Featured Why You Should Strive to Speak in Tongues

AustinC: "None of them were Christians.

Wrong! You need to actually react the Book of Acts. The tongues speakers in Acts 2 were ALL Christians. So were the Ephesian tongues speakers, who are called "disciples," that is, disciples of Jesus. Their imperfect baptismal practice and theology in no way changes that fact.
Cornelius was a "god-fearer" and there NOT an idolater. Indeed, your claim that all 3 cases were idolatrous pagans has no merit.


Why modern commentaries? It seems you mean commentaries that agree
with you.
In other words, you have never even read a modern critical book commentary 1 Corinthians. C. K. Barrett and Hans Conzelmann are eminent secular (non-Pentecostal~) New Testament scholars who have written magisterial commentaries on 1 Corinthians. Here a sample of what they wrote on 14:4-5 and 14:28:

Barrett, pp. 316, 328:
"He who speaks in a tongue builds up (edifies) himself (14:4)" and thus his speaking is a profitable exercise as far as he himself is concerned...The inevitable conclusion follows: "I wish you all to speak with tongues (14:5);" for speaking in tongues is a good thing, a gift from God by which you may all INDIVIDUALLY be built up."
"What he [the tongues speaker] does at home, privately, is another matter. It [prayer tongues] is genuine prayer, addressed to God..."Let him speak only to himself and to God (14:28).""

Conzelmann, p. 245 on 14:28:
"The rule that he should speak in tongues "at home" (Greek: heautou"= "for himself") is in harmony with verse 2."

Now I challenge you to find even one MODERN critical Commentary on 1 Corinthians alone that disagrees with this British and German scholarly consensus and agrees with you.

 

This comment merely draws attention to the spiritually impovershed experience of your Baptist church.
All academic book commentaries on Revelation agree that 22:18 only has the Book of Revelation in mind, not the entire NT. John's warning if prompted by the tendency to add to the revelations of other Jewish apocalypses. Baptists who cite 1 Cor. 13:8 to buttress their cessationist claim can be refuted on 2 grounds:
(1) The context makes it clear that "tongues will cease" only when we see Christ "face to face" at the parousia (13:12)...
(2) 13:8 teaches that "knowledge will cease" when "tongues will cease," but knowledge has dramatically increased since the apostolic age. So clearly the reference is to the cessation of earthly knowledge and tongues at the parousia.
Once the ongoing legitimacy of all the spiritual gifts is recognized, Baptists are faced with the yawning chasm between normative paranormal life in the Spirit as taught by Paul and their own cherry-picked spiritual principles that treat the Holy Spirit like a wildman, whose gifts are too unmanageable and fanatical to be of any practical use for modern Christians.

 

My comments reflect the scholarly consensus and iou can find no academic book commentary on Revelation that offers a different interpretation than the one I gave. In the expression "this book" John obviously refers to Revelation and no other NT book. Indeed, there was no NT as a canonical collection of books for a few centuries and what should be included was widely disputed. As I pointed out, forgers were notorious for adding onto Jewish apocalypses and John didn't want his books to suffer tampering. So your claim is irrelevant to the ongoing legitimacy of the prophecy charism.

 

Eternally Grateful: "Paul said he gave SOME this gift and SOME that gift as he wills."

Baptists misinterpret 12:31 to mean not every believer is intended to exercise these spiritual gifts, including tongues and prophecy. They misconstrue Paul's questions in 12:31 to imply that God never intends everyone to prophesy and speak in tongues. What Paul is really saying is this: "we observe that not everyone actually speaks in tongues or prophesies, leaving open the question of what God intends. Paul then makes it clear that at least the gifts of prophecy and tongues are meant for every believer. Thus, he goes on to teach, "You can ALL prophesy one at a time (14:31)." Similarly, when Paul says, "I want you ALL to speak in tongues (14:5)," he implies that this gift too is intended for everyone and then he encourages more of them to exercise this gift by saying, "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you (14:18). This teaching echoes the pattern in Acts where initial reception of the Spirit is attested by speaking in tongues (2:4: 10:44-47; 19:6).

Eternally Grateful: "God does not need everyone to speak in an unknown language."

God needs nothing; we need the spiritual gifts, including tongues, a gift for every believer.

AustinC: "Let me rephrase: None of the persons whom God gave the gift of tongues were Christian before that event."

Wrong! The 120 disciples who were constantly at prayer (Acts 1:14-15), tarrying for the outpouring of the Spirit. Included in this prolonged prayer vigil were Jesus' mother and brothers, His female disciples, and the 12--all Christians. The Ephesian tongues speakers were "disciples" of Jesus (19:1). Cornelius was a god-fearer (not an idol-worshiping pagan) and he and his household in effect became Christians some time between sending messengers to bring Peter to explain more and hearing Peter's Gospel sermon. Remember, unlike Paul, Luke has no concept of the need for a regenerating work of the Spirit prior to the impartation of the gift of tongues.

Your error is the result of your failure to understand the sign significance of tongues for unbelievers in 1 Cor. 14:21-22 citing Isaiah 28:11-12). I will address that question in my next planned post.

 

What you need is determined by God and not by you. Your attitude is snip because it assumes that the gifts of the Spirit are optional. By your argument, you don't need "the (9) fruit of the Spirit" either because God's grace has allowed you to punch your ticket to Heaven. How selfish is that? Nor can you reply that if God wants you to exercise one of the spiritual gifts like tongues, He is free to give this to you. Why not? Because God's Word tells you that you must "earnestly strive for spiritual gifts" (12:31; 14:1). Besides, you need to "earnestly strive" to speak in tongues precisely because God's Word admonishes you,
I want you all to speak in tongues (14:5) and Paul encourages you, "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you(14:18)." And Paul repeatedly urges us to imitate him, even as he imitates Christ.