Part Four – General James Green
SINCE AT LEAST some non-Pentecostals see the untenable theory of the “completed N.T.,” they must come up with another theory; since they refuse to accept the SIMPLE FACT THAT TONGUES HAVE NOT CEASED, they come up with the Greek verb being in the passive voice, i.e., “prophecies, they shall fail,” and “knowledge, it shall vanish away.” But they have a problem with “tongues, they shall cease,” the verb is in the middle voice. They reason that prophecy (preaching?) and knowledge will be done away (passive voice) by God in the future, when the perfect comes, but tongues would cease of themselves (middle voice) at the end of the 1st century. What are all these Millions (Big “M”) within the Church doing speaking in tongues? Did you know that the “voice” in Greek (or any language) has nothing to do with time? How silly!
All the verbs in 1 Cor. 13:8 are, as Greek scholars point out, in the same tense (future), indicating that knowledge, prophecies, and tongues will all cease at a FUTURE DATE. They point out that nothing in the context indicates that the future time for tongues is different than the future time for knowledge and prophecies.
Have tongues ceased?
MANY BELIEVE SO. Did tongues cease after the death of the apostles? They reason that the probable reason why tongues are not mentioned in verse 9 is that tongues, although transitory, are not “in part” as prophecy and knowledge are. What some of these anti-Pentecostals are saying is that “tongues ceased after the first century church and knowledge and prophecies will (and did) cease after the ‘perfect’ has come—meaning the canon of the Bible.” Although the Bible does not strictly say when tongues will cease to operate, we can certainly say THEY WILL NOT CEASE…“these signs shall follow them that believe”…until the end of all earthly things.
Another Theory: Tongues ceased when Herod’s Temple was destroyed.
THESE ANTI-PENTECOSTAL scholars scrape bottom trying to come up with something, anything, to prove their theories. Some saw through the “N.T. completion” theory and the modified doctrine, now some point to 1 Cor. 1:22, “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” They claim that God gave the Jews the sign of tongues to get them to believe the Gospel, so they use 1 Cor. 14:21 as their proof text, “…with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people…” (taken from Isa. 28:11). They claim that once the Lord cut off His people, there was no more need to appeal to the Jews through this temporary sign of tongues, so it ceased. The date? A.D. 70, of course! The destruction of Herod’s Temple.
Isa. 28:11 was a sign but not the only purpose of speaking in tongues, for verse 2 reads, “To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing…” Rest and Refreshing. The apostle Peter, in Acts10:45 and 46, says that tongues were a sign that the Gentiles, not the Jews, had received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost. We might ask why Paul wanted the Corinthians (who were mostly Greeks), to speak in tongues? (1 Cor. 14:5). Was it to be a sign to the Jewish sinners? No! Tongues were (and are) a sign to ALL unbelievers. Paul wrote to the Gentile Corinthians (after Pentecost!) declaring that “tongues are for a sign…to them that believe not” (1 Cor. 14:22). UNBELIEVERS HAVE NOT CEASED!
TONGUES WILL CEASE WHEN THE REDEEMED CHURCH SEES GOD AND JESUS FACE TO FACE, not when the great Jewish Temple was torn down.