Imagican said:
And a little more food for thought. The Bible says that tongues are for them that 'believe NOT'. So you people are worshiping in a building full of unbelievers and that's why you 'speak in tongues'?
Paul states plainly that 'in the Church, he had rather speak five words of understanding than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue'. What do you think he is stating here folks?
He couldn't outright deny tongues for he probably spoke tongues among those that he was rebuking previous to this epistle when he was among them. Yet, obviously they changed what they had observed into 'something different' than that which had been offered by Paul.
So instead of saying that 'their' tongues were fictitious, he laid down rules to be used to judge their use and show 'true' tongues differed from what was being offered in Corinth. Basically Paul explained to them that what they offered were vain babblings rather than the tongues offered through the Spirit.
And to prove it he offered the definition for 'true' tongues and how they HAD to be used. One, two, or three at the most and in order. No women to speak tongues in the Church, as the Spirit gave utterance, must be an interpreter. Any thing other than this should be shunned as 'something different' than 'true' tongues.
Nice try, but I believe you have missed Paul's train of thought. He neither thought nor hinted that tongues of any kind were "something different" or "fictious." Paul's instruction was that it was how tongues were being used that was to be corrected. He knew and taught that when someone speaks in tongues, they are edifying themselves, but no one else, unless these tongues were interpreted. He knew and recognized that the two main purposes of tongues were one, as a prayer language to edify the speaker, and two, to be used in a meeting to bring a message to the people present, with an interpretor, so that everyone present could understand what the Spirit was saying. It is in this second application of tongues, that tongues can be a witness to the unbeliever.
It seems that the Corinthians were using their prayer tongues in the service, outloud, with no interpretation. Paul acknowledges that they are praying a fine prayer, but that no one else is edified! This kind of tongues, i.e., personal prayer tongues are to be done alone, not in a service, unless perhaps the leader calls for all to pray, for then it would be done in order. Paul stated that "in the service" he would rather teach or preach in the common language. Notice that he is speaking from the leader's standpoint. As the Pastor or speaker, he would certainly be speaking in the common language, not in tongues. There is no question that the tongues that Paul was faced with in Corinth were "true" tongues; but they were being misused. Paul was not even hinting that their tongues were "vain babblings." In fact, he reminds the readers that when someone is speaking in tongues, they are speaking to God and not to man from the spirit, for "no man understands."
In other words, it was not that there was anything wrong with the tongues per se, but the way that these people were using their tongues.
For the "gift of tongues" to be used in a meeting, Paul says that one man is limited to only three messages in tongues, and that each message should be interpreted before he gives another. In other words, perhaps 50 people could each give a message in tongues, with each message interpreted, and it would be OK.
Coop
