Has Speaking in Tongues Ceased?
“And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.”
Ask the Pastor:
Recently a reader sent in a question that many believers genuinely wrestle with:
"My mother and I are disagreeing. She says that only the original eleven disciples and Paul had the power to heal, cast out demons, and speak in tongues. The way I read it, these are gifts and one way to tell if people are genuinely saved. What does the Bible say about this?"
These are not small questions. Get them wrong in one direction, and you open the door to manipulation and false teaching. Get them wrong in the other and you may be dismissing genuine works of God. Scripture has answers, and we need to follow where the text actually leads rather than where our tradition assumes it does.
1. The Bible Draws a Wider Circle Than You Might Expect
One common and sincere view is that miraculous gifts were exclusive to the twelve apostles and Paul. It is an understandable position, especially given the amount of abuse that surrounds these gifts today. But the New Testament simply does not support it.
Jesus first commissions the Twelve with authority to heal and cast out demons in Luke 9:1-2. Yet immediately after this He sends out seventy-two others, ordinary followers who were not part of the Twelve, and they return reporting, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name" (Luke 10:17). If gifts were apostles only, this passage demands an explanation that the apostles-only view cannot honestly provide.
Paul's teaching to the church at Corinth makes the same point. He is not writing to a gathering of apostles. He is writing to a local body of ordinary believers when he says, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good... to another gifts of healing... to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:7-10). The Spirit apportions these gifts "as he wills" (v. 11), not according to apostolic rank or office. The eye cannot dismiss the hand, and no member of the body gets to dismiss another's gifting (1 Corinthians 12:21).
The concern behind the apostles-only view is legitimate. Guarding against excess and false claims is a pastoral responsibility the Bible takes seriously. But the biblical scope is broader than that position allows, and we cannot narrow Scripture to fit our comfort.
2. Gifts Are Not Evidence of Salvation
Here is a second assumption that needs to be confronted directly. Many have been taught, or have come to assume, that miraculous gifts serve as confirmation of genuine salvation, that if the Spirit is truly at work in a person the signs will follow. Jesus himself gives us the sharpest possible warning against this conclusion.
On the day of judgment, some will say, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" His answer is not what they were expecting: "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness" (Matthew 7:21-23). Dramatic supernatural power proves nothing about where the heart truly stands before God. Nothing.
Scripture points us toward clearer and more reliable marks of genuine new birth: love for others, obedience to God's commands, and persevering faith (John 13:35; 1 John 2:3-6). Even in the apostolic era, miracles authenticated the gospel message (Hebrews 2:3-4) without guaranteeing the spiritual condition of the person performing them. Simon the magician marveled at signs and wonders but revealed his unregenerate heart the moment he sought power for personal gain (Acts 8:9-24). Gifts can confirm the Spirit's activity within a community. They cannot and do not replace the fruit of repentance and holiness in an individual life.
So if gifts do not prove salvation, and they were not limited to the apostles, what exactly are they for, and how long do they last? This is where the question gets historically honest.
3. What History Tells Us, and Where That Leaves Us
Even if Scripture does not explicitly limit gifts to the apostolic age, the historical record is worth sitting with honestly. After the first century, public reports of tongues and similar gifts were remarkably rare and localized for nearly two millennia, until the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 ignited the modern Pentecostal movement.
That long silence does not prove cessation. But it does tell us something. The Spirit most often works through ordinary means, through preaching, prayer, Scripture, and sanctification, rather than widespread dramatic spectacle. History should produce caution in us without producing dogmatism in either direction.
Scholars like John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul have argued robustly that sign gifts were tied to the apostolic office and closed with the completion of the New Testament. Their concern is a pastoral one and it is not without merit. The charismatic excesses visible in many churches today, emotional manipulation, unfulfilled healing promises, and claims that cannot be tested by Scripture, are real problems that deserve honest and direct rebuke.
But the cessationist position requires a level of certainty the Bible itself does not offer. Rarity across church history is significant. It is not the same as cessation, and the New Testament nowhere makes that claim explicitly. To declare an absolute where Scripture is silent is to go further than the text takes us.
The position that best accounts for both Scripture and history is what can be called skeptical continuationism. It affirms that God remains fully sovereign to heal, deliver, and grant tongues whenever and wherever He chooses. It takes seriously Paul's instruction to "not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21). And it refuses to declare an absolute where Scripture itself does not.
4. The Danger on the Other Side
If cessationism goes too far in one direction, there is an equally serious error in the other. Some movements today promote leaders who claim apostolic authority, tie miracles to their personal ministry, and treat their own words as carrying the weight of Scripture. This is not continuationism faithfully practiced. This is something else entirely, and the Bible gives us the tools to identify it clearly.
Paul warns that even apparent signs and wonders do not validate a teacher or a movement if the doctrine is wrong (Galatians 1:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10). The standard was never the miracle. The standard was always the Word. When gifts are used to build platforms, draw personal followings, or bypass the authority of Scripture, we are no longer in the territory of 1 Corinthians 12. We are in the territory of Matthew 7.
Visible power and faithful ministry are not the same thing. The New Testament is clear that gifts point to Christ and build up the church. When they are turned toward any other end, they have already departed from their biblical purpose, and we should say so plainly regardless of how impressive the signs appear.
5. What Paul Actually Requires
Whatever conclusion you reach on these questions, Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 12-14 establish the standard that no view can afford to ignore.
Gifts exist "for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7), not personal glory, not spiritual credentials, not the building of a platform or a following. Love is the measure that surpasses every gift without exception, and Paul could not be clearer: "Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease" (1 Corinthians 13:8). Love outlasts everything. That is not a sentimental observation. It is a doctrinal statement about what endures and what does not.
In gathered worship, prophecy that edifies the congregation outranks uninterpreted tongues: "The one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation... I would rather have you prophesy" (1 Corinthians 14:3-5). When tongues are exercised, Paul demands strict order, no more than two or three, always with interpretation, and silence if no interpreter is present (1 Corinthians 14:27-28). The reason is not bureaucratic. It is theological: "God is not a God of confusion but of peace... all things should be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:33, 40).
Every gift must answer a simple question in every context: Does this build up the body of Christ? If it does not, it has no place. It makes sense for a missionary to have a gift of tongues when encountering a people who don't speak his language. I know a missionary whose gift of tongues was temporarily given to him; it makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is much of the focus on sign gifts, it points to ourselves, doesn’t edify the body and distracts in worship.
Where Does This Leave You?
If you come from a tradition that limits gifts to the apostles, the biblical witness is broader than that framework allows, and that needs to be acknowledged honestly. But the instinct to guard against abuse and disorder is not wrong. Paul shared it, and so should we.
If you have been taught that tongues or healing are signs of true salvation, Matthew 7 closes that door firmly. The marks Scripture points us toward are repentance, love, obedience, and persevering faith, not supernatural experience.
And if you are somewhere in the middle, trying to hold faithfully to Scripture while navigating a landscape full of both genuine hunger for God and real doctrinal danger, then hold your secondary conclusions with appropriate humility. The Bible does not draw every line as sharply as our traditions sometimes claim it does. Test everything by the Word. Pursue love before you pursue any gift. That is not a suggestion from Paul. It is a command.
"Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts." (1 Corinthians 14:1)
That order, love first and gifts second, is the one Paul never wavers on. It is the right place for all of us to stand.
All Scripture quotations are from the ESV. Have a question you would like addressed? Submit it below, and if this helped clarify something you have been wrestling with, pass it along to someone in the same conversation.
