The TRUTH about TONGUES (many don’t realize this)

Tongues as a Sign of Judgment and the Gospel Going to the Gentiles

So, tongues for me was the doctrine that really got me interested in cessationism. Because years ago, I happened to listen to a sermon from John MacArthur, and it was on Isaiah 28, 11 -13. And he said in that sermon that tongues was a sign of judgment on the unbelieving Jewish people during the time of Christ that had rejected Christ, and that what tongues were was a sign that the gospel was now going out to the Gentiles.

And that was the first time I had ever even conceived of that being a possibility, hearing John MacArthur talk about it. And that got me very interested in learning more. Is he pulling this out of nowhere?

Reading books on the subject, doing Bible studies on the subject, particularly of tongues, and what the meaning is. And I've come to a place where I think there is a much more beautiful, biblically significant meaning to the doctrine of tongues than what we see in the world today, as the Charismatic Church calls gibberish tongues.

That's actually the exact opposite of what the gift of tongues in the Bible really was.

Welcome to the HolyNope podcast. I am the HolyNope, and with me is, of course, David Levy, and today we are going to have a discussion about the gift of tongues. So I've been recently posting some content about tongues, arguments for our view of tongues, and I think we'll find out in this discussion whether or not we ourselves have some differences about some details, but it's a mysterious subject, it's a controversial topic, and so it generates a lot of discussion.

But what it also does is it gets us into the Scripture. It gets us into the Word. And we want to just talk about the nature and the purpose of the gift of tongues in light of the Word. And what I'm going to do in this episode is field David some questions, some general common questions about the gift of tongues, and we'll see where it goes.

So David, are you ready? Yeah, man. I'm ready. Yeah. All right, here's the first question I have for you, David. Do you believe that tongues, as described in the Bible, is a true and biblical spiritual gift distributed to God's people as He wills?

Tongues in Acts 2 as Miraculous Languages

Yes, it is. Yes. The gift of tongues was a miraculous ability that God gave to Christians in the New Testament, starting in Acts chapter 2 at Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which was the miraculous ability to be able to speak and even prophesy in foreign languages that the speaker had never previously learned, that the Holy Spirit gave this ability to the speaker to proclaim the wonders of God.

That's what we see in Acts chapter 2. We'll probably get into this in a little while anyway, but that's what we see, that they're proclaiming the wonders of God in languages other than the language of Hebrew, and that these people were Hebrew speakers who the Holy Spirit endowed, gifted with the ability to speak Arabic or Phrygian or some foreign tribal dialect, and that it was used for the foundation laying of the church to the Gentiles.

That's my belief about what tongues was, or is. It was.

All right. So you mentioned prophecy. So let me ask you this question. What kind of spiritual gift is the gift of tongues? Is it a healing kind of gift? How does it minister? Or is it a revelatory gift?

A revelatory gift?

Tongues, Revelation, and the Languages of Pentecost

Yes. I mean, it's described as a revelatory gift in Acts chapter 2. Let me just go there real quick. I have my NKJV here with me. Usually I use the NASB, but the school where I teach at uses NKJV, and I've actually learned this is really the first time, by the way, speaking of tongues, man, just like language, English is a tongue, you know.

I've learned to love this translation, the New King James Version, after teaching middle school kids about the Lord with it. Okay. So in Acts chapter 2, it says this, and there were, sorry, actually let's just start at verse 1.

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord and in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each one of them, or each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So it is the Spirit giving them utterance, it is a revelatory gift, because the Spirit is the one who's revealing to them what their utterance should be. And this is what they say, verse 5, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.

That's amazing. That's so amazing. They're from all over the world, and they were there to celebrate Pentecost, the feast of weeks. And when the sound occurred, the sound of this mighty rushing wind, the multitude came together and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.

Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, look, are not all these who speak Galileans? In other words, that's an interesting thing too, because Peter, as you'll recall, was identified as a Galilean when he was outside the trial of Jesus, sort of, even though Galilee was in the north, I think there's a case to be made that the dialect, or the kind of accent, the Galilean accent, was a podunk sort of accent to the high-class Jerusalem Jewish community.

And they thought, ah, they could tell just by the way they spoke their Hebrew, but they were up there. Sure. Right. Okay. And so they say, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born?

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygium, Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya, adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.

We hear them speaking, here it is, in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God. So what were they speaking? They were proclaiming the gospel to these people. They were proclaiming the wonderful works of God in Christ and what he has done.

So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean? What's the meaning of this? And I think that's why we're making this video today, to actually find out the answer to their question, right?

We're looking for the answer to the question that the Jews and proselytes from every nation under heaven came to Jerusalem for Pentecost, were asking on that very first Pentecost after Christ ascended into heaven.

So tongues is a revelatory gift by which a person speaks by the Spirit of God. Now Acts 2, well this is the day of Pentecost, Acts 2 is not in the context of a developed New Testament church. And so the argument goes that the tongues spoken of in Acts 2 are categorically distinct from the tongues that Paul is speaking about primarily in 1 Corinthians 14.

What do you say to this idea that there are different kinds of tongues, there's the speaking foreign languages and then there's also other kinds, namely the prayer language, the heavenly language that you pray, that a lot of people think every Christian is supposed to have.

And you know, David, I've heard that there are up to seven different kinds of tongues. What do you say to that?

Babel, Genesis 12, and the Reversal at Pentecost

Yeah, seven different? If you go to a Pentecostal church today, you'll hear 500 different personal interpretations of what tongues means, okay, for real. And so I think it's crucial for us, in order to answer that question, categories of tongues or what, is there like a language one and a prayer one, a secret one, a kind of a special communication one or an angelic one that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 13, the tongues of angels, maybe like, maybe it's a heavenly language that we're speaking that just, you know, Earth doesn't have any conception of what it is, which is why it seems so strange to us.

But that betrays an ignorance of what the purpose of tongues was in the first place.

And so if you would... So we'll shed light on the nature of tongues by looking at the purpose of tongues is what you're saying. Yes, absolutely.

Okay. Yes. That's exactly right. That once you understand what the gift of tongues was actually about, then you will understand what it is and what it isn't, okay? And I would go so far as to say, as I said in the introduction, that what calls itself tongues and charismatic circles today is actually the exact opposite of what the gift of tongues really was in the Bible.

And it has the opposite purpose, okay? I'll explain. So if it's, if you don't mind, maybe I could make a very short nutshell case for what I believe the scripture teaches about the purpose and meaning of tongues in the Bible.

I say have at it, but I want a viewer to time how short David Lovey's brief presentation is. Let's time it so we can set a, we can get the record, okay? All right.

All right. I'm looking at my clock here. Okay. We're good. We're good. I believe in order to understand what tongues was in the Bible, we have to go all the way back to the fall in Genesis chapter three and see how sin entered into the world and death through sin and corruption.

And in Genesis chapter four, we see the very first murder of brother against brother, Cain killing Abel. Genesis chapter five, we see the death of the generations after Adam. I think eight times it says, and then he died and then he died and then he died.

So that the promise that God made to Adam in the garden, when you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die. It's exactly the reason why we find death in the world today.

And then in chapter six, we see how corrupt the earth had become. And God chose Noah alone of all the peoples on the earth to save along with Noah's family. Noah's family then went on the ark that Noah built.

And in chapter nine of Genesis, the ark has landed. Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth get out of the ark. Sorry, I'm going over this history, but I think it's still crucial for us so that people can actually understand, you know, what is the argument that's being made here?

Okay. So Noah nine, no one, no one nine. Genesis nine, Noah and his family get out of the ark and the Lord tells them to be fruitful and multiply. And then Ham does this like really weird thing. He goes and sees his father naked.

And then he tells his brothers, his brothers cover their father walking backward. And Noah pronounces blessing and curses that Shem would be blessed and that that Canaan, Ham's son, Canaan would be cursed and be the lowest of slaves.

And that Japheth, that Ham would dwell in the tents of Japheth. Okay. Then now we're getting to the part that I really want to focus on. In chapter 10 of Genesis, we see the table of the nations, the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Okay. And these become the nations of the earth. Okay. The descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth become all the peoples that are on the earth. Even now in 2024, all of us are some mix of the lineage of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

And in Genesis chapter 10 in verse 21, it gives the descendants of Shem. This is what I'd like for you to pay attention to. Genesis 10, 21. And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber.

Isn't that interesting? So Eber must have been an important person for Moses, the author of Genesis, to say that Shem is the father of the children of Eber. Okay. Eber is really important. The brother of Japheth, the elder, the sons of Shem were Elam, Asher, Arpachshad, Lod and Aram.

The sons of Aram were Uzhol, Gether and Mash. Arpachshad begot Sala and Sala begot Eber. All right, just keep this in mind. To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided.

What most Bible scholars believe that's referring to, that the earth was divided in the days of Peleg, is speaking about chapter 11, the Tower of Babel. The earth was divided because God came down and confused the languages.

And the nations of the earth then scattered by family across the face of the earth and by their language across the face of the earth. Okay. So this is in Peleg's day, Peleg, the son of Eber. I believe that is when the Tower of Babel is built in Peleg's day and the Lord comes down.

We're going to look at that in just a moment. So then, what language did Eber speak and Peleg speak in Genesis chapter 10, before the time of the Tower of Babel? What language did they speak? Well, interestingly enough, we get this word Hebrew from Eber.

This is the reason why these are the children of Eber. Hebrew. Okay. He is the father of the Hebrews. He spoke Hebrew. His name is where we get the word Hebrew from. So I would make a case. Now, some might disagree with me.

This is not crucial to my case for tongues. Okay. But I'm just saying my opinion is this, that if we know what language Eber spoke before the Tower of Babel happened, then that means that the whole earth spoke Hebrew before the Tower of Babel.

And I think that there's another point in the case for that, which is that God reveals his word in Hebrew to Moses, to the prophets, to the entire Old Testament. He reveals his word in the Hebrew language.

And if the earth is divided by families and this family of Eber is the Hebrew family, then we see just a few generations later is Abraham. I think I did the math recently. Abraham did not live very long after the Tower of Babel happened.

He did not live very long after Shem. I think it's eight generations, maybe eight generations after Shem. So I don't know, two, three hundred years. There are some who might also dispute the time between Shem and Abraham.

So let's go on. So then, chapter 11, during the time of Eber anyway, before Peleg, either in the time of Eber and then Peleg's time, chapter 11, verse 1. Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.

And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain, the land of Shinar. They dwelt there. They said, let's make bricks and bake them. And they wanted to build a tower that goes up to heaven.

We don't have to cover that whole thing. So this is what the Lord says. Verse 6, the Lord said, Indeed, the people are one, and they all have one language. And this is what they will begin to do, now that nothing they propose to do will be withheld from them.

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad. From there, over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.

Therefore, its name is called Babel, because the Lord confused the language of all the earth. Why was it called Babel? Because the people, the neighbors, were babbling. Like suddenly, as they're building this tower, they're building this city.

Suddenly, Joe is like, hey, can you hand me a hammer, buddy? Can you hand me a hammer, Austin? And Austin is like, por qué? Speaking Spanish all of a sudden. What? What on earth are you talking about?

Can you hand me the hammer? Qué? No sé. I don't know. Right? And then you ask this one, hey, what's going on here? And they say, konnichiwa, Japanese, or whatever. All the languages of the earth are suddenly, they're Babel.

They don't understand each other. Okay? I think that people, as they read Genesis chapter 11, don't really quite understand the severity of that judgment that God poured out on Babel. And the people who were building that place.

I don't think they understand the severity of it. Because God then, for the entire rest of Old Testament history, chooses one man of the sons of Eber. Okay? Of the sons of Shem and of the sons of Eber.

He chooses one man, Abraham. And he promises Abraham in Genesis 12, this is what he says. Now, the Lord said to Abraham, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you.

And I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

One big problem with that. Okay? Here's the big problem with this promise. Is this, how shall all the families of the earth be blessed? How is that possibly going to happen? Because God chooses this man.

And to this man and his family, his children, he gives the prophets who reveal God's word. Did the Chinese people have the prophets? Absolutely not. He gives the promise of Messiah through the prophets.

Did the Europeans have the promise of Messiah? Absolutely not. He gives the guiding hand of God to the people. He gives them a land to dwell in. He promises to work in them and provide for them and protect them.

And none of the other nations on the earth have the prophets, the revelation of God, the sacrificial system anymore. They are totally covered in darkness. The darkness of Satan. All of the nations on the face of the whole earth are under Satan's rule in complete darkness.

So I think we're listening to you and we're starting. I hope the listeners are starting to pick up on the theological significance of the judgment at Babel and the giving of the spirit at Pentecost and what happened.

So, continue.

Yes, they are connected so intricately and beautifully connected. So, this judgment was terrible because the only time then that nations outside of the Hebrew nation, the nation of Israel, ever received the words of the prophets was when God was judging the nation of Israel.

Okay? When God was judging them, what happened? Foreign nations speaking foreign tongues would come in into the land, okay, or they would be in a foreign land like Egypt and they're speaking Egyptian.

And who did Pharaoh get to hear? Pharaoh got to hear Moses. That's amazing. Would Pharaoh have ever got to hear Moses? Would the Egyptians have ever gotten to hear Moses or any prophet or Aaron? Had not the events of the Exodus taken place?

Absolutely not. Had not Israel been enslaved for 400 years? Absolutely not. What about other instances like when Babylon comes, Nebuchadnezzar comes into the land and the Babylonians speak Babylonian and they take the Israelites into Babylon.

Do they get to hear the word of the Lord? Yes, through Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. As a matter of fact, I do believe that the Magi from the East are direct descendants of those who had heard the prophets during the Jewish exile.

Okay? Probably during like the time of Darius and Cyrus, okay, that the prophets had been preaching. The people in Persia and Iraq area heard the Jewish prophets and the Magi knew that there was a king of the Jews who was going to be born because his star would come and they would see the star in the East.

Amazing. Just mind-blowing stuff. But other than these very few instances like the queen of Sheba comes into, you know, Jerusalem because she had heard reports, right? Other than like the queen of Sheba, Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Lebanon, like these areas, Tyre and Sidon, other than like the very close surrounding areas that got to hear the prophets and the saving word of the Lord, no one else on earth did.

As a matter of fact, think about this. There was an entire group of people who probably crossed over somewhere near Mongolia, Russia, over a land bridge into the continent of North America and they became forgotten for like, you know, 4 ,000 years.

Okay? Forgotten people for 4 ,000 years.

So this is the severity that you were talking about, the judgment at Babel. Absolutely. Thousands of years, generations upon generations of people who never heard the word of the Lord. And I just want our listeners to note again the crucial point that you stated, that it is the pattern in the Old Testament that when Israel comes under judgment, the Gentiles hear the word of the Lord.

Yes, that's exactly what we see over and over and over. I mean, even from like the Assyrians coming and attacking, the Hebrew prophets were speaking to their generals and stuff. So then, for a very long time, you know, God sent his prophets to Israel and, I mean, this is the argument that the Apostle Paul is making in Romans 9 through 11.

And when he says, you know, what advantage is there of being a Jew? I think that's chapter, what is that, chapter 3? No, no, 2. And he says, you know, theirs are the patriarchs, and they're beloved, and they have all the advantages.

The Jews had all the advantages. The Gentiles literally had no advantages. And you think for literally thousands of years, thousands of years, generation after generation after generation after generation of pagans are without hope and without God in the world.

Those who had dwelt in the land of deep darkness, right? That's what the Bible calls them. They dwell in the land of deep darkness. So that is what Babel really was about. We think like, oh, languages.

Like, who cares? I order Chinese food. Like, no, no. That language judgment to me, in my estimation, I would even maybe go so far as to say this. Probably more people died without Christ, without hope, without God in the world, after the flood, and before Pentecost.

I mean, rather after, yes, after the flood, than died before the flood. In other words, that there were more people who were without God because of the judgment of the Tower of Babel throughout history from that time until the time of Pentecost.

It's truly, truly, to me, one of the most profound things in the whole Bible. And so, okay, this actually really is one of the most profound things in the whole Bible. Because God promised to Abraham in Genesis 12, right after the events of the Tower of Babel, that in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

How? How is that possibly going to happen? They don't understand Hebrew. They're totally cut off from God's, I mean, it really is an actual remnant that God saved. Not just a remnant of this tiny remnant of Israel.

I mean, the remnant of Israel, there's a tiny bit of that. But Israel itself is a remnant in the world. It's like you could go from one end to the other in a car in a few hours. And God chose to reveal himself to them.

But he made this amazing promise to Abraham that he's going to be a blessing to the whole earth.

And I'm so glad, I'm so glad that you went to Babel. Because we can't understand tongues, just like we can't understand most things that the New Testament covers. We can't really comprehend them unless we understand their foundation in the Old Testament.

So, the Babel, Isaiah 28, these are foundation texts for the gift of tongues. But unfortunately, they are typically passed over.

So, Isaiah 28 then, the prophet Isaiah, the Lord is speaking in this passage. And he gives an amazing promise of what's going to take place. Isaiah 28, starting at verse 11. For with stammering lips and another tongue, he will speak to this people.

Which people? Well, in the context of Isaiah 28, we're going to see it's the people of Jerusalem. So, he will speak to the people of Jerusalem with stammering lips and another tongue. To whom he said, this is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest.

And this is the refreshing, yet they would not hear. So, when did the Lord say to the people, this is rest, find rest for the weary? When did the Lord say that? Well, in Matthew chapter 11 and verses 28 and 29.

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light, Jesus said.

And what does he say? To whom he said, this is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest. Christ is the rest. He's the one who gives us rest. And he said that to those people. And this is the refreshing, yet they would not hear.

So, they didn't want to listen to Jesus as he said, come to me and find rest. But the word of the Lord was to them, priesthood upon priesthood, priesthood upon priesthood, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go and fall backwards and be broken and snared and caught.

Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men. Which, by the way, when it says they may go and fall backward, ha ha, listen to this, Pentecostal charismatics, okay?

You're talking about being slain in the spirit.

Every single time, absolutely. Every single time in the Bible, when it refers to someone falling backwards, it is a sign of judgment in every case. In 1 Samuel, when Eli hears that the ark has been taken by the Philistines, he falls backwards and breaks his neck.

Here, it says they shall go and fall backward and be broken and snared and caught. When the soldiers were going to arrest Jesus, and he said, who are you looking for? They said, Jesus. He said, I am he.

They all fell backwards. Every time someone falls backwards, it is a bad thing in the Bible. Every time someone falls on their face forwards before the Lord, they're worshiping the Lord. They fall on their face, not on their back.

That practice that we see so often called the work of the Holy Spirit on so-called Christian television, which is really not Christian at all, that practice of Benny Hinn pushing people over, garbage.

It's a sign of judgment. That's not the Holy Spirit who's at work. That's not slain in the Spirit. It's not some biblical concept. Okay? So, therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men. Amen.

Who ruled this people in Jerusalem.

I'm just going to throw a late amen in there. Amen.

Amen. Who ruled this people in Jerusalem, because you have said, we made a covenant with death. Look at this. We made a covenant with death. Does that sound like any places in the Gospels where the Pharisees from that day on began plotting to kill Jesus?

They made a covenant with death. Okay? And with Sheol in agreement, when the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge. Does that sound familiar? When they put Jesus on trial, they made lies their refuge.

Oh, trying to get their witnesses to agree, having a kangaroo trial. Exactly right. And under falsehood, we have hidden ourselves. Now, I do believe that there is a penultimate sort of application of these words to the Babylonian captivity that Isaiah is talking about, but there is an ultimate fulfillment in Christ Jesus.

And the reality is that this sign to unbelievers, what does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 14? Tongues are a sign not to believers but to unbelievers. What is he referring to? He's referring to Isaiah 28 when he's saying that.

Yeah, he's quoting it.

It's not a weak allusion or echo. He quotes it.

Yes, it's like word for word. Word for word he does. So the reason why he does that is he's saying this is the sign that the Jewish people and Moss, particularly the leadership of Israel, the heads of the nation, rejected their Messiah.

They would be broken and snared and taken captive. Let's fast forward. So Jesus comes upon the scene and he preaches the true gospel. He never speaks anything falsely. Every word that ever comes out of his mouth is the truth, and there's no deceit found in his mouth, and he preaches only the good news of his kingdom, and he goes around doing good things, only good things ever for the entirety of his entire life, and the leaders of the nation turn him over to be crucified by Pontius Pilate.

They reject their Messiah. Once when Jesus was walking with his disciples, they were looking at the beautiful stones in the temple, and he said, I tell you the truth, not one of these stones will be left upon another.

And in another place he says this, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I long to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing, and they will hand you in on all sides because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.

This is the reason why judgment came in A .D. 70 from Titus and the Roman emperor. The reason why is Jesus prophesied that that very thing would happen, and the reason why it happened was because they did not recognize the time of their visitation.

They were broken. They were ensnared. Many of them were taken captive, including Josephus was taken captive. You know the early first century Jewish historian Josephus, he was a captive of the Romans, and he wrote that he is part of the fulfillment of Isaiah 28.

He is. So then, what does this have to do with tongues? Okay, many times Jesus alludes in the Gospels to the kingdom being given to others, being taken from these people and given to those who are in the highways and byways.

The ones who are invited would not come to the wedding feast, so he is going to go and he is going to invite everyone to the wedding feast. All right now. Now we are starting to see the picture now. The Gentiles and their languages were completely cut off from all of God's revelation, from the sacrificial system, from the prophets, from the Messiah.

Cut off! You had to be a proselyte. If you are a Gentile, you had to be a proselyte in order to know anything about the true God. If you are not a proselyte, then you don't know the true God. Until the Holy Spirit is poured out at Pentecost.

And when that happened and the disciples began speaking and declaring in other tongues, what did the people say? We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonders of God, the wonderful works of God.

That had not happened since before Genesis 11. It had not happened.

So the reversal of the curse at Babel is taking place at Pentecost. And that is the way in which all the families of the earth will be blessed in Abraham.

This is how I feel when I think about this now. Okay, listen. Listen. Here it is. Man, why did God call the apostle Paul, who is a Hebrew of Hebrews. Okay. He's a Pharisee. He should be the apostle to the Jews.

Right? I mean, you would think that guy of all people, he could argue with the very best of the Gamaliel's of the world. He could argue the gospel to them. And as a matter of fact, when he goes through any place in the book of Acts, the very first place he goes to is the synagogue in whatever place he goes to.