PMW 2026-058 by Anthony Faggiano

Gentry note:
This is an excellent article explaining the cessation of tongues in the first century. The following material is all written by Anthony Faggiano, an elder in a United Reformed Church congregation.

Have Tongues Ceased?
When I first became a Christian, I found myself caught between two worlds at my workplace. On one side were solid evangelical believers who nurtured my early faith with Scripture and sound doctrine. On the other was a small but vocal group of charismatic Pentecostals who handed me cassette tapes by Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland, insisting that their practice of speaking in tongues was the essential evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work.

What troubled me the most was their warning: if I rejected what these “faith teachers” were doing, I risked committing the unpardonable sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. As a young believer, I faced a question that felt dreadfully urgent: was the gift of speaking in tongues still given to the church today, or had it ceased with the apostles?

This article is especially for those coming out of the charismatic movement and exploring Reformed theology. The answer I found in Scripture transformed not just my theology, but my peace in Christ.

Tongues-speaking: Meaning, Purpose, and Cessation

by Ken Gentry

The position presented within is that tongues-speaking allowed the gift person to speak in a known human language without previously knowing it; tongues brought inspired revelation from God; the gift was a sign confirming the apostolic witness and warning of the coming destruction of Jerusalem; and therefore the gift ceased in the first century.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

Acts records the day of Pentecost like this:

“Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2–4).

The visitors to Jerusalem each heard the apostles speaking and asked: “How is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” (Acts 2:8). The miracle is called xenoglossy1: real human languages, supernaturally given to Galileans who had never learned them.

The gift of speaking in tongues, as the New Testament describes it, has ceased. That isn’t a novel claim. It belongs to the Westminster Standards and the Three Forms of Unity, to John Calvin, Francis Turretin, Herman Bavinck, Louis Berkhof, and R. C. Sproul, and to the major cessationist works: B. B. Warfield’s Counterfeit Miracles, John Owen’s Pneumatologia, and Richard B. Gaffin Jr.’s Perspectives on Pentecost. The Reformed witness on this point is consistent across the tradition.

Perspectives on Pentecost (Richard Gaffin)
A careful examination of the New Testament teaching on the gifts of the Spirit. Makes a case for the cessation of tongues at the close of the apostolic era. Gaffin is professor emeritus of biblical and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

Pentecost and the Miracle of Real Languages

Calvin frames the Acts 2 miracle:

“The disciples spoke indeed with strange tongues; otherwise the miracle had not been wrought in them, but in the hearers.”2

The function of speaking in tongues was redemptive-historical. Pentecost reversed Babel. At Babel, God scattered languages to restrain human sin (Genesis 11:7–9). At Pentecost, God redeemed tongues to deliver the gospel to every nation under heaven. The same Spirit who baffled the builders now brings Jews and Gentiles together by the gospel. With that founding complete, the need for the gift of tongues ended.

Paul at Corinth: The Gift Tested and Tamed

By the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, the gift had come to a congregation that mishandled it. He ranks tongues at the bottom of the gift list (1 Corinthians 12:28), requires interpretation for public use on pain of silence (1 Corinthians 14:27–28). Paul even framed the gift’s covenantal function as a sign of judgment on unbelieving Israel, citing Isaiah 28:11–12 (1 Corinthians 14:21–22).

Charles Hodge identifies four marks of the biblical gift:

“It is clear, 1. That the word tongues in this connection means languages. 2. That the speaker with tongues was in a state of calm self-control. 3. That what he said was intelligible to himself, and could be interpreted to others. 4. That the unintelligibleness of what was said, arose not from the sounds uttered being inarticulate, but from the ignorance of the hearer.”3

Paul himself sets an expiration date. In 1 Corinthians 13:8 he predicts the gift’s termination:

“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away” (1 Corinthians 13:8).

A continuationist will reply that “when the perfect comes” (v. 10) is Christ’s return, so tongues continue until then. Reformed exegetes read “the perfect” two ways: some as the Parousia (Second Coming), others as the closing of the canon.4 The cessation case stands either way.

Theological Analysis of Tongues
(6 mp3 sermons by Ken Gentry)
This six part sermon series covers the key issues for understanding tongues-speaking
as intended by Scripture.
Very helpful even for eschatology, given tongues-speaking serving as
a sign of covenant curse upon Israel.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:19–20 that the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church, with Christ as the cornerstone. A foundation is laid only once. The revelatory and credentialing gifts (gifts that authenticated the apostles as God’s messengers) were given to lay that foundation. These included prophecy, tongues, and knowledge in the apostolic sense.

A continuationist might object that non-apostles also spoke in tongues, at Pentecost, in Cornelius’s household, at Ephesus, and in Corinth. Each instance happens within the apostolic age, under apostolic ministry (Acts 8:17, 19:6) or at a redemptive-historical milestone authenticating the apostolic mission (Acts 2, 10).

Once the foundation was laid and the canon closed, the gifts had served their purpose. The Reformation Study Bible note on 1 Corinthians 13:8 reads it this way:

“The revelatory function of the apostles and prophets…was a foundation-laying activity like Christ’s ministry, death, and resurrection. Thus, as with Christ, when the foundation-laying activity is accomplished, the activity is so unique that it ceases.”5

Calvin agrees:

“Hence love must be preferred before temporary and perishable gifts. Prophesyings have an end, tongues fail, knowledge ceases.”6

The Cessationist Case in Five Points

1. A Credentialing Gift, Not an Ordinary One

The gift was a credentialing gift (tongues, prophecy, apostolic miracles), not an ordinary one (teaching, mercy, hospitality). Hebrews 2:3–4 frames the apostolic miracles as God’s witness to “such a great salvation,” and 2 Corinthians 12:12 names “the signs of an apostle” as a distinct mark of a definite class. With the apostolic deposit completed and inscripturated, that function is fulfilled. No one today can claim the office of apostle.

2. The Foundation Has Been Laid

Ephesians 2:20 places the apostles and prophets at the foundation of the church. A foundation is laid once. What rises on it is the building, not another foundation.

The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation
This commentary is an 1800 page, two-volume deeply exegetical, academic commentary on the Bible’s most mysterious book. It takes an orthodox preterist approach, giving serious attention to the details of John’s many visions.

Click: The Divorce of Israel
See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

3. The Canon Is Closed

Jude 3 speaks of “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” Hebrews 1:1–2 contrasts the former prophetic mode of revelation with God’s final speech in his Son.

After the Book of Revelation was complete, any prophecy or speaking in tongues offered as new revelation would, by definition, add to a closed canon (Revelation 22:18). The Westminster divines stated this directly: “those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people being now ceased” (WCF 1.1).

4. The Covenantal Sign-Function Has Been Fulfilled

Tongues were a sign of judgment to unbelieving Israel for refusing the prophetic word (1 Corinthians 14:21–22, citing Isaiah 28). With the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), the sign-function exhausted itself. The gospel had irrevocably gone to the Gentiles.

5. Paul Predicted the Cessation

Calvin, Hodge, and the broader Reformed tradition read 1 Corinthians 13:8 as predictive of the gift’s natural termination once it had served its purpose.

When the Gift Ceased
To complete reading the full article along with footnotes, please go to:
https://reformeddogmatika.com/cessationism-tongues-ceased/

God Gave Wine (by Ken Gentry)

A biblical defense of moderate alcohol consumption. Considers all key biblical passages and engages the leading objections.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com