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Archive for August, 2010

Q. What is the Biblical meaning of speaking in tongues? Is it fruitful? Is it real when I hear people doing it or is it just babel?
Spiritual gifts are for the edification of the church (1 cor 14:12). So any spiritual gift that is given is for the external manifestation of ministry to build the kingdom of God. We are all given spiritual gifts and we should not covet others’ but pray to ask God to reveal our own so that we may serve our part in God’s design.

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. “

Gifts are given so that we may complete the work that God has given us. This is why we should not covet others’ gifts, because each part has its own function and eternal end.

Speaking in tongues is a sign for unbelievers not believers (1 cor 14:22). The use of tongues biblically is always applied for the spirit to remove the language barrier between people so that those who do not speak the language may hear and understand the gospel. The perfect example of this is in Acts 2 at Pentecost. Many of the believers were in the upper room and they all started to speak in tongues, the direct effect of them speaking in tongues was that Jews from “every nation under heaven” heard the gospel in their native tongue/language.

Paul gives the tongues rule book in 1 Corinthians 14. First, tongues must be interpreted if it is in a church setting so the edification can come. Paul says in vs. 16, how can i say Amen, if i don’t know what was said. Also if an unbeliever walks into a service and hears the tongues without interpretation he would think everyone is crazy(vs.23). Tongues are not a spiritual aptitude to know that we are believers, we are all given spiritual gifts and it is in the manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit that we know believers, not in a specific gift.

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Q. How does the “problem of evil” resolve itself in the Christian faith?  If God created everything, does that mean He also created evil?

When God created the heavens and the earth, everything He made was good (Genesis 1:31).  There was no trace of evil – no shortcoming in anything God had made.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, enjoyed uninhibited communion with God in the garden He had given to them.  They loved Him of their own volition, and obeyed Him freely.  The Bible does not define exactly how long this continued, but at some point, evil entered this world through the lie of the serpent (Satan) to Eve.  By placing doubt into her mind as to whether God really meant what He said, he convinced her that she would be like God if she were to disobey Him.  She believed him, and ate of the only fruit in the garden which God strictly forbade.  Adam, being at her side, failed to protect her in her moment of temptation, and ate the fruit as well.  At this moment, Genesis tells us “their eyes were opened,” and they made coverings to hide their bodies (Genesis 3:7).

At the heart of the “problem of evil” is the element of human freedom.*  The Bible speaks often about role of human choice in believing and obeying him (Romans 1:18-23), and emphasizes the need for us to make a decision about whether we will follow him.  An objection which is often leveled against Christianity is that God is a cosmic tyrant who says “you do it my way, or no way at all.”  In reality, God has always given us two options: His or our own.  C. S. Lewis wrote that there are two types of people: There are those who kneel before God and say “thy will be done,” and those who refuse to bend their knee to Him, to whom God then says, “very well.  Thy will be done.”  Freedom to choose is a mark of humanness. As God chose to love us before we were born, so we, being made in His image and likeness, also have the choice to love Him. But He will not coerce us, and this is evidenced in the fact that even our first parents had the choice to believe God, or to believe the lie.

The answer then, is that God created everything, including human freedom, and humanity chose to abuse this gift.  Thus He did not create evil, and He is not responsible for evil.  Evil is the result of human beings abusing the gift of free will. And free will, though it carries the capacity to be used for evil, is also the only way in which true love can exist.  If we did not have the freedom to choose evil, then neither would we have the freedom of choosing to truly love.
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*As an aside, “the problem of evil” is often used as an attack on faith.  However, evil is an even bigger problem for the atheist than it is for the Christian.  When we posit that there is real evil, we also assume that there is real good.  But this distinction requires a real, objective moral law on the basis of which to differentiate between good and evil.  This moral law must have a source, and that source is God, as it is absurd to think that humanity would ever develope such a universal, innate moral compass by chance.  Thus the problem of evil does more to bolster the claim for God than to dispel it.

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