{"id":15592,"date":"2025-04-22T07:18:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T12:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15592"},"modified":"2025-04-26T18:25:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T23:25:53","slug":"question-concerning-1st-cor14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15592\/question-concerning-1st-cor14\/","title":{"rendered":"Question concerning 1st Cor. 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

If Paul proclaimed that tongues are for a sign to those that don\u2019t believe, and if those unlearned unbelievers observe congregation speaking in tongues, they would think we were crazy, doesn\u2019t that seem like a contradiction?\u00a0 If the sound of the spirit is given as \u201ca sign\u201d for unbelievers to know the right way of God, then why would they think we were insane?<\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Brad.\u00a0 Good question.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Just because tongues are a sign to unbelievers of the way to eternal life does not mean that unbelievers will take it that way.\u00a0 Most will not.\u00a0 Sadly, hearing God’s people speak in tongues makes some of them upset.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it is a sign to them.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Paul says that prophesying is for the believers in the assembly, not for the ignorant unbelievers.\u00a0 Yet, Paul goes on to say that if a congregation\u00a0prophesies<\/em>\u00a0to an unbeliever (an unlearned person) that person would be convicted of their sins and would fall down and worship God.\u00a0 Why the discrepancy?<\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/span><\/p>\n

Such prophesying encourages believers.\u00a0 \u00a0The sinner who is exposed is being loved and offered mercy from God.\u00a0 But again, some sinners will refuse the Spirit’s truth concerning where they are.\u00a0 Do you remember Brother Coy looking into the eyes of a visitor one Sunday morning and saying, “There ain’t no Trinity!”\u00a0 Coy knew nothing about that man, but God did.\u00a0 Coy said that in perfect innocence.\u00a0 That was the kind of prophecy Paul was talking about.\u00a0 God did that, not Coy.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Prophecy is more than telling the future; it is revealing things that man cannot of himself know.\u00a0 For example, when Jesus was arrested and taken to The house of the high priest, he was blindfolded.\u00a0 Then he was beaten with fists, and those beating him mocked him, saying, “Prophesy!\u00a0 Who hit you?”. They were not demanding the he tell the future, but that he demonstrate supernatural knowledge.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

=========<\/p>\n

It makes me wish that we all could prophesy more than we speak in tongues so freely, so that new visitors to our meetings would be convicted more deeply. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why am I confused by these scriptures?<\/span><\/p>\n

=========<\/span><\/p>\n

Hopefully, you no longer are.\u00a0 But if questions remain, please feel welcome to send them to me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

==========<\/p>\n

Wendell was the first person I had ever heard speak in tongues and I was around 40 years old. When I went home that day, I looked up speaking in tongues and the scripture I read was that tongues was not a sign to the believer but to the nonbeliever. I remember talking to the Lord and my response was \u201cLord, I thought I believed, but he has something from you that I don\u2019t have\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Randell<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
=========<\/span><\/div>\n

Comments welcome:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/WitnessofSpirit\/status\/1915382242248970704<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor John, If Paul proclaimed that tongues are for a sign to those that don\u2019t believe, and if those unlearned unbelievers observe congregation speaking in tongues, they would think we were crazy, doesn\u2019t that seem like a contradiction?\u00a0 If the sound of the spirit is given as \u201ca sign\u201d for unbelievers to know the right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15592"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15622,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15592\/revisions\/15622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}