For two millennia, the Church has tried to steer a safe passage through the dangerous waters of ecclesiastical music. History shows us that this is no easy task and in hymnody, as in other areas, the Church has failed and repeated that failure. Often, in trying to correct hymnody, the church went to the extreme [...]
Hymns and hymn-writers are gifts to the Church. Throughout the history of the Church, just a few hymnists have distinguished themselves. Not all are as "gifted" as others and even these we identify as gifted writers, like Watts and Wesley, did not always write great hymns. Only a small percentage of their hymns are used today [...]
In 1 Corinthians 14 the apostle transitions into the final part of his discussion on the abuse of tongues. In the first verse he summarises the previous two chapters with two imperatives, just in case we missed it—pursue love (Ch. 13), desire spiritual gifts (Ch. 12). He comes now specifically to the gift of tongues, [...]
The Scripture uses many images to help us understand the nature and ministry of the Church. It is a family, a household of children, brothers and sisters, and a heavenly Father. It is a building, a body, an army, and a temple. Agricultural imagery is also used to describe the Church; as a field, and [...]
The modern practice of tongues, which claims a higher level of spirituality, has modeled itself on the most problematic congregation in all of the New Testament. This has been said often, but it is still an astonishing fact. Another interesting observation is that what was happening in Corinth is not even hinted at in other [...]
At this point, we need to remind ourselves that 1 Corinthians 12-14 is one cohesive unit dealing with the broad subject of spiritual gifts. In Chapter 12 Paul dealt with the gifts in general and only hinted at the tongues issue (12:10). Tongues was his target, of course, and this will become clearer in chapter [...]
Floral Fantasy, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Six times in Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, he used the same phrase, sometimes translated in the AV, “now concerning” (7:1: 7:25; 12:1; 16:1), and sometimes, “as touching” (8:1, 16:12). It seems that he was addressing a series of questions that the Corinthians had asked in a previous [...]
Temple of Apollo (6th c. B.C.) in Ancient Corinth, Ancient Greece. Credit, istockphoto.com There are three tongue-speaking events recorded in the book of Acts. Pentecost (Acts 2), Caesarea (Acts 10), and Ephesus (Acts 19). While it is quite possible that there was also tongue-speaking in Samaria (Acts 8), only these three passages record [...]
We have considered Paul’s explanation of the tongue-speaking phenomena in 1 Corinthians 14. It was a sign, Paul said, of the judgement of God on Israel (1 Corinthians 14:22; Isaiah 28:11). The confusion of the Jews on the day of Pentecost, when they assumed the disciples were drunk, may be a further indication of judgement. [...]
The crowds in Jerusalem were amazed on the Day of Pentecost when the disciples spoke in tongues. Many thought they were drunk. Peter, however, knew that it was the work of the Holy Spirit and when he saw what was happening, his mind went directly to the words of the prophet Joel (2:28-32). Peter could [...]