Hi Dave
Nobody is separating the sign from the definition. A sign isn't just a sign, it's meant to point to something deeper, bring clarity and understanding. For example, the signs in Egypt were a judgement showing God's power (Exodus 7:17), the signs given to Israel were a warning showing they were disobeying their God (too many to quote), Nebuchadnezzar's dream was a sign needing interpretation to make sense (Daniel 2, Daniel 4), and the writing on the wall was a judgement sign to Belshazzar (a written tongue, or maybe to you "gibberish" on the wall) (Daniel 5). Daniel inferred to Belshazzar his father's demise and restoration was a sign to him... he knew, but refused to acknowledge it (Daniel 5:22). The sign pointed to something deeper. A reality that God is not being acknowledged.
The signs of Jesus proved He was the Messiah (too many to quote, John 20:30), but the Pharisees could read the weather and yet missed the spiritual reality of what He was doing (Matthew 16:1-4, Luke 12:54-56). In contrast, they were nothing like the sons of Issachar who knew the times, and how to respond.
Applying this principle, Paul's saying the same thing - signs are meant to bring clarity, but you've got to understand it, otherwise it testifies against you (like the Pharisees who demanded signs, but didn't understand them or didn't want to understand them - but the resurrection sign was given as a final witness to their folly).
So how do you understand? By interpreting. Interpretation reveals the reality it points to. True understanding comes when you acknowledge the spiritual reality of what is being said.
In light of this, tongues are a sign to unbelievers - when interpreted, they reveal a spiritual reality that demands a response.
Various kinds are just that - various or diversity . I mentioned various kinds of tongues in the beginning as a starting point. This isn't referring to various dialects. In its simplicity, they're regarded as what is known as proof tongues, public tongues, and private tongues. In other words: proof (the sign for unbelievers - known languages, 1 Corinthians 14:22), public (known languages with interpretation for edification of believers, 1 Corinthians 14:27-28), and private (prayer language for believers, 1 Corinthians 14:2,4).
@ARBITER01 covered this.
Considering this, as for personal edification, we are all members of the body. When I'm alone, reading my Bible, praying, I'm edifying myself... not because of what I'm saying but because of who I'm saying it to. It's about God even in private. Communion with God always edifies.
Do you only pray in an assembly? Do you only have faith when in an assembly? Can you only discern when in an assembly? I would add that when you're alone in prayer, you're still part of the universal body of Christ. As a Christian, we're not divorced from the body when alone once we've been baptized into it. It's how we practice being in that body when we're together that Paul is addressing.
Again, if you've not operated with this gift, it becomes difficult to grasp (not impossible but challenging). What I'm saying is a foreign language to you. But the irony is, I'm interpreting this, yet you refuse to understand. I'm relaying it in a tongue you can understand. But even so, there were those who heard it in their language but refused to grasp - hard of hearing and hard of heart.
But hopefully others will benefit from this in their own journey with the Spirit.
Nowhere is there a disconnection of the mind. Speaking in tongues is the spirit leading in prayer. Faith isn't bound by cognitive abilities. Paul addresses some of these aspects in Chapters 1 and 2, where some were elevating themselves because of natural wisdom and intellect. They couldn't grasp God on a cross - to the natural mind, this is "gibberish" as well. The Virgin birth is nonsense to the natural mind, so is the resurrection. Yet all these things Paul addresses in this wonderful epistle. I pray you read with open eyes and open ears to recognize the spiritual realities.
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Hi Rose
You're correct to say that the sign is pointing to many things, even deeper things. I'll explain later. But, I don't believe that your interpretation is part of that. The other tongues/languages in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22 means foreign languages. He told us what it is for, even giving an example, that it's part of a continuous pattern in the OT. It's a sign of judgment for the nation Israel. Not this kind or that kind of languages/tongues, just tongues (foreign languages) are for a sign. That's all of it. All the other stuff was to keep it in order while the sign was being given. God is not the Author of confusion. Jesus prophesied about that judgement when He said that not one stone would be left upon another. That happened in A.D. 70.
Rose, you're trying to smash your experiences into the text, and it doesn't fit. Your definition is exactly what the mystery religions of Paul's day were doing. Exactly! That's what Paul was trying to get out of the church of Corinth. He was rebuking it, not commending it, as todays Charismatics and Pentecostals would teach. All the worldliness, all the pagan cult practices. If you just read it carefully, Paul lays down the standards, them gives examples of what to do, and what not to do. Pentecostals and Charismatics are teaching the 'what not to do's" as positive commands, and thus recreating the mystery religions that polluted the church in 1st century Corinth. It's so simple to see what Paul saying if you want to. If you would heed your own advise and listen to Paul, who we know "spoke tongues more than you all". His experience is genuine and trumps every experience of todays Pentecostals and Charismatics. He's an Apostle. I trust His experience, His interpretation, especially when it's different from yours.
To the judgment. I'll quote your buddy to save time.
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A SIGN OF CURSING
Some 15 years or so before Isaiah prophesied about the strange tongues from the lips of strangers, the northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered and taken captive by the Assyrians (in 722 BC) because of unbelief and apostasy. The prophet then warned the southern kingdom, Judah, that the same judgment awaited her at the hands of the Babylonians. The proud religious leaders of Judah would not listen to Isaiah. His teaching was too simple. He talked to them, they claimed, as if they were babies, "Those just weaned from milk" and "just taken from the breast." He taught them as if they were kindergartners: "Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there" (Isaiah 28:9-10). God had indeed spoken to them simply, in order that the least mature among them could understand and so that no Israelite would have an excuse for not knowing the Lord's will and promise. The essence of His promise was, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary," and "Here is repose"; yet Israel "would not listen" (v.12) Isaiah 28:12.
About 800 years before Isaiah, God had warned Israel that "The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand" (Deuteronomy 28:49). The strange language of their conquerors would be a sign of God's judgment. About 100 years after Isaiah, the Lord warned through Jeremiah, "Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,...a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say" (Jeremiah 5:15). The sign of judgment would be a language they could not understand.
When the apostles spoke at Pentecost and were heard in their own language by Jews from many countries (Acts 2:7-11), those Jews should have known that Gods judgment was imminent. His judgment had fallen on rebellious Israel and then on rebellious Judah. How much more would it fall on those of His people who now had crucified the Son of God? In AD 70 that judgment fell, when Jerusalem was utterly destroyed by the Roman general Titus (later emperor). Over one million Jews were slaughtered; thousands more were taken captive; the Temple was plundered, desecrated, and then utterly destroyed; and the rest of the city was burned to the ground. One historian comments that Jerusalem had no history for 60 years. Just as Jesus had predicted when He wept over the city, "Your enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation" (Luke 19:44; cf. Luke 21:20-24).
After the destruction of Jerusalem, and especially of the Temple, the reason for tongues ceased to exist. The judgment of which it was a sign had come. After the Pentecost manifestation of tongues, Peter, by implication, reminded his hearers of that judgment: " Therefor let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36;cf.vv. Acts 2:22-23).
A SIGN OF BLESSING
The second sign was a residual benefit of the first. The gift of tongues was a sign that God would no longer work through one nation, and favor one people. The church of Jesus Christ was for all peoples of all nations, a church in which there are many languages but no barriers. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28 ).
With great compassion and sorrow for his fellow Jews, Paul wrote in Romans, "But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous." But with a note of great hope he continued, "Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!" (Romans 11:11-12). A few verses later he explains more fully:" For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written" (vv.25-26) Romans 11:25-26. The way would always be open for individual Jews to come into the kingdom, for the hardening was only partial, and one day the entire nation of Israel would be brought back to her Lord. The sign of tongues was repeated when the Gentiles were included in the church, as recorded in Acts 10:44-46.
A SIGN OF AUTHORITY
Those who preached the judgment and promised the blessing were the apostles and prophets, whose authority was validated by "signs and wonders and miracles" (2 Corinthians 12:12; cf. Romans 15:19). Among the authenticating signs was the gift of tongues, in which Paul spoke "more than you all" (1 Corinthians 14:18 ).
As a sign, the purpose of tongues ended when that to which it pointed ended. A person driving to Los Angeles may see the first mileage sign about 300 miles away. Later he sees one that reads "200 miles to Los Angeles," and then "50 miles," and then "10 miles." After he passes through the city, however, the mileage signs to Los Angeles cease. They have no further purpose, because that to which they pointed has been reached and passed. The gift of tongues was attached irretrievably to one point in history, and that point has long been passed.
It is interesting, and I believe highly significant, that no record is given is of a single word spoken in tongues or even interpreted. Every reference to tongues is general. They are always mentioned in relation to their purpose and significance, never in relation to their specific content. The messages given in tongues were not new revelations or new insights, but, as at Pentecost, simply unique expressions of old truths, "the mighty deeds of God" (Acts 2:11). Though tongues could edify when interpreted, their purpose was not to teach, but to point, not to reveal God's truth but to validate the truth of his appointed spokesmen.
Since the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 there has been no purpose for the sign gift of tongues, because that to which it pointed has been reached and passed.. Israel has been set aside, the Gentiles have been brought in, and the apostles have given the faith once-for-all delivered to the saints. ---(MacArthur NT commentary)
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I can't say it any better than that. We can go over it verse by verse if you like.
