- Why did the Apostle Paul prefer prophecy over tongues in a worship gathering? See 1 Cor. 14
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He told us why…
For time sake I will post this from TSO website..
I Corinthians 14:1 "Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy."
Remember from the last chapter we studied, "charity" is "love". If you don't have love in your heart, then you don't have anything. Love brings honest and hope, and it endureth all things in our caring for our people. Paul urges us to desire the spiritual gifts or things.
Lets go to the Strong's Greek dictionary #4395 to understand what Paul is saying about "prophesy". "
propheteuo,
prof-ate-yoo'-o; from 4396, to fortell events, divine, speak under inspiration, exercise the prophetic office:"
Did you get the meaning of this word
"prophecy"? "
to speak under inspiration", and to
"fortell events" of prophecy that God has revealed to the prophets of old that are written down in His Word. It is to always speak under the divine guidance from the Word of God. It is to use your gift of God as a teacher of Gods Word, not to jabber from your own mind, but to reveal God's Word to others exactly as it is written from the manuscripts.
There is going to be a time in the future when
Act 2 will come, and men and woman alike will speak as the Holy Spirit speaks through them. Peter said that this is the time that Joel the prophet spoke of in
Joel 2:28-32 when both men and women shall prophecy.
Joel 2:28 "
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see vision:"
Joel 2:29 "And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My spirit."
The book of Joel is prophesy of that time when Satan and his locust army of fallen angels will be cast onto the earth, for the time of the great deception. So this time of prophesying will come while they are here deceiving mankind. After that Locust army of fallen angels has passed, then prophesying will take place. Many clergy say today, "woman can't prophesy", however God says even the daughters will prophesy. This writing then, is written to those living in the final generation that is on earth just prior to the coming of the Lord, during that generation of "the parable of the fig tree". That generation started when the Jews [brother Judah with the Kenites] returned to reestablish their homeland and reclaim Jerusalem. That generation is now, and you are living in that generation. The one world system of the end times is here and now, and they control of all parts of your life is through their agencies or ten horns of power that flow from the United Nations.
Joel 2:30 "
And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke."
Joel 2:31 "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come."
Joel 2:32 "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call."
The point that we should consider here is that we should judge no one, because this doesn't have to be a prophecy as most people consider "prophecy". Prophecy to foretell the future is only one of the parts, but simply to teach the Word of God under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit is also a form of the word "prophecy". So though love is essential to our Christian life, prophesy is another of the top gifts.
I Corinthians 14:2 "For he that speaketh in an [unknown]
tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries."
"
Mysteries" as given in the Greek text is "
divine secrets"; so why would he be speaking in divine secrets? Note also that the word "unknown" was added by the translators for it just wasn't there in the early manuscripts. Another word "
tongue" also come in here and in Strong's Greek dictionary it is # 1100. "Glossa,
gloce-sah'; a language, (specifically, one naturally acquired)."
"
Tongue" as given in this chapter is one language that you have naturally acquired by learning. So the tongue that Paul is talking about is a language that is not your natural tongue, it is one that you have acquired outside your home. Remember the great commission that Jesus gave; to take the gospel to the world. If Christians could only speak English, then the other peoples of the world simply would not understand what the gospel was all about.
When we try to study the Bible for the truths within its pages, it is a must to have some reference to the original languages of Hebrew, Chaldee and Greek for that is the tongue or language that God's Word was written in. Translators have taken those foreign languages and tried to relate their meanings in English so that the common man could read the Word of God within his own home. This is why when we study the Word for ourselves is it important to have the Strong's numbered concordance and Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek numbered dictionaries right along with it so that we can understand exactly what God intended us to know. An example of this is above in the word, "tongues"; "glossa" in the Greek, and in the true translation "languages" in the English.
