I love it when people think they know what they are talking about and how others should use it, re: tongues when I assume they've never experienced it themselves. Does Don Carson even speak in tongues? I respect him as a theologian but theology can only take you so far. I recommend experiencing what you think you know you are talking about, before you think you know what you are talking about.
But because I'm a nice fellow and have spoken in tongues every day for about 10 years now and have a fair idea of it's capabilities and its limits, I'll answer these comments :
"It is not foolish or ignorant to be concerned about the issue of tongues in the church. There are ministries and denominations that teach that tongues is an evidence of the Holy Spirit and if you do not speak in tongues you are not Spirit filled and you have no power in your life. "
Although your concern is noted, and there are cult-like ministries that demand tongues from everyone, that is probably an accurate statement by those ministries/denominations. I have found from p ersonal experience and knowledge that people who don't speak in tongues do lack power in their life. I was one of them. As a whole, particularly in those denominations which reject the gifts of the Spirit . they're church is mostly efforts of man and human wisdom, rather than the power of God. There is such pride in the church today which thinks it does not need the spiritual gifts. Scripture shows two clear instances of the Spirit's work in a believers life. And both are promised as far back as the old testament. One is the inward dwelling and infilling, the other is the outward falling upon. As Jesus prophesied and as occurred in the book of Acts, it is the latter at which point tongues and spiritual gifts come. Tongues has nothing to do with salvation. But in case we are mistaken to think that all we have to do in this life is get saved and that's it (so many reject anything that isn't to do with their personal salvation - rather selfish really), the spiritual gifts are very important for building up the body and ministry/service.
For those of you who do pray in tongues, do you know what you are praying? If you do not know what you are praying then you are praying without understanding and have no idea what you have requested of God. If you do know what you are praying, then why not pray in your own tongue with understanding and still be edified and magnify God with understanding instead of in a mystery? If you pray in tongues for or with others, do they know and understand what you are praying? If you speak in tongues at a church service and another interprets, is the body edified
Firstly, tongues is not always requesting God. Prayer has many forms. It may simply be praising God and being thankful. Secondly, yes God often tells me what I am praying about in tongues, or, what I shouldu pray about in English. The reason why we might not want to pray with understanding even if we do know what we are praying, is because we only know what we are praying post-fact. It is a type of prophecy, in that God gives us the words to speak. That is much more effective than trying to fumble around for words in your own understanding. We can live and be guided by the Spirit in prayer OR in our own mind/understanding and fleshly efforts. I know which one is more effective.
As for praying in tongues with and for others. Yes at times God has given the person praying with or for, the interpretation to the tongues. To the hearer it appears to be the most accurate, genuine and comprehensive prayer that they could ask for.
If you speak in tongues and there is no interpreter and you have to interpret yourself, how is the body edified? If you speak in tongues and another interprets with the same message that Christ is coming back soon in the clouds of the air, could not the preacher have taught that from God's word and the entire body have been edified together without the gift of tongues being exercised? Is tongues the means by which God uses to communicate truth as an oracle of God or does He use men that He has called, gifted and ordained in the church to be His mouth piece
Yes a pastor could have preached that from God's Word. But that's not the point here. Supposing that the pastor planned to preach on week 23 sermon in the church's calender. But God wanted to reveal that message. The pastor would have known that he should preach from that part of God's Word, ONLY if God had revealed it to Him personally. Yet, in this example you gave, God chose to give the revelation of what should be said, to someone else. That is how the body functions with all the gifts, and not one guy up the front with a piece of paper saying he's qualified to be a pastor because he passed all his exams, but cannot hear God for Himself.
The scriptures have been translated into various tongues so that people can read and understand in their own language.
Don't be mistaken into thinking it's completed. There's still about 6000 languages who do not have a bible in their own language. 80% of the bibles published today are for the 9% of the world who speak english. We have multiple versions but many languages have no version. That's the stats from bible league from what I remember reading.
When the book of Acts recorded tongues being used, those from around the world heard the gospel of Christ in their own language from those that were Galileans.
Don't forget that the book of Acts also records people speaking in tongues after being filled or baptised in the Spirit. Those tongues appeared to serve no purpose, other than to show the apostles they had received the Spirit as the apostle's had at Pentecost.
Today believers are saved, being trained and going back to their own people and preaching the gospel in their own language. Perhaps, the national tongue would only be necessary if there was an appointed time for salvation for an individual or group and no one in the same tongue was available to bring the gospel. This national gift of tongues could also be used in communicating a message to those who live in unbelief and need a sign to hear from God from someone who does not speak their language
Tongues may be used as a sign for unbelievers and it happens,
as God wills. But, in general it doesn't work like that. Or at least, the tongue speaker has no control over the words God puts in their mouth. You might like to pray for John but God has other ideas, and your tongues is prayer for Jill. Many people misunderstand the purpose of tongues. Tongues doesn't make you a great preacher or an evangelist. You can't go to an overseas country and preach in tongues and expect everyoneo to be converted because they hear the Gospel in thier own language. It not only doesn't work like that, (and never worked like that in the bible, there's no recorded instsance of any apostle or evangelist in the bible using tongues to preach the Gospel), it is very impractical.
It's a sign gift. It signifies something. We can think of tongues as the same as prophecy in a language we don't understand. At Pentecost the people heard them praising and glorifying God in their own language. They weren't preaching the 4 spiritual laws or out of St Peter's latest book. Peter stood up and addressed the crowd and declared the Gospel in the common tongue. Tongues for evangelism is pretty much useless unless God decides to use it with interpretation to function as prophecy. Then it becomes a form of prophetic evangelism, in which God reveals things to the evangelist about a person, that the person can use as a kind of miracle to show the person receiving the Gospel that God is real.
Think of tongues as simply another mechanism by which God's Spirit can speak through humans. The normal language centres of the brain are over-ridden as the message comes from another part of the brain activated by God's Spirit, it is then God speaking through the person. And yes, if God's Spirit is not there and the person is demon possessed, you get devil tongues.
This is slightly different to prophecy in that with prophecy, God normally tells the person what to say and they decide how best to say it. With tongues, it's a direct communication line, you only know what you've said after it's come out. You only have discrete stop/go control over tongues. But, if prophetic gifts function in similar manner, then it could be tongues in the common tongue, ie tongues in English.
