Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Ephesians 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 4:14 So that we are no longer children [spiritually immature], tossed back and forth [like ships on a stormy sea] and carried about by every wind of [shifting] doctrine, by the cunning and trickery of [unscrupulous] men, by the deceitful scheming of people ready to do anything [for personal profit]. |
Bible Question: i believe i had a vision and so when i was in the presence of God i asked if he'd baptise me with the holy spirit and all of a sudden the word holocalumba came out of my mouth a few times. when i came back to what i was doing i said it a few more times till i finaly wrote it down. a couple days later while praying i was remembering speaking this and again all of a sudden holocabola came out. my questions are...are these words a known language? did i speak in tongues? if so why cant i speak tongues when i want? |
Bible Answer: Tongues, Gift of - Part 2 of 3 3. A State of Ecstasy: A complete explanation of the tongues is given by the phenomena of ecstatic utterances, especially when taken in connection with the history of New Testament times. In ecstasy the soul feels itself so suffused with the divine that the man is drawn above all natural modes of perception (the understanding becomes “unfruitful”), and the religious nature alone is felt to be active. Utterances at such times naturally become altogether abnormal. If the words remain coherent, the speaker may profess to be uttering revelations, or to be the mere organ of the divine voice. Very frequently, however, what is said is quite incomprehensible, although the speaker seems to be endeavoring to convey something. In a still more extreme case the voice will be inarticulate, uttering only groans or outcries. At the termination of the experience the subject is generally unconscious of all that has transpired. For the state, compare Philo, ‘Quis rerum. divin., li-liii. 249-66’: “The best (ecstasy) of all is a divinely-infused rapture and 'mania,' to which the race of the prophets is subject.... The wise man is a sounding instrument of God's voice, being struck and played upon invisibly by Him.... As long as our mind still shines (is active)...we are not possessed (by God)...but ... when the divine light shines, the human light sets.... The prophet ... is passive, and another (God) makes use of his vocal organs.” Compare, further, the descriptions of Celsus (Origen, “Contra Celsus”, vii. 9), who describes the Christian “prophets” of his day as preaching as if God or Christ were speaking through them, closing their words with “strange, fanatical, and quite unintelligible words of which no rational person can find the meaning.” The Greek papyri furnish us with an abundance of magical formulas couched in unintelligible terms (e.g. Pap. Lond., 121, “Iao, eloai, marmarachada, menepho, mermai, ieor, aeio, erephie, pherephio,” etc.), which are not infrequently connected with an ecstatic state (e.g. Reitzenstein, “Poimandres”, 53-58). Interpretation of the utterances in such a state would always be difficult and diversities of interpretation would be unavoidable. Still, with a fixed content, such as the Christian religion gave, and with the aid of gestures, etc., men who felt that they had an understanding of such conditions could undertake to explain them to the congregation. It is to be noted, however, that Paul apparently does not feel that the gift of interpretation is much to be relied on, for otherwise he would have appraised the utility of tongues more highly than he does. But the popularity of tongues in Corinth is easily understood. The speaker was felt to be taken into the closest of unions with God and hence, to be an especial object of God's favor. Indeed, the occurrence of the phenomenon in a neo-convert was irrefragable proof that the conversion was approved by God (Act 10:44-48; Act 11:15; Act 19:6). So in Mar 16:17 the gift is treated as an exceptional and miraculous divine blessing (in this verse “new” is textually uncertain, and the meaning of the word, if read, is uncertain also). Moreover, for the more selfish, the gift was very showy (1Co 13:1 suggests that it was vociferous), and its possession gratified any desire for personal prominence. by Grace, eklektos |