Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

My understanding of the gifts of speaking or interpreting tongues, as well as determining if a person has been granted either of those gifts, relates only to speaking in intelligible earthly languages that one has never studied (as occurred at Pentecost in Acts 2:1-13) for the specific purpose of edifying speakers of those languages by instructing them about Christ, and thus building up the church in that way, which Paul indicated was the purpose of tongues in passages such as 1 Corinthians 14:10-22 (where he also seemed to assign a degree of lesser importance to this particular gift).

The presence or possession of such a gift should therefore be more readily possible to determine or ascertain. It would also not include glossolalia (ecstatic speech in an unidentifiable language that is spoken by no one on earth), which research has shown can be a learned behavior.

Finally, I would say that it would be granted by God for a specific purpose (as it was at Pentecost), rather than just being a generalized ability for which its intended use would not be perceptible to the person to whom it is granted.

November 02 2020 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report