In the thread about Joe Wilson , I
In post # 65 I responded to Crabtownboy by saying
"In post # 32 you said "So do you think it is okay to shout "Amen" when a preacher is speaking, and equalling okay to shout "You Lie!" if you disagree?"
So lets bring it into the pews:
Suppose you visited a Pentecostal service and the pastor began saying, the Lord has given me the power to heal this poor women who is crippled.
Would you stand up and say "You lie"?
No, I'd say "HERETIC!"
If 5 people started to speak in tongues all at the same time in church, would you stand up and say they were being unbiblical?
No. Assuming that there were an opportunity to do so (as most charismatic churches do have), I would just stand up and say point out that God has called worship to be orderly and that one person should speak at a time, followed by an interpretation, and that the interpretation must be judged in light of scripture. Of course, I'd rather say, "You silly people! Don't you know that tongues were done away?" But since that tends to be counterproductive, I guess taking baby steps is the way to go.
I once got in trouble for speaking out about tongues in church. Our charismatic church was very loose, worship wise, and pretty much anybody could get up and say anything.
Every week, someone would speak in tongues and then this weird hippie lady would say in a fake voice, (it was really odd. It was obviously affected, trying to sound super-spiritual. Didn't sound anything like her regular voice) "This is what the Lord says..." and then tell us how the Lord was just pleased as punch with us and how we were to keep on doing what we were doing, etc.
The funny thing is that while this woman was telling us how pleased the Lord was with us, our youth pastor was carrying on a homosexual affair with another man and was caught at a popular gay nightclub (although the obvious question of what the guy who caught him was doing at the gay nightclub was never answered), one family was starving their children to death, and several people in the singles group were involved in immoral relationships (and I know this one to be true because I was one of them).
Not really a lot of things going on in that church that would please God.
One day, after she made her weekly "keep up the good work" announcement, I brought these things up and was asked to leave.
The other question I had, which I never got the chance to answer, was that if tongues are a sign to unbelievers, then why were all of these messages directed at the church?