H  O  M  E          
Theological, Doctrinal, and Spiritual Musing - and whatever other else is on my mind when I notice that I haven't posted in a while.
Blogroll
 
T.U.L.I.P.
  • - Endorsed
  • - Indifferent
  • - Contested
 
I Affirm This
The Nashville Statement
 
Autobiographical
 
Profile
Daniel of Doulogos Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
 
The Buzz


Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich

His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole

[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train

This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos

Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead

There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
 
Email Me
email
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
The Counterfeit "Gift of Tongues"
One thing that Cessationists and Continuationists must agree upon - there are very counterfeit versions of the gifting of tongues.

The first, and perhaps most prevalent is the faux "gift" of speaking gibberish. While this should be entirely self evident, I will express it in words never the less: One does not need the Spirit of God indwelling them to inarticulately grunt and groan. No matter what sort of passion a person might pour into their own personal ululating gibber, it is not the Spirit of God doing it.

Pretty much every false religion known to man includes this sort of "speaking in tongues." As a general rule of thumb:
a) if someone has to teach you how to do it, or
b) if you actually had to convince yourself that this "gift" isn't phoney-balogna or isn't something you are doing in your own strength, or
c) if no one on earth (including yourself) can translate what you are saying...
Chances are that this gift is all in your head.

There are some out there who contend that there are two types of tongues - the kind that happened at Pentecost (intelligible language), and another less defined variety that is interpreted out of 1 Corinthians - a personal prayer language.

Now, there are many who believe in the second variety - and were I to say that the second variety is entirely bunk, and perhaps could be the poster child for the word bunk - being so saturated with everything that bunkness describes - I would likely take some heat for that. So I will carefully avoid sharing my own opinions in the matter.

I will however say that if there *is* a private prayer language - it certainly isn't the counterfeit that commonly passes for it - and that is my point - counterfeits.

I am not decrying that there is no such thing as the gift of tongues - my mind is not made up yet - but I am decrying that there --IS-- such a thing as a counterfeit - and it is the counterfeit that I am speaking against.

Whether or not we can agree on "cessationism" we ought to be able to agree that there are worldly counterfeits - and be on our guard against them.
posted by Daniel @ 8:11 AM  
12 Comments:
  • At 10:32 AM, November 23, 2005, Blogger Lee Shelton said…

    Whsio skdj hioe djckl wotui ptopfl? Ckfo wh teqrw cdkl cmfx. Opfko dnfk rhdlw djwil hgjfh, dkreosk, wskdjd!

     
  • At 10:38 AM, November 23, 2005, Blogger Daniel said…

    <spit take>

    Seriously - most people wouldn't have bothered taking their fingers off the home row - you know, a lot of asdf and jkl; - but you sir, have gone the distance, using other letters to make it legit - - I applaud you.

    :-D

     
  • At 10:53 AM, November 23, 2005, Blogger Lee Shelton said…

    Well, it is a gift! :-)

    This is one of those "touchy" subjects among believers. There are two main questions regarding this issue that I have yet to have sufficiently answered by those who advocate speaking in tongues: 1) Where is there an example in scripture of gibberish being spoken and not actual languages? 2) How can a "personal prayer language" be considered a gift when it really doesn't serve to edify the body of Christ?

     
  • At 11:00 AM, November 23, 2005, Blogger Daniel said…

    Touchy is an understatement.

    Even if we allow the private prayer language - we have to be discerning enough to admit that nonsensical gibbering is not of the Lord.

     
  • At 1:55 PM, November 23, 2005, Blogger David said…

    I was going to interpret Lee's utterance, but the Lord told me it was not meant for you. I however, was very edified (edified = entertained).

     
  • At 1:59 PM, November 23, 2005, Blogger Daniel said…

    <popeye laugh>

     
  • At 2:39 PM, November 23, 2005, Blogger Daniel said…

    BTW I really like the image I found for this post...

     
  • At 3:03 PM, November 23, 2005, Blogger Bryan said…

    I'm in agreement with you Daniel. I'm not sure where I stand on cessationism anymore, but what goes on in a lot of churches, I'm particularly troubled by stuff I hear coming out of a big one around here (can you guess which one I mean?), is just false.

    Bryan
    SDG

     
  • At 3:45 PM, November 23, 2005, Blogger Daniel said…

    Yeah, if it's new and improved, it is coming from there...

     
  • At 7:47 PM, November 23, 2005, Blogger candy said…

    interpretation of shelton's tongues... Undalay! Undalay! Undalay! Don't waste a great opportunity to give a love gift! Buy my new and updated book on how to discern between tongues and eubonics! I've added a new chapter on how to understand tongues in a southern accent. oh. yeah. umm..thus saith the Lord.

     
  • At 10:21 AM, November 25, 2005, Blogger Wayne Hatcher said…

    The first part is not really all that hard. You separate the wheat from the chaff by "knowing them by their fruits." We have been told in several places in the New Testament that counterfeits would abound. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1) I was looking at 1 Timothy 2 a bit ago, and it struck me, if all of us would make full use of the ordinary means of grace, we would be so equipped for service, and so busy, we wouldn't have time to learn "tie my bowtie, tie my bowtie, tie my bowtie . . .ldiut hhvnv asldyt0 q9wnvn ,jghy pe9nn"

    I guess the tongues and healing issues seem so obvious (to me) that I don't worry much about them. I can conceive of situations, and have heard stories of missionaries, where those "gifts" advanced the gospel of saving grace, that it is genuine.

    What worries me most is the whole issue of prophecy. Take, for instance, 1 Timothy 1:18, where Paul states that someone made some kind of a prophecy concerning Timothy and his calling as a pastor. All we hear about today is prophecies of impending disaster, or the return of our Lord (He even told us no man knows the day or the hour.), or "God told me to tell you to give me some money." Now if someone were to say "God told me that you should become a missionary to Afghanistan." How do you know, or how can you verify that God is really speaking to that individual. I understand the passage above in 1 John about testing the spirits; you have that Berean spirit and index everything with the Scriptures, but still . . .

     
  • At 10:39 AM, November 25, 2005, Blogger Daniel said…

    PW - Prophesy is one gift that is heavily counterfeited today - no doubt about that. Deceived and deceivers - sincere, but sincerely mistaken.

     
Post a Comment
<< Home
 
 
 
Previous Posts
 
Archives
 
Links
 
Atom Feed
Atom Feed
 
Copyright
Creative Commons License
Text posted on this site
is licensed under a
Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5
License
.