Exodus 16:13-21, 31 and John 2:6-10 were occasions when God provided miraculously. What God provided was immediately observable and recognizable by believer and unbeliever alike. Such is true of real language. It has features and parts that make it recognizable as a language, even if it is an unknown language. What today, is being claimed as the spiritual gift of 'speaking in tongues' is gibberish, lacking the recognizable semblance and characteristics of language.
In the early church when the gift of speaking in tongues was being given, it endowed the speaker with the ability to speak in an unlearned, earthly, foreign language with a message that was understood by hearers who knew that language. This gift provided for the communication and spreading of the Word of God.
In this section, Paul provides illustrations to further explain what was needed for the gift of tongues to accomplish its purpose. The gift of tongues was to accomplish the same thing as the use of any language - to communicate a message with meaning.
If no understandable communication to the mind takes place, then no edification takes place. Spiritual gifts given by the Spirit are for the purpose of edifying the Church. Therefore speaking in what is unintelligible speech, that does not communicate an understandable message to the hearers, is not the exercise of a spiritual gift.
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In the fall of 1969, Gil began a full-time teaching ministry as Senior Pastor of Indian Hills Community Church. He also earned his Ph.D. from the California Graduate School of Theology. The focus of Pastor Rugh’s ministry is systematic, verse-by-verse teaching of the Bible. As a...
