God be a witness today, brother, if the Gift of Tongues is useful for the edification of our faith in Christ Jesus or not!<\/p>\n
I am sick and tired of all these divisions in the Body of Christ — some say no, some say yes.\u00a0 If Tongues demonstrates no support from God, serving no purpose — then let St. Paul arise and say so — clearly <\/b>call tongues useless<\/strong>, he seems to be the one who used that gift more than anybody!<\/p>\n 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!\u00a0 Oh, we understand meeting together on the Sabbath — though it really isn’t the Sabbath.\u00a0 We understand marriage between a man and a woman, but we don’t understand the purpose of remaining single!\u00a0 We say we understand holiness–but there is total confusion today on that subject as well.<\/p>\n We gather together to worship the Lord — which Lord?\u00a0 The Lord of which denomination?\u00a0 The Lord of the American Dream?\u00a0 The Lord of Love?\u00a0 The Lord of Prosperity?\u00a0 The Lord of my little group?\u00a0 Will the real <\/b>Jesus Christ please stand up and make Himself known<\/strong>!\u00a0 Why don’t Christians know <\/b>God — they’ve got a big book of instructions — Bible!\u00a0 Why can’t people just read the instructions, what is their problem?\u00a0 Where does understanding come from?\u00a0 Belief?\u00a0 What is truth?\u00a0 Anything you ‘believe in’ is your <\/b>truth?\u00a0 Christianity is total confusion<\/b>!\u00a0\u00a0 Christianity serves no purpose to anyone!\u00a0 This demonstrates that Christianity has no support from God!\u00a0 Being a Christian is simply a showy bunch of churchgoing babblers — totally confused following a confusing God!<\/p>\n\t 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<\/em>” (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<\/em>” (I Peter 4:11). Obviously you find confusion but that is because you think your personal opinions have weight.<\/p>\n 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<\/em>” (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.<\/p>\n 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<\/em>” (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<\/em>” (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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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.\u00a0 If Tongues demonstrates no support from God, serving no…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[142,141],"class_list":["post-19627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-speaking-in-tongues","tag-tongue-speaking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18563,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/speaking-in-tongues\/","url_meta":{"origin":19627,"position":0},"title":"Speaking in Tongues","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Acts 2:1-11 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I received several questions in recent days regarding speaking in tongues \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0People wanting to know what it was, what is the heavenly language, what is the unknown tongue \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But probably more than anything else, they want to know if you must have the gift of tongues\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1730,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-an-unknown-tongue\/","url_meta":{"origin":19627,"position":1},"title":"What is an unknown tongue?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is unknown tongues a heavenly language or does it mean a language not known to people but for God? Answer: The phrase \"unknown tongue\" only appears in the King James Version in six places in I Corinthians 14. If you look carefully you will notice that in all six\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46768,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-unknown-tongue-in-i-corinthians-142-would-sound-like-mumbo-jumbo-to-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":19627,"position":2},"title":"The unknown tongue in I Corinthians 14:2 would sound like mumbo-jumbo to you","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: [Note: I left the following unedited since the author claimed to have the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He had asked that this not be published, but since there is nothing in the note that is personal to him, I decided it serves as a good example of what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18561,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-you-explain-prophecy-tongue-speaking-and-interpretation-a-bit-more-for-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":19627,"position":3},"title":"Could you explain prophecy, tongue-speaking, and interpretation a bit more for me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question. It has to do with I Corinthians 14. We are studying the various spiritual gifts bestowed upon the church members and how this gift was abused. The gifts we are focusing our study on is prophecy and tongues. My question, are there several versions of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83748,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-speaking-in-tongues-for-communicating-with-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":19627,"position":4},"title":"Is speaking in tongues for communicating with God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: May God continue to strengthen you guys in Jesus' name. Amen. You may not be aware, but many issues arise with the topic of speaking in tongues here. A brother recently sent me some voice notes discussing speaking in tongues with a man. He explained that speaking in tongues,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21101,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-wish-you-could-experience-speaking-in-tongues-first-hand\/","url_meta":{"origin":19627,"position":5},"title":"I wish you could experience speaking in tongues first-hand","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been reading your sermons for years and using some of them in my own examples. I enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas on the Scriptures. The one thing that you are missing in the text about Speaking in Tongues is the experience of hearing it first hand\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n