If the reader has agreed overall with the conclusions presented in this paper, then he is faced with several pressing questions that the activities around him demand answers for. This paper will address only three highly significant questions, namely: 1. What is the source of speaking in tongues today? 2. Is there such a thing as a personal prayer language? 3. What are the relationships between speaking in tongues, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and salvation?
Source of tongues today? To the consternation of many involved in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, much of the speaking in tongues carried on today is a learned practice. It is generally performed with the mind and is merely gibberish or babble. This is evident from several factors:
1. Speakers do not ever use sounds that they are unfamiliar with such as the German ch or the Spanish rr, as mentioned previously.
2. Many have begun speaking in tongues for the first time by quickly repeating a phrase or tongue twister until it becomes speaking in tongues.
3. Linguists have not been able to decipher any known language or even normal patterns of language among thousands of recordings of individuals speaking in tongues.
4. Many who have practiced speaking in tongues admit that it is learned rather than acquired instantaneously.
J. Vernon McGee relates an anecdote in which a young priest attended a charismatic service in order to observe what took place. A short way into the service, he conceived to offer a message spoken in a tongue in order to test the authenticity of the activities. So he came to the front and began to recite the Latin mass. After he had spoken sufficiently, he awaited the interpretation and one came, but it was not an interpretation of the Latin mass. When he corrected the interpreter, revealing his secret plot, he was quickly escorted out of the service (69).
Two other suggested explanations remain for those incidents which may have some credence. First, a more genuine occurrence could be the work of Satan, who is able to duplicate many of the wonders of God such as the first five plagues in Egypt, calling fire down from heaven, and healing. Though this might seem unlikely, Jesus and John and Peter all warned against false prophets and Paul against false apostles. Second, more genuine occurrences could actually be genuine. For this to be true, they must fit the pattern observed in Scripture, though the individual might not follow Paul’s guidelines for use. If there are truly genuine instances, they should not be thought of as the continuance of the gift or its resurgence but rather a spontaneous working of the Holy Spirit, giving according to His will for a specific circumstance.
Prayer language? There is substantial evidence for a use of the gift of speaking in a tongue just between the individual and God, though this is not its optimal use. For example, 1 Corinthians 14:2 says that the one speaking speaks to God; also, in 14:28 the one gifted may speak to himself and to God if there is no interpreter. Finally, what can Paul mean when he writes that he prays with his spirit except that he prays in tongues? How else could he claim to speak in tongues more than all of the Corinthians put together (Orr 308)?
However, some important observations should be made. First, not everyone will receive the gift of speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:30; 14:5). Second, every believer has the privilege and opportunity to come before the Father with any request (John 16:23-27; 1 John 3:21-22; 5:14). In addition to this, both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are interceding on the behalf of every believer (Romans 8:34; 8:26-27). Third, speaking in tongues is not for the purpose of bringing unknown requests before God.
Tongues, Spirit baptism, and salvation? Much of the confusion surrounding this issue centers on regarding the accounts of speaking in tongues in Acts as normative, especially in Acts 2. From a purely logical standpoint, requiring speaking in tongues for salvation would rob hundreds of millions of people throughout history of their salvation; it would also rob those physically unable to speak of the chance for salvation. It clearly violates Ephesians 2:8-9, that salvation is not by works but by grace through faith alone.
Pry as they may, Pentecostals cannot biblically separate the baptism in the Holy Spirit from the point of salvation. The accounts in Acts 10 and 19 argue this point explicitly. Peter had not even finished his sermon when Cornelius and his whole household believed and were baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:16-17) and began speaking in tongues. The 12 men of Ephesus could not have believed the gospel before Paul spoke with them (as Paul’s question might suggest) because they knew only John’s baptism. After hearing Paul’s words, they were baptized in water and in the Holy Spirit, evidenced by prophesying and speaking in tongues. When else would the believer be "dipped" or "emersed" in the Holy Spirit and identified with Christ if not at the point of salvation? Romans 6:3-4 speaks of the believer’s identification with Christ’s death and resurrection through a baptism in order that "we too may live a new life." This could not refer to water baptism, which not all believers experience, but to Spirit baptism at the point of salvation, when one begins a new life, becomes a new creation, is born again.
Some denominations of Protestant Christianity would require that an individual speak in tongues before he or she can be considered "saved." This is based primarily on the long ending of Mark’s Gospel, which says that speaking in new tongues will follow those who believe. While speaking in tongues is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence, it is only the Holy Spirit Himself that is vital to salvation. It has already been established that, according to Paul, not everyone will speak in tongues, but the Holy Spirit is a seal upon every believer from the point of salvation, securing his or her inheritance in heaven (Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30). A lack of emotion or manifestation at the point of salvation does not deny the presence of the Holy Spirit, the only necessary result of faith.
In addition to all of the above arguments concerning speaking in tongues, Acts only records three instances of it, involving probably no more than 200 hundred people. Luke is silent concerning the 3,000 that repented on the first day, those that were added to the believers’ number day by day, the Ethiopian eunuch, the Samaritans whom Philip preached to, and many of Paul’s converts. Also again, the gift of speaking in tongues is not given to every believer.
