PAW and COGIC Merger?

[Timmy]

Originally Posted by Sam

Timmy's post:
1 Whew! Nearly ("come pretty close") committed the unforgivable sin!

2 No. I have no quarrel with the Holy Ghost. But you are assuming the speaking in tongues, at least in these two cases, are from the HG. May be true, may not be true. How can we tell? Discernment? Whose discernment, yours or mine? They would give different results, almost for certain.

3 Or do you claim that all speaking in tongues is the real thing?

4 Do you claim that all tongues are literally of the same "dialect"? You do believe it is a true language, with a vocabulary and grammar, don't you? Or is there possibly more than one such language?

My Reply:

1 I think AB over reacted. He's tired of hearing that old stuff about Trinitarians not receiving "the real Holy Ghost" and he fired back at you.

Bounced right off, though.

2 How can we tell the real from the false? By their fruits you shall know them. Don't expect them to become OP. We OP's don't even agree among ourselves on lots of stuff. Main thing is if our heart is right. The head being right is secondary.

Fruit! Yes, it's what really matters. Love, joy, peace, etc. And then there is the way men will know that we are Christ's disciples: that we have love one for another. Does speaking in tongues help us with the fruit? Does it help us love one another?

When someone speaks in tongues, but does not show the fruit of the spirit, does that mean it was fake?

When someone who does show the fruit of the Spirit, but does not speak in tongues, what does that tell us? Or do you think that is not possible?

3 I wouldn't claim that all speaking with tongues is the real thing. In Corinth the Oracle of Delphi would give a message in tongues and it would be interpreted into the language of the inquirer. Maybe because tongue speaking was part of the pagan worship in Corinth when the folks got saved they had a messed up idea of its importance. People practicing Voodoo some times speak with tongues. A person can be placed under hypnosis and speak in a foreign language he heard years ago but has no understanding of and when conscious may not even remember hearing that language.

But what about tongues in an Apostolic church (or PAW, or COGIC, or AG)? Is that ever fake? Look at the "initial evidence" doctrine. If speaking in tongues can be faked, then what value does it have as "evidence"?

4 Tongues can be several things. They can be known modern languages, known dead languages, languages that have been lost in antiquity, modern languages that are rare or almost unknown, or just some kind of special code language between a child of God and his/her Father.

If a child of God is earnestly seeking God, his Father will not give him something fake or spurious. I think Jesus taught that when He said, "If you then, being human/evil give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" (paraphrased). He just finished saying that if a child asks for bread an earthly father would not give him a stone, etc.

Someone who earnestly seeks tongues will speak in tongues, almost guaranteed.