From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Sign-gifts constitute an area of doctrine in which we must be especially careful not to say more - or less - than Scripture says.

A reader has asked my personal position on sign-gifts, especially speaking in tongues. Some readers will agree with my response and others will not. But I appeal to all to look "to the law and to the testimony" (Isaiah 8:20) and not to our own preconceptions, which may or may not have Biblical warrant.

Sign-gifts constitute an area of doctrine in which we need to be especially careful not to say more - or less - than Scripture says. TeachingTheWord's official doctrinal statement does not specifically address this matter, but the following points sum up my personal position on sign-gifts in the present day. The Scriptures I have given are germane but by no means exhaustive.

A Move Away from Strict Cessationism - But Within Biblical Limits

For a long time, I held to strict cessationism - the belief that sign-gifts such as speaking in tongues ceased totally with the completion of the body of written Scripture. However, as I read the writings of those who espoused full cessationism (for example, B. B. Warfield in the 19th century and O. Palmer Robertson in the 20th) I came to believe that there is no clear Scriptural warrant for this position, and that strict cessationism limits the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. I found Scripture especially at odds with those who promote a dual doctrine of full cessationism - that both sign-gifts of the Spirit and demonic activity have, they allege, ceased since the completion of the canon of Scripture.

However, I do believe that Scripture quite narrowly limits sign-gifts in all centuries of the New Testament church, and much more so in subsequent centuries than in the period before the canon of Scripture was complete.

What are those strict limits? First of all, Scripture teaches that "speaking in tongues" is always in a known language - the pattern we find on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-12). Anything else is a counterfeit.

Secondly, expressions of genuine sign-gifts will never add to, take away from, or contradict the written Word of God (Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32; Proverbs 30:6, Revelation 22:18-19).

Thirdly, we must always remember that God is completely sovereign over genuine sign-gifts. Spirit-induced speaking in another language was, as we find in Acts 2, for a two-fold purpose: 1.) to proclaim the "wonderful works of God" in another known language, and 2.) to signify the speaker's Divinely-granted authenticity, especially before the Holy Spirit had given the complete canon of written Scripture, which is the Christian's supreme authority.

Fourthly, Scripture is our infallible standard and critic of authenticity in all things (Hebrews 4:12, 1 John 4:1-3).

The Sovereignty of the Spirit, The Supremacy of the Written Word

For these reasons I believe that the Holy Spirit may still use sign-gifts to proclaim the truth, but almost exclusively to peoples of the earth who are in spiritual darkness and do not yet have the Scriptures in a language they can understand - a very small and steadily diminishing number - or for other good and valid reasons known only to the mind of the Spirit. For example, could there be, in His sovereign plan, other times in which He would enable believers to speak the truth in other languages for His glory? We cannot deny this possibility without limiting the Spirit's sovereignty.

In these connections I think of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' account of the conversion of a Welsh woman who was a well-paid Satanic medium. As she saw many people going past her front window on their way to the church, she came to an evening service of Lloyd-Jones' congregation out of sheer curiosity. As she later told Dr. Lloyd-Jones and many others, when she entered the church she immediately recognized, without any expression of sign-gifts, that there was a different Spirit in the place - as she put it, "a clean spirit" in contrast to the evil spirits with whom she had trafficked for so long.

In that church service the woman came to saving faith through the preaching of the written Word and the regenerating work of the Spirit. As Jesus said, "The wind blows where it wishes...so is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). We must remember - and I believe many Christians often forget - that the Holy Spirit is the sovereign God of the universe.

In this era when the vast majority of the world's population has the Scriptures in a language it can understand, God's emphasis is unquestionably upon "preaching the Word" - which clearly means the written Word. The Apostle Paul emphasized this to Timothy even before the canon of Scripture was complete. The expository preaching of the written Word is the Christian's and the Church's safeguard against a multitude of errors, including counterfeits of sign-gifts (2 Timothy 3:16-4:5).

Today's Widespread Fakery Deserves Severe Condemnation

Today there is a widespread anti-Scriptural fraud among those who claim to exercise tongues-speaking and other alleged sign-gifts. I grew up in a large extended family in which there were several Pentecostal preachers, and I saw such fakery firsthand. Justin Peters' video series Clouds Without Water is well worth seeing for the exposure of such counterfeits. I do not agree with him one hundred percent (he is, I believe, a strict cessationist), but he has studied the current scene very carefully. The evidence he presents of rampant charlatanism within the so-called Word of Faith movement is irrefutable. Its leaders and followers routinely substitute the word of man for the Word of God, directly contradicting Scripture and leading literally millions astray.

Tongues-speaking and other sign-gifts are not matters of human will. The position of most charismatic groups - that a man must speak in tongues in order to be a minister - is also simply un-Biblical. Nowhere among the qualifications for the ministry given in Ephesians chapter 4, or in Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus, do we find tongues-speaking, or any other New Testament sign-gift, mentioned much less mandated.

Furthermore, most of these groups do not hold to the Biblical principle that tongues-speaking involves known languages. They will even "train" people to allegedly "speak in tongues" - the incomprehensible babble of a so-called "spirit language." This opens wide doors for Satan, the great deceiver. In fact, the Holy Spirit through Paul emphasized that tongues-speaking is not something to be sought after, but something that the Spirit sovereignly employs through human vessels apart from human will (see 1 Corinthians 14).

I have known men who clearly faked tongues-speaking in order to be accepted by their fellow charlatans, or to give alleged authenticity to themselves among the undiscerning. In doing so they have committed grave sin. In Paul's epistles, and in Jesus' own words in the Gospels, we find abundant cautions against being "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting" (Ephesians 4:14-15). Those who are truly born from above must never be part of that. We "walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1). If we truly walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16) - including falsehood motivated by spiritual pride.

The condemnation of those who would add to or subtract from the written Word of God through fraudulent tongues-speaking is severe, and it is just:

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. (Revelation 22:18-19)

In Summary

Perhaps I can best summarize these thoughts by saying that I am attempting to maintain the same balance that I believe Scripture itself maintains. I hope this is helpful. May the Lord give wisdom to each reader in studying His Word in this matter, and in all things.

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