Tongues are NOT a Sign of Salvation
Posted by Matt Postiff October 4, 2019 on Matt Postiff's Blog under Theology
Over and over through recent years I have heard of the Pentecostal doctrine that tongues are a necessary sign of salvation. This is a false teaching and Christians everywhere should repudiate it.
Tongues are definitely not a work that is required to obtain salvation, because no work can ever earn salvation (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Furthermore, the gift of tongues was never the universal sign of salvation even in churches that had the gift available to them (in the first century AD). Therefore tongues cannot be required of all believers today. Follow that logic: if tongues were not required of all believers in the first century, they certainly are not required of all believers today.
How can we know this? From 1 Corinthians 12:30:
Do all have gifts of healings? [Understood "no" answer.] Do all speak with tongues? [Again, understood "no".] Do all interpret? [Once again, "no."]
In each case, the answer to the rhetorical question is clearly "no"; the questions are actually affirmations of truth. What truth? Not everyone was given the gift of healing or tongues or interpretation! Even in the Corinthian church not all people had the gift of tongues. This is because the Spirit sovereignly gives different gifts to each person according to His own will (1 Cor. 2:11) for the profit of the entire body (1 Cor. 12:7). The whole physical body is not an eye! Otherwise there would be no hearing (1 Cor. 12:17). Likewise, the whole church body does not speak in tongues, for if they did, where would the teaching or administration or exhortation be?
The doctrine that "tongues is a necessary evidence of salvation or baptism in the Spirit" is a false doctrine. And it is not a minor error. This is critical to the doctrine of salvation. What more can be required to obtain salvation than the perfect merit of Jesus Christ? And how could we demand an evidence of salvation that not even the apostle Paul demanded of those in a church who i>did have the gift of tongues among them?
Unfortunately, the false teaching surrounding this has confused a lot of people, and redirected their attention from true evidences of salvation, namely sanctification and obedience.
