Quote:
Originally Posted by Socialite
Good question.
Let's sort through his points on a thread. I think what we have in scripture would settle most of it. Cessationists are people who have never experienced tongues, yet tell everyone else that what they have experienced is either 1) Not real, 2) demonic or 3) emotional babble ... or maybe all of the above.
It seems the video doesn't deny tongues, except that they were in foreign languages (though he seems to deny that's available today). I could (myself) list 3 examples of times when someone spoke in tongues in a foreign language and someone else was there to understand it in their native tongue.
Of course, the "prayer language" that is obviously unintelligible is harder to prove to someone who hasn't experienced. But it's clear, even in Paul's writings, that there is a tongue that edified no one else because it's unintelligible.
So... my answer to "who decides":
You decide. I decide. He decides. We have the Word, experience and witness of the Spirit to help us.
Mr. Smith, I have no doubt about being wrong on this. I could be wrong in how I theologize it. But that it's real and for today, I have no doubts. Some people like to be in control of all things spiritual, and this is an area where they aren't  |
Valid points. In attempting to apply logic to what he said, I chuckled at his, "Even Pentecostals have to learn the language when they go to a foreign field", and I asked, "Well then, why was there the urgency in the book of Acts to get the gospel spread through the use of tongues, as he described them, and not now?" So if this fellow is saying it was necessary then,
why was it necessary then and not now?
I have never experienced foreign language tongues as you mentioned, but I know people who swear they have. What about this....I have a relative who is very strong Baptist who took in an exchange student. Near the end of that student's time in America, her father came over to the states to visit and went to church with them. He knew no English at all. When the preacher started speaking, the dad lit up with excitement and excitedly listened to everything that was said and gave his life to Christ in that service.
Afterward, he told them he just wouldn't believe the preacher spoke the message in his language...yet the preacher had spoken English. Would this be an example of tongues?