On the Doctrine of Tongues Ep 4

We summarised the Corinthian tongues outlined in Chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians. Here are a few points to note:
1. Chapter 12 reveals that the Holy Spirit gives a variety of gifts to the church, which are to be used for the common good. Gifts are meant to "build up" the church. Your gift(s) are not meant for your selfish use.
No Christian can have all the gifts of the spirit in himself. The Holy Spirit gives as he wills. No one can demand any particular gift. For instance, you cannot demand the gift of Tongues; you are instead encouraged to desire spiritual gifts, and desire does not equal demand.
2. The 13th Chapter declares that love is greater than any other spiritual gift. Paul's use of hyperbole was instrumental in making this distinction.
As regards the gift of Tongues, Paul did not claim that he could speak in the tongue of angels. The conditional clause "if" reveals that Paul was exaggerating his statement to drive home his point.
This is one of the misinterpreted verses to support the ecstatic, unintelligible utterances we hear people speak in churches today. They claim that he who speaks in tongues speaks the heavenly languages. This is a lie.
Also, this chapter reiterates that no one can have all the gifts of the spirit, and all cannot have the same gift.
Most importantly, all gifts, except love, will cease. This was affirmed by the testimonies of John Chrysostom and Augustine of the 4th century, which stated that the gift of Tongues ceased before their era.
3. The 14th chapter reemphasises the most important point that tongues are human languages and nothing else. We must also note that the historical background of the tongues addressed by Paul in this chapter is different from what was recorded in Acts 2. Early church fathers like Epiphanius and Ambrosiaster revealed that the dispute was a fight for dominance between 3 different versions of Greek languages as a standard language of interpretation. It must also be noted that Paul recognised languages (tongues) as spiritual gifts.
Tongues in this chapter or any others in the scriptures are not unintelligible utterances (babbles, I must, unfortunately, say) that we hear people utter today. "Tongue" individuals today are inventionists. These were not gifted by the Holy Spirit.
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Ellipses...
Truth is the ultimate goal, nothing else.
Many of my brothers and sisters hold strongly to the unbiblical doctrine of Tongues, as propounded by the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. The history is firm in its revelation that the founding fathers of these movements neglected all patristic writings and instead went to the Pre-Christian Pagan practices and the heretic 2nd century Montanists in forming their doctrine of tongues. The sad part is that many modern tongue speakers don't know this, not only this, all the mystical claims they teach that you can get from speaking in tongues found their roots in these Pagan practices.
#glossolalia #speakingintongues #tongue #corinthians