ListenDaily - 16 February 2009; WDJS? (What did Jesus say?)
Speaking in tongues...What is the role of the speaker? The hearer? God?
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:15-18 (find these or any other passages at www.Biblegateway.org)
This is an intriguing passage, some debate that it should not be included. There is a note in most Bibles referring to that debate. And the idea of snake handling is one that puts most people off.
Me too.
But let us look at what Jesus is really saying here; are these promises or commandments or what?
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." This is a commandment. Period.
"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." This is a promise and a certainty.
" And these signs will accompany..." The word 'accompany' here is an important one to note. Jesus did not say 'all believers will...', rather He said that these signs would go along with the new church. And the book of Acts gives examples of these things. Acts 28 documents Paul being attacked by a snake and suffering no ill effects. Note also that Paul did not go after the snake to prove anything, rather that God protected him from the unsolicited snake attack.
I also have to wonder this; when Jesus said "...they will speak in new tongues..." is it implicit that He meant 'tongues' only as we have come to think about them? Remember, the 'tongues' at Pentecost were not a spiritual language, but languages that enabled all human listeners to understand the Good News being preached, without interpretation.
Maybe Jesus meant one, maybe the other, maybe both. I do not know. One thing I do know; the multitude of letters I have received on this topic have revealed divisions in churches over this 'speaking in tongue'. And Jesus said "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Period.
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Questions:
1. What thoughts or feelings does this reading raise?
2. Have you ever seen a difference between someone's teaching and the Scriptures?
3. What do you do about that?
INTERESTING THOUGHTS:
"We are the Bibles the world is reading;
We are the creeds the world is needing;
We are the sermons the world is heeding."
Billy Graham
"Our seminaries today are turning out dead men."
Leonard Ravenhill
"Courage is contagious.
When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened."
Billy Graham
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