I haven't read the thread, so I may be lacking information. But how can one refuse the doctrine of speaking in tongues? How can one say that speaking in tongues is outdated (biblically)? If we are saved, we are annointed with the Holy Spirit, it says so in Scripture, and the Holy Spirit has gifts, one of the gifts being speaking in tongues. If one rejects this gift as being impossible or even non-existent, how can one take the Holy Spirit seriously or therefore the Trinity or anything to do with God? To dismiss one, you must dismiss all in my eyes.
1 corinthians 13 gives us some insight as to what God's intentions were with the gift of languages (tongues is a 16th century expression for languages, the original word used in the Bible simply meant languages)
13:8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall
fail (katargeo); whether there be tongues, they shall
cease; (pauo) whether there be knowledge, it shall
vanish away. (katargeo)
There are two Greek verbs being used here to describe what will happen to three different gifts.
katargeo This is the Greek verb used to describe what will happen to both prophecy and knowledge.
pauo This is the Greek verb being used to describe what will happen to tongues.
katargeo means to "reduce to inactivity" or to "abolish" Both forms of the verb in verse 8 , and in verse 10, are passive; that is, something or someone will cause them to stop. That something is the coming of the Perfect.
pauo means "to stop, to come to an end". Which when used of persons, indicates intentional, voluntary action upon oneself. Used of inanimate objects it indicates reflexive, self-causing action. The cause comes from within; it is built in.
So we have two different ways of these three gifts being stopped.
The gifts of prophecy and knowledge will stop when the Perfect comes.
The gift of tongues will cause itself to stop.
Note; in 13:9-13, tongues are not mentioned. Also note the highlighted parts.
13:9 For we
know in part, and we
prophesy in part. (no tongues)
13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is
in part shall be
done away (katargeo). (Note; that only the verb katargeo is used here. "done away")
From Macarthur's NT commentary
The gift of tongues was given solely as a sign to unbelieving Israel.
The sign was threefold: a sign of cursing, a sign of blessing, and a sign of authority.
A SIGN OF CURSING
Some 15 years or so before Isaiah prophesied about the strange tongues from the lips of strangers, the northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered and taken captive by the Assyrians (in 722 BC) because of unbelief and apostasy. The prophet then warned the southern kingdom, Judah, that the same judgment awaited her at the hands of the Babylonians. The proud religious leaders of Judah would not listen to Isaiah. His teaching was too simple. He talked to them, they claimed, as if they were babies, "Those just weaned from milk" and "just taken from the breast." He taught them as if they were kindergartners: "Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there" (Isaiah 28:9-10). God had indeed spoken to them simply, in order that the least mature among them could understand and so that no Israelite would have an excuse for not knowing the Lord's will and promise. The essence of His promise was, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary," and "Here is repose"; yet Israel "would not listen" (v.12) Isaiah 28:12.
About 800 years before Isaiah, God had warned Israel that "The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand" (Deuteronomy 28:49). the strange language of their conquerers would be a sign of God's judgment. About 100 years after Isaiah, the Lord warned through Jeremiah, "Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,...a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say" (Jeremiah 5:15). The sign of judgment would be a language they could not understand.
When the apostles spoke at Pentecost and were heard in their own language by Jews from many countries (Acts 2:7-11), those Jews should have known that Gods judgment was imminent. His judgment had fallen on rebellious Israel and then on rebellious Judah. How much more would it fall on those of His people who now had crucified the Son of God? In AD 70 that judgment fell, when Jerusalem was utterly destroyed by the Roman general Titus (later emperor). Over one million Jews were slaughtered; thousands more were taken captive; the Temple was plundered, desecrated, and then utterly destroyed; and the rest of the city was burned to the ground. One historian comments that Jerusalem had no history for 60 years. Just as Jesus had predicted when He wept over the city, "Your enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation" (Luke 19:44; cf. Luke 21:20-24).
After the destruction of Jerusalem, and especially of the Temple, the reason for tongues ceased to exist. The judgment of which it was a sign had come. After the Pentecost manifestation of tongues, Peter, by implication, reminded his hearers of that judgment: " Therefor let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36;cf.vv. Acts 2:22-23).
A SIGN OF BLESSING
The second sign was a residual benefit of the first. The gift of tongues was a sign that God would no longer work through one nation, and favor one people. The church of Jesus Christ was for all peoples of all nations, a church in which there are many languages but no barriers. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28 ).
With great compassion and sorrow for his fellow Jews, Paul wrote in Romans,"But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous." But with a note of great hope he continued, "Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!" (Romans 11:11-12). A few verses later he explains more fully:" For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written" (vv.25-26) Romans 11:25-26. The way would always be open for individual Jews to come into the kingdom, for the hardening was only partial, and one day the entire nation of Israel would be brought back to her Lord. The sign of tongues was repeated when the Gentiles were included in the church, as recorded in Acts 10:44-46.
A SIGN OF AUTHORITY
Those who preached the judgment and promised the blessing were the apostles and prophets, whose authority was validated by "signs and wonders and miracles" (2 Corinthians 12:12;cf. Romans 15:19). Among the authenticating signs was the gift of tongues, in which Paul spoke "more than you all" (1 Corinthians 14:18 ).
As a sign, the purpose of tongues ended when that to which it pointed ended. A person driving to Los Angeles may see the first mileage sign about 300 miles away. Later he sees one that reads "200 miles to Los Angeles," and then "50 miles," and then "10 miles." After he passes through the city, however, the mileage signs to Los Angeles cease. They have no further purpose, because that to which they pointed has been reached and passed. The gift of tongues was attached irretrievably to one point in history, and that point has long been passed.
It is interesting, and I believe highly significant, that no record is given is of a single word spoken in tongues or even interpreted. Every reference to tongues is general. They are always mentioned in relation to their purpose and significance, never in relation to their specific content. The messages given in tongues were not new revelations or new insights, but, as at Pentecost, simply unique expressions of old truths, "the mighty deeds of God" (Acts 2:11). Though tongues could edify when interpreted, their purpose was not to teach, but to point, not to reveal God's truth but to validate the truth of his appointed spokesmen.
Since the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 there has been no purpose for the sign gift of tongues, because that to which it pointed has been reached and passed.. Israel has been set aside, the Gentiles have been brought in, and the apostles have given the faith once-for-all delivered to the saints. (MacArthur)
Dave
