The Tongues Cover-Up
Charles and Frances Hunter, in my opinion the most talented, capable writers in the tongues movement, have concocted a cover-up in “The Two Sides of a Coin” that is a classic. Like every intelligent tongues advocate they some how have to cover-up the fact that they cannot do what the Christians did at Pentecost; speak human languages they had not learned (Acts 2:8).
So here comes the classic cover-up-the “Hunter Two- Tongues Theory. ” The Hunters discovered there is not “one”
but “two” “different” tongues’ in the Bible. They have appropriately labeled them the “private” tongue and the “assembly” or “gift” tongue. As professional writers would be
expected to do, the Hunters have added spice to their cover-up by referring to their discovery as one of their biggest surprises.
The Hunters ignore the many problems raised by their “Two-Tongues Theory,” such as this one, “When did a private prayer language ever accompany the baptism of the Holy Spirit?” And another, “Why are they making the same noises in the public assemblies they make in their private devotions? If the two are different why don’t they sound different?”
But their chapter, “There Is A Difference,” goes very smoothly until they set about finding scripture to support their “Two-Tongues Theory.” Then the trouble comes.
They first reason that there has to be two tongues because one tongue in the Bible is for everyone, the other is only for a select few. Acts 2:1-3 is referred to as proof the “public tongues” was tor everyone. Then I Cor. 12:30, “do all speak with tongues?” and I Cor. 12:28 are used to argue that there must be another tongue because here the Bible says they are not for everyone.
This entire argument rests upon a dishonest and deceptive use of a three letter word, “all”. At Pentecost they were “all” filled and began to speak in “other languages”. The word “all” only refers to a few disciples that were in a certain house on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:2-4), a group which Acts 1 would indicate was probably 120. In I Cor. 12:30, on the other hand; the word “all” refers to all Christians in all places. If the Hunters were not “professional” writers you could excuse this deceptive linguistic trick more easily.
Also, when I hear about tongues being a special assistance to prayer, I can’t help but wonder why Jesus never mentioned it when the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray? Have we suddenly discovered something about prayer beyond what Jesus taught? The real problem with this prayer language cover-up is that it violates four plain facts in the Word of God. First, in seeking scriptural support for a tongue that is a private prayer language they twist Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” This verse says just the opposite of what the Hunters and many others teach. It says these prayers “cannot be uttered.” They cannot be articulated. They cannot be formed into sounds. God learns the desire by knowing “the mind of the Spirit,” not by listening! During this kind of praying in the Spirit you do not make any sounds. These prayers “cannot” be uttered!
Second, when the Spirit works inside of us, He forms his thoughts in intelligible human language. “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). ” … but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). The Spirit cries from within in human language.
The third positive proof that tongues is not an unintelligible prayer language for private use and different from the foreign
language of Pentecost, is found in Acts and I Corinthians. Tongues in Acts was a public sign which amazed unbelievers (Acts 2:8). Tongues in I Corinthians was a public sign to unbelievers (I Cor. 14:22).
Fourth, if the tongues discussed at Corinth was intended to be only a private prayer language to God why would God have
given interpreters to make the language known to men? Let
the tongues leaders explain this!
Angelic Language
In a second cover-up approach they try to hide behind the angels. Tongues leaders repeatedly refer to their sounds as “angelic tongues.” This is supposedly based on I Cor. 13:1, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” Now there are four reasons the modern tongues leaders are twisting scripture when they claim to speak in the tongues of angels.
First, no where in all of God’s word does it ever say anyone spoke in the tongues of angels. In I Cor. 13:1, Paul said, “If” he could speak in tongues and “if” he did not have love. If this verse says Paul spoke in “angelic tongues,” it also says he did not have love. The verse clearly does not say he nor anyone else spoke in the tongues of angels.
Second, at the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the sign God gave was the tongues of “men” (Acts 2:8). The sign was not the tongues of “angels.” It was 16 “earthly” languages, not “heavenly” languages.
Third, in every record we have of angelic tongues, it is a clear language easily understood by humans. Examples are:
I Kings 19:7, “And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee; Acts 5:20, “Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life,” and Acts 12:7, “And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.”
Every time God’s word records the tongues of angels, it is an understandable human language. Not one time is the tongues of angels strange, mysterious or difficult for any human to understand.
Fourth, I Cor. 13:8 says, “Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.” Now some non·-glossolalist believed they ceased at the end of the age of the apostles. The glossolalist believe will cease when Jesus comes. No one seems to deny they will not continue after Christ’s return. Now the question: “If tongues refers to the tongues of angels, why would they ever stop? Are heaven’s angels condemned to eternal silence? Will they never be able to speak to us or God in eternity?”
To say the gift of tongues has anything to do with angelic language is to ignore the truth.
Unknown Language?
Another cover offered by the tongues people is given by their reference to an “unknown tongue.” There are two reasons this does not qualify their ecstatic utterance as the gift of tongues.
First, just as your Bible tells you of an unknown tongue, it also tells us to whom the tongue was unknown. The Holy Spirit’s gift of tongues was unknown to the speaker and those who had not learned the language. I Cor. 14 says, “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
I Cor. 14:13 encourages the person who has the gift of tongues to pray to interpret so he and others will be able to know what he is saying, “Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
Then the gift of tongues was also unknown to the hearers who had not learned the language. “Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?” (I Cor. 14:16). “If… all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye, are mad?” (I Cor. 14:23).
But here is the point, their tongue was not “unknown” to the interpreters who translated the tongue nor the people who had “learned” the language. At the baptism of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost they heard the gift of tongues and said, “how hear we every man in our own language wherein we were born” (Acts 2:8). “Unknown” is used to distinguish this gift language from the language the speaker had previously known. But “unknown tongues” could never mean mere “unintelligible noises.”
Second, no where in Holy Scripture did the Holy Spirit ever record one word about an “unknown tongue.” In the King James Bible, “unknown” is italicized every time it is a supply word. The translators used “unknown” to help us understand it was a language the speaker had not known before the Holy Spirit gave him the ability to speak it. It never appears in the original scriptures. It was a very good, sufficient translation aid until the modern day tongues people started twisting it to try and prove that ecstatic utterance was the Biblical gift of tongues. Not one single time does the Greek scripture mention any “unknown” tongues.
The Tongues Movement is too Large to Question
An upset tongues talker accosted me in Orlando, Florida after I spoke on the subject of “tongues.” “I know a lot of people who have this gift and it doesn’t matter what you say, I know it is of God,” he informed me. “A lot of people.” That seemed to be the big factor in his mind. And certainly he is right. Estimates run as high as 16 million Americans in determining the number who speak in tongues.”
But doesn’t an argument based on “popularity” sound funny coming from a Christian? For Jesus Christ said His way was, “straight … narrow… and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14). While, “broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matt. 7:13). Jesus followers were a small minority group.
The tongues people shrug off these scriptures and go right on boasting of their numbers. They should stop to answer this question, “Explain why the three fastest growing religious movements in America are Tongues, Astrology and Witchcraft?” Furthermore, the growth of Astrology, Babylon’s ancient religion, surpasses that of the tongues movement. If size is the proof we must recognize all three as being of God!
But when we read II Peter 2:1,2 the Pentecostal obsession with popularity becomes more hazardous.
Here the Bible warns us in plain language that false prophets will have “many” followers prior to Jesus’ return. II Peter 2:1,2, says, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.”
The point of the whole matter is the people at Pentecost spoke languages they had never learned. The modern tongues talkers cannot do this. If every single person in the whole world starts mumbling unintelligible sounds it cannot change the facts. They do not have the Pentecostal gift of foreign tongues.
The Spirit is Speaking in You
Again the tongues people cover-up there inability to speak other languages by labeling their strange sounds, “speaking in the Spirit.” This cover-up leans on the scripture, “it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” (Matt. 10:20).
Just reading the Bible will show that when the Spirit speaks through you, He speaks in intelligible human languages. “And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you” (Matt. 10:18-20).
To know how the Spirit speaks through you when you stand before governors and judges, you only need to read further in God’s word. “Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer…” (Acts 24:10).
See, when Paul was delivered up before the ruler the Spirit spoke through him in human language the governor could clearly understand. Can you just imagine what would happen if some tongues leader were before a judge and start babbling in his unintelligible sounds? That really stirs the imagination!
Interpreters in Corinthians Indicate a
Different Tongues Than in Acts
Others have tried to cover the discrepancy between what happened at Pentecost and their experience by pointing to the fact that interpreters were needed at Corinth. They say this proves the experience was something entirely different from the tongues at Pentecost, where nothing is said about an interpreter. In this way they would make room for unintelligible sounds in “Biblical tongues.”
Two things are quite obvious. First, there were gathered at Jerusalem men from “out of every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). No interpreter was needed, because whatever language they spoke someone from one of the many countries would have understood it. Second, the Bible does not say there were no interpreters. We are ignorant of whether there were any.
Any argument based on this is an argument based on ignorance, not on the Bible. The Bible is silent on this point. This silence is certainly no basis for teaching that the two experiences were different.
We Are Speaking Mysteries to God No Man Understands
The verse the tongue leaders use most often to argue their unintelligible sounds tire the Biblical gift of tongues is I Cor. 14:2. “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh
not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him;
howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.”
Oral Roberts explains the verse by saying our inner being, our spirit is speaking to God when speaking in tongues. The verse does say that speaking in tongues is speaking to God. But there is certainly nothing here to give credibility to unintelligible sounds.
In every case ever recorded of a man speaking to God the man spoke in a human language. Study the case of Abraham in Genesis 18:23-33. He spoke in his native language and God appears to have understood Abraham as well as He does any of the modern tongues leaders. Is there any reason why God, who knows all things, cannot understand our languages?
The verse only tells us who they spoke “to” God. It says absolutely “nothing” about what kind of sounds were used in speaking to God.
Is there any reason to assume at Pentecost they were not speaking in praise to God when they were heard by men of many nations? Then the verse says, “no man understandeth him.” Now the tongues leaders stop right here. They would like for us to believe they could not be understood because they speak in some strange, unintelligible noises. However, God took no chance on our being misled if we studied His word. He told us exactly why the tongues could not be understood. “No man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.” The reason they could not understand was the content- mysteries–not the vocabulary.
These mysteries referred to in I Cor. 14:2 are expanded and explained very clearly in the same book. What God said in I Cor. 11:2 in one verse, he expanded in I Cor. 2:2-11, to ten
verses. “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. I-Iowbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of the world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for lad they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man? but the Spirit of God.”
At Pentecost this is clearly explained. The crowd understood the languages, but not the message about God’s wonderful works. They thought the Christians were drunk. Many could not understand the wonders of God. But they could understand the language in which these wonders were spoken (Acts 2:8)!
When a Man Speaks In Tongues He Edifies Himself
Another attempt to prove tongues are not what the Bible says they are — a foreign language, centers around I Cor. 14:4, “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself.” Now do these tongues leaders want us to believe I wouldn’t be edified if the Holy Spirit gave me the ability to speak in a language I never learned? In foreign countries I have had to wait for interpreters. Sometimes there were none. I have struggled preaching the gospel through interpreters. Suppose the Holy Spirit had suddenly given me the ability to praise God in a language the natives could understand. Imagine feeling a new language flow through my throat! And then to see the faces of the foreigners when they understood! Am I to believe that such a gift would not edify me? Am I to believe that the disciples who received this miraculous experience at Pentecost were not edified?
To prove tongues is not an intelligible human language with I Cor. 14:4, you would first have to prove praising God in a language you had never learned would not edify, You would have to prove those who received the gift at Pentecost were not edified. That is too much. Nineteen hundred years ago the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write, “with their tongues they have used deceit” (Rom. 3: 13). This passage has taken on a whole new dimension as tongues are involved in a “deceit” or cover-up that was unknown when Paul wrote the verse. Appropriate isn’t it? “With their tongues they have used deceit” (Rom. 3:13).
Copyright, M.A.E.A.
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