1 Corinthians 14:20-25

Such over-valuing of tongues reveals an infantile intelligence (a sharp thrust for a church so rich in intellectuals); only in malice is it proper to be babes. Scripture announces that the Lord will speak by men of strange tongues to this people and yet they will not hear. Tongues then are a sign to unbelievers, not to believers; prophecy is for believers, not unbelievers. So if the church is assembled and all speak with tongues, and non-members or unbelievers come in, they will think the whole assembly has gone mad. But if a man belonging to one of these classes comes in and all prophesy, he is convicted and judged by all, the things he supposes to be known only to himself are dragged into the light, and thus he is brought to worship God and recognise His presence. The point of 1 Corinthians 14:22 a is not that tongues are a sign conducing to the salvation of unbelievers, and that the Corinthians defeat God's purpose by all speaking with tongues at once so that the sign misses its mark. We cannot indeed press the fact that the prophecy was one of judgment (Isaiah 28:11 f.*) since Paul's use of the OT was not controlled by its original sense. But the last clause proves that the sign was not intended favourably. And the interpretation, all speak with tongues at once is unjustifiable. For 1 Corinthians 14:24 obviously does not mean that all prophesy at once, since this would have been not much less of a Babel than the other, and not calculated to have the effect described in 1 Corinthians 14:24 f. In both cases they speak successively not simultaneously. Tongues will establish unbelievers in their unbelief. As they hear speaker after speaker pour out unintelligible harangues, they will draw the inference that the members are all mad and that Christianity is an insane delusion.