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Posts tagged Speaking in tongues

“They Will Think You Are Crazy” The Next Episode of the Blessed Hope Is Up! (1 Corinthians 14:20-40)

Episode Synopsis:

My first exposure to tongue-speaking did not go well. In an “afterglow” service which followed a mid-week Bible study at an Orange County megachurch, a large number of the faithful remained after the study to “experience” the gifts of the Spirit, including the “gift of tongues.” A young pastor took over from the Bible teacher and explained how to begin speaking in tongues. He read several passages from Acts 2 and from 1 Corinthians 12-14 and told us that these verses were proof that the gift is “biblical,” “for today,” and enabled you to by-pass the clutter of the mind to commune with God “in the Spirit.” He then told us, if you’d like to speak in tongues here’s what you do. You start by saying “kitty, kitty, kitty,” until the Spirit took over and gave you your prayer language. The room was suddenly filled with people speaking gibberish, swaying, acting as though under the influence, crying, and making contorted faces as they spoke. I wasn’t having it, and quietly slipped out.

Years later, after my biblical knowledge increased, I realized that the “afterglow” I witnessed that night was very much like what Paul was instructing the Corinthians not to do in the last half of 1 Corinthians 14. There was no interpretation of any of these tongues, though several attendees did offer exhortations of their own utterances, but which very much sounded like Christianese made up on the fly. Everyone spoke at once, and the whole room was filled with tongue-speakers, not merely two or three in order. I was a Christian and still thought these people were crazy. I can only imagine what an unbeliever would think.

Once TBN graced the airwaves (emanating from Orange County) tongue-speaking was now televised. This time, tongue-speaking was not done in a worship service but was part of the regular programming and often conflated with predictive prophesy– “the Lord will do this or that, and heal this one or that one.” The interpretation was almost always supplied by the tongue-speaker. The low point came during a televised “anointing service” held at Oral Roberts University in which three older Word-Faith evangelists (Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin Sr. and T. L. Osborn) anointed three younger Word-Faith evangelists (Kenneth Hagin Jr, Kenneth Copeland, and Richard Roberts). Once anointed, the men acted as though in a drunken stupor, spoke in tongues (one of which sounded like the Cab Calloway’s riff from the Blues Brothers–scubity-do, scubity-do--scubity-do). Not a known language. A VHS recording of this made the rounds and to no one’s surprise, the universal assessment was “these people are crazy.”

This is why a study of Paul’s instructions to the churches on 1 Corinthians 14:20-40 about the proper use of prophesy and tongue-speaking is about as practical a matter as one can find. Paul would have none of this. Neither should we.

To read the show notes and listen to the episode follow the link below

Blessed Hope PodcastKim RiddlebargerFebruary 24, 20251 Corinthians 14:20-40, Speaking in tongues, Decently and in Good OrderComment

"Speaking in Tongues" -- a New Episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast (1 Corinthians 14:1-19)

Episode Synopsis:

Speaking in tongues was causing chaos in the Corinthian church. Tongue-speakers were speaking at the same time, and their tongues were not always interpreted as required by Paul. Some acted as though tongues was the greatest of the gifts of the Spirit and were lording it over others who did not possess the gift. Paul is also writing to correct the misguided (and pagan notion) that tongue-speaking was the manifestation of ecstatic religious experiences from which tongues spontaneously came forth. Much of what he has written in chapters 12-14 has been to correct false Corinthian notions about the “spiritual,” informing the Corinthians that gifts of the Holy Spirit are not for the benefit of the recipient, but for the strengthening of the church. These gifts enabled Christians to love one another, and equip officers and others in the church for the building up of the body of Christ. Chapter 14 is the conclusion to Paul’s extended instructions about these matters.

But what exactly is “speaking in tongues?” Is it a language known or unknown to the speaker? Is it a heavenly or angelic language? Paul disabused the Corinthians of that notion in chapter 13. Is it some sort of ecstatic speech? Are tongues an untranslatable utterance (divine gibberish) which must be interpreted by someone with the Spirit enabled gift of interpretation? Given the inability of commentators across time to agree on just what exactly Paul is describing, we cannot be certain as to how the gift operated in the Corinthian church–especially since tongue speaking ceased in the churches by the mid-second century. There are plausible theories, but I am not confident anyone really knows. But then Paul does say, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.” So the matter cannot be dismissed.

What we can say for sure is that when someone has a private, subjective, religious experience and speaks forth an ecstatic utterance, that person cannot then appeal to the New Testament and claim that what they are doing is what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14. Nor can they claim that their experience is how we ought to practice tongue-speaking today. Instead, we work from biblical teaching about tongues to explain what tongue-speaking is and how we ought to utilize the gift in both public and private settings. Paul assumes the Corinthians know what tongues is–they’ve seen it. But since he does not explain in detail what this gift is, we should be cautious and charitable in our assessments.

To see the show notes, recommended links, and listen to this episode, follow the link below

Blessed Hope PodcastKim RiddlebargerFebruary 10, 2025Speaking in tongues, 1 Corinthians 14L1-19Comment

"Gifts of the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:1-11) A New Episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast!

Episode Synopsis:

One of the most divisive theological controversies of my lifetime was the charismatic movement with its stress upon baptism in the Holy Spirit as evident in speaking in tongues. Whenever the charismatic renewal spread to a new church, it immediately divided the church into two camps–those who experienced what they claimed was a new work of the Holy Spirit which manifested itself in the speaking with tongues, and those who thought such a thing was demonic and who did everything in their power to stamp out the movement before it could spread. Thankfully, that controversy has long since died down. It amazes me that I am able to tackle this now with little if any sense of controversy. What was once considered to be a very controversial subject is no longer–although we ought not allow the dormancy to make us complacent. These kinds of movements come in waves.

Throughout my years as a pastor, one of the most common questions from visitors and those checking out Christ Reformed Church was “do you think the gifts of the Spirit still operate today?” That sort of question is almost always asked by those who think the gifts do still operate and then head for the door if you say something like, “the gifts of the Spirit ceased at the end of the apostolic age, or at the close of the Canon of Scripture.” My answer often took inquirers by surprise: “Yes the gifts still operate today, but there are no more apostles.” That was to say that the more sensational (dare I say “spectacular”) gifts, like miracles and healing, were tied to the apostolic office. Once the Apostles gave way to ministers, elders, and deacons, these gifts were no longer normative in the church. But, yes, God still gives spiritual gifts to his people to build up the church and in service of others. A number of them are enumerated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.

As Paul takes up the next question put to him by the delegation from Corinth beginning in 1 Corinthians 12:1, he addresses the matter of spiritual things (the pneumata) and spiritual gifts (the charismata). The apostle will do several things in the opening section of this chapter (vv.1-11)–he will address the Corinthian’s faulty view of spiritual things (often more pagan than Christian), as well as inform them of the nature, character, and proper use of spiritual gifts in the church. These gifts are given to build up the body of Christ and enable believers to properly love one another. The gifts were not given to allow some in the church to demonstrate their superior piety, their self-importance, or their willingness to disrupt the worship service. The Corinthians must correct the abuses of these gifts and that starts with the affirmation that “Jesus is Lord.”

To read the show notes and listen to the episode, follow the link below

Blessed Hope PodcastKim RiddlebargerDecember 23, 2024Gifts of the Spirit, Speaking in tongues, Prophecy Comments