We
often hear of "speaking in tongues." What is speaking
in tongues and how do people learn it?
"Speaking
in tongues," or glossolalia, is one of the gifts
of the Holy Spirit mentioned by Paul. It refers to ecstatic
utterance, when the Spirit of God is perceived as speaking
directly through a person. It must be paired with "interpretation
of tongues," so that what God intends to communicate
can be understood.
Tongues was a significant problem in the early Church. Read
1 Corinthians 12 & 13. Some felt themselves superior to
others because they spoke in tongues. Paul's response was
to say that love matters more than ecstatic utterance. Even
today, churches that focus on speaking in tongues sometimes
claim special status.
Spiritual gifts are conferred by the Holy Spirit, not sought
by the believer. The point is to discern what gifts God has
given you and use it or them to the best of your ability.
Speaking in tongues isn't what Acts 2 is about, by the way.
The point of the Day of Pentecost was that common Galileans
were suddenly able to speak in the many languages of the known
world, a restoration of what had been lost at Babel, when
God punished the people by confusing their languages.
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Does
the church acknowledge the validity of the Gnostic scriptures?
Would you discourage a church member from reading them for
inspiration? Would a leader in your church be allowed to openly
pursue them for their wisdom?
Yes
and no. There's no doubt that the Gnostic Gospels exist, despite
efforts by early church leaders to burn every copy of the
Gospel of Thomas and to suppress the rest. Indeed, some Johannine
scholars see signs of Gnosticism in the Gospel of John. This
was a major movement at one time. Elaine Pagels has studied
this movement in depth in her book The Gnostic Gospels.
So, yes, they are valid in that they were written by early
Christian thinkers and they reflect major theological strands
of the times.
The Church, however, has declared them heretical, perhaps
more fervently so in the early years when it felt threatened
by Gnosticism. Every now and then even today, when a theological
argument ventures onto unorthodox ground, some traditionalist
is certain to label it "Gnostic."
My opinion—shared by many progressive Christian thinkers—is
that Gnosticism reveals much about the state of the early
church. It wasn't fanciful, but rather a sober, reasoned response
to Jesus. I think it helps us to know about that response.
The Gospel of Thomas, for example, ends with an impassioned
diatribe against women. Knowing about that mindset might help
us to understand how women went from center-of-the-circle
with Jesus to marginalized, secondary status in the early
Church.
Today, in most progressive denominations, students and others
are encouraged to be aware of the Gnostic writings.
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My
best friend just lost a dear friend of hers whom she thought
of as a
great grandma. I was hoping you could help me with my condolences
and
send me a few tips on how to keep her spirits up. Please help
me to help
her.
The
key to any expression of condolence is love. If your friend
feels loved, then it won't matter much whether you found the
perfect words.
I
would suggest two things. First, I would discourage blaming
death on God. I know it sounds helpful to say that God "called
her home," or "needed her more," or "took
her to a better place." But death just happens, from
a variety of causes, and God is there to be our help in time
of trouble, not the cause of our troubles. Many a person has
come to hate God because they blamed God for taking away someone
they loved.
Second,
the greatest help we can give in time of grieving is to allow
grieving to happen. Lifting a person's spirits may not be
what they need. It might be what the people around her need,
because they are distressed by her pain, but she herself probably
needs to go through the stages of grieving, which include
denial, bargaining, anger, depression (or sadness) and acceptance.
Any attempt to go straight to acceptance usually delays the
actual grieving. If your friend is sad, maybe what she needs
is a companion in her sadness, not someone trying to talk
her out of sadness.
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I've
enjoyed reading many of Marcus Borg's books and am currently
reading The Meaning of Jesus. I've only read bits
and pieces of the Gospel of Thomas and am confused by it.
Where can I find more information on the Lost Gospels?
A
book that I found helpful was From Jesus to Christianity
by Michael White, of the University of Texas. Elaine Pagels'
book, The Gnostic Gospels, is another useful volume.
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How
is it that there are so many differences in beliefs and only
one Christ? How does one know what these differences are so
they know what faith makes sense to them?
Differences
have marked the Christian experience from the days when Jesus
went about with the disciples. Even those men and women saw
Jesus through the uniqueness of their personalities, intellects,
needs and expectations. Zealots (Jews seeking the overthrow
of Rome) saw Jesus as a fellow Zealot. The Pharisees were
surprised that he wasn't more like them. James and John saw
Jesus as a source of power that they would share. Mary Magdalene
saw him as beloved.
In
the Book of Acts, you can read how the Christian world began
to divide between Jewish-Christians and Gentile-Christians.
Within those basic divisions were others. The Church in Syria,
for example, had books that other regional communities didn't
have. A way of seeing Jesus known as Gnosticism became popular,
until a Bishop named Irenaus waged doctrinal war against it.
Later came divisions between a Western Church and an Eastern
Church, which we know as the division between Roman Catholicism
and the Orthodox tradition (e.g. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox.)
Each saw Jesus in different ways and worshiped him differently.
Later
still came the national churches arising from the new sovereignty
of Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Scotland
and England. From them came the Lutheran, Huguenot, Calvinist,
Presbyterian and Anglican traditions. In the United States,
we have well over 300 separate Christian denominations.
The
cause of this remains what it was at the beginning: people
seeing Jesus through their unique personalities, intellects,
needs and expectations. Add to that class and racial awareness,
as well as gender and educational.
Is this a problem? Not really. It can make it difficult to
find a congregation in which you feel comfortable. But as
Paul said, we all have different gifts, different ways of
serving God. The body of Christ needs every one of us.
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