The Study of the Holy Spirit
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WordExplain
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Pneumatology
The Study of the Holy Spirit by WordExplain |
"But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner." 1 Corinthians 14:40 |
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K. What rules must be observed in regard to
speaking in tongues and prophesying? In the next section (1
Cor. 14:26-36) Paul outlined rules for verbal
utterances in the church. In the first
sub-section he gave rules in regard to speaking in tongues and prophesying (1
Cor. 14:26-33), and in the second, rules in regard to
women speaking (1
Cor. 14:34-36).
Let us examine both sub-sections in order. 1. Rule #1:
Let all things be done for edification.
This is the first of three over-riding principles that Paul stated as
governing a church service. Paul wrote,
“26What is the outcome then, brethren? When you
assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue,
has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification” (1 Cor.
14:26). Paul
listed a number of speaking events that might occur in a typical church service
at Corinth. Someone might sing a psalm
(or perhaps read one); another might wish to teach the church something from
Scripture that God had helped him discover; another might receive a prophecy
from God to communicate to the assembly; another might speak in a foreign
language; another might translate the foreign language. The governing policy in the church service is
that whatever speaking is done, the goal must be that the church is built
up. If the church could not be built up,
silence was mandatory (1 Cor.
14:28). 2. Rule #2:
Speaking in tongues must be orderly and intelligible (1 Cor.
14:27-28). This
rule is a deduction from the sub-set of rules which follow: a. Sub-rule #2a:
Only two, or at the most three people can speak in tongues in any given
church service (1 Cor.
14:27). (I
have seen this rule violated in a church service.) b. Sub-rule #2b:
If someone speaks in a tongue, he can only do so one at a time. There cannot be multiple people speaking in
tongues at the same time (1 Cor.
14:27). (I
have seen this rule violated in a church service.) c. Sub-rule #2c:
If anyone speaks in a tongue, another must translate his utterance into
a language that people in the audience understand (1 Cor.
14:27). (I
have seen this rule violated in a church service.) d. Sub-rule #2d.
This rule is a corollary to #2c.
If no one in the church service has the ability to translate the
language in which a tongues-speaker might speak (this would be a Spirit-given
ability to translate, not a self-learned ability), the one wishing to speak in
a tongue must remain silent. In that event,
he should sit there silently and in his mind speak to himself and to God (1 Cor.
14:28). (I
have seen this rule violated in a church service.) There are a couple of implications here: (1) A potential speaker in a tongue must
determine ahead of time, before a church service begins, whether or not someone
else in the service who has the ability to translate a tongue is present. If no one with that ability is present, there
will be no speaking in a tongue in that service. (2) Someone who speaks in a tongue has
control over his own mind and faculties.
Biblical speaking in a tongue is not a frenzied seizure during which the
speaker gives up control of his own body to some force external to
himself. This is a rational process, not
an irrational one. 3. Rule #3:
Only two or three prophets should speak in any given church service (1 Cor.
14:29).
Prophetic utterances are to be distinguished from teaching. A prophetic utterance is a fresh, immediate
revelation from God. Teaching is a
studied, mediate explanation or exhortation based upon Scripture or prophecy
already revealed. 4. Rule #4:
When prophets speak, the others (presumably other prophets) in the
audience must sit in judgment on what he says to determine if his message is
from God or not (1 Cor.
14:29). a. In support of the view that “the others” refers
to other prophets rather than to other people generally in the service, let me
offer two evidences. (1) Paul used the
plural of allos, meaning others of the same
kind, i.e., other prophets. He did not
use the plural of heteros, meaning others of a different kind, i.e.
non-prophets. (2) Furthermore, Paul used
the article “the” as in “the others.”
This means he was being more specific than generic. If there are three prophets who speak one at
a time in a service, the other two are to “pass judgment” while he speaks. b. What does it mean to “pass judgment”? Paul used the verb diakrino, meaning, in this context,
“evaluating the difference between things discern,
distinguish, differentiate” (Friberg Analytical Lexicon of the New
Testament). The other prophets were to
distinguish between authentic and inauthentic messages. Paul used the corresponding noun, diakrisis, in 1 Cor.
12:10, “distinguishing” (of spirits). It was of critical importance to Paul to know
whether messages were actually from God or not.
They must always be evaluated.
After all, false prophets and false teachers did plague the early church
as they do the modern day church (Matt.
7:15; 24:11; 24:24; Mark 13:22; Luke 6:26; Acts 20:28-32; 2 Pet. 2:1; 1 John
4:1). Paul
would later warn this same church to beware of false apostles. He would remind them that even Satan
masquerades as “an angel of light,” so it is no small wonder “if his servants
also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (2 Cor.
11:13-15)! c. Rule #4 implies the possibility that someone
who states he has a prophecy from God
actually doesn’t. Any prophecy must be subject to scrutiny to
see if, in fact, it is genuine. Does it
meet the standard of previously revealed truth? 5. Rule #5:
“But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one
must keep silent” (1 Cor.
14:30). If
another (allos) prophet receives a
revelation from God while he is seated in the service, the prophet who is
speaking must quit speaking and allow the prophet with the most recent
revelation to speak. Presumably in this
case the first prophet had received his revelation from God at some time prior
to the service. A second prophet, having
received a revelation from God during the service, had “the right of way,” so
to speak. a. Sub-rule #5a:
“For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may
be exhorted;” The purpose of all
prophesying one by one is so that all in the service, including all the
prophets, might learn something and be urged to obey (1 Cor.
14:31). b. Sub-rule #5b:
“and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets;” Unlike pagan ecstatic utterance (1 Cor.
12:2), in which the speaker was seized by another
demonic spirit over which the speaker had no control, both prophets and
speakers in a tongue retained control over their own actions. Each could speak or desist from speaking at
will according to the appropriateness of the moment (1 Cor.
14:32). c. Warren Wiersbe, in his commentary (Be Wise) on this passage, related the
following incident. “I once shared a
Bible conference with a speaker who had ‘poor terminal facilities.’ He often
went fifteen to twenty minutes past his deadline, which meant, of course, that
I had to condense my messages at the last minute. He excused himself to me by
saying, ‘You know, when the Holy Spirit takes over, you can’t worry about
clocks!’” Wiersbe’s reply was to quote
from 1 Cor.
14:32, “The spirits of prophets are subject to
prophets.” Wiersbe went on to conclude,
“Our own self-control is one of the evidences that the Spirit is indeed at work
in the meeting.” 6. Rule #6:
“for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches
of the saints” (1 Cor.
14:33). This
is the second of three over-riding principles that Paul stated as governing a
church service. It applies particularly
to the idea that only one person speaks at a time in a church service. If a church does not adhere to that rule,
there is cacophony, confusion, and uproar.
Church services are not to be that way! 7. Rules in regard to women speaking (1 Cor.
14:34-36). This
paragraph presents the reader with some problematic issues. Was Paul forbidding any and all female
speaking in a church service (the “No-Speech” position)? Or were his comments restricted to what he
had just stated in the immediately preceding context (the “Restricted Speech”
position)? This is a difficult passage. At this point in my study, I opt for the
“Restricted Speech” position. a. The
Restricted Speech position: Paul
had earlier implied that a woman could both pray and prophesy, provided she did
not do so in a manner that dishonored her head (meaning, likely, both her own
physical head and her metaphorical head – her husband) (1 Cor.
11:5-6). A
woman praying in a church service does not wield authority over men. When God uses a prophetess (Judges
4:1-9; Acts 21:8-9), the emphasis is upon God’s authority that is
being wielded, not upon the woman’s own personal authority. Apparently, when Paul stated, “The women are
to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to
subject themselves, just as the Law also says” (1 Cor.
14:34), he was not forbidding any and all speaking
whatsoever. Rather, he was prohibiting
any women, whether from the general population of the church or from among the
prophetesses, from sitting in judgment on the prophets in the church (1 Cor.
14:29). This
might involve asking some questions and asserting one’s own authority. That Paul did not want. Instead of attempting to control prophesying
occurring in the church, women, if they had questions, were to ask their own
husbands at home in order to avoid impropriety (1 Cor.
14:35). This
seems to me to be the best understanding of what Paul was legislating. b. Whereas prophesying rests upon the greater
authority of God, teaching employs the lesser authority of the human
teacher. It is apparently for that
reason that, while Paul allowed women to pray and to prophesy in church (1 Cor.
11:5), he did not permit them to teach in
coeducational settings (1 Tim.
2:11-14). On
the other hand, Paul presumed that women would teach their own children (1 Tim.
2:15) and exhorted older women to teach younger
women (Titus
2:3-5). c. The No
Speech position: If one
takes the position that Paul’s prohibition against female speaking in a church
service (1 Cor.
14:34-35) forbids any and all female speaking, then he
must come to some alternative conclusions about the women praying and
prophesying of which Paul spoke in 1
Corinthians 11:5. Either
one must conclude, as John MacArthur has done (MacArthur’s New Testament Commentary: 1 Corinthians), (i) that the
praying and prophesying of which Paul spoke was public, but not in the church,
or he must conclude, as Charles Ryrie has done (Ryrie Study Bible), (ii) that the female prophesying and praying in
1 Cor.
11:5 actually occurred in the church, but did so
without God’s blessing. It was a bad
practice that also happened to include impropriety in dress code. 1) With all respects to John MacArthur, I do not
understand how one can conclude that public prophesying and praying by females
outside the church is legitimate but public prophesying and praying by females
inside the church is illegitimate.
Furthermore, how can it be argued that a church service is not
public? If praying and prophesying by a
woman in public is admissible, it is admissible in a church service because a
church service is public. Additionally,
it appears that 1
Corinthians chapters 11-14 are all about order and disorder in public
worship. The first section deals with
impropriety in dress code as it reflects erroneous theology on the part of
female worshipers (1 Cor.
11:1-16). The
second section deals with the church’s dysfunctional observance of the Lord’s
Table (1 Cor.
11:17). The
third section is a primer on the importance and distribution of spiritual gifts
as they relate to the diversity yet unity of the Body of Christ. This section (1 Cor.
12) was a necessary foundation for a discussion
of the distribution and importance of spiritual gifts and, eventually, how they
would impact public worship. The fourth
section was an elevation of love as a better reflection of God’s values than
the use of speaking in tongues or prophecy in public worship (1 Cor.
13). The
fifth section (1 Cor.
14) included a discourse on the superior worth of
prophecy above speaking in tongues in public worship (1 Cor.
14:1-19); a revelation of the judgmental significance
of speaking in tongues (1 Cor.
14:20-25); and finally a set of rules to correct abuses
in speaking in tongues and prophesying in public worship (1 Cor.
14:26-40). In my
judgment the burden of the proof lies with MacArthur to demonstrate that the
prophesying and praying of women in a public church service was not that which was being scrutinized by
the Apostle Paul. I do not believe he
has met that burden of proof. 2) With all respects to Dr. Ryrie, if female
prophesying and praying in the church was an illegitimate practice, why did
Paul not comment on it in 1
Corinthians 11:1-16? This
would have been the perfect place to do so.
Under Ryrie’s interpretation, Paul made considerable effort to rectify a
dress code (no feminine hair covering), but left untouched a much more
egregious sin, female usurpation of male authority by praying and prophesying
in the church service. d. If one takes the No-Speech position – that Paul
was forbidding all female speech in the assembly, then female public praying is
forbidden, female public prophesying is forbidden, female public teaching is
forbidden, female public speaking in tongues is forbidden, and female public
interpretation of speaking in tongues is forbidden. e. As is with many difficult passages, any
position taken has its own difficulties.
The difficulty with the Restricted Speech position I have chosen is that
all prophets, whether male or female, do convey a certain amount of personal
authority. Certainly Barak accorded
Deborah authority (Judges
4:4-10), although in all fairness, Deborah was not
only a prophetess, but also the judge of Israel, occupying a role similar to
that of Margaret Thatcher in Britain some years ago. So neither position is without its
difficulties. f. Assuming the Restricted Speech position, women
are not to stand in judgment over other prophets, and are not to ask any
questions in the church service about the authenticity of the prophets’
messages (1 Cor.
14:34). By
way of application, women should not question the authenticity of a Bible
teacher or preacher’s message in public either.
If they wish to inquire about something that is being taught, they
should ask their own husbands for clarification at home (1 Cor.
14:35). It is
easy for a woman to change from asking questions publicly for informational
purposes to asking questions in order to teach her own viewpoint. I have seen that happen, and it does a
disservice to the woman, to her own husband, to the teacher, and to the
church. There are no winners. 8. As Paul neared the end of his discussion of
spiritual gifts, he chided the Corinthian church for taking the position that
they were the ultimate authority on revelation (1 Cor.
14:36). If
any one among them considered himself a prophet or a spiritual person, he was
to recognize that what Paul was writing had the authority of none other than
Jesus’ Himself (1 Cor.
14:37)! If
anyone of their number did not recognize what Paul had written, that person was
not to be recognized (1 Cor.
14:38)! 9. Paul concluded his whole discussion in 1
Corinthians 14 by encouraging these Corinthians to desire
prophesy instead of tongues because prophecy produced edification. At the same he ordered them not to forbid
speaking in tongues (1 Cor.
14:39). Paul
concluded with his third of three over-riding principles that governed a church
service – “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner” (1 Cor.
14:40). 10. In summary, here are three over-riding
principles which must be observed in the conduct of a church service. All the various rules Paul laid down fit
under one or more of these three categories: a. “Let all things be done for edification.” (1 Cor.
14:26). b. “God is not a
God of confusion but of peace …” (1 Cor.
14:33). c. “But all things must be done properly and in an
orderly manner.” (1 Cor.
14:40). Go to a Chart of Speaking in Tongues in the Book of Acts
The Significance of Speaking in Tongues Part K: Rules for Speaking in Tongues and Prophesying Prepared by
James T. Bartsch July, 2009 Published
Online by WordExplain Email Contact: jbartsch@wordexplain.com This study is based on, and the links to Scripture reference the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. (www.Lockman.org) (Scripture
quotations taken from the NASB.
Used by Permission.)
Updated August 10, 2009
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