Speaking in tongues was for a particular purpose at a particular time. Notice too that one man spoke in his own language and the others heard in theirs. There wasn't a crowd all speaking in tongues.
The "tongues" in the modern church are not tongues. The typical mentality of tongue-speaking churches is to blabber with baby sounds and call them tongues.
There was a pastors wife in a Pentecostal church who tried to tell me all we do is open our mouth making sounds and this was tongues. This is total nonsense, one would never instruct someone how to speak in tongues if in fact, they did actually exist anymore.
The tongue-speaking we hear of today is a classic example of removing a small passage from its context in the Bible and building an entire doctrine around it.
God gave specific instructions for any tongues in a church gathering during a time when the people in the church often spoke different languages. When the people of the church all speak the same language there is no need for tongues.
When there was a gathering in the new testament church back in the day, there was required an interpreter.
Babbling that is not an earthly language is not tongues of the Bible. If someone pretends to interpret this it is nothing more than playacting.
I once heard someone in a Pentecostal church get up and babble and other person got up and interpreted. The babbling was interpreted as "God loves you." This was down right silly since everyone in the church spoke the same language and they all had their Bibles that told us that, there was no need for a tongue.
1 Corinthians 13:20-23
"20 Brethren, be not children in mind: yet in malice be ye babes, but in mind be men.
21 In the law it is written, By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers will I speak unto this people; and not even thus will they hear me, saith the Lord.
22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to the unbelieving: but prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to them that believe.
23 If therefore the whole church be assembled together and all speak with tongues and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are mad?
24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all;
25 the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is among you indeed.
26 What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
27 If any man speaketh in a tongue, let it be by two, or at the most three, and that in turn; and let one interpret:
28 but if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.
29 And let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the others discern.
30 But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let the first keep silent.
31 For ye, all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be exhorted;
32 and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets;
33 for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace."
Prophesying was not telling the future, it was expounding on the Word of God. The purpose of tongues was to reach those who did not speak the same language, there must be interpreters for those who didn't speak the same language.
Notice that verse 22, "22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, NOT TO THEM THAT BELIEVE, but to the unbelieving: but prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to them, that believe."
Summary: Tongues are an earthly language speaking to unbelievers who do not speak the same language as the one sharing the gospel. There must be interpreters, more than one and the one who wants to speak in a tongue must remain silent when others are speaking.
The chaos in Pentecostal churches today of blabbering without interpreters where everyone speaks the same language is not biblical and an offense to God.
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