What is speaking in tongues, and interpretation of those tongues?

General Faith
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4. Acts and “universal patterns”

You’re right that Acts is not a formula book that says, “This must always happen exactly this way.” Each scene has its own context:

  • Acts 2: sign to Jews of many nations.

  • Acts 10: sign that Gentiles are fully accepted.

  • Acts 19: transitional moment for John’s disciples.

I agree.

But what I notice is that, in these key moments where the text wants to make it clear that the Spirit has come upon them, something audible/visible happens, and very often that “something” is tongues and/or prophecy.

So I’m not saying Acts lays down a hard “law” that this must happen every time or you’re not saved. I’m saying:

When Luke wanted to show the Spirit’s arrival in power, he consistently points to supernatural speech as a recognizable sign.

That’s why many of us see a strong pattern, even if we don’t turn it into a rigid legal test of salvation.

5. “Tongues will cease” and 1 Corinthians 13

You said that Scripture never says tongues will continue until Christ returns, and that 1 Corinthians 13:8 is about the contrast between partial and perfect, not timing of the gifts.

Here’s where I am with that passage:

  • “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.” (v. 9)

  • “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” (v. 10)

  • “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face…” (v. 12)

  • “…now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (v. 12)

Whatever “that which is perfect” is, Paul describes it as:

  • “face to face”

  • full knowledge “even as also I am known”

That doesn’t match the closing of the canon or the end of the apostolic age. It matches the return of Christ and our glorified state. Until then, we are still very much in the “we know in part” stage.

So when I say the gifts continue until Christ returns, I’m not trying to press one phrase beyond its limits. I’m simply reading Paul’s contrast:

Now: partial knowledge, partial prophecy, partial understanding.
Then: face to face, full knowledge.

If we’re still in the “now,” then I don’t see biblical warrant to declare that God has stopped using gifts He Himself gave for the edification of the body.

6. Scripture alone – I agree with you

You said I’m appealing to what seems reasonable and that Scripture must be the standard. I genuinely agree. I’m not trying to defend a denominational line or experience at the expense of the text.

Where I think we simply differ is in how we synthesize:

  • 1 Corinthians 12–14

  • Acts 2, 8, 10, 19

  • Romans 8

  • and the flow of Paul’s argument about “now” vs “then” in 1 Corinthians 13.

From my side, I’m not trying to say:

  • “Tongues are required for salvation,” or

  • “Every believer must speak in tongues or they don’t have the Spirit.”

I am saying:

  • The NT does describe tongues as prayer to God that edifies the speaker.

  • Paul personally practiced this extensively, while being very cautious in public.

  • Acts repeatedly ties the outpouring of the Spirit to recognizable supernatural speech.

  • And the “perfect” Paul contrasts with the gifts looks like the return of Christ, not the close of the canon.

I’m very thankful we agree on the essentials: salvation by grace through faith, the absolute authority of Scripture, and the supremacy of love. On the gifts, I’m simply trying to leave room for everything the text describes and to stay open to what the Spirit may still want to do in Christ’s body today.

Grace and peace to you as well. I really do appreciate the sharpening.

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If one has received tongues as an initial sign of the Holy Spirit, I believe he can still pray in a tongue whenever he wants and without an interpreter, that would be in his own prayer closet. it will edify him and later he might edify the whole assembly. His spirit prays as opposed to his understanding or mind. Our spirits can profit from this and make us more attentive to God.

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Since our revelations now are limited, and even the Bible can be expounded upon, we do need the return of the Lord for more revelations and deeper understanding of scripture. God knew that the church He left here would need these gifts and manifestations, so thank Him. There is nothing perfect on earth now and if one says that the New Testament is, why do we still yearn to know it better? The manifestations of the Holy Spirit in Christian assemblies help us until Christ’s return. They manifest the Lord’s presence among us. phanirosis pneumatikon

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Just because you cannot find in the Bible that the spiritual gifts will continue, does not mean that they will cease before Christ returns. People who are not blessed with the more vocal and rational gifts may have such irrational gifts to edify themselves with. We should not forbid them. Not everyone is articulate, but some are and thank the Lord. But others may be also blessed with a different kind of gift that the articulate cannot see the value of. Paul says everything has its used to make the whole Body healthy. Some are more to be understood as gifts and others as manifestations. When I hear a tongue in church, I say to myself, “the Lord is here among us”.

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I believe the tongues in Acts were known languages somewhere in the world, but ordinarily tongues are the expressions of the human spirit to God who understands them, and are not languages. Even when the Acts Christians spoke in tongues, they were not preaching, but instead, were praying (praising God for His wonderful works, which included the salvation He wrought in His Son, Jesus Christ.) to God. In this particular case foreign languages were used in prayer, but usually they are not human languages. In Acts an interpreter was not needed. It was probably a unique circumstance, so that the gospel could quickly go out to the known world. The hearers overheard these prayers of the 120 in their own tongues, and 3000 were saved. I have heard of other instances when a person heard a tongues prayer in his own language, but these are very much the exception.

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You say that scripture never distinguishes between tongues prayer in the assembly and private tongues prayer. I disagree and believe the context shows that praying with one’s spirit is subject to the will of man where there is no interpreter, but tongues prayer in the assembly is a gift or manifestation of the Lord’s presence in that assembly. It does require an interpreter. One who expresses this manifestation needs to be moved by the Holy Spirit to express it. It is not up to his own volition, just as the other manifestations also take a prompting from the Holy Spirit. I believe any Christian can have the manifestation of the spirit of tongues prayer for their own use, but not necessarily the gift to use in public. In case there is no one to interpret, the person who prays in a tongue in public must have the faith to interpret himself, else he is out of order.

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Praise God for His mighty work in you. Often He does miracles like this before we can explain them. I pray He uses you in ministry wherever you may be.

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Right back at ya Steve. :grinning_face:

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You said that one category of tongues is when tongues is directed to men. I do not find this in the New Testament. Even when tongues were understood by humans without an interpreter (in Acts), they were not directed to men, but to God. The humans who heard them in their own language overheard them being spoken to God. Prayer in tongues is always to God and so is it’s interpretation. It is likely praise and worship for God’s wonderful works. Just overhearing these prayers to God was enough to bring some in the Jerusalem audience to repentance and belief in Christ. How many times I have not known how or for what to thank God and in a tongue unknown to me I have felt I was praying according to God’s will.

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I do not believe that the gift of tongues is the initial sign of salvation or the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Every Christian has the blessed Holy Spirit as an ernst of his full inheritance of sonship in God’s family. All we have in Christ is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit that comes with salvation The baptism in the Holy Spirit can come at the time of conversion, but often does not. We have the Spirit within us, but does the Spirit have us? Often the Holy Spirit awakens something within us later after salvation that is so meaningful that some people feel their previous experience of the Holy Spirit was so small, that they did not even notice it. Usually, the Holy Spirit baptism is so definite that it comes with some kind of inspired speech, but I will not say all the time. But afterward the Christian is bolder, more hungry to understand scripture, and more available to God for His service. After that initial anointing (baptism) there are often many fillings with the Holy Spirit when we “leak”.

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Thank you for your kind words, and it is a relief to me to hear that we agree on the authority of Scripture. That is why I keep coming back to the text itself. When you lay all these passages side by side and let Scripture interpret Scripture, the distinctions you are making just aren’t there. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul is not describing two kinds of tongues. He is describing the same gift being used either with interpretation or without. The same “unknown tongue” that must be interpreted for the church ~1 Corinthians 14: 5 is the same “unknown tongue” that no one understands ~1 Corinthians 14:2. Nothing in the chapter creates a private prayer language. Paul’s point is that tongues without interpretation edify only the speaker, which is why he commands believers not to use the gift that way in the assembly ~1 Corinthians 14:9-13. When he says “my spirit prays” ~1 Corinthians 14:14, he is not creating a new category; he is correcting misuse. Scripture does not divide the gift; it regulates it.

The same is true in chapter 12. When Paul asks, “Do all speak with tongues?” the answer is no ~1 Corinthians 12:30. He does not qualify it as “public tongues only.” The Spirit distributes the gifts “as He will” ~1 Corinthians 12:11. If God intended a universal private prayer language, this passage would be the clearest place to say so. It does not.

Your appeal to Acts does not change that. In Acts 2, Acts 10, and Acts 19 the tongues were known human languages ~Acts 2: 6-11 and served as signs that the gospel was breaking into new groups. Nothing in Acts teaches a second blessing, nor does it present tongues as a devotional prayer language. In Acts 8 the Samaritans had an incomplete understanding of the gospel and needed apostolic confirmation ~Acts 8:14-17. In Acts 19 the disciples knew only John’s baptism and had never heard of the Holy Spirit ~Acts 19:2-4. These are transitional moments in redemptive history, not normative instructions for the church.

Regarding 1 Corinthians 13, Paul’s contrast is simple. Right now our knowledge is partial, but when we see Christ face to face the partial will be removed ~1 Corinthians 13:12. The passage does not say the gifts continue until Christ returns; it simply says they will cease when the perfect comes. Scripture never tells us when that moment is, and I do not want to add what God did not speak.

So I appreciate the desire to “leave room,” but I do not want to leave room for categories Scripture does not create. My goal is not to limit the Spirit. My goal is to refuse anything that requires assumptions, implications, or additions outside the text. If Scripture reveals it, I will stand on it. If Scripture is silent, I will stay silent ~Deuteronomy 4:2; ~1 Corinthians 4:6. That is not closed-mindedness. That is obedience to the Word God gave us.

Tongues itself is not evil, but it is one of the easiest places for Satan to deceive people because it can bypass the mind. The Bible warns that Satan can imitate spiritual experiences ~2 Corinthians 11:14 and that even false signs can look real ~Matthew 24:24. That is why Paul insisted that tongues must be interpreted and must involve understanding ~1 Corinthians 14:13-15. When people focus on the feeling instead of the meaning, they cannot test anything by Scripture, and that opens the door to deception.

The Bible also shows that pagans used ecstatic, frenzied, unintelligible speech. Paul reminded the Corinthians that before they were saved they were “carried away” into idol worship ~1 Corinthians 12:2. The prophets of Baal cried out in chaotic, emotional outbursts ~1 Kings 18:28-29. God even warns about spiritual muttering from familiar spirits ~Isaiah 8:19. In other words, not every spiritual sound is from God.

The point is simple: because tongues can be easily misused or imitated, Scripture commands us to test everything, keep our minds engaged, and judge all things by the Word of God. That is the safeguard God gave us.

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I do not believe private tongues prayer is a separate gift from the kind of tongues we speak in the assembly except the latter always has an interpreter. When people receive this gift, most do not ever use it in church, so where do they use it? If at all, they use it in their own private prayer, where no one else is nearby to need an interpretation. The reason we do not hear prayer and interpretation in the assembly is because someone rushes to prophesy and/or does not realize that interpretation is prayer, like tongues itself. Many well-known preachers are confused about this and rush to prophesy when they think they are interpreting a tongues prayer. They are actually pushing aside a gift of the Spirit by not allowing an interpretation of the tongues. The congregation is never informed of what they should be praising and thanking God for. The church is missing interpretation of tongues when it is a vital part of the worship.

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Are you saying that God never commanded people who have received the gift of tongues, who do not use this gift in the assembly, should not use it at any other time? I hope not. No, there is no prohibition against use of tongues when there is no need for an interpreter. There is no command at all about it. But if you could know the joy, exhilaration and peace that comes from tongues prayer (edification), you would understand why we use this gift in private as well as in the church.

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Thank you for your thoughtful reply. And just to be clear—no, I was not saying or even implying that God commanded believers not to use tongues privately. I actually agree with you completely. There is no prohibition against praying in tongues outside the assembly, and Paul’s own example makes that very plain.

My only point in the earlier post was that Paul himself acknowledges two modes of tongues:

  1. Public use in the assembly, which requires interpretation

  2. Personal devotional use, which is “unto God,” “in the Spirit,” and edifies the individual

When Paul says:

  • “He that speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not unto men, but unto God”

  • “He edifies himself”

  • “If I pray in a tongue…”

  • “I speak in tongues more than ye all… yet in the church…”

…he is clearly describing something meaningful and spiritually beneficial outside the congregational setting.

So we actually share the same conviction:
Scripture supports both purposes, and Paul practiced both.

And you’re absolutely right—there is a joy and deep spiritual refreshing in private praying in tongues that Paul seems to celebrate. The way you described that joy is exactly what he means by “edification.”

Where I was mainly trying to be precise is simply this:

  • 1 Corinthians 12 is about gifts distributed for the body, especially the gathered assembly

  • 1 Corinthians 14 covers both public and private functioning

  • And Paul never collapses those two into one identical expression

That’s why I try to let his categories stand instead of flattening them.

But to your larger point—I’m with you.
There is no Scripture that forbids praying in tongues privately, and every Scripture that mentions private use frames it as a blessing, not something to avoid.

Thank you again for the thoughtful engagement. I appreciate the way you share from experience as well as Scripture. Grace to you.

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Dear Timf, I do not think the miracle gifts ever ceased in the New Testament church. We still need unity and maturity in the church and God has not left us without the witness of the Holy Spirit and His gifts. The tongues at Pentecost were not spoken to people, but to God, and foreign people overheard these languages in their own language. Tongues are prayer, not preaching. The perfect that is to come is not the Bible. It is the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Until then the church has gifts of words of knowledge and wisdom, discerning of spirit, gifts of healing, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, etc. We still need these gifts. Just because we have wise teachers, modern physicians, the New Testament, etc, does not mean we have no needs for Holy Spirit-inspired supernatural gifts and manifestations.

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Very True. The Holy Spirit says “Jesus is Lord.” and will not approve of people who imitate a Holy Spirit-inspired gift or manifestation. I is clear who is behind a true gift of the Spirit. Erratic and ecstatic behavior that provokes attention on the speaker instead of God and does not give Jesus glory and must be condemned by a pastor if it tries to come into a church assembly.

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The phrase that some tongues are directed to men is inaccurate. Men may hear these tongues because they are spoken in the assembly, but they are not directed to men. Tongues are always directed to God, because they are prayers. Interpretation is also unto God and we merely overhear it. We in the congregation over hear the tongues. They are meant to be for God who understands them. Over hearing the interpretation of tongues allows us to agree with and join in with another’s prayers to Him.

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All prayer should be “in the Spirit”. The opposite would be praying “in the flesh.” But not all prayer is with the human spirit. Some righteous prayer is with our understanding and uses the vernacular. Other righteous prayer is with our spirits (i.e. without our understanding). This is tongues prayer. We are admonished to always pray in the Spirit, but not to always pray with our human spirits, because it is also good to pray with our minds too. It is an error to think that praying in the Spirit is always to pray in tongues.

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I did not say that the Church needs freshness over truth. It is just a fact that the Gospel can be expressed truthfully with fresh insight that usually is more effective for moving the hearts of men whose faith has grown boring and they need something new. Fresh is not something different than the one Truth of the Bible. It just might be a new way or saying the old, maybe because some hearts have been closed or because some seem to slumber. Why not be fresh? God is creative and can give us fresh ways of saying the same old Gospel that wakes up some people who have not been stirred in a long time. I like freshness and I love Jesus with all my heart soul, mind and strength.

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All the revelations I’ m talking about agree with what the Word of God says and what has already been shown to us in Scripture. But there are many ways of speaking that say the same thing. We are saved by faith through grace. But this fact can be resaid in ways that people who are not like me can understand or receive in different ways than I understand or receive things. The gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit, you do not have to guard against. Sure you test all things by the understanding you already have of the Gospel, but God gives His gifts, and our proper response is thanksgiving. God may want to give you something today that He knew that yesterday you would have rejected.