You know why you felt they were speaking gibberish?Because they were....
1 Cor 14:1-33
14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
Charity is love. First have love, then, desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And most important of these gifts is to be able to prophesy (prophesy is
teach, not foretell the future). Many confuse this. While a Prophet may foretell the future, he also teaches. Not every Prophet told the future, but they all taught men God. Likewise, not all that told the future were called Prophets.
Take Apostle John for example (or
Saint John as he is now called today commonly), he told the future of our world today in the book of Revelation, yet he was not called a "Prophet." Prophesy is to
teach, a prophecy is what is said. Prophe
sy is a verb, prophe
cy is a noun. To prophesy is to teach, to teach the past, the present, and yes, even sometimes the future.
A Prophet is defined simply and originally as one who speaks the words of God. The Bible is the words of God, and men that teach it are actually, by strict definition, Prophets. But theology today and her several terms have confused this matter to such an end that if a Bible teacher said that he prophesied they would think that he was calling himself Elijah or something. The church has lost so much truth through her own traditions.
I am going to have to shorten these answers here-in for time's sake. Sorry.
2 For he that speaketh in an
unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
"Unknown" is not in the original Greek. Check it out (we do it for you, under verse four, below). The term is "a language not naturally acquired." In other words, a foreign or second language not learned from youth. If I speak German to an African audience, they will not understand me. God will, but they wont. So their spirit will not absorb the teaching because their ears cannot discern the speech.
3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
He that teaches helps men, he that speaks in the many languages of the world cannot help one who doesn't understand them. The reason that this is given here in comparison is because the language skills are one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God is saying (through Paul [Paul is prophesying
) ]) that it is better to have the gift of teaching than the gift of the languages because while a language is nice, a gift of teaching is nicer.
4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.
If I were to say the "Our Father" in Japanese while standing in front of your church, I would be doing good for me, for I pray to God and understand. But you and the new converts in your church would not understand a word of the beautiful prayer. So I wouldn't be helping you all, only myself.
A word on the usage of the term "unknown tongue): For those blessed with a King James Bible, you will notice that the word "unknown" is italicized; that means that it was added by the Translators to help "make clear" the passage. As you can see, they did not always make the best decision.
5 I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.
Take my last answer and add this to it: Now if there was standing next me at the pulpit an interpreter who could interpret my Japanese into English for the crowd, then we would all enjoy and profit from
my "Our Father."
6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?
Paul is once again showing that language skills are not the most important gift. Paul is saying that though he could speak in a foreign language to a foreign crowd, what good would it do him if he had no ability to teach effectively. Therefore, teaching (prophesying) is the greater gift. But remember how this chapter started out "After charity...." In other words, love of the brethren and one's fellows is greater than all the spiritual gifts. When you love God's children you do the will of the Lord, for He loves them as well. Died for them even.
7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
If one who cannot play the piano were to sit down and start hitting keys, it would sound awful, useless, aggravating. But a Master Pianist can bring a person to tears with the right combination of keys and the sound that they send forth upon the ear.
So also with the Word of God when it is rehearsed by an able and gifted teacher speaking in a tongue that the native people are skilled in. But God gives the power, the ability, the words, the syllables. That is why they are called gifts. Many men can speak Hebrew and Greek, but not many men can teach the Bible to where it is understood by the layman. Why? Because they are not gifted teachers. Though they speak great languages they cannot help any. Likewise, many can teach Bible but cannot speak other languages than their native tongue. God gives gifts as He sees fit, severally.
I personally believe that many of the gifts have laid dormant over the centuries and that God will once visit men with them as the time draws near and they are once again necessary to His designs. And no, these idiots in the churches forehead-slapping the sick and lame aren't healing anyone but their own egos and pocketbooks. Can man heal today? A gifted man can. But God does the healing. Will antichrist and his host mimic these gifts in the end-time? I hope not. But maybe as an uplifting sign, we see that satan hasn't been able to mimic the gift of tongues, for example. For in the babbling churches today (Pentecostal, Baptist, Evangelical, etc.) nobody, who is not themselves possessed, could ever mistake what they say and do as being of Divine origin. So satan hasn't, in my eyes, yet been able to mimic the gifts effectively. Will he ever? I doubt it, but satan shall have power. Just that perhaps he can't transfer it to his minions and deceived hoards.
8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
Same as the above verse. If the Piano gives no understandable sound it is like the battle trumpet that cannot be understood. Suppose that one blast of the trumpet means move forward, attack; and two blasts means retreat: now imagine if no one told you which was which! You may go forward attacking while all your help is retreating. Why? Because you could not understand the meaning of the sound. The same with God's Word, if you can't understand the words, how can you understand the message?
9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
The temptation here is to understand this verse as saying to
explain things simply. And this is what happens when people pull verses out of context. It happens all the time. But that is not what it means. By context we see that it means to speak in their native language so that they can understand you. Though it be true that we are to speak things plainly, as we shall see later in this Scripture―I'm just that it is not saying that
here, not that it isn't true.
10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
There are many languages in this world (what, 5000 plus?) and each has it's own distinct 'understandability.' In other words, we all comprehend our native tongues the easiest. Even bilingual people who may know many languages still dream in their native (from birth) tongue.
11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
Take any hellfire and brimstone southern preacher, and have him preach that loud yelling sermon over in Africa somewhere, without an interpreter, and they will think that he is some kind of a madman.
12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.
Paul knows that we Christians all want these spiritual gifts from God, all of us do. But he is saying that we should forgo our own vanities and selfish desires and simply desire to be gifted in any way that God sees fit, that we may help the work.
This is where charity comes in, and why it is the chiefest of all. It is charity (love) that makes one to take less for himself so that he may give more to others. And that only from God, the giver of all good gifts. Seek not amiss and you shall have more than you desire, He would say.
13 Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
If you somehow end up in China tomorrow and some home-churchers (for all others are hunted down) see your Bible and ask to lead a Bible study group meeting, pray that God will allow you to teach them in their tongue from your own lips, or that He send you a gifted translator. Either is possible and easy and acceptable to and for God.
14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
If I speak a prayer in a foreign language, I do good for me, for I know that language, but the others that I praying aloud to are not helped because they do not understand. My understanding, while being a help to me, is unfruitful to the hearers in that room.
15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
Ditto. (Explained in the next verse.)
16 Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?
That should explain it. Also, there is a further allusion to speaking in common terms that the uneducated can grasp. I am sure that you have heard some self-righteous vain Theologian explain something. When he is finished you feel stupid because not only do you have absolutely no idea what he just said, you don't even understand what half of the terms he used mean. He is not teaching God's Word, he is puffing himself up and showing off that he knows big words that most normal humans have no need for. Ironically, he knows nothing, he is just reciting what he memorized in the Seminary. In this very manner satan has perverted the Gospels and carried on lies for generations and centuries and millennia. Speaking much they say little, and even less yet is understood by the hearer.
17 For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.
You know what you said, that you spoke a sweet verse of God's Word, but they don't know whether you just quoted Scripture or placed your dinner order. You are of no use to them, just as the Doctors of Religion are of no use to man or God.
18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
Paul knew many languages. In the Bible we see him speak Greek, Roman, Hebrew. Who knows what other languages that God had gifted him with. Certainly probably Aramaic. But don't confuse even one word of this with the Tongues on
Pentecost Day. Those were Divine words that all languages could understand
at the very same time with the single utterance of the Apostle. These tongues (the 'Pentecost Tongue'), I believe, shall be spoken by God's Prophets during the Tribulation. The tongues that Paul speaks of in this chapter are actual language skills. Bi/tri-lingual.
i.e., (that is) many languages.
19 Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
It is better to gifted to teach effectively in your single language, than to be able to speak all [6800+] languages on the Earth and not be able to teach Bible.
20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
Now we shift thoughts slowly. Be not simple in understanding; but be unskilled in working malice and strife; and be full grown in your understanding of God's great written Word, and His words of wisdom, to His children.
In other words, don't allow yourself to be (or remain) uneducated in the Word; don't be bad or false teach; and do be one who learns the words of the Lord.
21 In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.
Though God gift teachers, and send them forth to foreign lands, the message is rejected.
22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.
If you were all Arabs,
Muslims if you will, and you knew that the man speaking a sermon to you was American, who only spoke English; then suddenly he began to read the Scriptures and teach you in the purest Aramaic you have ever heard: that would be a sign indeed to you Muslims that Christianity is accompanied by the power of God. It would be a sign unto them that Jesus Christ was real and did what they said that He did. They will most likely convert because of the miracle of your sudden language acquisition.
But to those who believe upon Jesus Christ, coupled with a gifted teacher--these shall benefit greatly, because they at the first believed. They had no need of any signs, for they already know the power of God. That is perhaps why we do not see these language gifts so commonly today. There is not any immediate or great need for them.
Below is a repeat of the above Scriptural thought.
23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:
25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.
Like our Muslim example, this man in the above verse believed because of sound teaching. In verse 24,
prophesy is to teach, to teach this man, one must do it in
his language.
26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
Another subject change here. Paul is speaking to having order in the churches, not everyone jumping up and blurting something out like they do the Baptist, Pentecostal, and Evangelical churches today―it is confusion and vanity. One vain fellow trying to upstage the next.
27 If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret.
Back to languages. If you speak English and your audience speaks Spanish, use an interpreter so that the people may understand. Now do not let there be a crowd of too many different languages (like as where at penticostal Day in Acts 2:8-11, because it will be confusing if every time you say a sentence, then all must wait while the five or eight interpreters of different languages must be given time to translate to into the crowd's individual tongues. That is why the Pentecost Tongue was given, there was no need of an interpreter for the ten different languages of that crowd (for the Holy Spirit interpreted in the ear of each man/woman.
Oh, but you say, some did not understand because they called the Pentecost Tongue
drunken babbling. You are correct, some of the Jews did not understand because they were Atheist (as are most Jews statistically today―self-admittedly 75%), and satanic (as all Kenites are today). To them the tongue of God is unrecognizable. There were Kenites among the crowd, they could not discern the Holy Spirit speech, because the Holy Spirit was not with them.
28 But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.
If you can't speak the language of the people, stay silent, let someone else teach who can speak the native tongue, so that the people may understand. You just be there and pray silently to God. God hears you. And you won't be disrupting the services.
(You must remember that Paul was speaking of and to the future churches being set up in many places, among many different languages, for "And he said unto them, Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." [Mark 16:15].)
29 Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.
Don't have too many teachers.
30 If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.
Don't talk over one another or interrupt. You notice that Paul did not speak of a church with a hired Preacher at the head? The elders and most skilled taught. It was not a full-time job with a pension. The next day they had to feed the cattle and tend the pasture. Though I see no problem today with having and supporting "professional preachers," if they do their homework!
31 For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.
Be orderly, one speaker at a time.
32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
The teacher is in control of himself (
i.e., he is not "possessed" like you see so many in today's Pentecostal, Baptist, Evangelical, etc. church systems appear to be demon possessed while they babble and get slain by the unholy spirit). I speak of these
so-called "talking in Tongues churches" where anyone at any time jumps out and blurs some demonic tongue. I suspect that if these tongue-talkers actually knew what they were saying they would be floored, for I greatly suspect that they are blaspheming in the Babylonian Tongue (a now dead language).
33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. KJV
Amen! Pentecostal and Baptist and Evangelicals, what say you to that last verse? You know the madness in your services. Whence commeth the confusion? Am I a hater of the above denominations? No, I just think that it is time to tell them that
the Emperor is really naked, and what they are doing is foolishness, and not of God. They feel a spirit, but not discerning the spirits, they fail to realize that they are entertaining into their bodies evil spirits. It's time to stop it!
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