Sunday 1 March 2015

All Speak With Tongues

Last night Pakistan played Zimbabwe in cricket in Brisbane. The spectators included crowds of many nations. Conversations were going on in many languages, all at once, all around the stadium, all night. And no-one thought anyone was mad.

But if you walk in on a lecture in a lecture-room, and see every lecturer who holds the floor lecturing in a different unknown language, one after the other, with no interpretation at any point, and this was going on week after week, pretty soon you would question the common sense not only of the faculty but also of those in the audience!

Similarly what was going on at Corinth wasn't helpful - but what occurred in the upper room in Jerusalem, and at Cornelius' household, and at Ephesus, and when the Holy Spirit fell on the Church again as at the beginning, where there were more than three utterances in tongues - was fine because no-one was holding the floor per se, addressing the congregation as such, and expecting undivided attention. It was a general outpouring of the Spirit.

But at Corinth people were addressing the congregation. That's pointless unless it's understood - that's common sense.

So if we're not actually addressing a congregation, it's fine to have moments where everyone gets filled with the Spirit and speaks with tongues. This very thing impressed unbelievers once before to the effect that 3000 got saved! 


It can happen again.

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