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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +

+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +

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… ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

The message of 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 that we have been considering is that There are several spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit gave for the benefit of the church. Consequently, we have considered six of these and so we proceed with the seventh spiritual gift.

The seventh spiritual gift is concerned with distinguishing of spirits as stated in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:10 to another distinguishing between spirits. Literally, the Greek reads discernings of spirits. This seventh spiritual gift is related to the sixth although it is not explicitly stated. But whatever this seventh gift is, there is a connection between it and gift of prophecy because there is such a thing as false prophets. The existence of false prophets requires that believers be able to recognize such individuals. Thus, it is not incidental that this seventh spiritual gift is listed following the gift of prophecy. This gift, whatever it is, should be recognized as including a guard rail for the gift of prophecy since prophecy is related to spirits.

Be that as it may, to understand what this gift is, we need to consider the word “spirits” but before we do, we should recognize that the word “distinguishing” is translated from a Greek noun (diakrisis) that may mean “distinguishing, differentiation” in the sense of “the ability to evaluate and judge” as it is used in differentiating good from evil in Hebrews 5:14:

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

The word may mean “quarrel” in the sense of engagement in verbal conflict because of differing viewpoints as that is the sense the word is used in Apostle Paul’s instruction regarding debatable matters in Romans 14:1:

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.

The verbal phrase of the NIV without passing judgment on disputable matters is more literally not for quarrels about opinions. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:10, it is used in the sense of “distinguishing,” that is, having the ability to evaluate and decide or make judgment about something. Thus, the word has the sense of being able to discern or evaluate between spirits involved in conveying a message or any activity purported to come from God as in the phrase distinguishing between spirits.

What does the apostle mean by “spirits?” This may seem to some to be a trivial question until one understands that commentators have given various interpretations of what “spirits” as used by Apostle Paul means. Take for example, a commentator takes the word “spirits” to be the same as “prophetic utterances” and another take the word as a reference to “the spirits of people and evil spirits.” Because of the various interpretations given by commentators, it would be necessary to examine the word “spirits” as used in the Greek NT.

The word “spirits” is translated from a Greek word (pneuma) that may mean “wind”, as in the description by our Lord of one that is born again in John 3:8:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

The word may mean “breath” as Apostle Paul used it to describe the manner of the destruction of the future lawless one by the Lord Jesus in 2 Thessalonians 2:8:

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

The word may mean “spirit” as that which animates or gives life to the body, as the word is used to indicate that without it the body is lifeless in James 2:26:

It may mean “spirit” as part of human personality with various nuances. For example, it may refer to a person’s “very self” or “ego” as it is used by Apostle Paul in describing the assurance of the Holy Spirit to a believer regarding salvation in Romans 8:16:

According to the standard Greek English lexicon of BDAG, the sentence The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit is better translated the Spirit (of God) bears witness to our very self. The word may refer to the immaterial part of a person in contrast to the material body, as Apostle Paul used it in his appeal to the Corinthians for holy living in 2 Corinthians 7:1:

Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

Under this meaning of the immaterial part of a person, it could refer to the source and seat of insight, feeling, and will, generally as the representative part of human inner life so that it may mean “mind.” It is this meaning that is used in Apostle Paul’s description of his state when he could not find Titus, as we read in 2 Corinthians 2:13:

I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia.

The phrase peace of mind is literally rest in my spirit. Still in this meaning, it could refer to “spiritual state, state of mind, disposition”, as it is used to describe the disposition that a believing wife should have to be considered beautiful in 1 Peter 3:4:

Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

As suggested in the standard Greek English lexicon of BDAG, the phrase quiet spirit may be translated quiet disposition. The Greek word may mean “spirit” as an independent noncorporeal being, in contrast to a being that can be perceived by the physical senses. Consequently, it is used for created spirit-beings whether their function is good or bad. Apostle Paul used it to describe harmful spirits that will attempt to deceive people, as he presented in 1 Timothy 4:1:

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

The word may mean God’s being as controlling influence, with focus on association with humans hence means “Spirit.” Accordingly, Apostle Paul used it to describe God the Holy Spirit using different phrases. For example, he described the Holy Spirt as the Spirit of God in Philippians 3:3:

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—

He described the Holy Spirit as “Spirit of Jesus Christ” in Philippians 1:19:

for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

A person may say that the two passages in Philippians that we have cited do not decisively imply that the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Jesus Christ is a description of the Holy Spirit. If that is the case, let me refer to a passage that leaves no doubt that the Holy Spirit may be described as the Spirt of Jesus. Luke reports how the Holy Spirit kept Apostle Paul and his team from preaching the gospel in a specified region as we read in Acts 16:6:

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.

It is the Holy Spirit that kept Apostle Paul and his team from preaching in the province of Asia but then Luke reports that it was the Spirit of Jesus that would not allow the apostle and his team from entering the province of Asia as we read in Acts 16:7:

When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

Mysia was an area in northwest Asia Minor, part of the province of Asia. Thus, the Spirit of Jesus in verse 7 is in parallelism to the Holy Spirit in verse 6. Therefore, there is no doubt that the Spirit of Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:10, the Greek word is used with the sense of supernatural being that includes God the Holy Spirit and the other created supernatural beings that are antagonistic to God the creator that we often refer to as demons or evil spirits. In effect, the plural “spirits” the apostle used is a reference to Holy Spirit and evil spirits. It is true that there are good spirits such as angels as we may gather from Hebrews 1:14:

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

But the apostle could not have included them in the word “spirits” in the passage we are studying because we have no record of angels speaking through human voices or inspiring humans to speak in contrast to evil spirits as we will note later. The point is that “spirits” as used in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:10 distinguishing between spirits refers to Holy Spirit and evil spirits.

The words we have considered enable us to state that the gift of distinguishing spirits is the ability that Holy Spirit grants certain individuals to recognize the source of any proclamation that comes from a person that claims to be speaking under inspiration. This gift is, as we have stated, includes a guard rail for the gift of prophecy. This is because when we speak in a general sense what we say is ultimately from God that may involve either the Holy Spirit or a created spirit other than the Holy Spirit. The idea that what comes out of our mouths is from a source other than us is recognized in the question of Job recorded in Job 26:4:

Job’s question implies that Job does not accept Bildad’s words as originating within himself but hears them flowing out of his mouth like inspiration from a source other than him. The point is that we should recognize that when a person utters anything that such utterance comes from a source other than the person, so to speak. This fact is demonstrated during the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus where evil spirits took possession of individuals so they uttered things that a human being could not ordinarily know. Take for example, an evil spirit speaking through a man recognized the true identity of Jesus Christ as we read in Mark 1:23–24:

²³Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ²⁴“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

Certainly, it was not the man speaking from his knowledge, but he spoke as the evil spirit hijacked his vocal cord. A human could not have known the true identity of Jesus as He has not fully disclosed that during the early part of His earthly ministry. Another example of an evil spirit hijacking the voice of a human being, so the individual utters something that does not originate from the individual is the incident where a man beat the seven sons of Sceva as Luke narrates in Acts 19:14–16:

¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁶Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

The question “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” must have been posed through the mouth of the man that had demon inside of him since he was the one that carried out the beating. What this means is that when a person claims to prophesy, it is important to determine the source behind such utterance. A person could prophesy when controlled by the Holy Spirit, but a person could also prophesy falsely when controlled by a spirit other than the Holy Spirit. This is illustrated in the prophecy of the prophets in the court of Ahab that was intended to deceive him to go to war to die as we read in 1 Kings 22:21–22:

²¹ Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ²² “‘By what means?’ the LORD asked. “‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. “‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’

The gift of distinguishing spirits helps the person who has it to recognize the source of any proclamation that involves anything spiritual. Apostle Paul certainly had this gift so that he was able to discern that the spirit speaking through a slave girl was not the Holy Spirit although the girl’s utterance was complimentary to the apostle, but the compliments were from an evil spirit as we read in Acts 16:17–18:

¹⁷This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” ¹⁸She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

It would seem that the girl who spoke through a spirit was doing a good thing by telling people that Apostle Paul and his team had the message necessary for salvation but that is not the case since it was an evil spirit that spoke through her. The apostle was not going to have anything to do with an evil spirit and so he drove it away from the girl. It is our argument that the apostle had the gift of distinguishing between spirits that he was able to recognize that the spirit by which the girl spoke was not a good spirit.

Anyway, the use of the gift of distinguishing spirits is not the same as the responsibility assigned to all believers of being able to recognize false prophets and teachers as the Holy Spirit specified through Apostle John in 1 John 4:1–2:

¹Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ²This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

The reason we say this is because Apostle John gives the criterion of determining whether a prophet is true or false based on the acknowledgment of the person. This test is similar to the one Apostle Paul provided to help to recognize the Spirit from God in 1 Corinthians 12:3:

Therefore I tell you 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.

The point is that the seventh gift of distinguishing between spirits is a gift that enables the one with it to be able to discern the source of any proclamation that is claimed to be inspired or prophetic. This brings us to the eighth spiritual gift.

The eighth spiritual gift is related to speaking in tongues as we read in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:10 to another speaking in different kinds of tongues or literally to another, kinds of tongues since the word “speaking” of the NIV although a good addition in the English translation does not explicitly appear in the Greek. As we have commented previously, the phrase to another is a reminder that not everyone has this spiritual gift in contrast to what some Christian groups teach. That aside, our concern is to understand what this gift means since there is disagreement among well-meaning believers regarding this gift. The gift has caused many problems among believers today as it did in Corinth when the apostle penned the epistle we are studying. Confusion among some believers concerning what this gift means is in part because of how to understand what “tongue” in the NT means. The problem boils down to whether “tongue” is to be understood as a foreign language or a spiritual language. To help in interpreting what “tongue” means we need to consider first some key words followed by factors we find in the Scripture regarding tongues. We begin with the consideration of the two key words in the phrase to another speaking in different kinds of tongues that we are considering.

The expression “different kinds of” in the NIV is translated from a Greek word (genos) that may mean “nation, people” as the word is used by Apostle Paul in reference to Israel as he identified himself as a Hebrew as we read in Philippians 3:5:

circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;

The word may mean “offspring” as it is used by Apostle Paul to quote what Athenian poets said as recorded in Acts 17:28:

‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

The word may mean “family” as the word is used in Stephen’s sermon to describe Joseph’s family that joined him in Egypt as stated in Acts 7:13:

On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family.

The word may mean “kind” as it is used to describe a class of demons that can only be expelled by prayer as we read in Mark 9:29:

In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:10, it means “kind,” that is, a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality. This means that we have that which can be distinguished by some characteristic when the apostle used the word “tongues.”

The word “tongues” is translated from a Greek word (glōssa) that means “tongue.” The tongue may refer literally to a body part as an organ of speech as what was loosed to enable Zechariah to speak just before the naming of his son, John the Baptist, as we read in Luke 1:64:

Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God.

They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

The word may mean “language” unique to a people as it is used by those from other nations that were present on the Day of Pentecost to acknowledge hearing the disciples speak in their various languages the great things God has done when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place as we read in Acts 2:11:

(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

To remove any misunderstanding of what tongues means in this passage some of our modern English versions rendered the phrase our own tongues as our own languages as we find, for example, in the NET among others. It is in the sense of “language” that “tongue” is used to describe different peoples of the nations that are redeemed as we read in Revelation 5:9:

And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

The English versions that are prone to literal translation such as the Authorized Version (KJV) or the NASB translated the word “tongue” instead of “language” in this passage in Revelation. The Greek word may mean “ecstatic language,” that is, “an utterance outside the normal patterns of intelligible speech and therefore requiring special interpretation” as the word is used to describe those who received the Holy Spirit when Apostle Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius and those assembled in his house as we read in Acts 10:46:

It is in the sense of “ecstatic language” that the word is used to describe one of the activities of those in Ephesus that received the Holy Spirit when Apostle Paul placed his hands on them as stated in Acts 19:6:

When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

The passages we have cited imply that in our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:10, the Greek word translated “tongues” could mean either “ecstatic language,” that is, an utterance having the form of language but requiring an inspired interpreter for an understanding of the content or “foreign, unintelligible human utterances.” These two meanings imply that the apostle is concerned with either a spiritual language or foreign language. To help in interpreting what the apostle meant we have to consider a few factors.

First, speaking in tongues is an activity that is brought about by the Holy Spirit. The first reference to speaking in tongue is said to be according to what the Holy Spirit enabled to those involved to say, as we read in Acts 2:4:

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Apostle Paul indicates that speaking in tongues is a manifestation of the Spirit before he even mentioned it as we gather from the statement that preceded the list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:7:

Second, the first reference to speaking in tongues involved foreign languages unknown to the speaker but to some other persons Acts 2:6–11:

⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

The Jews and the Gentiles that gathered in Jerusalem certainly knew the common language of communication in Jerusalem at that time so one wonders why the Holy Spirit chose to enable the disciples to speak in the languages of other peoples. It is probably because that is the way the Holy Spirit wanted the hearers to recognize that He could enable people to speak a language they had not previously learned.

Third, the tongue Apostle Paul mentioned in Corinth is unintelligible to the speaker as implied in 1 Corinthians 14:14:

In addition, the tongue the apostle mentioned is unintelligible to the hearers as implied in what he says about praising God that involves tongue in 1 Corinthians 14:16:

If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying?

This third factor that we stated seemed to be conflicting to the second but that is not the case since the apparent conflict could be explained. The speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost involved a larger audience that comprised of people from different nations, so it was inevitable that there were people who heard their language being spoken by those the Holy Spirit gave utterances in different languages. However, the situation Apostle Paul mentioned takes place in a local church where it is conceived that people spoke one language and so the tongue the Holy Spirit gave would be unintelligible to both the speaker and hearers. This point is further underscored by the fact that the objects targeted or addressed in tongues in the day of Pentecost and local church are different. In the day of Pentecost, the objects targeted were people from the various nations present but in a local church that consisted of people with the same language, tongue is directed primarily to God as stated in 1 Corinthians 14:2:

For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.

By the way, according to what the apostle stated in 1 Corinthians 14:16 If you are praising God with your spirit, it can be surmised that the tongue that is unintelligible to the speaker involves praising God. Praising God involves saying something commendatory about Him and so would have been a part of the utterance of those who spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost since they declared the wonderful works of God as we read in a passage, we cited previously in Acts 2:11:

(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

Anyway, our explanation of the apparent conflict between our second factor and third enables us to recognize that the speaking in tongues in the day of Pentecost is not a different phenomenon from what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians. We say this because there are groups of Christians who take the view that the gift of tongues mentioned in Acts is different from that mentioned by the Apostle Paul that occurred in the church of Corinth. Those who hold this view teach that speaking in tongues mentioned in Acts is that which proves that a person is saved. In effect, they teach that if a person does not speak in tongue such a person is not saved although there is no record that all those who were saved on the day of Pentecost after Peter’s Sermon spoke in tongues. This notwithstanding, we have shown that there is no difference between the tongues mentioned in Acts and that mentioned by Apostle Paul.

Fourth, the subsequent mentions of speaking in tongues in Acts do not refer to any specific language spoken by those who exercised the gift or those who heard its exercise. The second reference to speaking in tongue is in the passage we cited previously, that is, Acts 10:45–46:

⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. ⁴⁶For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,

We should note that Apostle Peter certainly spoke to Cornelius and those gathered in his house in the common language of that time. Thus, when the believers who accompanied Peter heard those to whom Peter preached the gospel speak in tongues it must have been that they spoke in a language those present could not identify or uttered some unintelligible words as to state that they heard the people speak in tongues. The same situation applied in the third reference of speaking in tongues by those who responded to the gospel message through Paul’s preaching in the passage we cited previously, that is, in Acts 19:6:

When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

We are not informed of anyone hearing or understanding what the twelve men involved in the speaking in tongues said. However, the fact that they spoke in tongues and prophesied would suggest some form of ecstatic occurrence, especially as we have no mention of what they prophesied. Luke, the writer of this account must have witnessed something that enabled him to report that the men spoke in tongues and prophesied. What he observed is something ecstatic.

Fifth, Apostle Paul implies that tongue could refer to human language and spiritual language since he mentioned speaking in tongue along angelic language as we read in his conditional statement 1 Corinthians 13:1:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Of course, we do not know what language angels speak but for sure they communicate with each other and God. That we do not know of their language does not mean that it is not real. The reference to “tongues of angel” should be taken as real means of communication since the food that is real given to Israel in the desert is described as “food of angels” in Psalm 78:25:

The point of referencing this passage is simply to say that there must be “tongues of angels” that is real as the food Israel ate in the desert. Anyway, there must be such a thing as angelic language although we do not know what it is. Interestingly, the idea of angelic language is also referenced in the noncanonical book of the Testament of Job chapter 48:1-3:

¹Thus, when the one called Hemera arose, she wrapped around her own string just as her father said. ²* And she took on another heart— no longer minded toward earthly things—³* but she spoke ecstatically in the angelic dialect, sending up a hymn to God in accord with the hymnic style of the angels. And as she spoke ecstatically, she allowed “The Spirit” to be inscribed on her garment.

Anyway, we should recognize that there must be angelic language by which the angels communicate with each other that we know nothing about since it is of no use to us.

In any case, the five factors we have stated enable us to state that “tongue” as used by Apostle Paul should be understood to refer to both a foreign language and a spiritual language, depending on the situation when the Holy Spirit grants the manifestation of the gift of speaking in tongues. This interpretation is one that takes into consideration all that we have considered about “tongues” so as to avoid any conflict in the Scripture.

Be that as it may, the Greek words we have considered in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:10 different kinds of tongues enable us to state that the eighth spiritual gift referred to literally as “kinds of tongues” or in the words of the NIV speaking in different kinds of tongues refers to the special ability the Holy Spirit gives an individual to speak a language the individual has never known that may or may not be known by the hearers. The gift does not necessarily mean that the language spoken be intelligible to the audience only that they realize it is not their language. You see, as we have already stated, only in the first reference of speaking in tongues in the day of Pentecost are we informed that people heard the disciples speak about God’s work in the various languages of the audience. In the case of those who spoke in tongues in Cornelius house when Apostle Peter preached the gospel to them, there is no mention of anyone understanding what was said only that those with Peter recognized it was not their language. This was also the case of those who received the Holy Spirit in Ephesus when Apostle Paul laid his hands on them. The point is that gift of tongues involves speaking in a language that the speaker has never learned and those who hear it may never understand what the speaker says since it may sound to them to be gibberish. We will say more about this gift later as we examine what the apostle taught about it in the fourteenth chapter. Meanwhile, our reason for stating that those who hear the one with gift of tongues speak may not understand the speaker is because of the ninth spiritual gift mentioned next that we will get to at the right time but let me comment in a general way regarding the gift of speaking in tongues.

There is no way we can be certain of how the gift functioned in Corinth or how the church in Corinth carried out its worship as such. We can speculate that there was a fascination with the gift that caused as much problem to the Corinthians as it is today, as we already stated. The gift must have caused those who had it to feel somewhat superior to others that the Holy Spirit had to correct any misperception of the gift through the apostle. The point we want to convey is that it is not necessary to know exactly how the gift was used in Corinth since it is difficult to determine although we have statements by the apostle that enable us to have ideas of what happened in the church in Corinth regarding this gift. Our concern should not be so much as to determine how the gift was used in Corinth as it is for us to recognize that the gift exists and there is no indication that it has been withdrawn from the church of Christ although some contend that that is the case. As we have been doing in our consideration of some of these spiritual gifts the apostle gave in the passage we are studying, let me refer to some reports that suggest that in our modern day that such gift exits or that the Holy Spirit manifests it to the church of Christ.

It is reported that there was an outbreak of the gift of tongues, among other spiritual gifts, with the Huguenots who were French Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who followed the teachings of the theologian, John Calvin. They were persecuted by the French Catholic government so that some of them fled their country to other parts of Europe, United States, and Africa. According to Bushnell^¹, about forty years after the appearance of gift of tongues the same appeared among the Catholic or Jansenist population of Paris. The same gift was observed with George Fox and his group known as “The Friends.” Record indicates that in nineteenth century, a North Carolina Presbyterian congregation manifested tongues-speech during the summer of 1801, while related phenomena may have occurred in the 1801 Cane Ridge revival in Kentucky.^² Early in the 20^th century, there were reports of the activities of speaking in tongues among some group of Christians. The point is that there have been various groups of Christians that certainly experienced the gift of tongues. There is no reason to state in an unequivocable manner that the gift has ceased since there is no direct statement in the Scripture to that effect as we will note at the appropriate time in our study of the spiritual gifts as given by Apostle Paul. With this comment we proceed to the next spiritual gift in our next study.

1 Bushnell, H., Nature and the Supernatural, As together Constituting the One System of God p.462ff

2 Reid, D. G., Linder, R. D., Shelley, B. L., & Stout, H. S. (1990). In Dictionary of Christianity in America. InterVarsity Press.