Part 2 of Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts

Richard M. Riss presents evidence for the operation of the gifts of the Spirit throughout the Church Age.

The North African Revival

We have seen that Augustine had adopted the view that miracles had ceased with the close of the apostolic age. In the last two or three years of his life, however, his opinion changed concerning the relative unimportance of contemporaneous miracles. This was precipitated by a revival in North Africa, where Augustine lived. Suddenly, miracles seemed to proliferate. Augustine quickly decided to publicize the miraculous healings in North Africa, and as bishop in Hippo, he examined and recorded each report that came to his attention. He gave verified reports of healings a maximum of publicity, and he insisted upon receiving a written report from every person who claimed to be healed. This report, or libellus, would then be read publicly in church, in the presence of the writer, and would later be stored in Augustine’s library. He attempted to persuade his colleagues to use the same system, but without great success. In the case of the healing of a noble lady in Carthage, Augustine was disappointed that she failed to use her rank and influence to publicize a miracle of healing that she had experienced. A renowned twentieth-century specialist in Augustine, Peter Brown, stated that Augustine attempted to bring together various incidents of miracles “until they formed a single corpus, as compact and compelling as the miracles that had assisted the growth of the Early Church.”⁴⁵ Some of the material that Augustine collected appears in the last book (Book 22) of his work, City of God, the eighth chapter of which contains a very lengthy description of miracles which he had either witnessed himself, or about which he had heard from those whom he considered to be reliable witnesses.⁴⁶

The account in City of God is too lengthy for detailed treatment here, but included in it are reports of healings of blindness, multiple rectal fistula, cancer of the breast, gout, paralysis, hernia of the scrotum, and other diseases. Augustine recounts other miracles in which farm animals were cured, demons were cast out of certain individuals, and the dead were raised. In one case, a poor man who lost his cloak prayed, and later found a huge fish squirming upon the beach. He sold it to a restaurant, where a gold ring was found in the gullet of the fish and given to him. In another case, a cart drawn by oxen ran over a child. After his mother prayed, the child not only returned to consciousness, but he showed no sign of the crushing he had suffered.

Richard M. Riss presents evidence for the operation of the gifts of the Spirit throughout the Church Age.

Origen

In any case, Origen, Clement’s successor as head of the catechetical school in Alexandria, makes explicit references to miraculous gifts in operation in his day, at the beginning of the third century. He wrote, “there are still preserved among Christians traces of that Holy Spirit which appeared in the form of a dove. They expel evil spirits, and perform many cures, and foresee certain events, according to the will of the Logos.”²⁴ Elsewhere, he wrote:

Moreover, the Holy Spirit gave signs of His presence at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, and after His Ascension He gave still more: but since that time these signs have diminished, although there are still traces of His presence in a few who have had their souls purified by by the gospel, and their actions regulated by its influence.²⁵

A much more extensive treatment of the gifts of the Spirit appears in Origen’s De Principiis, book II, chapter VII, which is entitled, “On The Holy Spirit”. The third portion of this part of Origen’s work appears to be a very loose paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 12: 8-11, where he writes:

For on some is bestowed by the Spirit the word of wisdom, on others the word of knowledge, on others faith; and so to each individual of those who are capable of receiving Him, is the Spirit Himself made to be that quality, or understood to be that which is needed by the individual who has deserved to participate.²⁶

The following paragraph (section 4) of the same chapter provides unquestionable evidence that he is speaking of the spiritual gifts with reference to the time in which he was living, for he writes:

We must therefore know that the Paraclete is the holy Spirit, who teaches truths which cannot be uttered in words, and which are, so to speak, unutterable, and “which it is not lawful for a man to utter,” i.e., which cannot be indicated by human language…..For if any one has deserved to participate in the Holy Spirit by the knowledge of His ineffable mysteries, he undoubtedly obtains comfort and joy of heart. For since he comes by the teaching of the Spirit to the knowledge of the reasons of all things which happens—how or why they occur—his soul can in no respect be troubled, or admit any feeling of sorrow; nor is he alarmed by anything, since, clinging to the Word of God and His wisdom, he through the Holy Spirit calls Jesus Lord.²⁷

There can be no question that Origen is speaking of revelatory spiritual gifts, for he writes very explicitly in this passage of revelation by God’s Spirit. His reference to unutterable truths which cannot be indicated by human language seems to suggest the possibility of a heavenly language in which such things can be uttered through the gift of tongues. Such an interpretation would certainly be consistent with the continual association of the gift of tongues with other prophetic gifts throughout the Patristic era.