Praying in Tongues - A Rebuttal, Part 2

Robert Morris begins his message on praying in tongues with a three point outline. His first point is this:

1. Praying in Tongues is Scriptural.

Let’s test this to see if it really is so. But before going to his first passage that he gives, Robert Morris begins with two remarks:

First, he said that praying in tongues is not from God, but to God. My response to this would be, “if praying in tongues is not from God, then who is it from?”  

Here’s why I say this. Back in 1 Corinthians 12:1, Paul says writes this:  Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, while they were enjoying their ecstatic unintelligible utterances, demons were mixing in real languages that to the uninformed sounded like jibberish as well, except in this case the Corinthians were saying, “Jesus is accursed,” and not knowing it!

So these Christians were going around bragging to people about how Spirit-filled their services were because of the amount of people praying in tongues, while at the same time they were lifting their hands to God closing their eyes and saying, “Jesus is accursed.”   

So Paul tells them, “Hey, this is not from the Holy Spirit. This is demonic.” This wasn’t the first time Paul rebuked this church about participating with demons. Back in 1 Corinthians 10:20, he had this to say: “No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy?Are we stronger than he?”

So, when Robert Morris says that praying in tongues is not from God, does he realize what he is implying?

Second, Robert Morris said that praying in tongues is available to everyone. My response to this would be: “If so, then is it necessary? In other words, if God makes it available to every believer, then it is essential to have in order to live and function in the Christian life abundantly and powerfully?  If it is, then what about those who do not pray in tongues?  Will their Christian life be just as abundant and powerful if they prayed using their known language? If yes, then what is the purpose of praying in tongues if some Christians need it and some do not?  

Now Robert Morris begins with 1 Corinthians 14:2: “ For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.”  But then he makes a huge mistake. He never shares with his people the context of 1 Corinthians 14. He simply lifts this verse out of context and proceeds to make his point.

Sharing the context of how a passage fits into its setting is crucial for a proper understanding of what the author was intending to say.

For example, In Matthew 27:5, we read, “Judas went away and hanged himself.” Then in Luke 10:39, we read, “Go and do likewise.”  Then in John 13:27, we read, “What you are to do, do it quickly.”  I just made if case for hanging by suicide using the Bible!  But in each instance, when I lifted a verse out from its context, I taught the wrong thing and therefore arrived at the wrong conclusion.

This is what Robert Morris does. Here’s why. Let’s take a closer look at the context of 1 Corinthians.

The Corinthians had allowed the entire world system in which they existed to infiltrate their assembly.  For example, they were all hung up with human philosophies (1 Cor. 1-4). They had a hero worship cult just like their society did (1 Cor. 3). They were involved in terrible, gross, sexual immorality (1 Cor. 5-6).  They were suing each other in the court (1 Cor. 6). They had fouled up the home and marriage and misevaluated that whole thing (1 Cor. 7).  They were all confused about pagan feasts and idolatry and things offered to idols (1 Cor. 8-10).  They had goofed up the proper place of women in the church (1 Cor. 11). They had misconstrued the whole dimension of spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12). And most importantly, they had lost hold of the one great thing, love (1 Cor. 13).  They had let the entire mass of the Satanic system that existed in their society infiltrate the church.  And once it came in, in with it came pagan style of religion.  This church was therefore, carnal (fleshly) to its core (1 Cor. 3:1-3).

So then, when you read 1 Corinthians 14, do not look at it as as words of commendation, but instead see it as words of correction. Paul is not encouraging them to do, he is exhorting them to stop!

Robert Morris does not take the time to educate his people about the importance of examining the context in which a passage is found.

Another thing Robert Morris strangely leaves out is verse 1 of chapter 14. He reads verse 2 without reading verse 1. Here is how verse 1 reads: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.”

Two things Paul exhorts the Corinthians to do in order to correct their carnal practices. First, follow or pursue love, and second, eagerly desire the edifying gifts, such as prophecy (preaching and teaching). In other words, as to their motive for using their spiritual gift, make love the dominant factor. As to the means of edifying or building up the church, eagerly desire the use of prophecy.

Now with this in mind, let’s go to verse 2: For (or because) anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people (in order to build them up) but to God (who needs no building up). Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.  

Paul is using a little sarcasm in this passage. Here is what he is saying: “Hey, the very ones you need to be building up are the people in your church. But how can they be built up since you are speaking to them in an unintelligible tongue? Yet the one person who does not need to be built up is God. So why are you speaking to Him?”  Instead of speaking words of intelligence to those in the church in order to build them up, Satan has you speaking words that have no sense to it, and then on top of that, Satan has you thinking that you are speaking to God which is far better.

It has always been God’s plan to build up the church in love (Eph. 4:16). Love when it is properly used, builds up (1 Cor. 8:1).  Instead, these Christians were enjoying building themselves up privately.

“But Pastor Rich, 1 Corinthians 14:4 says this:  “Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves.” Again, this is Paul speaking sarcasm.

Let me show you. If it is true, that those who speak (pray) in tongues edifies themselves, listen to what Paul says in verse 18: “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.”  

LOL! Again, he is using sarcasm to confront their faulty thinking. “Hey, if you really believe that speaking in an unknown tongue builds you up, then thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you!  Woooohoooo!”

But then, not wanting to over do it on the sarcasm, Paul adds a serious point in verse 19: “But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.”

You see, Paul is not commending them, he is correcting them using sarcasm to prove a point. You can only get this by looking carefully at the context of the book in order to taste its flavor.

I have used the same passages that Robert Morris has used, except I used the verses in keeping with the context of the book of 1 Corinthians. This was a very carnal church!   This needs to be understood when interpreting properly 1 Corinthians 14.

End of Part 2