Monday, March 13, 2006

First Corinthians 14

Oh, Guys! Does anybody really understand 1 Corinthians 14? I thought it seemed like a perfectly simple passage. I thought the Southern Baptist church had just gone a little nuts on me. Then, today, I thought I'd better sit down and really study the passage before I go to really stirring up some serious dust in the Southern Baptist convention over a policy that I think is just flat-out wrong. (We're not letting people become missionaries if they speak in a "private prayer language." First Corinthians 14:39-40 says "So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But all things should be done decently and in order." emphasis mine) Today though, as I was studying, it turns out that R. C. Sproul agrees with the SBC's position that Paul in ch. 14 is speaking of human languages, rather than any God-given ecstatic utterance. The whole chapter seems divided between things that make me nearly sure of one point of view and things that make me think the other. Is there any way to really understand this whole chapter well, or is this one that we're just going to have to wait until we get to heaven for?

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