My opinion: Opinions, experiences and personal views mean absolutely nothing. What matters is what the Bible says on the matter.



The way I read it the gift of tongues, prophecy and new revelation (knowledge as the translators phrased it in 1 Cor 13) ceased when the apostles' purpose/position ceased. They were to reveal new scripture to the people from God, and the gifts of tongues were one evidence of the authenticity of the new scripture. The Bible shows they were individual and real earthly languages, and the Greek wording in Acts shows that it was specific right down to the local dialect of those who were visiting Jerusalem from afar off.

When the new scripture was finished being revealed, and the apostles died, what purpose did the tongues and prophecy and direct special revelation that they were gifted with have then?
To you who speak with 'tongues' today I offer 2 questions based on that logic.

1) If you go to the international airport are your tongues good enough that you can preach the gospel to international visitors in their own languages? That's how the apostles used them and if you claim to have that gift then it should be able to be used the same way.

2) What new scripture are you authenticating with that gift? That of course was a main part of their purpose.

I don't believe God changed the purpose to suit those who revived the gift many centuries later (the gift of tongues was not used by Christians after the apostles died until about 200 years ago when the charismatic movement started using it again after seeing pagan religions use it. Buddhists claim to use tongues too. Does that make them saved Christians?)

By the way, the main thing tongues supporters fail to recognise is that Corinthians was about correcting a bunch of Christians who did have the gift at that time but were abusing it. Clearly the gift can be abused as the apostle was imposing restrictions on those who were doing it.