1 Cor. 14:22-25

[Absalom]

Anybody got any bright ideas about this passage? I can’t figure out any way to read it in which Paul is not contradicting himself. But then again, Paul contradicting himself in this way doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, since the “contradictions” are back-to-back. If the two seemingly opposed statements were two chapters apart, I could see it as being a mistake, but the statements are one-after-the-other. I don’t think Paul (or the Holy Spirit!) is dumb enough to make that kind of mistake with the contradictions in such close proximity.

Any thoughts?

 

[weddy]

if an unbeliever is present when people start speaking in tongue, then they will come to believe, however a newbie enters after commencment of strange speech would easily think everyone’s nuts, & should that same stranger be told the condition of heart(i.e. the woman at the well) then that person would believe that GOD had spoken through the person giving the prophecy.
does that help any??

 

[Absalom]

Thanks very much for the reply , but look at the whole passage verse by verse. First, Paul says that tongues is a sign for unbelievers, not believers. Then he says that prophesy is for believers. Then he says that if an unbeliever comes to a church and sees everybody speaking in tongues, he (the unbeliever) will think they’re all out of their minds. But if he (the unbeliever) were to come to the church and hear someone speak prophesy about him, then he will come to believe.

Am I simply misreading this passage?

 

[Verbum]

Hi Absalom,

Look at verse 27, where he says that two or three at most should speak in tongues… and these, without interpreters, should not even speak. What he’s trying to correct is the confusion that has been happening in these meetings of Christians. If infidels walk in, and everybody is speaking in tongue, without interpreters, they will indeed look like a bunch of nuts.

And although he says, that prophecy is specifically for believers, he admits that, for an infidel, it is much more productive to hear prophecy than a bunch of nuts sounding off.

St. Paul’s epistles, except for Hebrews, seem to have been dictated. He does not always follow a logical order.

Verbum

 

[weddy]

it seems to me that it reads like the situational case of whether the unbeliever is present/not-present in v.23-25,in the reaction of entering a church (already in progress).
VERBUM is right @ v.27

 

[Absalom]

Ah! I think I see . . .

One of the dangers of not looking at the whole context of things. Thanks folks.