Better off selecting seashells than 'tongue-talking'

On the word “language,” author Roy Blount Jr. writes in his book Alphabet Juice, “I trust that you get your back up as I do when this word is used pejoratively or dismissively. As in, ‘At the moment the two sides are primarily talking language.’ Until you’ve agreed on the language, you haven’t agreed on anything, unless you’re in love or something, and even then . . . you’re going to be surprised.”

What is so astounding is that Christian Believers in Corinth literally had the supernatural capacity to communicate in other languages they had never known, studied or learned.

“Tongues are not ‘Hastalashanda . . . ’; it’s not that at all,” says Jordan.  “You know what God was doing at Corinth? He was raising up in that Gentile church a testimony to those Jews who lived right next door about what was going on. Paul tells us the gift of tongues was a sign to those unbelievers next door!

“Can you imagine?! I mean, ‘Raise the windows, John, we’re going to have a tongues meeting here so the people next door can know God’s over here and not over there.’ That’s literally what was going on.

“What were tongues in the Gentile assembly at Corinth a sign to Israel of? Well, look at I Corinthians 14:20-21 and he’ll tell you: [20] Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
[21] In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.

“He says, ‘There’s something you need to understand about tongues and prophecy.’ What he’s talking about is Isaiah tells Israel that one day God is going to send in the Assyrians, who are going to take that northern kingdom captive, and He’s going to speak to them in other tongues with men of other languages.

“The Gentiles are going to come in there and take that northern kingdom and carry the Jews away into that 'fifth cycle of judgment,' taking them captive. And even in that punishment and judgment they’re not going to hear Him.

“You know what happens when God speaks to Israel in the tongues of the nations? It’s an indication and a sign of His judgment upon them. He’s left them.

“Tongues were God’s gift to Israel and those signs belonged to them. Where had they gone? The Gentiles had them. What does that tell Israel? God isn’t at your house anymore. God’s done gone over next door on a visit.

*****

“In prophecy, the Gentile was to go be like the Jew. In Paul’s ministry, the Jew has to go be like the Gentile. What does that mean? The only hope there was for any Jew, any unsaved Israeli out there in those synagogues, was in the gospel of the grace of God preached by Paul.

“The Gentiles centuries before had been cut off and now the Jew had to come and take his position with the ‘chief of sinners’ in a cut off position like a Gentile and trust the Savior of cut- off sinners.

"If the Jew claimed his ‘special status’ and said, ‘I’ll sit at my special table and eat of my special food,’ there was nothing on the table for him. In fact, the table had been packed up and put away and wasn’t available.

“That’s what the situation was and it’s important to understand that in the Acts period Paul presses his Gentile apostleship in such a way as to provoke these unsaved Israelis out there to listen to what he’s saying and to DESIRE to trust the message he’s preaching.

“Look at I Corinthians 1:21-23: [21] For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
[22] For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
[23] But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

“You see that? It said the Jews REQUIRE. They don’t SEEK a sign; they won’t believe without one! They require a sign! For those Jews next door to believe that God left and went over there, they wouldn’t believe it without a sign. Jesus says in John 4:48, ‘I know you won’t believe except you see a sign.’

*****

“Tell me something, over here in the Corinthian church, they start speaking in tongues. I can tell you how to learn to speak in tongues. Take you about a half-hour of concentration. Go home tonight, be sure you explain to your spouse what you’re doing so she doesn’t put a net over you.

“I mean, you learned at one time in your life to say, ‘Sister Susie selects seashells by the seashore.’ Sit down quietly, get concentration and just take the expression, ‘Tie the bow tie, untie the bow tie.’

“Just keep doing it real fast until you can articulate and you will develop a word; a way of saying it where it will be different from how anybody else will say it and you will have your gift. Now, I kid you not, that is the way. You know how I know that? Because a prominent tongues-talker wrote a book and that’s what the book said. You say, ‘That’s weird.’ It’s an acquired ability.”