Bible Q&A: Must you speak in tongues to be saved?

November 27, 2002

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Bible Question: "If I have never spoken in tongues, does that mean I can't go to heaven?"
Bible Answer: In a word, no. I'm not going to get into a debate about speaking in tongues, but the Bible has many, many verses about salvation that don't mention tongues as any qualification for it.
There are some verses where people got saved in the New Testament in the early days of the Christian church and then spoke in tongues, including the day of Pentecost, when the original disciples were first filled with the Holy Spirit.
But the vast majority of verses referring to salvation don't mention tongues at all.
There is only one qualification for going to heaven, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved," Paul writes in Romans 10:9.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast," he adds in Ephesians 2:8-9.
Paul is the foremost teacher of salvation by grace in the Bible, and while he does write about speaking in tongues, it is never in the context of relating to salvation.
Paul writes about the gifts of the Spirit, including tongues, in 1 Corinthians 12.
"There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues," Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:4-10.
"But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills," Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 12:11.
If I understand that correctly, the gifts of the Spirit, whether tongues or any of the other many gifts, are given to each person as the Spirit wills, not as we desire. So whether we speak in tongues is up to God, or the Holy Spirit, and not up to us.

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(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)