First

In the last commission given by our Lord Jesus Christ to the apostles in Mark 16:15-18, He said unto them, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” The Emphatic Diaglott says, “new languages,” Webster says, “other languages.” “Let us not love… in tongue [language]; but in deed and in truth.”* (1 John 3:18) Many articles and tracts have been written about the “unknown tongue,” vainly endeavoring to prove that the “unknown” means a speech or language that no one, not even the speaker, understands. Now if we can find any Bible proof for the above statement, well and good, but if not, we had better leave it alone.

Now to the law and testimony: “I will gather all nations and tongues [languages]”* (Isaiah 66:18); “Thou… hast redeemed us… out of every kindred, and tongue [language], and people, and nation.”* (Revelation 5:9) Moses said, “I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.”* (Exodus 4:10) All through the Bible, tongues stand for languages or speech. Now our God is an intelligent God, and He wants His people to be intelligent; He gives us no commands that we cannot understand; neither has He left any promises on record that are incomprehensible to the human mind.

Let us go back to the commission again: “Go ye into all the world and preach [to proclaim, to publish in religious discourses].”* (Mark 16:15) They were to preach the gospel (glad tidings) to every creature, nation and tongue. Now all these apostles that received this command were Galileans and spoke the one language of the Hebrew, therefore, they were told to tarry in Jerusalem until endued with power from on high, which would enable them to preach to, or teach, every nation, tongue or people: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance [‘the act of uttering words, pronunciation’].”* (Acts 2:4) We here give a few quotations from the Emphatic Diaglott, Acts 2:4,6,8,11: “And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance…. The multitude came together, and were perplexed because every one heard them speaking in his own language…. And how do we hear each nile in our own language in which we were born?…. We hear them speaking in our own tongues the great things of God.” So we see clearly there is no such thing taught in the second chapter of the Acts as the unknown tongue that no one, not even the speaker, understands. Then where, pray tell me, do our modern tongues brethren get a foundation for their doctrine? I have searched the Scriptures faithfully, and fail to find anything on which to build a theory of that kind. The word unknown in 1 Corinthians 14:2, which is in italics, is supplied by the translators.The Emphatic Diaglott says, “For he who is speaking in a foreign language is not speaking to men, but to God,” for no one listens. Neither can the “unknown” be found in the original Greek, from which our King James Bible was translated, “and with the former translations diligently compared and revised.” Speaking in tongues was a gift set in the church for a useful purpose. The remarkable gift or phenomenon manifested on the day of Pentecost marked the initial work of the Holy Ghost in setting the church in order.

Some are making an attempt to draw a distinction between the gift of tongues and speaking in tongues—that “the gift of tongues” is under the control of the individual possessing it while “speaking in tongues” is an uncontrollable overflow of exhortation. Let us see if we can find any Bible proof for the above assertion. Not a thing can we find in favor of such a theory, but against it. In James we read, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.”* (James 1:26) According to the above Scriptures, a man who cannot, or does not, control his tongue has a vain religion, and has deceived his own heart. Gifts of the Spirit and manifestations of the Spirit are the same; for there is no way possible in which tongues can be manifested except by speaking (uttering or pronouncing words). Speaking is to exercise the gift.

It is said by some, according to 1 Corinthians 14:4, that God gives us a phase of tongues for private use in order that one may edify himself, and then they try to prove by the 14th verse that the speaker himself does not understand. The Emphatic says, “For if I pray in a foreign language my Spirit prays, but my understanding is without fruit.” What is the fruit of my understanding, my prayers, preaching, or exhortation? Is it not the good my hearers get out of it? If I preach (prophesy), pray or exhort in a tongue (language) which my congregation does not understand, would it be fruitful? No, not to my congregation. Why? Because they would not know what I said, therefore, could not say, “Amen.” But I could be edified if talking to the Lord, because I would know what I was talking about; otherwise it would not be prayer—prayer to God—petitioning Him or asking Him for something.

If one prays in a tongue he does not understand, how does he know he prays? “And even things without life giving sounds, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?”* (1 Corinthians 14:7) If a person unskilled in any kind of music picks up a violin and draws the bow across the strings without any attempt to play a tune, would it edify? Would you enjoy it? Would it be fruitful? Would you be any wiser after listening? “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle?”* (1 Corinthians 14:8)

It seems to me that the next verse, in connection with the two just quoted, ought to be enough to settle the whole tongues question. “So likewise ye except ye utter by the tongue [language] words easy to be understood [not something no one, including the speaker, understands], how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.”* (1 Corinthians 14:9) Is God pleased with people who speak into the air? Paul was talking about real languages, too, but he forbids speaking to the congregation in languages they cannot understand; but, “utter by the tongue words easy to be understood.” And how could one do that except he himself understand what he is talking about? in the “14th verse”* (1 Corinthians 14:14) Paul, in referring to speaking in an unknown tongue (“foreign language” in Emphatic Diaglott), said his understanding was unfruitful. Why? Look for the answer in the 16th verse: “Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understands not what thou sayest.”* (1 Corinthians 14:16)

It is very plain to be seen by the above quotation that the unknown tongue (or foreign languages) could be learned, for if the “unlearned” could not say, “Amen,” because he did not understand, surely the learned could say, “Amen,” because he did understand. So we clearly see why Paul says, “My understanding is unfruitful.”* (1 Corinthians 14:14) It is because, while he himself had an understanding of what he was saying, the “unlearned” person, who did not understand the language he might he speaking or praying in, could not possibly be benefited: therefore, “unfruitful.” The 18th and 19th verses I will quote from the Emphatic Diaglott, “I give thanks to God, speaking in different languages more than all of you, yet in a congregation I would rather speak five words through my understanding, so that [in such a way] I might also instruct others, than ten thousand words in a foreign language [which he, in the 9th verse, calls ‘speaking into the air’], unless we speak words easy to be understood.”

For another proof that the Bible nowhere teaches such a thing as an unknown tongue that no one, not even the speaker himself, knows what he is saying, we will go to the catalog of gifts recorded in 1 Corinthians 12: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.”* (1 Corinthians 12:1) Since the apostle Paul does not want the brethren ignorant concerning any of the spiritual gifts, we are expecting him to make it plain here in the following Scriptures. He starts out by saying, “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.”* (1 Corinthians 12:7) So we are not expecting to find something that one would not know what he had if he had it, and, therefore, would not profit him while he did have it; or some unknown speech that he would not know what he said if he said it. “For to one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues [The Emphatic has it ‘different languages’]; to another interpretation of tongues [languages].”* (1 Corinthians 12:8-10) While I do not lay claim to a very liberal possession of these wonderful gifts, I do believe them all to be in the Church of God. And while I do not speak in different tongues, I do claim a little faith, and some degree of the gift of discernment.