The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Anjela Paje of Spokane, WA, from the tape, GC 1301-X, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 26." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1983. All Rights Reserved.
Questioner
I want you to explain speaking in tongues because I don’t understand it at
all.
John MacArthur's Answer
Well, speaking in tongues. Okay, the best thing I can do to help you understand
that is to just simply say this, in the Apostolic Age, in the book of Acts, when
the church was born, God gave to His people, on the Day of Pentecost, in Acts 2,
the ability to speak many languages which they had not learned. It was a
miracle. And, as all miracles, it was intended to get their attention to
demonstrate that God was there. In other words, when you see a miracle, you know
God is present, right? And, so, when that miracle happened, it collected these
people and they were amazed because here were all these uneducated Galileans
talking all the languages of people gathered in Jerusalem for the time of the
Pentecost Feast. And, so, they spoke in all these languages the wonderful works
of God. And, people came together as a crowd. And, having attracted them with
the fact that God must be there because of these miraculous languages...in other
words, they weren’t gibberish. They were actual languages spoken by these
people. And, everyone heard in their own language what they were saying, the
amazing, wonderful works of God. That drew the crowd, and they said, boy, this
is a divine miracle. And, it was, at that moment, that out of that group of
people speaking stepped Peter, and preached to them the Gospel. So, that the
tongues was a way for God to get their attention. To get their attention.
Now, this continued in the early church, this speaking in tongues. In fact, when the next group of Christians, after the Jews, which would be in Acts chapter 8, the Samaritans were saved, they, too, had the same phenomena. Why? Because Jews already looked down on Samaritans, and God wanted to be sure that the Samaritans received the same miraculous sign when they entered into the church that the Jews had received, so there wouldn’t be any second-class citizenry, right? You go further into chapter 10, and you have Gentiles. We’ve gone from Jews to Samaritans, to the Gentiles. When the Gentiles received the gospel and believed, they, too, spoke in those tongues. And, God was saying, it’s all one church. Nobody’s a second-class citizen. Nobody at all. And, so, those are very important events.
Now, when you go into 1 Corinthians 14, the Apostle Paul says, "Tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not." What are they a sign of? They’re a sign that God is present and about to speak, for one thing. And, secondly, in 1 Corinthians 14, it says, they are a sign to Israel. What are they a sign of? Well, you go back to Isaiah, and Isaiah said, you don’t listen to me, when I speak your language, so, someday, I’m going to speak a language you don’t understand. And, so, tongues were a two-fold sign. One, they attracted the attention of people to show that God was there. Two, they said to the Jews, you haven’t heard when God spoke in your language, and now, He’s going to speak a language you can’t hear. So, it was a judicial sign of judgment on Israel.
After that era, I believe, tongues ceased. And, that’s 1 Corinthians 13, "Whether there be tongues, they shall cease." And, I believe they ceased.
Now, today, people have started up speaking in tongues again. And, it’s been since 1900, or a little after that it started up again. And, the question is, if it ceased for 1800 years, how could it start again? Well, they try to go back to Joel, and get a verse that says, "The former rain and the latter rain, and this is the latter rain, and God’s bringing it back," but that’s very unfair to the text.
So, I believe what we have today could basically be explained as demonic, counterfeit. And, by the way, I don’t know if you know this, Tibetan Monks speak in tongues, Eskimos speak in tongues, many of their tribes, so do Mormons, who don’t even believe the Gospel. So, it could be Satanic.
Secondly, and, probably, the most common thing, it is learned behavior. Somebody started it and there was a euphoria about it, and so you sort of get into the swing, and you learn how to do it. There’s some ecstasy. Two Lutherans, by the name of Kildol (sp?) and Colvin (sp?) did a survey and study of this thing, and their primary result was that it’s learned behavior. And, you have a certain person who’s predisposed to that kind of thing emotionally and he learns how to do it, and falls into that. Just like there are hypnotizable and nonhypnotizable people. There are certain psychological types of people who fall easier prey to that kind of phenomena. But there’s no need for us as Christians to seek that. I think it’s a wrong thing to seek.
Now, I wrote a book called,
The
Charismatics, and, you can get it in the book store, and it has a whole
section on tongues. Okay? Coming up in January, we’re going to do the whole 1
Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, on the radio. Now, we’ve not done that, been on the
radio over five or six years now. And, we’ve not done that. But, it needs to be
done. And, we feel we’ve built a solid enough audience out there and we’re going
to get it when we do it, I know. We’re going to get some flak. But, we need to
make it clear. And, at that time, we will have the tape album on 1 Corinthians
12-14 available, and also a study book, which will go detail by detail through 1
Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, explaining the whole passage on tongues. Okay?
Questioner
Okay, if someone told me that she was a born-again Christian, and she speaks in
tongues?
John MacArthur's Answer
Very possible. Sure. I’ve said this before. I’m not worried about them getting
to heaven. I’m worried about ‘em going right on by. You know, they get to
flying, and they may just miss it. They may love the Lord. They really may love
the Lord. And, they’re just misguided on this.
You see, what they’re doing is, they’re looking for a spiritual experience, an instant spirituality. See, the group says this, if you want to be spiritual, speak in tongues. That’s tremendous pressure. That is tremendous pressure. I get letters from people all the time who come out of that after years of living under this bondage of pressure, and falsifying an experience, so they can say they belong. But I’ve never spoken in tongues.
I had a case, and it was kind of an interesting thing. I think, I may have told you about it sometime back. I was invited to speak to the Full Gospel Businessmen, did I tell you that? Full Gospel Businessmen International Luncheon. I don’t know what they were doing inviting me. Somebody goofed on their committee. They had heard that I was open to this, and so they asked me to come and speak on what I thought about Charismatics. And and I did. I really did. And, I was very gracious to them, but very straightforward about these things, and I went right down the line on true spirituality, and all these kind of things, and these guys were aghast. I mean, they were dumbfounded. They were just...who brought this turkey in here? What is... and finally, I wasn’t even done, and this guy pulled me down into my chair, and said, “Well, thank you, brother, and stepped right up, and I was there, right in my seat, you know. And, he said, “We’re going to all pray that some night, in the middle of the night, you’re going to get the baptism.” And so I got up and sort of asked if I could have another word or two, and said a few things.
But afterwards, this is an interesting sidelight, three or four or five
people came by and talked to me, and said, “You know, I’ve been in this for
years and years, and I do this, and I do this, and I asked them, “To explain to
me the Gospel.” One guy said, “Well, you see, it’s like this, there’s this big
staircase, and there’s this guy named Jesus at the top. And, you do your best to
get up the stairs, and if you can get all the way to the top, he’ll let you in.”
I said, “My friend, you’re not saved. You don’t even know the Gospel.” So,
here’s a guy nine years with an experience, and doesn’t even know the Gospel.
So, it’s an experience that some people put a lot of stock in, they think it
makes ‘em happy, or they think they’ve never been a greater witness since they
did that. Boy! they have joy in their life. Sure. You know why? Because the
pressure is on them. If you’re going to be spiritual, you got to do this, and,
boy, once you’ve done it, you’re a part of the in group. And, there’s a certain
release and euphoria about having arrived spiritually by those standards, right?
At the end of my book, I have a letter from a guy named L.C. His name is Lou
Castle in our church, and he was converted out of that, and he explains what it
was like to be released from that bondage. But, you can get that book, and then,
later on, we’ll have a little study
book on tongues, too. Okay?
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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