Response to Post #84
I am a charismatic ( I believe the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is still for today)! I did not say that was tongues in Rom.8. I would like you to answer the same question I have asked others..."How does the Holy Spirit pray when we do not know what we should pray for?"
You may not have said it, but in your own words you're question "How does the Holy Spirit pray" reveals that you are relying on Romans 8:26 even though you are not quoting it, because that is the only place in the NT that mentions the Holy Spirit "praying" (although that's not actually what the text says). But as stated, Romans 8:26 proves that your theory is wrong.
You are not getting an answer to your question because your question itself is not legitimate. Show us where the Bible says that the Holy Spirit prays for us if you want an answer to that question. You can not create your own caricature of Bible doctrine and then critique those who do not see what you think is there. If you are going to ask a question, then you need to show where the Bible supports your question.
I have always said they were a known language! The speaker did not learn the language, it is supernatual. The speaker did not go to school to learn the language.
There is a difference in admitting that tongues are a known language, and then claiming it is a coded prayer language between the Holy Spirit and God. The Biblical evidence is that the Holy Spirit caused a supernatural altering of languages that the unbeliever would understand when the gospel was given to them from a speaker who did not speak the same language. That is totally different that using the same passages to prove something that it does not say (that the supernatural altering of the languages were for praying).
...and what scripture do you have to prove your theory?
Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8.
To believe as you do you have to ignore 1 Cor. 14 where Paul is correcting the use of the prayer language/praying in the spirit in church without the interpretation! He says tongues is "speaking to God" "tongues is praying with the spirit" "Blessing with the spirit"...that sounds like prayer to me!
Paul is not correcting the use of "prayer language" he is correcting the abuse of tongues. When Paul does mention "pray in an unknown tongue" he is speaking in a hypothetical rhetorical manner: "For IF I pray in an unknown tongue" and he is criticizing the usage of tongues in such a manner.
If you notice there is a distinction being made between praying in an unknown tongue (v. 14)-which Paul discourages-and praying in the Spirit and praying with understanding in v. 15:
"What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also."
When you see the distinction from verse 14 and 15, you see that praying in a tongue, and praying in the Spirit are not the same thing.
When Paul says the person is "speaking to God" Paul is saying that "if it was even possible for anyone to understand your gibberish, the only person that could possibly understand what you are saying is God because nobody else can understand you". Paul's emphasis is on understanding what is being said, which means that all of the references in ch 14 must be understand in light of the goal Paul is trying to accomplish. Paul is not endorsing "speaking to God" in tongues, and all of the criticisms against the abuse of tongues proves that.
Now something else to think about. If tongues was a prayer language that only God understood, THEN WHY WOULD THERE BE A NEED FOR AN INTERPRETER!! If a "prayer language" was a crypted code between the believer and God, then no interpreter would be able to interpret it, and there wouldn't be any need for even the presence of an interpreter, yet Paul states the presence of interpreters is a rule. That alone proves that the use of tongues is not a prayer language.
When Paul gives the list of gifts in Ephesians 4, and Romans 12:6-8, tongues is not on the list.
I just saw my screw up, I used HTML instead of Quotes LOL