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NASB | Acts 2:6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 2:6 And when this sound was heard, a crowd gathered, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing those in the upper room speaking in his own language or dialect. |
Subject: When will I speak/pray in tongues? |
Bible Note: Sola Scriptura is Latin for "Scripture alone." During the Protestant Reformation, Luther and Calvin and the other Reformers stood their ground on this issue. While Rome adhered to man-made traditions that contradicted the Holy Scriptures, and let official church pronouncements carry the same weight as Scripture; the Reformers stood their ground and said that the Bible alone is the sole and ultimate authority for our faith and practice. Today I fear that we have regressed so far from the spiritual accomplishments of the Protestant Reformation. We elevate our own modern traditions ("altar calls," for example, are utilized quite similarly to the Catholic sacrament of penance in many congregations) above the simple preaching and studying of God's Word; and we have placed our own, subjective experiences on par with God's revelation in the Bible. There are plenty of false religions out there, including the New Age-leaning ones, which declare that truth and knowledge take a back seat to feeling and experience. In other words, the mentality as long as it brings peace and happiness and a sense of fulfillment, how can it be wrong? The fact is, however, if it violates or offers any special "revelation" that isn't already present in Scripture, then it is not of God. This is what I mean by the sufficiency of Scripture. Yes, God the Holy Spirit speaks to us. He speaks to us through His Word, not in addition to it. It is this "looking for something more" that saddens me so much. People all over are living a defeated life, not because they are oppressed by demons or not speaking in tongues, but because they neglect the fruitful life that comes from careful study of God's written revelation of Himself to us. They look at their Bibles and say, "There MUST be something more." There isn't; the problem is that they are looking AT their Bibles rather than digging into them and learning everything they can about who God is, who we are, all Christ has done for us, and how we as God's children fit into the grand narrative of redemption of His creation. You say in your profile that you do not know that much about theology. Granted, one does not need a seminary degree to be a fruitful Christian. I don't have one myself. But in a literate society where there are dozens of modern English Bible translations, there is really no excuse for the level of neglect that we see of the Bible in favor of that elusive and non-existant "something more." --Joe! |