Question: My question is about the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. When it is mentioned in the Bible, does speaking in tongues refer to a previously unknown human language, or a "prayer" or "heavenly" language? Is speaking in tongues for today?
Response: After looking at what the Bible teaches about speaking in tongues, Wayne Grudem gives this simple but helpful definition: "Speaking in tongues is prayer or praise spoken in syllables not understood by the speaker" (
Bible Doctrine, p. 421). In some cases, those who spoke in tongues were clearly using human languages (Acts 2:1–13). In other cases, it is possible that the languages may not be human in origin (1 Corinthians 14:2). Regardless, those who spoke in tongues did speak with a coherent message that could (and should) be interpreted (1 Corinthians 14:26–28).
Now, whether the gift of tongues is for today is obviously a controversial issue. Our church's statement of faith has this to say about spiritual gifts:
We believe that God gives spiritual gifts, allowing us to serve others and worship Him. We also believe that God gave special gifts of tongues, healing, miracle working and others during the initial stages of establishing the Church of Jesus Christ. These special gifts were given as evidence of the Church’s supernatural character until the Word of God was given in its complete form. After the Word was complete, the special signs were no longer needed. We do, however, believe that God still performs miracles and that healing is still very much a part of His program.
While Kossuth's position is that the gift of tongues is not for today, we freely admit that this is a difficult, complex issue on which godly men and women may disagree. We don't believe in separating ourselves from other churches who hold true to the fundamentals of the Christian faith while also believing that all spiritual gifts remain in effect today.
If you'd like to do some more study on this issue, a helpful book with four different perspectives on this issue is
Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?, edited by Grudem (most of the book is also available for free at
Google Book Search).