Why doesn’t Paul clearly state that tongue-speaking is useless?
Question:
God be a witness today, brother, if the Gift of Tongues is useful for the edification of our faith in Christ Jesus or not!
I am sick and tired of all these divisions in the Body of Christ -- some say no, some say yes. If Tongues demonstrates no support from God, serving no purpose -- then let St. Paul arise and say so -- clearly call tongues useless, he seems to be the one who used that gift more than anybody!
I don't understand how anyone can get up and say that a gift of grace serves no purpose--something our own minds can't understand, we simply write it off! Oh, we understand meeting together on the Sabbath -- though it really isn't the Sabbath. We understand marriage between a man and a woman, but we don't understand the purpose of remaining single! We say we understand holiness--but there is total confusion today on that subject as well.
We gather together to worship the Lord -- which Lord? The Lord of which denomination? The Lord of the American Dream? The Lord of Love? The Lord of Prosperity? The Lord of my little group? Will the real Jesus Christ please stand up and make Himself known! Why don't Christians know God -- they've got a big book of instructions -- Bible! Why can't people just read the instructions, what is their problem? Where does understanding come from? Belief? What is truth? Anything you 'believe in' is your truth? Christianity is total confusion! Christianity serves no purpose to anyone! This demonstrates that Christianity has no support from God! Being a Christian is simply a showy bunch of churchgoing babblers -- totally confused following a confusing God!
Answer:
It is interesting that you place yourself outside of Christianity and demonstrate it by contradicting the Scriptures. "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints" (I Corinthians 14:33). You also spend a great deal of time spouting your opinions, but you neglect to return to the source. "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen" (I Peter 4:11). Obviously you find confusion but that is because you think your personal opinions have weight.
Is speaking in tongues useless? Paul stated that it was when the person listening does not understand the language (tongue) being spoken. "So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air" (I Corinthians 14:9). This is precisely the condemnation modern-day "tongue" speakers fall under. Their babbling is not understood and if you ask most what they just said, they can't tell you that either because they don't understand their own uncertain sounds. They wish to hide behind a screen of "I'm speaking in the tongues of angels!" But it isn't angels who need to hear the gospel. Like the Corinthians, they aren't speaking to teach people (edification), unlike the Corinthians they don't even bother to speak in a language.
When people adhere to the teachings of God, there is no division because there is only one message. "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Ephesians 4:1-6). That one message includes the statement that tongue-speaking, along with other gifts of the Spirit were not permanent. "Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away" (I Corinthians 13:8). A few people actually accept God's statement while the rest pout and make up substitutes so they can pretend to have powers others do not have.
