Unfortunately, I do not have the time to read every single one of the 64 pages on this. I do still want to put my two cents out there.
I am a youth leader at my church, a Pentecostal church, and this is how I explain tongues to my youth.
First I would argue that YES there is tongues and it is for even the modern church. As it was not for a select few but for anyone. It is, in fact, evidence of the Holy Spirit coming upon you(but not the only evidence in my opinion). In Acts 2:4 we can see that everyone that was in the room on the day of Pentecost spoke in tongues Acts 2:4 "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." We can see in Acts 19 when Paul was in Ephesus he met some believers, and following Acts 2:38, he baptized them after their repentance in the name of Jesus, and following this the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues.
From these two instances, I would argue that YES tongues is important otherwise the Bible would not teach it. Second of all, YES there are demonic versions of speaking in tongues, the other side likes to trick us. This is why, even while I am Pentecostal, I am very very against these "Holy Ghost rallies" where they try to get as many people to speak tongues as possible because it opens this gate to other spirits interfering. I believe that the Holy Spirit will come upon us when we are sincere and we will speak in tongues when the Spirit gives us utterance, and it should not be manipulated or manufactured, which it sometimes is giving all those who speak in tongues a bad name.
Moving on with my argument, I would argue that there are two types of tongues, tongues that edify oneself and tongues that edify the church.
The first one is speaking in tongues to edify oneself, this is when someone is speaking in tongues, but there is no interpretation. Their Spirit is speaking with God only and is edifying their own Spirit but not those around them. We can see this is 1 Corinthians 4:14
"Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church." and in 1 Corinthians 14:23 "So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?" and finally 1 Corinthians 14: 27-28 "If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God." From these verses, we can see that if we are to speak in tongues that will not have an interpretation we should do it to ourselves, not for the whole church to hear, because someone new may come in and be turned off because they may think we are crazy. So at the end of the day with this type, we must realize that we are only edifying ourselves not others.
The second one is speaking in tongues with interpretation. We can use the verses from the last section. If there is an interpretation then it alright for one to speak out in tongues. This is also one of the Spiritual gifts.
We must be careful because there are certainly Spiritual damage that can be inflicted if one does not have the right mindset heading in. If one goes in seeking Jesus they will find Him, but if they go seeking to simply find tongues or simply want the experience it is dangerous. That being said, from personal experience, I have spoken in tongues on maybe 5 occasions and every occasion I can say it follows the scriptures in that it has edifyed my Spirit, especially when my Spirit wanted to pour itself out to God and I was unable to find words for it, the Spirit took over and spoke for me.
Just wanted to through my two cents out there.
I am a youth leader at my church, a Pentecostal church, and this is how I explain tongues to my youth.
First I would argue that YES there is tongues and it is for even the modern church. As it was not for a select few but for anyone. It is, in fact, evidence of the Holy Spirit coming upon you(but not the only evidence in my opinion). In Acts 2:4 we can see that everyone that was in the room on the day of Pentecost spoke in tongues Acts 2:4 "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." We can see in Acts 19 when Paul was in Ephesus he met some believers, and following Acts 2:38, he baptized them after their repentance in the name of Jesus, and following this the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues.
From these two instances, I would argue that YES tongues is important otherwise the Bible would not teach it. Second of all, YES there are demonic versions of speaking in tongues, the other side likes to trick us. This is why, even while I am Pentecostal, I am very very against these "Holy Ghost rallies" where they try to get as many people to speak tongues as possible because it opens this gate to other spirits interfering. I believe that the Holy Spirit will come upon us when we are sincere and we will speak in tongues when the Spirit gives us utterance, and it should not be manipulated or manufactured, which it sometimes is giving all those who speak in tongues a bad name.
Moving on with my argument, I would argue that there are two types of tongues, tongues that edify oneself and tongues that edify the church.
The first one is speaking in tongues to edify oneself, this is when someone is speaking in tongues, but there is no interpretation. Their Spirit is speaking with God only and is edifying their own Spirit but not those around them. We can see this is 1 Corinthians 4:14
"Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church." and in 1 Corinthians 14:23 "So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?" and finally 1 Corinthians 14: 27-28 "If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God." From these verses, we can see that if we are to speak in tongues that will not have an interpretation we should do it to ourselves, not for the whole church to hear, because someone new may come in and be turned off because they may think we are crazy. So at the end of the day with this type, we must realize that we are only edifying ourselves not others.
The second one is speaking in tongues with interpretation. We can use the verses from the last section. If there is an interpretation then it alright for one to speak out in tongues. This is also one of the Spiritual gifts.
We must be careful because there are certainly Spiritual damage that can be inflicted if one does not have the right mindset heading in. If one goes in seeking Jesus they will find Him, but if they go seeking to simply find tongues or simply want the experience it is dangerous. That being said, from personal experience, I have spoken in tongues on maybe 5 occasions and every occasion I can say it follows the scriptures in that it has edifyed my Spirit, especially when my Spirit wanted to pour itself out to God and I was unable to find words for it, the Spirit took over and spoke for me.
Just wanted to through my two cents out there.
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