“The sole purpose and objective behind the Spirit's engifting Christians with various gifts is the edifying of the Body of Christ and the building up the saints in love. No spiritual gift should ever be used selfishly to edify only its recipient.” [1]

... since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. ... When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. [1 Cor 14:12,26]

... speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. [Eph 4:15,16]

John Frame is representative of those who believe that the gift of tongues-speaking has passed away. Writing about the experiences of the early church in worship meetings, Frame says that “[b]y the Spirit of God, supernatural events took place. There were utterances in languages unknown to the speaker, God-given interpretations of those utterances, and divinely inspired prophecies in familiar languages [1 Cor 14:1-25]. In my opinion, these supernatural gifts were given to the church only for the period of its founding, to attest the ministry of the apostles [Heb 2:1-4; 2 Cor 12:12; Eph 2:20]. That ministry is available to us in the Scriptures, and so we should not expect God to give these gifts to us today.” [2]

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. [Heb 2:1-4]

The signs of a true apostle were performed among you twith utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. [2 Cor 12:12]

... you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone... [Eph 2:19,20]

On the other hand, those who believe in the continuation/restoration of speaking in tongues appeal, among other things, to the following:

1. The New Testament doesn't explicitly state that the gift of tongues will eventually pass away.
2. What about the millions of Pentacostals/Charismatics who speak in tongues? Can they all be wrong?
3. The New Testament doesn't divide these “last days” into apostolic and post-apostolic ages, in which speaking in tongues belongs only to the former.

#1 is true, of course, but “it is a logical fallacy to hold that the proof of the negative on its own ('no text of the New Testament teaches cessation') establishes an alternative positive ('the New Testament teaches continuation').” [3]

#2 is very hard (if not impossible) to refute. It may just be a case of mass misinterpretation, but we have no way of knowing for sure (since we cannot “read” another's heart), and it's pretty unlikely that millions of people could all be wrong in the same way. What constitutes speaking in tongues anyway? Some limit it to the God-given ability to speak in a human language previously unknown to the speaker [cf. Acts 2:5-12]. The majority probably consider any utterance spoken “under the influence of the Spirit” to be speaking in tongues. Are the latter just instances of “free vocalizations?” Could some of these be manifestations of demonic possession?

#3 is false because “the New Testament itself divides the last days into apostolic and post-apostolic dimensions or periods. There is a foundation-laying period, marked by the ministry of the apostles and prophets, and there is a post-foundational, post-apostolic period in view (as Eph 2:20 implies). It should not surprise us that phenomena occur in the former period which are not designed to continue beyond it, any more than the miracles of Moses, Elijah, or Elisha continued to be performed by their gifted successors.” [4]

Those who believe in the cessation of tongues-speaking offer the following arguments:

1. Extraordinary gifts are limited to selected periods in the biblical record, “in which they serve as confirmatory signs of new revelation and its ambassadors, and as a means of establishing and defending the kingdom of God in epochally significant ways.” [5] Examples include the Exodus; the Exile; the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and the time of the apostles [Heb 2:1-4; 2 Cor 12:12].
2. The pastoral epistles (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus), which were written after 1 Corinthians, do not even mention speaking in tongues. This, of course, is an argument from silence, but what could account for this silence? Perhaps there was no need for the apostle Paul to regulate speaking in tongues in the post-apostolic church because such gifts were fading away.
3. The principle of “sola Scriptura” developed during the Reformation is in danger of being unwittingly denied by some (Protestants no less!) who claim to speak in tongues. In 1 Cor 14, the interpretation of tongues-speaking is functionally equivalent to prophecy and therefore revelatory in nature. With the completion of the New Testament canon, the need for such prophecies ceased. If the Bible contains everything we need for life and godliness, then the act of speaking in tongues and having one's utterances translated/interpreted is in effect denying the sufficiency of Scripture.
4. Finally, what could account for nearly nineteen centuries of relative silence on the topic of speaking in tongues compared to the explosive growth of the Pentacostal/Charismatic movement in the 20th century? Is there a connection between this and the devaluing of the preaching of the Word in our time? “Will it prove to be one of the enigmas of contemporary church life, when viewed from some future age, that a demise of the quality of and confidence in the exposition of Scripture, and a fascination with the immediacy of tongues, interpretation, prophesy, and miracles, were coincidental?” [6]

Notes

1. ^ Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998), p.888.
2. ^ John Frame, Worship in Spirit and Truth (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1996), pp. 30-31.
3. ^ Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Holy Spirit (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), p.224.
4. ^ Ibid., p.229.
5. ^ Ibid., p.224.
6. ^ Ibid., p.239.