Thursday, August 11, 2011

Ten Truths about Tongues

1. Tongue? “Glossa” means known language they have not studied [Acts 2 and 1 Cor. 12-14]. It was not gibberish or ecstatic utterance.

2. It was a revelatory gift- sign to Jews that the messiah had come. It was a sign that Judaism was obsolete; Christianity had taken its place. It was a judgment sign (I Cor 14:21-22; Isa 28:11-12), and to get the gospel out of Jerusalem.

3. Wherever tongues are mentioned in Acts, Jews are present or in the background (Acts 10:46 gentiles 19:6 John’s disciples).Not at the Samaritans (Acts 8:17).

4. Not a sign of the baptism of the Spirit (I Cor 12:13). Not at conversion of the 3,000 (Acts 2:41) or the 5,000 (Acts 4:4).

5. Not a sign of the Spirit-filled Christian (Eph 5:18; I Cor 12:30).

6. Not a sign of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23).

7. Listed near the last of the gifts in 4 listings in the New Testament.

8. In I Corinthians 12-14 Paul addresses a carnal Church about the misuse of the gift- pride and pagan worship practices resulted in Corinthian chaos. Paul only mentioned tongues in this letter.

9. Paul said it would come to a quick end (I Cor 13:8).

10. Paul was multilingual, he was a schooled man.