSSA was an unknown utterance, then even the unbelievers would not understand. It would not be a sign to unbelievers.

Conclusion. Tongues will stop some day! That is the message of the New Testament and history. Jesus’ ministry changed over time and so does the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But has the gift of speaking in tongues already stopped? The answer is difficult. Here is an interesting quote from the editorial director of the Charistma magazine,

Some Pentecostals today are softening this stance, partly because large percentages of their congregation do not speak in tongues. A recent study of fast growing denominations (funded by the Lilly Endowment) shows that only 25 percent of the members of some Pentecostal churches claim to have received that spiritual gift, although these people belong to groups teaching that Christians must speak in tongues in order to be considered Spirit-filled. (Grady, J. Lee. What happened to the Fire? p. 77).

In summary, we conclude that scripture prophesied that tongues would cease, and prophesy, or forth-telling of God’s message, will continue because prophesy is the greater gift to be desired. It will continue until we see Jesus face-to-face. Love will continue forever . . .

Love never fails . . . But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (NASB) 1 Cor. 13:8, 13