Could you define what you mean by "some other sort of phenomena", by showing us how you are using that concept, ither for or against the "Gift of Tongues", that is on PAUL's list of 9 Spiritual gifts. ??
So, can you be concise, and explain what you are saying, asking?
@Carl Emerson ?
Sure...
First off I am not interested in debating for or against the gift of tongues. Nor am I interested in debating the spiritual gifts.
What I asked was why the Holy Spirit chose that specific gift to be manifest at Pentecost.
He was capable of manifesting any number of other signs but chose that one gift for a good reason.
He didn't have them walk on water or call fire down from heaven for very good reason.
First consider where the diverse languages came from in the first place.
Genesis 11
1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”
8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Before Babel there was one language.
Mankind then, conceived a plan fuelled by pride to establish themselves in one place and not be dispersed, contrary to the command in Genesis 1: 28 to fill the whole earth.
They were unified in this one false purpose undoubtedly assisted by Satanic Powers to establish a false kingdom in one place.
Pentecost then was God's response to Babel.
The birth of the church was conceived and motivated with God's Love in accordance with His Word and purpose.
The Kingdom of God was to fill the earth - every tribe language and tongue.
Peoples from the known world were gathered in Jerusalem and heard God's proclamations in their own language at the birth of the Church.
This reversed the confusion that God had subject mankind to, for His people, who are building His Kingdom in His love and obedience.
May your church be found with this foundation.
Not in the agreement we saw at Babel.
