Speaking in Tounges

[Bren]

I fail to see where she said her entire church spoke in tounges. I've yet to see a whole church do it but several people at once can. It's the spirit communicating with God.

[Pound Foolish]

Certainly not! I was exaggerating. I just meant she spoke as if, at her church, it's not highly remarkable. Where I come from, there doesn't tend to be more any people being giving amazing metaphysical gifts from God that appear during mass. As I said, I've read many books in Christianity, I've also had many conversations on it. And I've never heard of such a thing.

[HannahJ.]

My whole Church doesn't speak in tongues. Basically ALL the adults. The Teens. But your forgetting that there are Kids and Babies. That don't have it. Not all of the people speak in tongues at the same time.

Bren I agree!

[Pound Foolish]

All the adults, and a lot of the teens. hm. Actually, that's a lot MORE than I figured. I may have to go to your church, Hannah. If that place is all it seems to you, it's miracle central.

[Bren]

Well, mine's the same way. It's not sO much a miracle as it is things going how God planned them.

[Aaron Wiley]

Pound Foolish, you don't go to a lot of Pentecostal churches do you?

[HannahJ.]

PF the fact is that we're not all Speaking in Tongues the same time. Most of them just have The Holy Ghost and have spoken in tongues. Everbody doesnt speak in tongues at the same time.

[Pound Foolish]

Thank you for that clarification, Hannah. I suppose if people in Pentecostal churches are always striving to speak in tongues, it's somewhat possible.

[HannahJ.]

It is possible. And if you ever had that experience your whole perspecti would be changed. Its the best thing that can happen!

[AIOluver36]

Well they did it on the Bible so whats in the Bible is true

Absolutely!!!! God can do anything and if He wants us to speak another language He'll do it!!!!

[Pound Foolish]

So true! Though, while I'm very familiar with the idea of people saying church in another language with an earthly means, more than a few people happening to be able to say do miraculously in the same place... I don't know, it sounds unusual. NOT BAD, but unusual. But this discussion has started to make me wonder if I'm wrong. Been known to happen.

[HannahJ.]

Well they did it on the Bible so whats in the Bible is true

Absolutely!!!! God can do anything and if He wants us to speak another language He'll do it!!!!

Amen someone agrees!

[sheltiez]

I believe in speaking in tongues, just not unintelligent ramblings. I believe that tongues means languages such as Greek, Spanish, Hebrew, etc.

[HannahJ.]

I believe in speaking in tongues, just not unintelligent ramblings. I believe that tongues means languages such as Greek, Spanish, Hebrew, etc.

Sometimes. Like I heard a Story of a Missionarie in Ethiopia or somewhere like that where they were speaking in tongues but it was English. Hebrew I think would be more than Spanish and sometimes my Sunday School teacher said it can be language of Angels.

[Striped Leopard]

I believe in speaking in tongues, just not unintelligent ramblings. I believe that tongues means languages such as Greek, Spanish, Hebrew, etc.

Sometimes. Like I heard a Story of a Missionarie in Ethiopia or somewhere like that where they were speaking in tongues but it was English. Hebrew I think would be more than Spanish and sometimes my Sunday School teacher said it can be language of Angels.

Where do we get the idea that Christians can speak in the language of angels? 1 Corinthians 13:1? If so, then that means that we are also able to have all knowledge, understand all mysteries, and have faith so large that we can literally move mountains.

Of course, that's ridiculous. And rightly so. Because, in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul was using hyperbole, as if to say, EVEN IF I could do all those things (and I can't), if I didn't have love, it would all be worthless.

How we get the idea from that verse that Christians, by the Holy Spirit, are able to speak in some special heavenly language reserved for angels, is beyond me...

[Tea Ess]

Thank you, Christian. Your post really helped clear up a couple of things for me. Modern day speaking in tongue beliefs are a very new exposure for me, and I don't yet have all the Biblical references down on this subject. Since I don't have a firm foundation for this yet, your post helped a lot.

[Striped Leopard]

You're very welcome TS. I'm certainly not an expert on the issue, but I try to give a biblical defense for why I think modern-day tongue-speaking is unbiblical.

Really, the only speaking in tongues described in the Bible is what has already been described here by others: regular human languages that the speakers did not naturally have the ability to speak. The miracle of speaking in tongues was that God gave believers (usually, if not exclusively, apostles) the ability to speak in their own language but be heard by others in their own native languages.

And the gift was always used to edify the church, to communicate truth. It was never used as some sort of "personal" or "special blessing" reserved for individual saints who use it in their private prayer time to somehow feel closer to God. There is absolutely no evidence for that in Scripture.

I believe that God can give people the gift of tongues today. People can be ministering in a foreign country and be able to miraculously communicate with natives in their own language, without knowing the language themselves. That is obviously and apparently a great gift from God that He may choose to bestow on some people. But I am fully against and disbelieving of the claims that thousands make that they receive from God the ability to speak in gibberish "tongues of angels" in an act of private worship to God. To me, that's just ridiculous and totally extra-biblical.

[fodo14]

I belive in speaking in tongues can be a sign that you have been filled with the holy spirit.

[Nelson S.]

I believe that too, fodo

[Striped Leopard]

See, that's where things get dangerous. Some people would say that you aren't indwelt by the Holy Spirit until you speak in tongues. That's just false, almost heretical.

In the book of Acts, it is clear that certain groups of people (it was 3 separate occasions, I believe) received the gift of tongues when they were saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But in those cases, it is clear that the gift was given to testify to the Jews that the Gentiles were able to be saved as well. You see, in the first century, the believing Jews were having a hard time believing that the gospel and salvation were open to non-Jews as well, so God used the gift of tongues as a visible and audible sign that certain groups of Gentiles had been filled with the Holy Spirit.

Those cases were not in any way meant to indicate to us that all Christians have the opportunity and should strive for the "blessing" of the gift of tongues. It was merely a sign to the Jews. Today, there would be no reason to have the gift of tongues, other than to communicate the gospel to people groups of a different language.

Tongues were always meant to be a means of edification for the body of Christ. This idea that tongues are some kind of "second blessing" that come with being filled anew with the Holy Spirit is totally foreign to the Bible. The kind of tongues I always hear about from Charismatics never sounds like a means of edification to the Church, but rather a special experience that gives the individual a spiritual sensation. Where in the Bible do we get the idea that something is good just because it makes us feel more spiritual?

And additionally, the accounts I've heard about churches that speak in tongues never follow the guidelines prescribed in 1 Corinthians 14, where it says that there can only be about 2 or 3 speaking at one time, and that there should ALWAYS be an interpreter so that the message from God can be relayed to the whole congregation--not just as a special revelation to the person speaking the special language.

I really don't understand why so many people get so emotionally involved in something that is never talked about in Scripture. It saddens me to see how many are deceived.