Whatever Happened to the Gift of Tongues?

Continuing on with my discourse on the Holy Spirit, I must explain about the gift of tongues. Sects such as the Pentecostal Church believe that the jabbering they do is some sort of heavenly language. This is a recent movement in Christendom. But are tongues, angelic or not, real speech?

If people speak in a heavenly language today, where is the interpretation? The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:26 (KJV), "How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying." How can others be edified if there is no interpretation?

Charismatic Christians often babble away together, as they did in the sick house church I once attended. Nobody seemed to apply 1 Corinthians 14:27 (KJV) which plainly says, "If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret."

If Christians must speak in what they believe is an angelic language, shouldn't they do it in private? Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:2 (KJV), "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."

The reason Paul prefered that congregants spoke in a known language is so others could be edified. Look at what he wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:4 (KJV), "He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church."

God willing, I plan to expand on this subject in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? I'll explain how the gift of tongues has ceased and that what people call tongues today is bogus. Many Christians will disagree ardently with me but from what I've studied, people often fake tongues to fit in with others at meetings.