Before we go further and discuss what the Lord says about tongues, I want to point out that tongues can be faked and often is. False teachers have taught for a long time that everyone that’s saved must speak in tongues and that if they don’t, then they really aren’t saved. There is absolutely NO scriptural evidence for that teaching. It IS heresy. As we have already seen, God’s Word says that He gives different gifts to different people, as He desires. Nowhere does it say that everyone speaks in tongues! In fact it’s quite obvious that everyone doesn’t speak in tongues:
1 Corinthians 12:29-31 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
The obvious answer to each of his rhetorical questions is “no”, everyone doesn’t. Plus we’re told to eagerly desire the gifts and you can’t desire something that way if you’re already doing it.
I discovered something as I was preparing for this study that surprised me and I wanted to share it with you. We all know that Satan loves to mimic whatever the Lord does. I’ve always assumed that fake tongues was something that Satan had started doing after Pentecost, but apparently that’s not true. Let me quote from one of the commentaries concerning this: (this is verified in a number of commentaries but I’m only going to post the one)
1 Cor 14:21–25 Tongues or ecstatic utterance was a common religious practice in pagan religion for centuries prior to this. A portion of the confusion about “tongues” may result from two different cases being discussed in the N.T. In effect, Corinthian ecstatic utterance was a poor imitation of the gift of tongues given by the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 at Pentecost. Verse 21 quotes Is. 28:11, 12, which clearly has reference to the speaking of a diversity of known human languages. There follows an apparent contradiction between vv. 22 and 23. In v. 22, tongues are a sign “to unbelievers.” But in v. 23, “the uninformed” or unbelievers are likely to conclude that insanity exists in one who thus speaks in tongues. But there is no contradiction. Verse 22 has reference to the actual gift of tongues as in Acts 2. There, the unbelievers heard the gospel in their own dialects and were both amazed and convinced by the sign. However, v. 23 warns that the exercise of the Corinthian imitation, which was only the frenzied concoction of sounds, would have an effect of repugnance on unbelievers.
Believer's Study Bible
Interesting isn’t it? Amazingly the description of the Corinthian imitation is exactly what is happening in many cases today! Let me post the scriptures themselves so we can read it and see what they’re talking about. (by the way, since chapter 14 is all about tongues, we’ll be discussing this chapter in much more detail later)
1 Corinthians 14:21-25 In the Law it is written: “Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me,”says the Lord.Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers.So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all,and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”
The false teachers will tell people that have trouble speaking in tongues and haven’t been able to do it yet, that all they need to do is “pretend” and practice pretending. Now if that doesn’t send giant red flags up in a persons mind, they had better get out their bibles and start reading them as hard as they can because that is about as unbiblical as you can get! Think about it for just a moment—In either the Old or New Testament, do you ever recall reading where God told people who wanted to be prophets that all they needed to do was pretend for awhile and eventually He would speak through them??? Of course not! When Jesus warned us that we would be persecuted and even arrested for telling others about Him, did He tell us to just practice what we were going to say to defend ourselves and we’d be fine? No! Here is what he said:
Matthew 10:19-20 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Later when telling us about the end times He say:
Luke 21:15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
Again we don’t see any suggestion that we should “practice”! Nor do we ever see any instructions to “practice” any of the other gifts of the spirit until eventually the Lord causes them to “work right”.
Look even deeper now because if we need to practice these gifts in order to supposedly force ourselves to “let” the Holy Spirit speak through us in tongues or whatever, then who are we really relying on? We’re relying on ourselves, not God! Does that honestly sound biblical to you? No! Over and over and over from Genesis to Revelation, we are told NOT to rely on ourselves, but rather to rely on Him. God is more then capable of speaking words out of our mouths even if we didn’t want Him to! Oh I know they tell people that it’s themselves they don’t trust, not God, but that’s simply another lie we tell ourselves so we don’t have to face the truth.
Numbers 22:28 Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
Now, do you honestly believe that the Lord can put words in a donkey’s mouth and cause the donkey to speak in a known human language, but He can’t or won’t put the words in your mouth if He desires you to have that gift? To lay the final blow to that nonsense, let’s look at what actually happened the very first time God gave someone the gift of tongues:
Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
I don’t see anything at all about any of these fishermen or peasants needing a practice session. Just ordinary every day kind of people and yet the Lord “enabled” them to speak in other tongues immediately without any special preparation.
I hope you can see from this that everyone does not speak in tongues and that it most certainly isn’t necessary for salvation. I hope you can also see that anyone who tells you to “practice saying nonsense syllables” is preaching a doctrine of Satan, and is not speaking the Truth. Don’t fall for it!
1 Corinthians 12:29-31 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
The obvious answer to each of his rhetorical questions is “no”, everyone doesn’t. Plus we’re told to eagerly desire the gifts and you can’t desire something that way if you’re already doing it.
I discovered something as I was preparing for this study that surprised me and I wanted to share it with you. We all know that Satan loves to mimic whatever the Lord does. I’ve always assumed that fake tongues was something that Satan had started doing after Pentecost, but apparently that’s not true. Let me quote from one of the commentaries concerning this: (this is verified in a number of commentaries but I’m only going to post the one)
1 Cor 14:21–25 Tongues or ecstatic utterance was a common religious practice in pagan religion for centuries prior to this. A portion of the confusion about “tongues” may result from two different cases being discussed in the N.T. In effect, Corinthian ecstatic utterance was a poor imitation of the gift of tongues given by the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 at Pentecost. Verse 21 quotes Is. 28:11, 12, which clearly has reference to the speaking of a diversity of known human languages. There follows an apparent contradiction between vv. 22 and 23. In v. 22, tongues are a sign “to unbelievers.” But in v. 23, “the uninformed” or unbelievers are likely to conclude that insanity exists in one who thus speaks in tongues. But there is no contradiction. Verse 22 has reference to the actual gift of tongues as in Acts 2. There, the unbelievers heard the gospel in their own dialects and were both amazed and convinced by the sign. However, v. 23 warns that the exercise of the Corinthian imitation, which was only the frenzied concoction of sounds, would have an effect of repugnance on unbelievers.
Believer's Study Bible
Interesting isn’t it? Amazingly the description of the Corinthian imitation is exactly what is happening in many cases today! Let me post the scriptures themselves so we can read it and see what they’re talking about. (by the way, since chapter 14 is all about tongues, we’ll be discussing this chapter in much more detail later)
1 Corinthians 14:21-25 In the Law it is written: “Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me,”says the Lord.Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers.So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all,and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”
The false teachers will tell people that have trouble speaking in tongues and haven’t been able to do it yet, that all they need to do is “pretend” and practice pretending. Now if that doesn’t send giant red flags up in a persons mind, they had better get out their bibles and start reading them as hard as they can because that is about as unbiblical as you can get! Think about it for just a moment—In either the Old or New Testament, do you ever recall reading where God told people who wanted to be prophets that all they needed to do was pretend for awhile and eventually He would speak through them??? Of course not! When Jesus warned us that we would be persecuted and even arrested for telling others about Him, did He tell us to just practice what we were going to say to defend ourselves and we’d be fine? No! Here is what he said:
Matthew 10:19-20 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Later when telling us about the end times He say:
Luke 21:15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
Again we don’t see any suggestion that we should “practice”! Nor do we ever see any instructions to “practice” any of the other gifts of the spirit until eventually the Lord causes them to “work right”.
Look even deeper now because if we need to practice these gifts in order to supposedly force ourselves to “let” the Holy Spirit speak through us in tongues or whatever, then who are we really relying on? We’re relying on ourselves, not God! Does that honestly sound biblical to you? No! Over and over and over from Genesis to Revelation, we are told NOT to rely on ourselves, but rather to rely on Him. God is more then capable of speaking words out of our mouths even if we didn’t want Him to! Oh I know they tell people that it’s themselves they don’t trust, not God, but that’s simply another lie we tell ourselves so we don’t have to face the truth.
Numbers 22:28 Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
Now, do you honestly believe that the Lord can put words in a donkey’s mouth and cause the donkey to speak in a known human language, but He can’t or won’t put the words in your mouth if He desires you to have that gift? To lay the final blow to that nonsense, let’s look at what actually happened the very first time God gave someone the gift of tongues:
Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
I don’t see anything at all about any of these fishermen or peasants needing a practice session. Just ordinary every day kind of people and yet the Lord “enabled” them to speak in other tongues immediately without any special preparation.
I hope you can see from this that everyone does not speak in tongues and that it most certainly isn’t necessary for salvation. I hope you can also see that anyone who tells you to “practice saying nonsense syllables” is preaching a doctrine of Satan, and is not speaking the Truth. Don’t fall for it!
