It is well for us to consider here that religious people are prone to select a favorite Bible doctrine or truth and to hold to that one truth at the expense of other basic tenets. We may overemphasize important truths so as to obscure other important truth which may actually disappear as a result. This is what I mean by a truth disappearing-it falls into disuse and therefore is easily forgotten. I would illustrate this.

Suppose there is one key on the piano that is not properly attached and it gives forth no sound when it is struck. The pianist is sure to be wincing when he strikes that key and nothing happens. If you would photograph the keyboard, that key would be in its proper place in the picture, but it will not produce any sound no matter how hard you touch it. That is an illustration of what I mean by a basic doctrine of the Christian faith that has fallen into disuse, so that it is not longer talked about or thought about or preached about. If you go to the book of discipline , the statement of doctrine, you will find it still in its place because it will say that we do firmly hold this truth.

But it no longer plays-it is no longer heard. It has no emphasis and no power because it is slurred over and forgotten. This is how a basic Bible truth may fall into disuse because certain doctrines have been overemphasized to the obscuring of others. Then, finally some prophet of God has to come and reassert the forgotten truths and reemphasize and trumpet them forth. That person be considered a heretic because that segment of Bible truth has been obscured for generations. But in the midst of grumbling, the prophet of God keeps persisting until the church awakes, readopts that truth, so that a sense of life comes as if it were raised from the dead. (A.W.Tozer)

Tozer is here speaking in profound terms. Luther would be an example of this, he did not invent a new doctrine when he announced that we are justified by faith alone and not of works. He rediscovered it and presented it to a church that had long ago forgotten this most fundamental and vital aspect of what it means to be saved. Many centuries before this most basic and fundamental truth was lost in religiosity and liturgy. Century after century Christendom slowly drifted away, each generation losing something from the previous generation until they were totally adrift from the truth. Once they were totally adrift from the truth then more centuries past affirming and confirming their error. Then comes Luther and as he hammered that nail into the door, the whole of Christendom shook. A bloody revolution then ensued as the keepers of the error and the status quo fought with all of their might against this upstart priest of no account who was challenging their religion and their liturgy. I believe a similar revolution would have to take place in order to rediscover the truths of 1 Cor 14 and how we interact in gatherings. The sign gifts and their purpose of edifying the saints and the unsaved and the unlearned have fallen into disuse and have been forgotten.