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The Gift of Tongues: Fluency in Foreign Languages, July
14
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every
nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude
came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard
them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and
marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak
Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we
were born?
Acts 2:5-8
.
“And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat
upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began
to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (
Acts 2:3,
4
). The Holy Spirit, assuming the form of tongues of fire, rested upon those
assembled. This was an emblem of the gift then bestowed on the disciples,
which enabled them to speak with fluency languages with which they had
heretofore been unacquainted. The appearance of fire signified the fervent
zeal with which the apostles would labor and the power that would attend
their work.
“There were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation
under heaven” (
verse 5
). During the dispersion the Jews had been scattered to
almost every part of the inhabited world, and in their exile they had learned
to speak various languages. Many of these Jews were on this occasion in
Jerusalem, attending the religious festivals then in progress. Every known
tongue was represented by those assembled. This diversity of languages
would have been a great hindrance to the proclamation of the gospel; God
therefore in a miraculous manner supplied the deficiency of the apostles. The
Holy Spirit did for them that which they could not have accomplished for
themselves in a lifetime. They could now proclaim the truths of the gospel
abroad, speaking with accuracy the languages of those for whom they were
laboring.
This miraculous gift was a strong evidence to the world that their com-
mission bore the signet of Heaven. From this time forth the language of the
disciples was pure, simple, and accurate, whether they spoke in their native
tongue or in a foreign language.—
The Acts of the Apostles, 39, 40
.
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