Bible Gambia

15/04/2026

BS37. The King Confronts the Temple (8 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYQ3HiRpkt8

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15 Apr 2026
In this account, Jesus enters Jerusalem and goes to the temple, the very centre of worship in Israel. But instead of finding a place devoted to prayer and devotion, he finds buying, selling, and corruption.

With authority and deep concern for true worship, Jesus drives out those who had turned the house of God into a place of profit. He reminds the people that the temple was meant to be a house of prayer for all nations.

Religious leaders begin to question his authority, but Jesus responds with wisdom that reveals both their motives and the truth about God’s kingdom.

This powerful moment shows that God desires sincere worship, humble hearts, and lives that honour Him, not outward religion alone.

This video is part of The Greatest Stories Ever Told, a series exploring the message of the Bible in clear and faithful narrative form.

Watch, reflect, and discover the message of hope found in God’s Word.

BS37-The King Confronts the Temple

30/03/2026

CBMBBT The Meaning of Fellowship

What is fellowship?

A dictionary tells us that the word ‘fellowship’ means ‘sharing together’. It describes a group of people who come together because they have a common interest. It is an important word in the Bible and is used to describe the way disciples join together when they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They become part of a new spiritual family and so call each other brother or sister.
Fellowship in the New Testament

When the apostles preached the Gospel, after the resurrection of Jesus, many people were baptised and we read about their new lives in Acts chapter 2.

“So those who received his word were baptized…And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Act 2:41-42)

The order of words here is important. First of all people were baptised into the saving name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they listened carefully to the teaching of the apostles and part of what they learned was that they now had a new relationship together. They met together in groups as brothers and sisters in a new family, the family of God – this was their fellowship. They met regularly, in worship, to share bread and wine in remembrance of Jesus as he had commanded them and they prayed together. This idea of living and worshipping ‘together’ is a key part of fellowship
Joining a new family

This principle of being part of a new family is there in the name ‘Christadelphian’. It means ‘brothers in Christ’ and it is taken from the opening words of the Letter to the Colossians.

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” (Colossians 1:1-2)

When new members join disciples of Jesus, after their baptism, they are welcomed with a formal handshake which the Bible calls “the right hand of fellowship”. We use this handshake to show our welcome of a new brother or sister into the group of people who are in fellowship with other disciples because they share the same beliefs in Jesus as their saviour and in the coming Kingdom of God. In this way they are received into a spiritual family of brothers and sisters becoming part of a family which has the Lord Jesus Christ as its head.

We also learn that the converts “devoted” themselves to this fellowship. It was so important to them that it became the centre of their lives.

In the New Testament, true disciples of Jesus who live in this way are called ‘the ecclesia of God’ (Acts 20:28). ‘Ecclesia’ is a Greek word and in the English Bible it is translated as ‘church’. It originally meant an assembly, ‘those called out’. True disciples have been called out of their former lives to belong to God’s family and to have fellowship with Him and with each other.

We have to make a choice; we cannot have fellowship (share our lives) with the world and pretend to have fellowship with God and His Son. When we are baptised our standards should become quite different to those of unbelievers. The things which become important to us will not be important to them and we will be unable to have fellowship with them. However we shall find that we do have things in common with our new brethren and sisters because we share an interest in the Bible and share a common belief in the Gospel with them. This will help us to build new relationships and have fellowship with them.

It is very important to understand that all fellowship, including our relationships with each other, is based on a believer’s relationship with God.

“That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (1John 1:3)


FELLOWSHIP IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES

Fellowship is a way of life. It does not mean just sharing worship together on Sundays and forgetting about each other on weekdays. In our natural families we love and care for each other, supporting our brothers and sisters and enjoying their company. It is the same in our new, spiritual family. Jesus left a very important commandment with his disciples before he went to the cross. He said:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)

Just as we care for our natural brothers and sisters and love them, baptised people are commanded to love and care for their brothers and sisters in Christ. They share the joy and happiness of knowing that they belong together in God’s family.

Fellowship therefore involves loving and caring for each other. It means spending time with each other, reading the Bible together and sharing its message. It means trusting each other so that we can seek help when we have problems.

Fellowship is hard work. We have to learn to be part of a new family – and not only to live with them but to love and care for people who may have been strangers to us before our baptism. We are brought together by God so that we can help each other in our discipleship. We should trust our brothers and sisters with our feelings and thoughts. We should open up our hearts to them even though that will make us very vulnerable to them. If they let us down or reject us we may feel hurt and angry with them because we trusted them and we feel that they failed us. When we remember that God forgives us the many times when we fail Him then it will help us to forgive our brothers and sisters.
Sometimes we may find it especially difficult to agree with a particular brother or sister. Our natural instinct is to walk away, to have nothing to do with him or her and only to mix with those who are our ‘friends’. This is wrong, we must remember that we are given to each other by God and that living in fellowship with every brother and sister is part of the way God develops our characters. We have to learn to be tolerant, to accept others and their points of view as brothers and sisters in Christ. God has called us to live and work together in this way. He chose each one of us; we are all precious to him.


Living in Isolation

There are people who believe and have been baptised but who do not have other brothers and sisters living near them with whom they can have regular fellowship. However, because they are members of God’s family, they are never really alone because they share the things of their new life with God and His Son and they will feel the presence of the Lord Jesus in their lives.

There are some practical things which will help believers who live isolated lives like this.

It is important both to pray and to read the Bible every day, even if this is done alone. Every Sunday, preferably at the same time each week, they should carefully set out the bread and wine to break bread and drink wine in remembrance of the Lord Jesus. If it is difficult to do this on Sunday then another day of the week can be chosen.

Brothers and sisters in their own country and overseas will not forget their isolated brothers and sisters but will write to them and try to visit them

They can receive letters and Bible teaching from other brothers and sisters to help them remember that even though they are isolated from them, they are still part of God’s special family.

30/03/2026

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER - A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR A BETTER PRAYER LIFE.

[ cbmbbt_prayer ]

When you have read this leaflet you will know the answers to these questions:
1. Why should I pray?
2. What should I pray about?
3. What can I learn from the prayers of Jesus?
4. When, where and how should I pray?
5. Will praying truly help me?

1. WHY SHOULD I PRAY ?
Jesus said his followers “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Why? Because the outcome of praying, for a believer, is powerful and life-changing. The Apostle Paul said “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer … let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Think of that. No anxiety! Peace of mind!

How many people do you know who enjoy such blessings? Yet, by prayer, they can be yours. God wants to help us in every aspect of our lives. He “so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). How could such a loving Father not want to hear the prayers of those who believe? Impossible! However, we “must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). One thing is certain in this life. We are dying. If we want to live forever, as God promises we can, we must confess that we need him. We cannot save ourselves. Prayer is a very important way of showing we believe this truth. All of us experience difficulties. We have many problems and we want to know the meaning of life. We need to pray for many reasons.

2. WHAT SHOULD I PRAY ABOUT?
Can we pray for and get everything we want? After all, Jesus said “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). John also said “whatever we ask we receive from him” (1 John 3:22). However, good Bible students always read carefully. In Matthew 6:32-33 Jesus tells us that we must accept God as our heavenly Father. Also, we are told that we must seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. So, what we ask for in prayer must be guided by godly principles. John agrees. He said “whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (1John 3:22).

Acceptable prayer has important pre-conditions! The first golden prayer rule must be to ask “according to his will” (1 John 5:14). Then we shall “have the requests that we have asked of him”. If we are willing to bend our own will to God’s will, he will hear us. Jesus, our great example in all things, made God’s will his own. He said “I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:30). If, in your prayers, you seek your own desires, then “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly” (James 4:3).

There are right and wrong things to seek in prayer. Having the godly principle of asking “according to his will” in your mind, you can confidently ask for:
• God’s kingdom to come on earth (Matthew 6:10)
• An earth filled with peace when Jesus comes (Zechariah 9:10)
• Eternal life for faithful believers when Jesus comes to raise the dead (John 6:40)
• The spiritual health of others (Ephesians 6:18).

God will grant these prayers because it is his plan to achieve these goals. Is it right to pray about our human concerns when we don’t know what God’s will is on a particular matter? Yes, it is. Such prayers may be about other people or may be about ourselves. You will have experienced difficulties with at least some of these: poor health, career choices, personal relationships, unemployment, family life, issues at work, physical or mental problems. So what should you ask for in such matters? You know what you would like, but is that the will of God? Should you accept the offer of a better job if it means seeing less of your family? If you are single, should you pray for a husband or wife? Should you pray that your daughter does not marry the man she loves because you don’t think he is good for her?

Problems, problems! Recognise that there may be a difference between your own deepest desires, and what is best for you spiritually. You only know part of the story; God knows all of it. In the end you must trust God’s way.

The second golden prayer rule must be ‘God knows best’. Jesus lived by that rule. He did not want to die by crucifixion. He prayed “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup (of death) pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will … My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done ” (Matthew 26:39-42). When we are not sure what the will of God is for us, our perfect prayer will always be, “Your will be done”. This is not easy. Humanly speaking, we want our longings to be satisfied, for our will to be done. Only by growing in the ways of God shall we be able to accept that our will may not always be done. God knows best. It is good to pray about practical problems and to confess our need of God’s help. God knows our needs, but invites us to share them with him (Matthew 6:8). His answer to our prayer may be ‘yes’, or ‘no’, or ‘yes, but not yet’. Spiritually, we must be willing to accept God’s answer. Just trust him!

3. WHAT CAN I LEARN FROM THE PRAYERS OF JESUS?
A great deal! He gives us a wonderful pattern prayer, and tells us in Matthew 6:9- 13:

• God is holy, and we must take him seriously in our lives (v9);
• The kingdom of God is coming on earth (with Jesus as king). Notice that Jesus begins and ends his prayer desiring this kingdom (vv10,13);
• We should ask only for what we need to sustain us (our daily bread), not for self indulgent wants (v11);
• God will only forgive us our sins, as we forgive others (v12);
• God will not abandon us when we are tempted (v13);
• We can ask for deliverance from evil (v13).

4. WHEN, WHERE AND HOW SHOULD I PRAY?
When? Whenever you feel you want to pray. Don’t just pray when you are desperate. Make God and prayer a regular part of your thinking and daily life. You must want to pray, and intend to do so. To pray at set times of the day can be helpful. Just make sure it does not become a casual routine. Two great servants of God each prayed three times a day: David (Psalm 55:17) and Daniel (Daniel 6:10). If God is often in our thoughts, there will be many times in the day when we want to pray. Where? Anywhere and everywhere! Standing, sitting, lying down, on our knees, walking or travelling. It is never the wrong time or place to pray, not if we are serious about our prayers.

How? We are all different, but you may find some of these ideas helpful:
• Praying out loud can help you focus better. Sometimes you will develop your thoughts more clearly.
• Pray when you are alert. It will stop your thoughts drifting. • It can be a good idea to have a prayer list with you. A list will remind you of important issues and people for whom you want to pray.
• Praying with others, as the Apostle Paul did, can be very helpful (Acts 20:36; 21:5).

Two other comments: praise is an important part of prayer (Psalm 150), and still pray when you don’t feel like it! That is when you need to pray most.

5. WILL PRAYING TRULY HELP ME?
Yes, it will. It helped Jesus. He sometimes spent all night in prayer. His advice to his disciples was “watch and pray” (Matthew 26:41). We are all sinners and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). But, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9). A strong prayer life is an important part of us being true children of God. If we are such, God will bless us with everlasting life when Jesus comes. What greater hope can you have for the future? Watch and pray.

ALL BIBLE QUOTATIONS ARE TAKEN FROM THE ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV) UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

Please tell us if you would like to know more about Bible teaching and the beliefs of Christadelphians. Would you like: • Other leaflets in this series? • A booklet Who are the Christadelphians? • A Postal Correspondence Course? Ask your nearest Christadelphians or write to: CHRISTADELPHIAN BIBLE MISSION c/o 404 SHAFTMOOR LANE BIRMINGHAM B28 8SZ, UK

30/03/2026

[ CBMBBT ] The Devil and Satan: Who or what is it?

When you have read this leaflet you will know the answers to these questions:
1. Is there a supernatural devil?
2. Why does the Bible talk about the devil?
3. Is a supernatural devil tempting you to sin?
4. How can you be saved from sin and death?

1. IS THERE A SUPERNATURAL DEVIL?
God makes one thing very clear in the Bible: "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me" (Isaiah 46:9).
No superhuman power resists God's will. The devil of popular tradition does not exist. If we want to know the source of evil, we have to look elsewhere.

The Bible leaves us in no doubt as to where the blame lies. Man is tempted from within himself. Hear what Jesus, the Son of God, said: "Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false wit­ness, blasphemies" (Matthew 15:18,19).

Jesus confirms what God had told Noah long ago: "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21). Jeremiah 17:9 says: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

James agrees with all these sayings. He concludes: "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1 :14,15).
Notice that no mention is made in any of these passages of a supernatural devil. We need to look no further than ourselves to see from where evil comes.

2. WHY DOES THE BIBLE TALK ABOUT THE DEVIL?
It is true that the Bible talks about the devil as if it had a real personality. We must remember, however, that the Bible is rich in using "picture language". It gives personalities to other things also which are not people.

In the story of Cain and Abel, blood is given a personality. Speaking to Cain, God said: "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground" (Genesis 4:10).

It happens again with wisdom, which is spoken of as a woman: "Happy is the man who finds wisdom ... she is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her" (Proverbs 3:13-15).

In Matthew 6:24, Jesus himself speaks of money ("mammon") as being a master. This should not surprise us. We often talk like that ourselves. We say, "Fire is a good servant, but a bad master". We don't really believe that fire is a man.

In the same way, evil and sin are sometimes given a personality. In the very earliest part of the Bible sin is depicted as a wild beast, a lion or a wolf: In Genesis 4:7 God warned Cain: “if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.”

This helps us realise just how big sin is, and how dangerous sins are to our salvation. This is proved by comparing two Bible passages. Listen to the "picture lan­guage" used in Hebrews 2:14: " ... that through death he (Jesus) might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." What is this devil? What has the "power of death"? Romans 6:23 tells us: "For the wages of sin is death." Sin is powerful and brings death. Your life is a constant battle against sin. Sin is your real enemy, not a supernatural devil.

In the Old Testament, the word "Satan" is a normal Hebrew word “an adversary”, used of any enemy. It only appears as a character, “The Adversary”, The Satan in two books after the exile in Babylon – Job 1 and Zechariah 3. Both of these are poetic passages not literal histories.

When the Old Testament was translated into Greek as the Septuagint version by Jews in Egypt, around 200BC, the human satans were translated as “enemy”, but the character in Job 1 and Zechariah 3 was left as a Hebrew name in the Greek text, “Satan”. This is origin of the name Satan in the Greek New Testament, it comes from those two uses in Job 1 and Zechariah 3.

Likewise in the New Testament the word “devil” is a common Greek word meaning “a slanderer”. In Titus 2:3, the advice given by Paul to older women was to be reverent in the way they lived, "not slanderers" (diabolos). And in 1 Timothy 3:11, Christian wives are told to be rever­ent, "not slanderers" (diabolos).

A similar example occurs in John 6:70: "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" But Judas was a man, not "a devil". If the translators had said, "One of you is a slanderer'; the meaning would have been very clear. Judas later betrayed Jesus with a kiss. He was a false friend indeed, but he was not a supernatural devil.

But the New Testament also speaks 35 times of “the slanderer”, and in these 35 places most Bibles do not translate the Greek word ‘diabolos’ to ‘slanderer’ but leave it in Greek as “the devil”.
It is clear that the New Testament uses the devil and Satan as symbols, but symbols of what?

The most important passage about the devil is clearly the story of the temptations of Christ found in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. We often forget today how shocking this story would have been when Matthew and Luke first published their gospels. There is nothing like it in the Old Testament – other than the stories in Job 1 and Zechariah 3. But Job 1 is a drama, and Zechariah 3 is a vision. No human being had ever seen the devil before Christ.

Except that Matthew and Luke would not have been able to publish this account of the temptations had Jesus not already told this story of his temptations to his disciples. This is the subject of a more detailed study, but the most logical explanation of Matthew 4 and Luke 4 is that the true author of these accounts is Jesus himself, and this was a parable he taught to his disciples.
We need to look carefully at the Scriptures to understand who or what is the devil. Think about Revelation 2:10,' where believers at Smyrna were told: "The devil is about to throw some of you into prison." Does it make sense to you that a supernatural devil literally put believers into prison? It cannot be so, because we know the Romans did that. It is an example of evil at work. Time and again we see the word "devil" used to symbolise evil.

Sin is at work because men, left to themselves, do not follow the ways of God. The terms "devil", "satan" and "demons" do not refer to immortal tempters in their original meanings. There is no such being as a supernatural tempter.

3. IS A SUPERNATURAL DEVIL TEMPTING YOU TO SIN?
From what we have considered so far, the answer must be "No! We must take full responsibility for our own sins. We have already seen that evil thoughts and actions come from the heart (Matthew 15:18,19). Paul says: "All have Sinned" (Romans 3:23). Do you think that God would blame us, if the fault lay with a supernatural devil? Surely not.

We are mortal because of Adam's dis­obedience to God's laws. But we each deserve our own death sentence. We have all earned "the wages of sin" for ourselves. Those wages are death (Romans 6:23).
Only when we are willing to admit that we are fully to blame for our own sins can God work with us. Only then shall we marvel that in spite of our weakness, God is willing to save us.

4. HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED FROM SIN AND DEATH?
One thing is certain. You cannot save yourself. The Bible makes that very clear. However, you can be saved, thanks to God's mercy. He has given us a way of escape from sin and death. By the sacri­fice of His Son, Jesus Christ, He has opened the way to everlasting life. He invites you to share in the victory of Jesus over sin.

Jesus lived a perfect life and then he "died for us" (1 Thessalonians 5:10). Through faith in Jesus as your Saviour, God is willing to forgive your sins. By baptism into the name of Jesus (Mark 16:16) and by obeying His command­ments (John 15:8-13), you can be saved from sin and death. Resurrection from the dead to live for ever can be your hope. Jesus came to take both sin and death away, for, "he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21), and "the last enemy that will be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:26).

God asks you to take responsibility, not only for your sins, but also for your life. You have no need to fear a non­existent supernatural devil. Rather you should listen to these words of wisdom: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

If you live like that now, the ultimate blessing of everlasting life will be yours, when Jesus returns to Jerusalem to establish God's kingdom on earth: "For there the LORD commanded the blessing-life for evermore" (Psalm 133:3).

30/03/2026

TONGUES – SPEAK ONLY WITH MEANING

Christadelphian Bible Mission Basic Bible Truths series

When you have read this leaflet you will know the answers to these questions:
1. Why could tongues in Acts be understood, but in Corinth no one understood them?
2. What are tongues practised in some Pentecostal churches today?
3. What are possible historical explanations of the unintelligible tongues in Corinth?
4. What should the practice of a Bible-based church be?

1. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TONGUES IN ACTS AND TONGUES IN CORINTH.
You may have already noticed a difference between tongues in Acts and in 1 Corinthians?

The first tongues occurred in Acts 2 before the mass baptism of 3,000 that initiated the church not only in Jerusalem but in other cities from where visitors had been present in Jerusalem. It is recorded three times that those present heard the words of God in their own languages (Acts 2:5-11). Then again in Acts 10 when the first gentiles were baptised the Jewish witnesses state three times that the gift of tongues in Acts 10 was the same as Acts 2, meaning that Cornelius and the other Gentiles baptised were gifted with real languages, the same as the apostles in Acts 2. It was this undeniable signal that forced the Jewish brothers to break with 2,000 years of tradition since Abraham and to admit uncircumcised Gentiles to the household of faith.

Comparing those intelligible tongues in Acts 2 and 10 with the later tongues in 1 Corinthian 14 we find something completely different. Paul clearly states three times that when someone is praying in a tongue that no one understands him (1 Co 14:2, 6, 9). Paul does not say “some do not understand them”, but instead that “no one understands them”. Paul also goes on to suggest that even the person praying in a tongue does not understand themselves (v.14, 19).

There is no way that these two descriptions of tongues can be reconciled. The New Testament’s own description of the intelligible tongues in Acts versus the unintelligible tongues in Corinth shows that they are not only different, but opposite.


2. WHAT ARE MODERN PENTECOSTAL TONGUES?
Linguists have been analysing tongues among Pentecostals since they first occurred in Texas in 1901 and California in 1906. The scientific name for the phenomenon is glossolalia, from the Greek for tongues + speaking. All tests and evidence show that Pentecostal tongues are not real languages, but in fact only broken phonemes of the speaker’s mother language, and with no sentence structure or sense. Sociologists have also studied the purpose of tongues within religious groups, and they mainly conclude that the practice has a status or social function within those groups. In no case has anyone determined any meaning.


3. WHAT COULD THE CORINTH TONGUES HAVE BEEN?
Since we only have Paul’s description of the chaos in Corinth it is helpful to bring in other evidence from the First Century. Paul’s mention of “tongues of angels” in 1 Co 13:1 leads to two possible identifications, one among charismatic Jews in Egypt, the other among the Jews of the Qumran community.

3.1 In Egypt tongues of angels occur in a text by charismatic Jews known to us from Philo of Alexandria (c.25BC-50AD). Among this charismatic group “tongues of angels” appear to have been improvised solo songs by women who “prophesied”; meaning inspired musical performance, not prophecy of future things. “Tongues of angels” also occur in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as improvised Hebrew-language praise by community members. These two uses of “tongues of angels” related to inspired music are the only two references outside 1 Corinthians 13:1, so they give the most likely Jewish explanation of Paul’s term.

3.2 The problem with the Jewish evidence is that in neither of the two Jewish sources is there any suggestion of glossolalia, i.e. tongues without meaning. Glossalalia, ecstatic babble, is noted in the Roman era only in pagan contexts – Greek oracles, prophetesses and witchcraft. So the second possibility is pagan babble without meaning (see also Matthew 6:7)

3.3 Some have therefore suggested that there could be a third explanation, namely the normal human language mix inevitable in a cosmopolitan city like Corinth. This could explain Paul allowing some tongues (those which can be translated) as his concession to the ethnic mix. While that’s no doubt true, nevertheless we still have Paul saying that at Corinth “no one understands him”, which would not be the case even if a foreigner like a Scythian stood up and spoke (Colossians 3:11).

That leaves us then with knowing only what Paul said, that tongues at Corinth could not be understood by anyone, including the speaker. If we weigh these three options together we could conclude that some mix of Jewish praise tongues, Greek pagan glossolalia and multiple real languages together was causing the chaos in the church. All we know for certain is that Paul wanted to restore order.

4. WHAT SHOULD THE PRACTICE OF A BIBLE-BASED CHURCH TODAY BE?
There is really only one rule laid down by Paul and that is very simple; tongues must be translated. Going back to Acts 2 we see people from a dozen different regions understanding the apostles in their own languages. People in the church did have different languages, then as today, and it could easily lead to discrimination and favouritism if the language of only one group was allowed in the church. This situation with be very familiar to Christians in Africa and Asia where congregations may have a mix of languages. In some cases having separate meetings by language can be the best solution. But for the sake of unity believers of all languages need whenever possible to come together. In which case, then translation is not just a preference, the provision of translation is an apostolic instruction.