A Description of The Revelational Nature of Tongues and Prophecies. It Will Be Seen Why "Prophecies" Are Mentioned More Than "Tongues-Speaking" in The Bible.
Why Are Prophecies Mentioned More Than tongues In The Holy Bible
This is primarily because "tongues;" like dreams,
visions, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and interpretations
are all prophetic in nature. They are considered to be part of the
prophetic gift, and are recognized as "prophecy" by writers of the Holy
Bible. For instance, on the day of Pentecost, Peter described the
tongues speaking as the "prophesy" that Joel spoke of. Peter's words
(describing the tongues-speaking):
"But this is that which was
spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days,
saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see
visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on
my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they
shall prophesy" Acts 2:16-18
Although Joel did not mention it
as such, "tongues" are part of the "prophesying" that he predicted--In
fact, Paul taught that tongues, when interpreted, are equal in
importance to prophecy:
"for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret" 1 Cor. 14:5
Is Tongues Prophecy
Although
tongues interpreted is slightly different than a "prophecy" proper;
they are both similar, as they are both revelational knowledge from
God's Spirit. Therefore, the New Testament definition of the word
"prophecy" most definitely includes tongues and their interpretation.
It is true that "prophecy" proper, is listed as a distinct gift, but
there seems to be some overlapping in classifying the manifestations of
the Holy Spirit. For instance, the apostle John speaks of his great
vision of the "Apocalypse" as both a "revelation" (Rev. 1:1), and a
"vision" (Rev 9:17), but finally refers to it as a "prophecy"
(Rev.22:18).
In other words: A vision--is a prophecy--is a revelation.
Even though John equates a prophecy with a revelation (above); Paul disinguishes a prophecy from a revelation (below):
"Now,
brethren, if I come unto uou speaking with tongues, what shall I profit
you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge,
or by prophesying, or by doctrine [teaching]?" 1 Cor. 14:6
The
context of the above verse, is Paul's teaching that tongues need to be
interpreted. Here he is saying that a tongues-interpreted would be a
"revelation," " knowledge," "prophecy," or a "teaching."
In other words:
Tongues interpreted--is a revelation--is knowledge--is a prophecy--is a
teaching. In the verse 14: 30, below, it is realized that a “prophecy”
(that prophets receive) is a “revelation”
"Let the prophets
speak two or three, and let the other judge. But if a revelation comes
to one remaining [sitting], let the first keep silent." 1 Cor. 14: 30
GREEK
The KJV does not have the best translation of verse 30
(it is written below), but many Holy Bible translations agree that "a
revelation" (as written above) is the correct phrase, as it is thus
written in the Greek.
"Let the prophets speak two or three,
and let the other judge. If anything be revealed to another that
sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.For ye may all prophesy one by
one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted." 1 Cor,14:29-31 KJV
In other words:
A prophetic word is a "revelation." What we are seeing, is that there
are times when a Bible writer may use the word “prophecy” to describe
tongues, or their interpretation.” In turn, he might also use the word
“revelation” to describe a “prophecy” or visa versa. Therefore when a
Bible writer uses the word “prophecy” he may be including all forms of
revelation, including tongues. That is why, in the following verse,
where Paul speaks of prophetic manifestations; he leaves out "the word
of wisdom," "the word of knowledge," (which are prophetic) and the most
important gift of "prophecy," but instead, he mentions, "a revelation."
"When ye come together , every one of you hath a psalm, hath a
doctrine [a teaching] hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an
interpretation." 1 Cor. 14:26
In other words:
"knowledge," "wisdom," and "prophecy" are all contained in the word,
"revelation" (above). But of course, a "revelation," may in turn, be
called, a "prophecy."
The overlapping nature of the
prophetic gifts is seen in the verses below. It is seen that speaking
in tongues, is speaking “mysteries” and the prophetic
(prophetic-knowledge) gift is the understanding of “mysteries.”
“For
he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto
God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh
mysteries” 1 Cor. 14: 2
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge” 1 Cor. 13: 2
In other words: Mysteries is knowledge--which is prophecy. Speaking in tongues is also speaking mysteries—which is prophetic knowledge!
When Paul mentions that he learned his doctrine from the risen Lord
Jesus he refers to it as a "revelation" that he received as an
impartation of "grace." But Peter refers to Pauls revelation/grace as,
"wisdom".
“For I neither received it [the gospel he preaches]
of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ.” Gal. 1: 12
"If indeed you have heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to youward: How that
by revelation he made known unto me the mystery [of salvation for the
Gentiles]" Eph 3: 2-3
"And account that the longsuffering of
our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul, also according
to the wisdom given unto him hath written." 2 Peter 3: 15
In other words: "wisdom" is "revelation;" which is "grace."
This
brings the reader to the point of this Chapter. Namely; why are there
more references to "prophecy" than there are to "tongues" in the Holy
Bible? Well, "tongues;" (like the "message of wisdom" or "knowlegde")
may be expressing a "revelation," a "mystery," or some kind of
prophetic "teaching," (as it is interpreted) and might be described as
such. The lack of the word "tongues," or "word of wisdom" in an
epistle, does not require the absence of tongues speaking or Divine
wisdom at the church the epistle is addressed to. If one would maintain
that tongues speaking, or the word of wisdom did not occur often after
Pentecost on the grounds that there is not a lot written of them per
say; then he must also hold to the belief that prophetic dreams never
happened because there is nothing written of it after Pentecost—despite
Joel's prophecy of Acts 2:17 that dreams would, in fact, happen in the
church-age.
The point of the matter is that Paul did not
write of the spiritual gifts in order for people to classify them into
clean-cut, and well-defined categories to be analyzed in a classroom
setting. Instead, Paul spoke loosely of the spiritual gifts, being
primarily concerned with how they edify the church, rather than how
they can be defined and compartmentalized by theologians.
This section should not have even needed to be written--except that
cessationists insist on saying that, "tongues died out before
prophecies." This idea of theirs being based soley on the fact that
"propheying" is mentioned more than "tongues-speaking" in the Bible.
Therefore this section had to be written to refute that notion, by
showing that where a Holy Bible writer mentions "prophesies," he is
including tongues (and interpretations, dreams, visions, revelations
etc).
Apostle Peter And Tongues
Before leaving this issue, it should be noted that
Peter, who evidently spent some time at the tongues-speaking/prophetic
Corinthian church (he is mentioned in 1 Cor. as, "Cephas" Therefore the
Corinthians must have known Peter well), in speaking of the spiritual
gifts, has this to say:
"as every man hath received the gift,
even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the
manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles
of God" 1 Peter 4: 10-11
Because Peter is writing of the
spiritual gifts in this place it would be silly to exclude tongues and
interpretations from what he meant by "the oracles of God." Also, Paul,
writing to the Romans of the spiritual gifts, has this to say:
”Having
then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith"
Rom. 12: 6
Can tongues speaking be assumed to be included in
the "prophesying" that Paul mentioned (in the verses below)? Certainly.
This is because, in writing to the Romans of the different gifts that
God gave to the church, (written below) Paul does not mention all of
the gifts--but they may all be implied. For instance, Paul does not
mention "pastoring," or the gift of "administration," to the Romans but
those gifts may be deduced by the gifts of "teaching," and "leading"
which are mentioned in "Romans." Likewise, the prophetic utterances of
"tongues," and "interpretations"--that are not mentioned are implied by
the gift of "prophecy" that is mentioned. After all, what do people
prophesy—but tongues, interpretations, revelations, wisdom etc.
"having
then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on
teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him
do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth
mercy, with cheerfulness." Rom. 12: 6-8
There is no reason to
believe that by the time the book of Romans was written, the gifts of
pastoring, administration, tongues, and interpretations were no longer
important to the church—especially since Paul wrote "Romans" (from
Corinth) just 1 year after he wrote 1 Corinthians, in which he spoke of
the need for the gifts of "tongues," "interpretations," and
"administrations" etc. Therefore, because the word "prophesying" covers
the whole gamut of prophetic speaking (per Peter's application of
"tongues" to Joel's prediction of "prophesying), and because tongues--
interpreted, may be a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, or a
revelation; which are all prophetic in nature, and may be called a
"prophecy;" it is not surprising that "prophesying" is mentioned more
than "tongues," and "interpretation" in the Holy Bible.
1 Corinthians 13: 8-9
For a
conclusion, it will be mentioned that there will be a time, when we
will be in the presence of Christ, and no longer needing the special
prophetic knowledge that is needed during the church-age. Paul, in 1
Cor. 13: 8-9 (below), writes of the ceasing of the spiritual gifts for
that heavenly age. However, notice, in verse 8, that “tongues” is
mentioned alongside of “prophecies” and “knowledge.” But in the next
verse, only knowledge and prophecies are mentioned. This means that
Paul is not being overly specific in his discourse of the prophetic
gifts. He simply includes tongues (and dreams, visions, and other forms
of revelation) as part of the “prophesying” that he mentions in verse
9.
It is a shame that cessationists try to read too much into
Paul’s writings here. For they have decided that Paul was being
hyper-specific in his use of the word “tongues.” And they have come up
with an entire story that Paul, in verse 9, by neglecting to mention
“tongues,” is saying that tongues were to die out before prophecies
would. Verses 8-9 may be properly understood as the following:
13:8“Charity
never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;
whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge,
it shall vanish away."
13:9 “For we know in part [prophetic
knowledge], and we prophesy in part [speaking out the prophetic
knowledge in what may be called tongues, interpretation, word of
wisdom, word of knowledge, a revelation, or a prophecy]”
A
final word: By reading the book of Acts, it is easy to see that along
with the tongues and prophecies that may be spoken by all (regardless
of what gift(s) they have); there is also a "tongues" and "prophecies"
that are an actual gift that are only given to some. This is explored on the next article.
Copyright 2006 - 2007. Peter Kwiatkowski. All rights reserved.