Speaking in Tongues means Real Languages
In Acts chapter 2 is actually where the Pentecostal movement gets its name — these things happened on the day of Pentecost. And the Bible miraculously gives the believers in the early church the ability to speak with other tongues or other languages in order for people to hear the gospel and get saved.
In many languages, the word for language and tongue is actually the same. For example, in Spanish you have the word lengua, which means tongue, and it also means language. And when the Bible says speaking with other tongues, what it is actually referring to are real languages that exist.
Here is what it says in Acts 2:4: "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." The miraculous event in Acts chapter 2 is not the ability of people to hear in their own language, but the ability of those early believers to actually speak in other languages that they did not know themselves — with the specific purpose of getting people saved. People from all over the world who had travelled to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost heard the wonderful works of God spoken in their own native languages by people who had never learned them.
Now many Pentecostals will actually admit that yes, this is what happened in Acts chapter 2 — that these were real, legitimate languages. But they would say that there are several different types of tongues taught in the Bible, including a private prayer language and an ecstatic heavenly tongue that is different from what happened in Acts 2. Well, the burden of proof would be upon them to show that from the Bible. Because as God is showing us the pattern of what tongues actually are, what we see very clearly are real, legitimate, human languages — with the very specific and practical purpose of getting people saved.
There is no pattern in the Bible of tongues being an ecstatic, unintelligible utterance that only God can understand. The pattern is clear — tongues are real languages, used for the real purpose of preaching the gospel to people who speak those languages.
Pastor Matthew Stucky
