Making Sense of Gibberish

Making Sense of Gibberish

Based on 1 Corinthians 14

Khen Lim




Image source: bible.org.nz

Here’s an embarrassing story to tell about myself. In the early Eighties, I accompanied a fellow employee of the music school I worked at in Geelong to go along with her family to visit her pastor’s home one quiet evening. I was a man of the world then and my biggest ‘weapon’ in intimidating young Christians was to breathe into their faces and ask questions they couldn’t answer. And that was how my friend suggested that I asked that to her pastor.

The pastor’s name was John Hollins and he had arms the span of an albatross. He was tall and imposing and his voice was mild if he chose to be or thunderous if needed be. There we were at their living room and I meekly introduced myself. Strangely I didn’t get the opportunity to ask that question but instead I saw everyone else getting up from their seats and turning to face them. Then they knelt on the carpet. I had no idea what was happening but it was best to just follow and not look daft by asking silly questions.

Very quickly, my friend whispered to me that they were about to pray. I thought that was fine. Even though I was not a Christian at that time, praying was something I could ‘pretend to do’ and get away with it. Not long after everyone had settled in quietly, the pastor prayed first but very shortly thereafter, everyone began to raise their voices in the most unintelligible manner. There was absolutely no meaning whatsoever in what I could hear. Strange language, perhaps, but it was frightening because it was also chaotic. This was at best ecstatic gibberish but at worse, it was a terrifying and menacing introduction to Christianity for someone in my shoes.

Even though I became a Christian not long after that, the experience remained a traumatic one for me for many years as I struggled to understand any of it. Not knowing enough of Scripture obviously helped to build a complete lack of understanding of how right or wrong that episode in my life was.

Hardly a few years ago, I was invited to a church in the older part of Kuala Lumpur one evening to join in prayers for a nation in preparation for the General Election. The program was that for every area in the country up for grabs, the entire congregation would pray out loud before they move to the next. A gigantic projection screen at the front of the refurbished cinema pointed to the area concerned. Again, that same thunderous calamity roared through the whole hall. This time, it was magnitudes worse because everyone was expected to speak in tongues for close to fifteen minutes each time.

A huge proportion of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians focused on the abuse of spiritual gifts. In Chapter 14, he homes in on correcting that congregation’s abuse of tongues in particular and in the last verse, it is as if he is reminding us to “be sure that everything is done properly and in order.” Moreover, it is hard not to notice the emphasis that Paul places on the importance of strengthening, encouraging and comforting those in church. 

Some translations such as the NIV uses the word to edify. Whether it is strengthening or edify, that word is repeatedly used throughout the chapter as the apostle seeks to underline the primacy behind the use of spiritual gifts, particularly speaking in tongues. In all my experiences, sadly, I did not feel edified one bit. All I felt was alienation.

The edifying part is so paramount that in verse 19, Paul says, “I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language,” which tells us that there is no point impressing people when it leaves them confused. It would be far better if people had been able to come to grips with what is happening.

There is no question that in the practice and doctrine of the modern charismatic movement, much of this principle outlined so clearly by Paul is simply ignored and I suspect defiantly opposed. While proponents might argue exegetically on the nuanced aspects of 1 Corinthians 14, it would be more devastatingly effective if we just consider the four critical ideas Paul points out:

‘Tongues’ cannot be contrived

In other words, all the unintelligible gibberish we often hear cannot be acceptable (14:9). The din of incomprehensible meaninglessness is of no use if the message does not edify or comfort anyone in church. Throughout the chapter, Paul refers to tongues as real languages with real meaning and not the kind of drivel we keep on hearing among the seemingly committed charismatic movements. In verse 11, he says, “If I don’t understand a language, I will be a foreigner to someone who speaks it and the one who speaks it will be a foreigner to me” and then later in verse 13, “Anyone who speaks in tongues should pray also for the ability to interpret what has been said.” In verses 27-28, he continues, “No more than two or three should speak in tongues. They must speak one at a time and someone must interpret what they say. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately.”

All of these verses do not require a theologian to understand. Paul’s words here are as clear as he means them to be. These are strong instructions as to how the speaking of tongues must be conducted in church in order to avoid the messiness of chaos. If someone is genuinely speaking in tongues, then there has to be a message buried somewhere in there that can and should be interpreted for those who hear. Even if the speaker of the tongue is praying alone and no one else is within earshot, Paul says he must still pray that he may interpret.

Contrary to how many charismatics are inclined to misconstrue the word, Paul isn’t endorsing the use of tongues as a private prayer language. Even as we set that aside, we must remind ourselves that in all that the apostle has said, whether the prayer is corporate or personal, whether in prophecy or in prayer, it must be interpreted, period.

Tongues should not boggle the mind

Image source: youtube.com

Any tongue spoken in church should not be an exercise in mysticism. It should not be an experience that transcends the logical mind in understanding what is said. Remember Paul’s overwhelming concern about edification? Well, that is his key point. Tongues or no tongues, intelligibility and coherence cannot be thrown out of the window. Whenever anyone prays in public worship, let it be known that the congregation must be able to properly and clearly understand the message.

Many charismatic churches today emphatically ignore this point and instead believe that spirituality feeds off a mystical soul but requires none of our intellect or discernment. We don’t need to think, they tell us. If it’s just about savouring the ‘feeling,’ then this spiritual gift would have more in line with anti-intellectual animism than real Christianity.  Just as speaking on tongues should not boggle the mind, the mind itself is not a detriment to spirituality. On the contrary, the true essence of Christian spirituality is more about the transformation through the renewal of our minds.

Paul’s use of the word edify (NIV translation) in much of the chapter comes from the Greek word oikodomeo (ἐποικοδομέω), which means ‘to build up’ or ‘to build upon (a foundation).’ One way to put it is to promote growth in Christian wisdom, affection, grace, virtue, holiness and blessedness through a better understanding of the truth. In other words, an edified person is one whose mind is filled with truth and understanding. How would all this work if the tongues spoken are not translated? What good is it to have a message forever hidden because we are not encouraged to experience what it means?

I think it is not incorrect to say that God does not provide a spiritual gift just so that we become a visual and aural spectacle and nothing else. Beyond the noises we make, we don’t have any message to convey. All this might be well and good but in verse 28, Paul clearly says, “If no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately.”

My stated experience in Kuala Lumpur was an example of the kind of chaos that Paul warns us about in verse 23 when he said that those who have no understanding of such gifts could have considered us to be insane.

Tongues should not be chaotic

'Toronto Blessing' (Image source: thepocketscroll.wordpress.com)

Perhaps the most ominous and infamous example is the so-called ‘Toronto Blessing,’ which was supposedly an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the people of a particular church in Toronto sometime in 1994. There, after a Pentecostal pastor had testified that he would get ‘drunk’ in the Spirit and laugh uncontrollably, the congregation responded by breaking out into mirth while others were seen romping, howling, quaking and even in various states of paralysis.

The pastor of the church called it ‘a big Holy Spirit party,’ claiming that the Holy Spirit had entered the people’s bodies but saying so put him in direct mockery of the principles that Paul laid out in this chapter. He even warned the people to let go of their minds, saying, “God wants to reach your heart, not your mind. It is not necessary for you to have a rational understanding of what is going on here.” In fact, he called on the people to all speak in tongues regardless of whether there was anyone there to interpret all the gibberish that had gone on. In the Name of the Holy Spirit, he had unleashed a completely embarrassing force of noise, frenzy and chaos.

'Toronto Blessing' (Image source: youtube.com)

If what this pastor said is true, does that mean that God was behind all of this confusion? Would He do something so incomprehensible like that? And if He did, wouldn’t that make Paul, His apostle, a laughing stock? To answer that is simple. Look up verse 33, which says, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” Unlike the pastor, we are not to claim all of this gibberish for God who cannot possibly be pleased or glorified by such nonsense.

Tongues are for unbelievers

Not all spiritual gifts are for believers. While prophecy is meant for believers, Paul confirms in verse 22 that tongues aren’t. Instead they are a sign…for unbelievers. What that all means is prophecy carries messages from God that everyone understands but on the other hand, messages veiled in tongues are also comprehensible to those who are familiar with the specific language.

Just so we’re on the same page, tongues are anything but Hebrew. They are essentially all Gentile in nature and there lies the significance in which God would use a Gentile tongue to reach unbelievers with His inspired truth. At Pentecost, the disciples were all speaking in languages unfamiliar to themselves but when at the Temple, they would pray in Hebrew because that was the language of God and His people.

And of course, the spiritual gift of tongues revolutionised all that because for the very first time, the divine truth was uncovered for all to hear in languages other than His own. In the Old Testament, there is backing for this in Isaiah 28:11, which says, “So now God will have to speak to His people through foreign oppressors who speak a strange language.” This verse is perfectly paraphrased by Paul in this letter to the Corinthians (14:21) where he concludes that despite the effort, unbelievers would not heed God. Tongues are therefore a sign of judgement levelled against the unbelieving and disobedient Israelites but on the flipside, it is also God’s grace to the Gentile unbelievers who now have the chance to act on the opportunity because they can hear the message in their own tongues.

In a nutshell then, this gift of tongues, which Paul spent so much of his letter in clarifying, is not about one big fat noise drowning our senses nor is it something that we don’t have to make any effort in understanding. This spiritual gift is a wonderful declaration by God that finally the wall has crumbled and that His great grace and promise are now available to all the nations of the world and their people. 

And that includes you and I.