The Gift of Tongues

[Adelphos]

Originally Posted by tdidymas

P/C leaders quite frequently teach people how to speak in tongues. This is contrary to Biblical principle, which teaches that the Holy Spirit "gave utterance." Not once in the scripture has any of the apostles ever implied that human instruction on "how to speak in tongues" ever accompanied the gift. If a person needs to be taught how to speak in tongues, the ramifications are:
a. The teacher does not believe the Holy Spirit is able to give utterance apart from human instruction.
b. The person "receiving the gift" cannot be given utterance from the Holy Spirit without being taught how to do it by a man.
c. The "gift" is tainted with fleshly human instruction, which is not a Biblical principle, and the result is likely not an authentic miraculous gift from the Spirit of God.

I agree with you here. I despise it as much as I despise people being led to accept Jesus into their hearts. There are no examples in Scripture of either practice!

Respectfully

Adelphos

[MichaellS]

Originally Posted by tdidymas

P/C leaders quite frequently teach people how to speak in tongues. This is contrary to Biblical principle, which teaches that the Holy Spirit "gave utterance." Not once in the scripture has any of the apostles ever implied that human instruction on "how to speak in tongues" ever accompanied the gift. If a person needs to be taught how to speak in tongues, the ramifications are:
a. The teacher does not believe the Holy Spirit is able to give utterance apart from human instruction.
b. The person "receiving the gift" cannot be given utterance from the Holy Spirit without being taught how to do it by a man.
c. The "gift" is tainted with fleshly human instruction, which is not a Biblical principle, and the result is likely not an authentic miraculous gift from the Spirit of God.

Originally Posted by Adelphos

I agree with you here. I despise it as much as I despise people being led to accept Jesus into their hearts. There are no examples in Scripture of either practice!

Respectfully

Adelphos

Agree to a point, when the weight of an organization’s reputation to produce “fruit” is on the line, abusiveness in techniques that don’t leave room for God that can well up garners a reputation in itself. Reason tells us this isn’t right. But, let’s be honest, for on the other hand Paul’s use of “impart some spiritual gift” isn’t to be cast aside as any other old vanity! I’ll just stick to his “decently and in order” methods and not either of yours (Romans 1:11).

[MichaellS]

Having read through the vast bulk of this and what happens when it goes on and on like this all too often establishes the same as it did here. To the reader, it also becomes obvious at some point that about 40% of the content here isn’t related specifically to the Oneness crowd but the gift itself. Low concern but exposed how little isn't cleared up.

At the risk of sounding high-minded, , ,Adelphos and tdidymas, reading your comments puts a blend of impressions under my collar that sadly, some of the time is intensified by your expertise but reflecting a resounding part of the rest of the thread. It left me with some good refreshing of mental notes and some not so good. But worse, when the labor to pull up a significant point is greeted yet by the same old spirit of defense, who can blame anyone for not being interested in that. Beyond an occasional “Interesting”, seldom is anything ever pried out at length for a minumum purpose of neutralizing the air, IMO.

Possibly, the time-honored rigors of scholarly discussion has a differing view of healthy debate.