When did man decide that the gift of tongues was not for us today?

Question

If God changes not, and he gave the gift of the Holy Ghost to the early church (with the evidence of speaking in other tongues), then why did he change and take the gift away?

Was he a respecter of the early church more than today"s church?

Answer 1

God did not take that gift away, it is still available, you just have to believe, repent, accept and receive it! I have been a tongue-speaking believer for years. I pray in tongues, give messages in tongues which then are interpreted by another church member and praise in tongues. Speaking in tongues is initial evidence of having the Holy Spirit, I for one am very sensitive to God's Spirit and speak in tongues often, if you only are speaking in tongues to magnify Him, you do not need an interpreter, but you do need one if He is sending a message to His people through you. As far as some folks thinking it is just babbling, it is not, if you listen closely you can tell it is a language. Folks from other countries that have yet to receive the Holy Ghost are amazed when they hear someone speaking in tongues in their native language when that person has never even been there.

God Chose tongues because the tongue is the hardest thing on the body to tame and if anyone can tame it, God can!
God Is Awesome!!

Answer 2

Remember that in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul, writing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, said " . . . tongues shall cease". The problem was that Corinthian believers thought tongues was the best gift, and tried to outdo one another in the use and display of this gift. Several things happened that led to the dis-use of the gift of tongues. One, the Scriptures became available to more and more people. After all, how could they know there was a problem until Paul told them about it? And I don't see much reference to tongues as a gift in 2 Corinthians either, so I think Paul's earlier letters helped them correct the problems of 1 Corinthians. Two, more and more mature believers apparently became aware of genuine speaking in a tongue versus gibberish or ecstatic utterances. Three, Church Fathers and other historians (Chrysostom and others) relate how the gift began to be less and less common. Apparently it gradually withered away to nothing after a few hundred years.

That is NOT to say that God can, and sometimes does, give people the ability to speak in a language never learned before. This has been documented in a lot of places, but the only one I can state now was in a book called "Voices From the Edge of Eternity". The story which told of this was given by a Native American soldier who served in Viet Nam. He told how he had tried to teach an Anglo buddy of his some of his native tongue--Navajo, I think--but his buddy just couldn't get the hang of it. Finally, his buddy was mortally wounded and just before he died, he told the Native American, in perfect Navajo, "you need God". Yes, it can happen, but definitely the exception. If two people can speak English, reasonably well, why would you need to speak, say, Hungarian when there's no need to?

Answer 3

All of the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in the Bible
are still available today.
Unfortunately, all too often those who practice
speaking in tongues,
do-so all at once without interpretation.
The Bible says that it must be one person
at a time with interpretation.
So tongues as well as the other gifts
can be a wonderful and edifying experience
when exercised properly
as directed in the Bible.

Answer 4

God still pours out His Spirit on those who trust in Him. One has to trust God to receive Gods Gifts. Those who lack in trust or faith are afraid of the gifts. So they say that God doesn't give them. Only because they haven't experienced it for themself.

I see people filled with the Holy Ghost with the sign of speaking in tongues today. Including myself. When I went forward at the River of Life & was healed. I was overfilled with the Holy Spirit & my hands reached straight for heaven & I praised God in tongues & stayed in the love bubble & slept soundly that night for the first time in a year. That was the beginning of my healing. And sleeping every night was the obvious difference.

Now a person isn't going to receive this gift from God if they won't praise God in their own language first. Then the love of God takes over. But one has to willing speak praises first & be asking God for the gift. Trusting God sooo much as to trust God with their voice.

Answer 5

this gift is part of salvation and still given today

.......... I have the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, and I have been healed. the only thing i give you no it is not man that did this for me but God.

Answer 6

The idea of "speaking in tongues" is a complete myth. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit came down and gave the Apostles the ability to speak and have all hear what they were saying in their own language. This, however, would be completely unnecessary. As Alexander the Great had just conquered the area about 300 years before, he had spread Hellenistic culture throughout what later became the Roman Empire. Therefore, Greek became a very common language. It was actually one of the official languages of the Roman Empire, along with Latin. Latin, however, was only used for ceremonial purposes, like crowning new emperors and in official holiday celebrations. Greek was used for almost everything else. It was the universal language of marketplaces, was used for speaking with soldiers, the addressing of the public by Roman officials, and much more. Anyone who lived in a town or city would be required to know it. The only people in the entire empire who would not have would be the occasional farmer who had never been to a town or city of any consequence. Although the Bible says that Jesus spoke to his disciples in Aramaic, he most certainly would have preached in Greek. All of his disciples would know it, and for preaching, they would need to know no other language. None of them ever left the empire, and all of their teaching was done in cities. Therefore, they would have had no need for the gift of tongues. It makes no sense that God would have given them it if they would have had no use for it. So there would have been no gift to "take away" from the Church.

Answer 7

That depends on how you define tongues.

You stated it in your question when you said "other tongues"...other languages.

Personally I do not believe that "yabba habba shabba" stuff is tongues because the bible says they spoke in other tongues and that the people heard them in their own language.

Also later on in the book of Acts (for those that claim the "yabba habba shabba" stuff is tongues) it states that there will be an interprater, because if there isn't it edifies nobody. Personally I have yet to find a church where they do that stuff that has had an interprator.

Also, when did "tongues" become the litmus test of salvation and the Holy Ghost? I have actually been to churches that tell people that unless you do speak in tongues you are not saved.

*sigh*

Thank you for this question, it is one of my two favorite doctrinal debates, my other one is bible translations, ie KJV, NKJV, NIV...etc.

Answer 8

I don't know if this is going to help but I have heard that the apostles had certain gifts like healing and they were able to pass gifts to their disciples but those deciples did not have the ability to pass them on. many of the gifts like speaking in tongues were only needed in the beginning and are not needed today.

if speaking in tongues is valid there must be an interpreter

Answer 9

When man refused to do it God's way.
God did not take away the gift. Man has not chosen to receive it. It is a gift though.
A gift is not something you earn, it is something you receive.
If it could be earned, it would not be a gift.

Answer 10

IMO....man use to use his memory much more than we do today.

Books were rare and the only way an educated person could have information "at his finger tips" was to remember it. That ability to remember things also extended to learning new languages. All you would have to do is learn about 1000 words and you could make yourself understood.

Today we have almost instant access to whatever kind of information we want, either in a book or on the Internet. It is not necessary for us to remember things, all we have to do is remember how to look them up. This lack of exercise of our memories makes learning new languages harder and may also contribute to the loss of memory with Alzheimer's.

Now what was I saying?