Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Taking the Gloss Off of Glossalia - Tathakata thackata daba doo boo

Just found out that there is a name for one of the things I believe in. It is called "cessationism". Simply put it is that gifts such as speaking in tongues ceased after the apostles died.

My friend Joy studied tongues for seven years. A lady came into her Bible store and asked, "Do you have any books on tongues?" She had a whole shelf of them. The lady selected two. Later, Joy received an angry phone call from this customer. "I bought two of your books on tongues and they're against tongues!"

Like all of us, Joy had a few gaps in her Biblical knowledge, but she did know about this doctrine. You could almost feel sorry for the tongues lady, for if she had pursued it, Joy might have trimmed her wing feathers a little. Joy and I were both "cessationists".

I am a very poor ecstatic-experiential person--just about the worst I suppose. To tell me of your wonderful religious experience is probably wasting your time.

Speaking in an unknown tongue is not just the realm of Christians, but of many different kinds of people, including witches. Paul said, "Tongues will cease."

To try to counteract this a man wrote, "Paul also said 'knowledge will cease'. (1 Corinthians 13:8) Has knowledge ceased?" Yes, special revelations have ceased. This is what Paul was referring to.

In the time before the Bible was written, the Spirit communicated in this way. An example is the prophet Agabus, foretelling of a coming famine and the manner of Paul's death ( Acts 11:28 and Acts 21:10).

I believe that today special knowledge is confined to knowing which television programs have been cancelled without referring to the TV Guide.

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