Featured Sign Gifts

If they are the same, what need is there for interpretation?

In Acts 2, it says everyone there heard them [the apostles] speak his own language. If that were true in I Corinthians 12 (and 14), there would be no need for interpretation.

 

It wasn't a miracle in Corinthians like it was in Acts 2. Corinth was a port city, with many languages being spoken, so therefore interpretation was vital. I once preached in an international church in Japan. I spoke in English and it was interpreted into Japanese, Chinese, and Thai, I believe. In such a service, interpretation was vital. And the Greek word in 1 Cor. 12 and 14 is diermeneuo, the usual verb for non-miraculous interpretation of a language, as witness its usage in Acts 9:36--"Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas."

 

1 Corinthians 12:6-11 NASB

6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
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So the argument is that all of these manifestations of the spirit are special gifts from God for the common good (wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, spirits, tongues) HOWEVER, the interpretation of Tongues is just non-miraculous poly-lingual saints? Is that REALLY what you think 1 Corinthians 12 says?

I think not.

 

1 Corinthians 14:2 NASB For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.

1 Corinthians 14:13-19 NASB

13 Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. 16 Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. 18 I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all; 19 however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.
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The instructions on Tongues in Corinthians does not sound like what happened in Acts to me.

 

I am not alone.

 

If you are talking to me, you are presuming much. I do not argue that all of those gifts are supernatural, but that some of them are providential. (Do you know the difference? Most Christians do not.) There is nothing in the text to make me doubt that. In fact, there is specifically a gift of "miracles" in 1 Cor. 12:10, which would be strange if all of the gifts were miraculous.

Now, God has gifted me in languages, so I teach languages and translate the Bible. This gift is clearly not miraculous, but clearly from God.

 

Paul makes the point that what is spoken...must be understood (vv.16-18).

There are two tongues in view in this chapter, the valid gift (which Paul had) and the "tongues" which did not edify, caused confusion, and edified only those speaking in the "tongue," which is contrary to why we gather in the first place.

Paul states he will pray with spirit and the understanding, as opposed to just doing something for no purpose (v.14).


1 Corinthians 14:7-9
King James Version (KJV)

7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?

8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?

9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.


And how most people who "speak in tongues" today learn how to do this is...they are taught. "Just clear your mind and utter whatever comes into your head."

And the gifts of God are not learned, they are given.


God bless.

 

I will say that there is such a thing as speaking in the tongues of angels according to the bible:

1 Corntihains 13:1
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

However, this falls through for those claiming that glossolalia is the tongues of angels (I say this having before thought I spoke in such languages with the "gift" of tongues):

1. Test it with a linguist. People need to see if what they are speaking is a coherent language or gibberish. I did this once thinking I would be proved in my belief my glossolalia was real language, only to find out it was gibberish when you applied linguistics to it.

2. Do those who "speak in tongues" ever speak in the tongues of men? They should be able to speak in both heavenly and earthly languages if they have the real gift of tongues. It seems like obfuscation if they say that they always speak in the tongues of angels.

 

I'm a cessationist believing tongues, prophecy and word of knowledge would end when "that which is perfect came". That which is perfect (complete) being the writings that now make up the New Testament. (More if interest develops)

 

Most of the baptists that I have fellowship with over the years believe that the sign gifts and the tongues ceased, but that God can and still does on His schedule divine healings and miracles, but those are not the normative way that He does things today.
One woman in our church has her Liver reject a transplant, and is now in dire need to find another doner, while another has cancer in her kidney, both seeking medical help, but all of us now also praying to God to heal her by either a direct touch or a surgeon knife.

 

Then they were not the same.

 

The tongues in both settings were actual real languages though!