Speaking in Tongues vs. 'Gibberish'

An interesting thing happened this week when getting ready to submit my usual article. I didn’t have anything to write about or have any questions to answer, so I asked the Lord to show me what to write about.

A few minutes later a woman named Donna called me from Nevada, Tx. She said that she was singing a song this Sunday in her Assembly of God church and it had Hebrew lyrics and she wanted to know how to pronounce the words. Not knowing the song or the lyrics, I didn’t know what to tell her. I asked her why she was singing a foreign language she didn’t know to people that would not understand what she is saying. It would sound like gibberish to them, no communication. She said she never looked at it that way and I suggested she sing the English lyrics and forget the Hebrew for now.

Now, in our Wednesday Bible study we are going through the New Testament and learning how these books relate to believers today. We are currently in 1 Cor. 12 and discussing the Manifestations of the Spirit. We are right in the middle of Paul’s teaching about tongues and then I had an answer to my prayer of what to write about. Donna’s call is a perfect illustration of what Paul was trying to explain in 1 Cor. 12.

What are Tongues and the Interpretation of Tongues? The gift of Tongues is that ability to speak a language you don’t normally know and the gift of Interpretation in translating what was said for people to understand. It is not the “gibberish” that is seen today in many circles. Christians, Mormons, Hindus and religions all over the world have a history of “tongues” but that is not what Paul is talking about. This is a language that that has hermeneutic rules. In fact the word for “interpretation” in Greek is where we get the word “hermeneutic” from, which rules out the meaningless gibberish that passes for “tongues” in history.

Why were these gifts given in the first place? They were given as a sign to the unbeliever. Let me explain and give you several examples. In Isaiah 28.9-13 the prophet is telling the people that God has tried to communicate with them in clear, simple words so that even a child could understand, but they were continuing in unbelief as if they didn’t understand. He couldn’t have made it simpler. So, he says if they won’t listen to a clear, intelligible message. He was going to speak to them through a people with a foreign tongue, or language, and that would be a sign to them of His judgment.

The Lord was speaking about Assyria, Babylon, Greece and later Rome. Because they would not listen to the prophets and killed those sent to them, the people learned the hard way with a people who spoke in other tongues. So, tongues are a sign of judgment. So, let’s go to Acts 2 and see what happened. The people are gathered for the feast of Shavuot and were in the Temple. The Holy Spirit descends upon the believers gathered there and they speak in languages understood by all those from foreign lands (2.6-11) and there were at least 17 different languages. So, what happened?

Remember that in the time of Isaiah God had spoken plainly through he prophets, but they were like children who can be obstinate and stupid and didn’t listen. So He threatened them with another method. He would speak to them with foreigners speaking foreign languages, or tongues. Next week we will take it from there and go to Acts and Corinthians and show how tongues were used again by the Lord in the same way, why the Corinthians had no reason to be so desirous of them and how it relates today as a “sign” to the unbeliever.