Subject: Speaking in tongues? |
Bible Note: Bob and retxar, I've enjoyed your conversations on this subject. Kimmy, I can see the reason why your teacher said that, but what was the meaning behind it? Can everyone speak in tongues? Privately, towards God in prayer, because this language is a language you will not understand. Publically? Paul says that the gift of tongues is for unbelievers to believe (specifically what happened in Acts 2) in that they know who the Lord is and how awesome He is. I've been torn about this subject for some time now, seeing uneducated people sprout gibberish and passing it off as speaking in tongues...during a church service. Paul specifically warns against that, saying that there should be someone there to interpret for the edification of the church. Without that interpretation for the congregation, it's wrong and it's very disruptive. I knew a preacher who spent an entire church service about this subject, going on about the wrong ways and how people were incorrect in speaking tongues (five people in a circle speaking loudly is what I would consider "incorrect") and then he proceeded to speak in tongues at the end of the service, without an interpreter. Was he speaking Old English Greek? Probably, but I don't think he knew what he was speaking. Anyway, if he was speaking in tongues, he couldn't interpret for himself (no man can, actually, which is the point of the interpreter) and it was just nonsense, like a clashing symbol. Not everyone has the gift of tongues, and to say said person isn't filled with the Holy Spirit blatently denies all of the other times in Acts alone that the apostles were filled with the Spirit and performed miricles, while speaking the same language (Acts 4, for example). |