September 2003 19
The Berean
Searchlight
When
Did the Gift of Tongues Cease?
By Pastor Dennis Kiszonas
Why did the sign gifts cease?
Having seen the pattern of truth
regarding the gifts, we need to ask, why did the gifts cease at this time?
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:8-12—
“Love never
fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are
tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when
that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part
will be done away.
“When I was a
child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but
when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror,
dimly, but then face to face. Now
I know in
part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”1
The gift of tongues, prophecy and
knowledge during the Acts period were only “in part”—they were incomplete, they
did not communicate the full knowledge that the Lord had to reveal. But the
Lord revealed to Paul that “that which is perfect” was coming. In English, as
in Greek, this is a neuter pronoun—“that thing which is perfect.”
Paul was not writing about the coming
of “He who is perfect” but of the coming of a “thing” which is perfect. When it
came, then the gifts which were only “in part” would cease.
It would be like the difference between
being a child and becoming
a grown man, or between seeing someone’s
face reflected in a wavy ancient mirror, and seeing the person face-to-face.
Before the end of the Book of Acts,
during the Acts period, and in the letters written during the Acts period, the
Lord had only revealed part of the “dispensation of grace” (Eph. 3:2) to the
Apostle Paul, but He had not yet revealed the entire message to him. It was
still only “in part” during the Acts period, but with the close of the Book of
Acts, the Lord completed the revelation of the “Mystery” (see Eph. 3:3,4,9 and
Col. 1:26,27, etc.). “That which is perfect” was finally revealed in all its
fullness to the Apostle Paul and at that moment, those things which were only
“in part” passed away from God’s program.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12—
“Now I know in part, but then I shall
know just as I also am known.”
When Paul wrote “now I know in part,”
he used the common word for “know,” the Greek word gnosis.
When Did the Gift of
Tongues Cease?
But then, when he wrote “but
then I shall know...” he changes the word from gnosis to epignosis, “to fully know.”
We could paraphrase Paul’s
statement:
“Now, as I’m writing 1
Corinthians in Acts 19, I have gnosis—I
know, in part, what God’s
message is for us today in the dispensation of grace, but then—when that which
is perfect has come—I shall have epignosis—the full
knowledge of God’s message of grace for us today.” All through the Book of Acts
Paul had only “gnosis,” partial knowledge of the message of grace, but when we
turn to the Prison Letters we suddenly find Paul using that word “epignosis”—he had now received that “full knowledge” which
he didn’t have when he wrote to the Corinthians:
“For I want you to know what a great
conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be
encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the
full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge (epignosis—full
knowledge) of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ” (Col.
2:1-2).
“For this reason we also, since the day
we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled
with the knowledge (epignosis—full knowledge)
of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy
of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to
His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks
to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in the light” (Col. 1:9-12).
In all the seven letters written after
the close of the Book of Acts,
Paul uses this word “epignosis”—the full knowledge. What he had not yet received
in 1 Corinthians 13, he now has. That which is perfect had come and so the sign
gifts had passed away.
The “sign gifts” were signs for God’s
“sign people”
The close of the Book of Acts was also
the close of God’s dealings with the nation of
The Jews sought after signs (1 Cor.
But with the close of Acts, God sets
aside
I speak in tongues, what should I do?
Many Christians today have had an
experience that they think is the scriptural gift of tongues. After studying
Paul’s letters and the scriptural teaching concerning the cessation of the gift
of tongues, they ask,
“What should I do now?” There are
several possible explanations for the experience—it may be a psychological experience
or even a spiritual experience, but clearly, from the Word of God, it is not
the Spirit’s gift of tongues.
What
should they do? Simply: Stop! Stop speaking in the tongue
because it is not from the Holy
Spirit.
For many this is a great relief. They’ve
been taught that a person has to speak in tongues to prove that he is really
saved, or that he really has the Holy Spirit dwelling within. So they’ve
“learned” to speak in tongues, but when they see from Scripture that this gift
is not in operation from the Lord today, they can at last cease their effort to
prove their salvation and start to walk by faith and not by sight.
For some, Paul’s instructions to the
prophets at
“If anything is revealed to another who
sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that
all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the
spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God
is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the
saints” (1 Cor.
When we are having an experience that
we learn from the Scriptures is not from the Lord, it is time to “keep silent,”
and remember that our spirits are to be under our own control—“the spirits of
the prophets are subject to the prophets.
The Lord’s warning
The Lord warned that experiences can be
deceiving:
“Many will say to Me
in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons
in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them,
‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness!’” (Matt. 7:22-23).
Yes, they really had had these
experiences. They had prophesied in Jesus’ name, they had cast out demons and
done miracles in His name. The Lord does not deny that they had done these
things. But then He tells them that even while they were doing these things, He
had never ever known them.
It is important that our faith be based
on the Word of God and not on experiences because experiences can deceive us.
A note about the gift of healing
As we have seen, Paul was able to heal
many sick people all through the Book of Acts. He healed every sick person on
the
—not Epaphroditus
in Philippians 2, not Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23, not Trophimus in 2 Timothy 4:20.
The gift of healing had ceasedto operate, along with the other sign gifts.
Today God no longer gives the gift of
healing, and there are no “healers.”
But we should not think that God
Himself no longer heals! In
Philippians 2 we read of a healing that
God did after the gift of healing had ceased to operate:
“Yet I
considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus,
my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one
who ministered to my need; since he was longing for you all, and was distressed
because you had heard that he w as sick.
“For indeed
he was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on him
but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
“Therefore I
sent him the more eagerly, that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I
may be less sorrowful.
“Receive him
therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem; because
for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply
what was lacking in your service toward me” (Phil.
Paul commends Epaphroditus
very highly for his faithfulness even unto death. But when Epaphroditus
fell sick—near to death—Paul was no longer able to heal him because the gift of
healing had ceased to operate. But we read that Epaphroditus
was healed—directly by the Lord: “He was sick unto death but the Lord had mercy
on him....”
There is healing today, but there is no
gift of healing, there are no “divine healers.” There is no gift of healing
today but God still heals... sometimes. He healed Epaphroditus,
but He did not heal Paul in 2 Corinthians
12:8-9 or in Galatians 4:13-15, or
Timothy in 1 Timothy
But the promise that He gave to Paul is
still our promise today in the dispensation of grace:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
“[God] never allows us to suffer
something that He doesn’t give us the strength to live through.”
Whether we are well or sick, whether we
are like Epaphroditus or like Timothy, we can always
claim this promise from the Lord that His grace and strength are sufficient for
us. He never allows us to suffer something that He doesn’t give us the strength
to live through.