(11-03-2024, 04:32 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote: If speaking in tongues is guided by the Holy Spirit, then if someone were to call it "witchcraft" instead, then they'd be guilty of "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit."
Which is the only unforgivable sin. All blasphemy against the Father will be forgiven. All blasphemy against the Son will be forgiven. BUT...blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will never* be forgiven. Not in this life or the next.
Matthew 12:21-32
Be very careful who it is you listen to, readers.
I stand by what I said for two reasons: 1) the IF you mention is of extreme importance in the matter, and 2) there is a vast difference in the way the ritual is used nowadays when compared to the events recorded in Acts. One is a demonstration of God's power, the other is... not.
Whether I am right or wrong about it, is, I suppose, a matter that will be taken up in due course between me and God. on Judgement Day
I will say that I have heard "tongues" spoken in a modern church which I could oddly understand, which was a real, if long dead language, and which words should never have been spoken in God's house. I have all the confidence I need that the utterance was in no way guided by the Holy Spirit, but by a more unclean spirit. There is no way that woman is likely to have had a working knowledge of the language she was speaking well enough to actually speak it.
There have been other times "tongues" were spoken in my presence that I could NOT understand, but which nevertheless raised my hackles. I cannot say for sure whether they were "clean" or "unclean" however, because in those cases I did not understand what was being said.
I was taught how to speak "tongues" on purpose, at will and on demand, and can do so, but never do. If even I don't understand what I am saying, then there is no practical purpose to it when both I and God have a common language which we can both understand. God can understand all languages, but there are very few that I can understand, so it seems to me best to stand on common ground so that one knows what he is saying when speaking to deity. Better safe than sorry.
Another example of witchcraft in the church is this: there is a specific verse, in Isaiah I believe although it may have been Ezekiel (it's been a long time, and though I was told the specific verse to use, I have long forgotten it), which has been used for generations, long before the Gardnerian Wiccans were even a gleam in Gerald Gardner's eye. I know for fact that it has been uttered as an incantation to stop uncontrolled bleeding, and have seen it done and that it worked. Is that "witchcraft"? It has all the hallmarks - a ritual incantation performed to achieve a specific goal, and it DID work. I'll leave it to you to decide whether that was "witchcraft" or not.
Remember, witches, like all religions, have their own gods. Does it make ritual and enchanting "ok" because of it's deity, while others are "not ok" simply because of theirs? Even though the nuts and bolts of the actions performed are indistinguishable, and only the deities called upon vary? I'll leave that for the individual to decide on their own. it's not my job to decide for them. That would be a matter of conscience between them and their God.
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