http://www.goingtojesus.com/tongues-at-spirit-baptism.html
Pastor John,
I have experienced in several Pentecostal churches where members were speaking “tongues” another language to me, but there was no interpreter as Paul tells us must happen. Just trying to get your advice and counsel and mean no harm. God Bless you for serving Our LORD.
May God Bless you with his grace
Evangelist Stephen
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Hi Stephen,
I believe you have misunderstood Paul’s instruction, which is not unusual. If you will, check out the following. It may help clear things up.
May God bless you and those with you.
Pastor John
http://www.goingtojesus.com/tongues-at-spirit-baptism.html
http://www.goingtojesus.com/site/php/speaking-in-tongues.html
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Thank you for your quick reply. But my confusion is still why people in great numbers just stand up during the sermon and speak in tongue. What was it they were saying I have to ask myself. Now I am guilty of speaking during a sermon by an occasional amen. At least everyone knows what was said. I understand the gift of tongues and having that great one on one with God. What about new visitors to the Church? Will they run out the door in fear that evil dwells there?
Thank you again for kindly having this in Christ discussion. In my 60’s I have turned into a human sponge for God’s word.
May God Bless you with his grace
God’s Preservation Ministry
Evangelist Stephen
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Hi Stephen,
The portion of scripture you are thinking of is from
1Corinthians 14:26-31:
[26] How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, everyone of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.[27] If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret.[28] But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.
Because Christian translators mistranslate the Greek word, ekklesia, as “church”, most people have the same misunderstanding as you do concerning what Paul was saying. The phrase, “in the church” should be “in the assembly”. In other words, Paul is referring to someone standing up and addressing the assembly of saints; he is not forbidding people to speak in tongues in the building where the saints are meeting unless there is an interpreter. Here is what Paul actually wrote:
26. What is it then, brothers? When you come together, each of you has a song of praise, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let everything be done for edification.
27. If anyone in an assembly speaks in an unknown tongue, it should be by two, or at the most, three, each in turn, and let one interpret,
28. but if there be no interpreter, let him be silent in an assembly, but, let him speak to himself and to God.
In verse 34, it becomes even clearer that Paul is referring to someone addressing the assembly when he says that women are to be silent “in the assembly” (that is, “to the assembly”). He made this point even clearer when he wrote to Timothy that women are not to “usurp authority over a man” to teach in an assembly of saints (1Tim. 2:12). We know that here in 1Corinthians, Paul was not issuing a blanket commandment forbidding women ever to speak when an assembly of saints met because he commended both Aquila and his wife Priscilla for the work they both did for the assembly of God, including the assembly that met in their home in Corinth (1Cor. 16:19), and even into his old age (2Tim. 4:19). Paul also called both Aquila and Priscilla “my fellow helpers in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 16:3), and they both helped Apollos understand the truth of the gospel more perfectly” (Acts 18:26). We also know that the apostle Philip had four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:8-9), and it is impossible to think that those daughters prophesied without speaking “in an assembly” when the Spirit moved upon them.
So, we have to take all the scriptures together in order to get the whole picture. When Paul forbids anyone, male or female, to speak “in the assembly”, he is forbidding any person to speak to the assembly as one who is addressing and teaching the assembly. He never forbids anyone to speak in tongues while an assembly is together. And as to whether or not some visitors will think God’s people are crazy for doing so, the answer is, yes; they will. And some will run out, thinking something evil is taking place there. John Sherrill did, for example (but he later received the Spirit, and wrote a famous book about the experience). But so what? Paul himself never says God’s people are crazy for speaking in tongues during a meeting. In fact, he forbids anyone to tell God’s people not speak in tongues and says in 1Corinthians 14 that he speaks in tongues more than anyone in Corinth does. But his point is that when addressing the assembly, he speaks in a language the people can understand:
18. I thank my God, I speak in tongues more than all of you;
19. however, in an assembly, I prefer to speak five words with my understanding so that I may benefit others also than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Finally, let me point out that there is no such thing as “the gift of speaking in tongues”. All of God’s people speak in tongues because the evidence of receiving the Spirit is “stammering lips and another tongue” (Isa. 28:11 and 1Cor. 14:21), but only a few have the gift of “diverse kinds of tongues” (1Cor. 12:10); that is, the gift of ministering to an assembly (“in an assembly”) in a language other than their own.
I have seen people be out of order by speaking in tongues when the preacher was preaching, but it was not the speaking in tongues that was out of order; it was the people themselves, and their speaking in tongues at that time was only the evidence of it. As a rule, there is nothing wrong with it, and you will damage a congregation by commanding them never to do so. You will quench the Spirit, which Paul absolutely forbid us to do.
I suspect that the basic reason you are confused about this issue is that you believe that all speaking in tongues is the gift of “diverse kinds of tongues” and that you do not understand what the new birth really is. Please read my gospel tract, “The New Birth” at:
http://www.goingtojesus.com/site/php/the-new-birth.html.
Pastor John