Some Things To Know About The Gift Of Tongues – Samuel Storms

September 13, 2022281 views0

Some Things To Know About The Gift Of Tongues – Samuel Storms

2022-09-13T09:51:25+01:00

By Church News

C. Samuel Storms is an American Calvinist Charismatic and a millennial theologian, teacher and author. He is currently pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City and past president of the Evangelical Theological Society and he has this to say about the spiritual gift of tongues:Whoever Wishes to Speak in Tongues in Public Should Pray for the InterpretationIn 1 Corinthians 14:13, Paul exhorts the person who wishes to speak in tongues in public to “pray that he may interpret” (1 Cor. 14:13). There is no indication in what Paul says that this person had ever interpreted an utterance in tongues before. He or she may have, but it is just as likely that this would be their first experience with this spiritual gift. Paul doesn’t tell us when the prayer should be uttered, but it seems likely this should occur before the utterance in tongues is given.Interpretation of Tongues Is Not Necessarily the Ability to Interpret All Divine RevelationWe should never confuse this spiritual gift with the ability of a person to interpret divine revelation on a broad scale. The person with this gift would not necessarily be extraordinarily capable or skilled in interpreting biblical texts. There are principles of interpretation in the science we call hermeneutics that are easily learned by anyone who has the time and commitment to study them.

Interpreting Tongues May Be Word for Word or Summation

Someone with this gift may provide a literal, word-for-word rendering that corresponds in every conceivable way to the content of the tongue. Those who engage in the translation of the original text of Scripture into another language, such as English, often refer to this as “dynamic equivalence.” The totality of what was spoken in tongues is brought over into the words of the interpreter, but it may not be in a word-for-word form.More Than One Person May Interpret an UtteranceThere is nothing in what Paul says about the gift of interpretation to preclude the possibility that the Holy Spirit might enable someone to interpret a tongue’s utterance anywhere along this spectrum. For example, the person with the gift of tongues might speak for five minutes while the interpreter speaks for only three.There is nothing to prevent a single utterance in tongues from being interpreted by two people whose “translations” differ in terms of length and focus. One person might provide a somewhat lengthy, seemingly word-for-word interpretation, while another summarizes its basic content or provides a more practical application of what was spoken in tongues.ALSO READ A Prophetic Word to the Church by Dr Savelle of Jerry Savelle Ministries International