THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF
THE GIFT OF LANGUAGES
THE HISTORY OF THE GIFT OF TONGUES
This is taken from the lengthy article by Gary Kukis which
can be accessed via his web site at:
http://www.kukis.org/Tongues/Tongues.htm
We should pause here and see if the historical witness
of the church fathers bears out this notion. We also have historical documents
which verify that the gift of tongue died out with the early church. From
Burdick: Chrysostom (a.d. 347-407) leaves no doubt that in his
day tongues were altogether a thing of the past. Writing concerning I Corinthians 12,
he said, "This whole place is very obscure; but the obscurity is produced
by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being
such as then used to occur, but now no longer take place." (315)
We also have Augustine, a contemporary of Chrysostom living from a.d. 354
to 430, was equally definite. He said: In the earliest times, "the
Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed; and they spake with tongues,"
which they had not learned, "as the Spirit gave them utterance."
These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening
of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to show that the Gospel of God was to
run through all tongues over the whole earth. That thing was done for a
betokening, and it passed away.(316)
Augustine wrote other things which indicate the speaking
in tongues belonged to the past, but these references also include the
laying on of hands on infants for them to receive the baptism of the Holy
Spirit; as well as the spurious thought that the Holy Spirit could only
be gotten from the Catholic Church. These statements open up whole new
cans of worms which I do not wish to get into right now. However, they
may be found in Glossolalia by Frank Stagg, E. Glenn Hinson, Wayne
E. Oates, p. 52. Augustine also wrote: For when the Catholic Church
had been diffused and established through the whole world, these miracles
were no longer permitted to continue in or time, lest the mind should always
seek visible things. In Retractions, he writes: For those
that are baptized do not now receive the Spirit on the imposition of hands,
so as to speak in the tongues of all the peoples; neither are the sick
healed by the shadow of the preachers of Christ falling on them as they
pass; and other such things as were then done, are now manifestly ceased.(317)
In any case, the point I am making is that, by their witness,
despite any goofy theological positions which they had, that the gift of
tongues was long gone by their time. Hinson: The combined evidence of
Chrysostom and Augustine would indicate that tongue speaking hd passed
off the scene by the late fourth century in both East and West, Chrysostom,
at one time a deacon and presbyter in Antioch (381-97) and later Patriarch
of Constantinople (397-407), would probably have had direct knowledge if
the phenomenon had occurred anywhere in the East. Augustine, who had resided
in Rome and Milan several years (383-89) before initiating a long ministry
in Hippo (391-430), would have had similar information about its occurrence
in the West. Both spoke as if glossolalia had not occurred since very early
times.(318)
From that early time period, we only have two or three
quotes from early church fathers which indicate that tongues may have been
spoken in the second century a.d. In the introduction, we have already
covered the few small, scattered movements, none of which left much behind
by way of influence. We have quotes from Irenæus, from the end of
the second century, for which I do not have an explanation. Then we also
have Tertullian, who, in his essay Against Marcion, mentions tongues,
visions and ecstasy. There are two reasonable explanations here: (1) he
was speaking of the original church in this essay (the time frame is not
clear); or, (2) he wrote this after joining the Montanists (which
he did). This was a schismatic movement which began in Phrygia which believed
in the continued existence of miraculous sign gifts. One of their teachings
was that Jerusalem would descend from heaven and land on Phrygia (damn
lucky for them to be living there and I expect they bought up a little
real estate, as it was certain to appreciate when Jerusalem finally descended).(319)
Thomas Watson wrote in 1660: Sure, there is as much
need of ordination now as in Christ's time and in the time of the apostles,
there being then extraordinary gifts in the church which are now ceased.
(Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes, p. 14). John Owen, in 1679,
wrote: Gifts which in their own nature exceed the whole power of all
our faculties, that dispensation of the Spirit is long since ceased and
where it is now pretended unto by any, it may justly be suspected as an
enthusiastic delusion. (John Owen, Works IV, p. 518). Matthew
Henry, July 15, 1712: The gift of tongues was one new product of the
spirit of prophecy and given for a particular reason, that, the Jewish
pale being taken down, all nations might be brought into the church. These
and other gifts of prophecy, being a sign, have long since ceased and been
laid aside, and we have no encouragement to expect the revival of them;
but, on the contrary, are directed to call the scriptures the more
sure word of prophecy, more sure than voices from heaven; and to them
we are directed to take heed, to search them, and to hold them fast,
2 Peter 1:29. (Matthew Henry, Preface to Vol. IV of his Exposition
of OT & NT, vii). Jonathan Edwards, in 1738, writes that these
extraordinary sign gifts were given to the early church: in order to
the founding and establishing of the Church in the world. But since the
canon of the Scripture has been completed, and the Christian Church fully
founded and established, these extraordinary gifts have ceased. (Jonathan
Edwards, Charity and its Fruits; p. 29). George Whitefield,
because of his frequent testimony to the person and power of the Spirit
of God, was charged with 'enthusiasm' by some Church leaders and he was
credited with believing that apostolic charismata were revived. This belief
Whitefield firmly denied; 'I never did pretend to these extraordinary operations
of working miracles, or speaking with tongues.' For failing to distinguish
the ordinary and extraordinary work of the Spirit and of considering both
to have ceased, he blames the Bishop and clergy of Lichfield and Coventry,
'who reckon the indwelling, and inward witnessing of, as also praying and
preaching by the Spirit, among the karismata, the miraculous gifts conferred
on the primitive church, and which have long since ceased.' (320)
Whitefield also had friends who confirmed his distinction between the power
of the Holy Spirit which he claimed to have different manifestations from
the early church. Joseph Smith, the Congregational pastor in South Caroline,
wrote: [George Whitefield]...renounced all pretences to the extraordinary
powers and signs of apostleship, peculiar to the age of inspiration, and
extinct with them. (Joseph Smith, in his preface to George Whitefield's Sermons and Important Subjects, 1825,
xxv).
In the late 1700's, after studying in great depth all
of the writings of the church fathers of the first three centuries or so,
Conyers Middleton wrote: ...we have no sufficient reason to believe,
upon the authority of the primitive fathers, that any such powers were
continued to the church, after the days of the Apostles.(321) Apparently,
Middleton had a rather harsh tone in this book, which Benjamin Warfield
tells us does not destroy its value as a solid piece of investigation.
Warfield continues: Middleton's own view...[was] that miracles subsisted
until the church had been founded in all the chief cities of the empire,
which, he held, had been accomplished in the Apostolic times. It is interesting
to observe thus that Middleton reached his correct conclusion as to the
time of the cessation of these gifts without the help of a right understanding
of the true reason of their cessation with the Apostolic age; [Middleton
reaches this conclusion] purely...on empirical grounds. That is, through
his careful study of the writings of the church fathers of the first few
centuries. His book presents in full the testimony to miraculous working
found in the Fathers of the first three centuries. The meagreness and indefiniteness
of their witness are left o speak for themselves, with only the help of
two closing remarks. The one of these presses the impossibility of believing
that the gifts were first withdrawn during the first fifty years of the
second century and then restored. The other contrasts the patristic miracles
with those of the New Testament, with respect both to their nature and
the mode of their working...[he further points out that] no known writer
claims to have himself wrought miracles, or names any of his predecessors
as having done so. The honor is left to unknown and obscure men, and afterward
to the "rotten bones" of saints who while living did no such
works. In the fourth section of his book, Middleton examines each and
every proposed miracle from outside the Apostolic era, along with every
instance that it is mentioned, and questions its credibility. According
to Warfield, the book was received with a storm of criticism, reprobation,
even abuse. However, Warfield points out, it was not refuted.(322)
Chantry provides us with still more: James Buchanan, 1845:
The miraculous gifts of the Spirit have long since been withdrawn. They
were used for a temporary purpose. They were the scaffolding with God employed
for the erection of a spiritual temple. When it was no longer needed the
scaffolding was taken down, but the temple still stands, and is occupied
by his indwelling Spirit; for, "Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" (I Cor. 3:16).
(James Buchanan, Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, p. 34).
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in several sermons, espoused the same position. Although we may not expect and need not desire the miracles which came
with the gift of the Holy Spirit, so far as they were physical, yet we
may both desire and expect that which was intended and symbolized by them,
and we may reckon to see the like spiritual wonders performed among us
at this day. (Met. Tab. Pulpit. 1881, Vol. 27, p. 521).
Spurgeon again: The works of the Holy Spirit which are at this time
vouchsafed to the Church of God are every way as valuable as those earlier
miraculous gifts which have departed from us. The work of the Holy Spirit,
by which men are quickened from their death in sin, is not inferior to
the power which made men speak with tongues. (Met. Tab. Pulpit.
1884, Vol. 30, pp. 386-387). Robert L. Dabney, in 1876, wrote
that once the early church had been established, the same necessity
for supernatural signs now no longer existed, and God, who is never wasteful
in his expedients, withdrew them. Henceforward the church was to conquer
the belief of the world by its example and teachings alone, energized by
the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Finally, miracles, if they became
ordinary, would cease to be miracles, and would be referred by men to customary
law. (Robert L. Dabney, 'Prelacy a Blunder', Discussions: Evangelical
and Theological, Vol. 2, pp. 236-237). George Smeaton, 1882: The supernatural or extraordinary gifts were temporary, and intended
to disappear when the Church should be founded and the inspired canon of
Scripture closed; for they were an external proof of an internal inspiration.
(George Smeaton, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, p. 51). Abraham Kuyper, 1888:
Many of the charismata, given to the apostolic church,
are not of service to the church of the present day. (Abraham Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit, English Edition, 1900, p. 182).
W. G. T. Shedd, 1888: The supernatural gifts of inspiration and miracles
which the apostles possessed were not continued to their ministerial successors,
because they were no longer necessary. All the doctrines of Christianity
had been revealed to the apostles, and had been delivered to the church
in a written form. There was no further need of an infallible inspiration.
And the credentials and authority give to the first preachers of Christianity
in miraculous acts, did not need continual repetition from age to age.
One age of miracles well authenticated is sufficient to establish the divine
origin of the gospel. In a human court, an indefinite series of witnesses
is not required. "By the mouth of two or three witnesses," the
facts are established. The case once decided is not reopened. (W. G.
T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, Vol. 11, p. 369). Benjamin Warfield, 1918:
These gifts were not the possession of the primitive
Christian as such; nor for that matter of the Apostolic Church or the Apostolic
age for themselves; they were distinctively the authentication of the Apostles.
They were part of the credentials of the Apostles as the authoritative
agents of God in founding the church. Their function thus confined them
to distinctively the Apostolic Church and they necessarily passed away
with it. (Benjamin Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles, p. 6).
Arthur Pink, 1970: As there were offices extraordinary (apostles and
prophets) at the beginning of our dispensation, so there were gifts extraordinary;
and as successors were not appointed for the former, so a continuance was
never intended for the latter. The gifts were dependent upon the officers.
We no longer have the apostles with us and therefore the supernatural gifts
(the communication of which was an essential part of "the signs of
an apostle", II Cor. 12:12) are absent. (Arthur W. Pink, The Holy Spirit, p. 179). As you see from these testimonies,
that it has been the position of theologians throughout the ages that the
miraculous gifts of the spirit have died out, although the power of the
Holy Spirit has not.
315. Donald Burdick, Tongues--To Speak or Not
To Speak; Moody Press, ©1969, pp. 33-34. He took the quote from
Chrysostom, "Homilies on the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to
the Corinthians," XXIX.
316. Donald Burdick, Tongues--To Speak or Not
To Speak; Moody Press, ©1969, p. 34. He quoted from Augustine,
"Homilies on the First Epistle of John," VI. 10.
317. Benjamin Warfield; Counterfeit Miracles;
The Banner of Truth Trust, 1972 (from a series of lectures delivered at
the Columbia Theological Seminary 1917-1918); pp. 40-41. The only
actual citation which he provides is Miscellaneous Works; London, 1755,
vol. I, p. xli. I should point out that Augustine did believe in miracles
during his time, claimed to be a witness to some of them (although he writes
of these long, long after the fact); but indicates that they were nothing
like the miracles of the first century. Augustine, for all his writings,
remains an enigmatic figure in Christian history.
318. Frank Stagg, E. Glenn Hinson, Wayne E. Oates,
Glossolalia; Abingdon Press, ©1967, p. 53.
319. See Kenneth S. Latourette, A History of
Christianity, p. 126.
320. All of the quotations from this paragraph
were taken directly from Walter J. Chantry, Signs of the Apostles; ©1973
by The Banner of Truth Trust, p. 95-101. The minister of the Baptist
Church in Aberystwyth, Wales, Geoffrey Thomas, supplied these quotes to
him. The first one is George Whitefield, 'Answer to the Bishop of London,'
Works, Vol. IV, p. 9 and the second one is 'Second letter to
the Bishop of London', Works, Vol. IV, p. 167. The rest are cited
in context.
321. Conyers Middleton, A Free Inquiry; London,
1747. This was quoted by Benjamin Warfield; Counterfeit Miracles; The Banner
of Truth Trust, 1972 (from a series of lectures delivered at the Columbia
Theological Seminary 1917-1918); p. 28.
322. Quoted and paraphrased from Benjamin
Warfield;
Counterfeit Miracles; The Banner of Truth Trust, 1972 (from a series of
lectures delivered at the Columbia Theological Seminary 1917-1918); pp. 28-31.
Comments and questions are
always welcome
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