Jubilation!?
Jeff Oliver, Pentecost to the Present: “In Augustine’s Homilies on the First Epistle of John, he repeatedly suggested that tongues had “passed away.” In a time when baptism had been largely reduced to the ceremonial sprinkling of infants, he even poked fun at speaking in tongues. Yet in his Expositions on the Psalms, Augustine spoke of a Christian phenomenon called jubilation, which he described as unpremeditated, incoherent singing that sounded much like modern-day sung glossolalia or singing in tongues: Words cannot express the things that are sung by the heart. Take the case of people singing while harvesting in the fields or in the vineyards or when any other strenuous work is in progress. Although they begin by giving expression to their happiness in sung words, yet shortly there is a change. As if so happy that words can no longer express what they feel, they discard the restricting syllables. They burst into a simple sound of joy; of jubilation. Such a cry of joy is a sound signifying that the heart is bringing birth to what it cannot utter in words. Now who is more worthy of such a cry of jubilation than God Himself, whom all words fail to describe? If words will not serve, and yet you must not remain silent, what else can you do but cry out for joy? Your heart must rejoice beyond words, that your unbounded joy may be unrestrained by syllabic bonds.
At one point Augustine argued that the witness of the Spirit’s Presence was no longer given by miracles but by the love of God in one’s heart for the church. Then as supernatural healings began occurring in public services in his own church and in his own time, and as he began to see and experience miracles in his own life and in the lives of others, his views progressed. In one of Augustine’s later and best known works, the City of God, he wrote: “Even now, therefore miracles are wrought, the same God who wrought those we read of still performing them, by whom He will and as He will.”
Should we be surprised? 1 Corinthians 14:15 Then what am I to do? I will pray with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will also pray [intelligently] with my mind and understanding; I will sing with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will sing [intelligently] with my mind and understanding also.
