Okay, folks. Honestly....

One thing I hate more than any other thing is when people take bible verses out of context to try and prove their points... and in doing so they completely misinterpret the passage. Today I will rant about Romans 8: 26 and Jude 20.

Let me make this absolutely clear to everyone within shouting distance : THESE PASSAGES HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH SPEAKING IN TONGUES!!!!!!!!!

The only books in the bible that mention the gift of tongues are Mark, Acts and 1 Corinthians. Do a word search!

Romans 8:26 says "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." (NIV)

Okay. First, its the Spirit interceding on our behalf. That doesn't involve us. It's the Spirit. He's not doing it "through" us (as he would be with tongues) but for us. Also, if this were tongues, that means that everyone who can't speak in tongues misses out on all of this. Yet Paul makes it clear that the Spirit is (present tense) interceding for all of us.

The Spirit is also praying in "groans that words cannot express." Well, that rules out tongues right there, considering that the gift of tongues is the ability to speak in understandable human languages that are not known to the speaker.

Jude 20 says "pray in the Holy Spirit" Hmm... the bible also says to walk in the Spirit. Does that mean we should walk in tongues? Now, I'm being sarcastic here, but praying in the Spirit simply means "pray in accordance with the Spirit." In other words, pray for things that are in God's will. That's a good way to avoid false doctrine (which is what Jude is about). The only way that anyone could possibly for a second think that this passage refers to tongues is if they were to read it with that presupposition.

Whenever the gift of tongues is mentioned, it states that "they spoke in tongues." It never says they "prayed in tongues," and the word "tongues" is always mentioned. If these passages were about tongues they would be the ONLY two exceptions to this.

So please, people. Don't just accept what someone says the bible says without looking into it yourself. Don't accept what I've written here without looking into it yourself. Be like the Bereans in Acts 17. Read it yourself. Read it in the context of the book it is in. Read it in reference to what the rest of the bible says. If you are unsure, check commentaries and essays by reputable scholars.

But for goodness sake, don't believe an interpretation of a text just because it is the current popular North American interpretation. That is a silly thing to do.

Also, I apologize for the theological nature of the past two posts. I do not intend this to be a place of essays. It is a journal. But sometimes I just need to rant about things. Especially things that really make me angry. It's just as therepeutic and not as damaging as banging my head against the wall ad infinitum. Thank you for your understanding.

Keep it real.

Really real.

As in, literally, not figuratively real.

For real.

Really, I mean this.

Love to Bolton.

(He keeps it real).

End post.