I take it as the BIBLE is what was perfect not Jesus Christ himself bc when he died he said "It is finished". When the Bible was finished then that when it all began to cease.
You would agree with me that Jesus is perfect, right? Whatever it is in the passage that Paul describes as that which is perfect (telios) is something that is going to radically change Paul’s speech, knowledge, and understanding. When Paul wrote the epistle, his speech, knowledge, and understanding. When the perfect comes, it will be like Paul has grown up, and his speech, knowledge, and understanding is an adults. The Bible does not fit here. For one thing, he was asleep in Christ when the New Testament canon was completed. Another issue to consider is that this interpretation, which jumps over the fact that the coming of the perfect will effect Paul directly, makes those who own a copy of the New Testament so much superior to the actual authors of the books who received these revelations from the Lord, that these authors are like children in comparison. It exalts the reader above the apostles.
And we know that owning a copy of the New Testament doesn’t guarantee that one understands the mystery of Christ written therein better than those who wrote it. And even studying for years does not guarantee it. I think if you thought about it you could think of plenty of believers who did not understand the doctrine Paul taught in the epistle. Many baby Christian understand little at first. And those who have been in the faith for a while still gain insight while we read these books. You could be a Christian for 20 years and read something in Romans and finally understand something ‘new’ that you overlooked reading that same passage for years.
The fact that believers disagree over many doctrines shows our imperfect understanding of doctrine. The fact that we disagree on this issue disproves your interpretation.
Angels speak languages that are understandable to humans. Or shall you say that angels speak another language amongst themselves?
When they spoke to people in Biblical times, people could understand them in all the accounts we read about. That could be because they are talking to or around humans. Maybe they are smart enough to know they have to speak human languages when doing that.
Lol where would it say angels have they own language?
Look in I Corinthians 13, there where it says ‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels’. Paul suggests the possibility, so we shouldn’t rule it out as a possibility.
Well that is what I am saying, speaking in tongues ONLY refers to those who can speak in a foreign language spontaneously, that would be considered speaking in tongues..
Maybe you were in some ‘pocket’ of the Charismatic movement that didn’t believe that. I’ve come across some, IMO, weird beliefs by WOFers about what speaking in tongues is. But it sure seems to me that the standard belief among Pentecostals is that it is a foreign language. (I’d say an angelic language would be a foreign one, too, if that ever happens. I know I’ve heard preachers say that tongues are foreign languages. I’ve heard and read where people went overseas and heard villagers and other people in foreign countries speak in tongues in English. I’ve heard testimonies of someone understanding languages from the mission field and confirming the interpretation. And of course, there were testimonies from Azusa Street and other early Pentecostal meetings about people in the audience hearing their own languages in tongues. To me, it feels like a straw man argument when people argue that Pentecostals and even Charismatics don’t believe speaking in tongues are languages.
For example, im preaching to a certain audience and foreigners would be in the crowd ill start to preach in german, russian, etc etc..
There is no evidence in the Bible that anyone spoke in tongues to preach the Gospel. In Acts, the disciples spoke of the wonderful works of God. Then Peter stood up and preached to them. God has chosen ‘the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe’. It doesn’t say that He has chosen speaking in tongues to do so. I suppose God could have someone explain and proclaim the Gospel in tongues, but the Bible doesn’t teach this is the purpose of tongues or give an example of it actually happening.
That does not the random outbursts preachers have of today where they babble something that one cannot understand. And the interpretor would still be needed for others to understand. It is believed that babble or babblin comes from the tower of Babel where God changed the languages of the people to confusion. (My own theory).
I know there are some preachers who start speaking in tongues in their sermon, and there are other preachers who roll their eyes as the idea. It’s okay if there is an interpretation. There are different thoughts and practices on this. I spent my teenage years mostly in the A/G, but I moved a bit. In the A/Gs I grew up in, someone would speak in tongues and someone else would interpret. I know that one I went to was against outbursts in tongues if there was no interpreter. Not that you hammer people if no one gets the interpretation. (I did hear a pastor say after an uninterpreted tongue that he believed that was for individual edification and not for the group). The one who speaks in tongues is to keep silent in the church if there is no interpreter, and to speak to himself and to God. When he finds out there is no interpreter, he should not keep on. There are many churches that actually do believe in interpretation, and it is a gift that functions in the body.
On the one hand, I get your point that some preachers don’t pay attention to what Paul wrote in I Corinthians. You can get off into extremes. On the one hand, you could not believe in these gifts, which goes against the Bible, and end up contradicting what the Bible teaches, teaching people to disobey scripture. On the other hand, you could think speaking in tongues is the ultimate gift and totally ignore the commands for order in the church in regard to speaking in tongues. Those are extremes.
I used the cursing God as a example to prove that the bible said they were magnifying him. As in, they knew they spoke of praise and worship not out of cussing. That means that one HAD to understand the languages that these people spoke. If its what we hear today, does ANYBODY know what the person is saying? Can anybody be able to TRANSLATE what they just said?
Paul said that if someone spoke in tongues no one understands him. Paul, therefore, taught that speaking in tongues in church should be interpreted. There is also a gift of interpretation of tongues.
So Paul didn’t express any fear that someone might be cursing the Lord in tongues. He doesn’t tie the idea of cursing the Lord to speaking in tongues. He said if he prayed in a tongue his spirit prayed, but his understanding was unfruitful. He did not say he would be cursing the Lord if he did so. He said if you bless with the spirit, you give thanks well, but the other is not edified. He did not say you curse the Lord. So Paul didn’t have this ‘paranoia’ about speaking in tongues or other gifts that some modern commentators who are suspicious of the gifts of the Spirit now have.
I believe if Paul were speaking about Christ it would say something like the "return" or something.
Some commentators say he is talking about ‘the eternal state.’ The KJV says ‘that which is perfect’ so some KJV readers take that to mean a physical ‘that’ a physical object. But the Greek is all one word ‘telios.’ We are waiting for a kind of perfection to come. It will make our understanding of the past seem childish by comparison. We see through a glass darkly, but then we will see face to face.
We need to look at the whole epistle. In I Corinthians 1:7, we read
“So that ye come behind in no spiritual gifts, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We should interpret chapter 13 in line with these comments he made when ‘setting up’ the epistle, and we should not expect these gifts he would write about to cease before Jesus come back. Why would he connect coming behind in no spiritual gift with waiting for Jesus’ return if they won’t be here while we are waiting for his return?
And we can also look at the fact that Paul addresses tongues, prophecy and the coming of the perfect in I Corinthians 13 and then elaborates on these issues in the chapter that follows.
In I Corinthians 14, he goes into detail on tongues and prophecy. In chapter 15, he talks about the resurrection of the believer at the return of Christ, and makes a brief reference to the end
telos when Christ delivers up the kingdom to God. If we look at it all as one argument, it makes more sense to see the perfect (
telios) as coming either at the resurrection or after the resurrection at the end (
telos).
The first verse hes making it clear that those who speak in unknown tongue are speaking to God, only bc he understands, NOT bc it is a "heavenly language", but a foreign language. Second verse clears that up. Last verse tells them if your going to do that, pray to God so you can interpret what you have spoken.
I would say those are Pentecostal beliefs as well in my experience.