1350 - 1419 A.D.: Vincent Ferrer Receives the Gift of Tongues In Noteworthy Abundance! He Is Clearly Heard By People of Many Languages In Many Nations Over the Course of Several Decades!
Dominican Missionary Vincent Ferrer: 1350 A.D. - 1419A.D. He Had A Tremendous Gift of Tongues!
The gift of tongues is wonderful, yet it is viewed with skepticism by some in our present times. (And please do not malign the gift of tongues, or mock any work of the Holy Spirit. Merely use your God given judgement...quietly. The Bible only lists one sin as being unforgivable, and that sin is to mock the Holy Spirit. What all does that entail? I do not know, and I feel that the scriptures don't go into much detail about this sin, so I feel fearful about it and try to stay far from anything that might qualify as mocking the great Holy Spirit of God, who is our Comforter and our Guide to a fuller understanding of Jesus' teachings, a giver of gifts, and more.)
People sometimes attend Christian churches where some among the flock speak in tongues, and frequently you cannot tell what they are saying because they are speaking in an unknown language, and no one is interpreting their utterances. Some say that they are speaking in the tongue of angels. That is mentioned in passing as if it is a real type of language in the New Testament in at least one spot by the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 13:1) it is true. But at any rate, if you go to a church where some are speaking in tongues you can't always understand what people are saying, and even they may not be able to tell you what they are saying. So, people naturally wonder if this is a real gift of the Holy Spirit that they are witnessing...or what? And the Apostle Paul cautions against speaking in tongues that no one who is present can interpret. Yet initially, at Pentecost, followers of Jesus spoke about the life and recent crucifixion of Jesus to a crowd composed of both locals and foreigners in Jerusalem, and the foreigners marveled the they could hear and understand what was being said quite clearly in their many varying languages. It obviously impressed the crowd that what they were hearing must be from from God. Thousands converted to Christianity that day.
The Holy Spirit's gift of tongues allowed people to hear and understand in their own language when the gospel was preached to them by missionaries. It was an incredibly useful gift for the missionary...for the kingdom of heaven...for the souls that heard and believed and confessed and were baptized and were saved. But the gift may be performed in the ear of the listener or in the mouth of the speaker...who is to say? Maybe both! Still, the question many people puzzle over today is unfortunately this: is it a real gift in our day, or did it end in Apostolic times?
The answer is that it certainly did not end in Apostolic times and is quite probably active still today in places where it is needed. And one missionary from the 14th and 15th century is certainly strong evidence of it being in use long past the Apostolic days. Vincent Ferrer was reported to be no highly educated linguist. He was, it is true, born of Scottish and English parents who lived in Spain, so he may have known multiple tongues. But some reports say he only spoke one language well, his native tongue of Valencian, a dialect of Catalan as spoken in Spain in his day. He became a Dominican friar in 1367 at age 18, and quickly gained a reputation as an especially effective preacher. When he preached men of dozens of different languages understood him with great precision and clarity. And his voice reportedly had other miraculous properties as well; he was apparently heard easily and well at distances both near and far people reported. His gifts were so well known and widely attested to that an English King, Henry IV, even politely wrote to him inviting him to visit and preach, and then had him brought over to England to preach to his lands and peoples...which he did in England, Ireland, and Scotland...preaching clearly....in the languages spoken there!
Upon crossing back over the English Channel he preached to a number of regions of France with their diverse languages. He preached in Holland and Italy as well during his days of ministry.
He was especially devout and a frequent faster. In his preaching style he was said to be powerful and loud. Wherever he went it is reported that many repented, many were converted. He is reported to have effectively led many Jews to Christianity which was somewhat rare. He preached in such a way as to wake up a church grown sleepy and undedicated, in a region of the world often at war, in a church era where the 'Great Schism of 1378 A.D.' was being battled out. (It involved there being 3 claimants to the papacy and it lasted until around 1417 A.D. Vincent labored to see it ended, which it did just couple of years before his life ended.) This was apparently the general spiritual state of much of the church in Western Europe during his days of evangelism. At one point in his life he became vey ill. During this time he received a vision in which Jesus, St. Dominic, and St. Francis spoke with him telling him that he was being commissioned to go out and preach repentance, and after the vision he found himself well. Thereafter he concentrated much in his preaching on reminding people of the gravity of their sins, the judgement they would undergo before the throne of God, the unending horrors of hell, and the incomparable value of being right with Jesus when you died. In other words, his style of preaching was the 'hell and brimstone' type it sounds like. And it would probably be wise for all of us to consider that because the Holy Spirit lent great force and authenticity to his message through this remarkable and frequent gift of tongues.
So, did the gift of tongues exit beyond the Apostles? There are many others in church history who reportedly enjoyed the gift of tongues, but this missionary's life is certainly one powerful and well attested-to example. He spoke in recognizable foreign tongues often and in many places during a relatively long period of years. The Holy Spirit's gifts are awesome and powerful, but often in history we see them given to those who, like this man, are powerfully and deeply committed to the Kingdom of Heaven. And that is probably the sort of Christian that would most likely receive gifts in our own day. Pray for the gifts of the Spirit, we Christians are told in scripture. We should desire them so that we might testify well and effectively. They are tools, not plumage, these gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are a stamp of authenticity for the trustworthy worker. They are to aid us in the work of the 'Great Commission', which is to spread the gospel to all people in all lands. Come, Lord Jesus, come! Church, prepare his kingdom for Him!