Speaking in Tongues

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Recently, I had a discussion with a few people about speaking in tongues. One of them was a catholic turned Pentecostal and the other her daughter who is still catholic.

I told them that if the Holy Spirit falls upon a person and they start to speak in tongues then there is nothing wrong with it. The problem I have is when people start shooting nonsense out of their mouth, start shaking, and then through some kind of hyper delusion claim that it is a gift from the Holy Sprit. I think that when a person does that they are in fact insulting the Holy Spirit.

People who act that way are no different than the people who try to levitate in East Asia. They bounce back and forth around the room with their legs crossed thinking that they will be able to levitate. In the same way, people who speak in tongues (false nonsense tongues) are not being honest or rational.

What can I tell this woman to help her understand that her behavior is wrong?
 
1 Cor 14
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, let it be two or at most three, and each in turn, and one should interpret. 28 But if there is no interpreter, the person should keep silent in the church and speak to himself and to God.
Yes… very important words…
 
Tongues is a rare gift. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not the same for everyone. Not only that, it’s not essential for salvation so spending an inordinate amount of time on it is a waste of time, time that can be more well spent worshiping God in Church.

It’s extremely unlikely that an entire congregation of people all have the gift of tongues. I would have to assume that most of them are just speaking gibberish…

Is this a sin? Well, not really in itself. However, if this is misleading people into misinterpretations of God’s word, then yes.

Is it insulting to the Holy Spirit? Hard to say, again it’s kind of misleading and not really productive. I would assume God is just thinking that we do some weird things sometimes, He is probably not as insulted as He is confused.

The last point I want to make is that it’s been reported that people that are possessed speak in tongues. Not that the people you know are possessed, but it’s important to know that just because someone is speaking in tongues doesn’t mean that what they are saying is coming from God.
 
Pentecostals seem to exaggerate this Holy Spirit thing a lot. Someone I know, he told me that he often falls asleep in church but his mum boasts that he is “touched by the Holy Spirit”, hence the “fainting”.
 
BlestOne thanks for that passage.

I also found this.
1 Cor 14 22
Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers.

This is also important because it clearly explains that tongues is not for believers.
 
06convert said:
Tongues is a rare gift. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not the same for everyone. Not only that, it’s not essential for salvation so spending an inordinate amount of time on it is a waste of time, time that can be more well spent worshiping God in Church.

It’s extremely unlikely that an entire congregation of people all have the gift of tongues. I would have to assume that most of them are just speaking gibberish…

Is this a sin? Well, not really in itself. However, if this is misleading people into misinterpretations of God’s word, then yes.

Is it insulting to the Holy Spirit? Hard to say, again it’s kind of misleading and not really productive. I would assume God is just thinking that we do some weird things sometimes, He is probably not as insulted as He is confused.

The last point I want to make is that it’s been reported that people that are possessed speak in tongues. Not that the people you know are possessed, but it’s important to know that just because someone is speaking in tongues doesn’t mean that what they are saying is coming from God.
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I agree with much of what you said here. My only thought is that when people speak in tongues (gibberish like) they are mocking the holy spirit.

I also think that since sins against the holy spirit are not forgiven then people should be more carefull.
 
Okay so some folks claim to speak in tongues; are there folks who can intrepret tongues? I’m asking because I’ve never heard of any.
 
I haven’t seen a whole lot of speaking in tongues in my life. I went to a pentacostal service a couple of time and saw it. I have never done it myself or been with someone who was doing it.

However, why is it so common in the pentacostal denominations and so uncommon everywhere else?
 
DD2007 said:
I haven’t seen a whole lot of speaking in tongues in my life. I went to a pentacostal service a couple of time and saw it. I have never done it myself or been with someone who was doing it.

However, why is it so common in the pentacostal denominations and so uncommon everywhere else?
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I don’t know but I’m sure if you ask one they would say,

“aha blab la booo bogie boogie”
 
BlestOne said:
1 Cor 14
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, let it be two or at most three, and each in turn, and one should interpret. 28 But if there is no interpreter, the person should keep silent in the church and speak to himself and to God.
Yes… very important words…
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1 Corinthians 14:1-5 1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. 3 But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified
 
JamesG said:
I don’t know but I’m sure if you ask one they would say,

“aha blab la booo bogie boogie”
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Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it’s just bable.

My wife speaks 5 langues and they all (except english) sound like “aha blab la booo bogie boogie” to me.
 
Wildgraywolf said:
Okay so some folks claim to speak in tongues; are there folks who can intrepret tongues? I’m asking because I’ve never heard of any.
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I was at a healing mass last year and I observed one young man stand up and with no hesitation begin speaking in a language I had never heard before and believe me having lived in Toronto for 20 years I believe I have heard most.At the conclusion of this speech,a woman stood up and without hesitation INTERPRETED (I presume)every word that the young man had said.

There was no barking,growling or yipping.The young man’s speech was normally cadenced.It was remarkable.The rest of the congregation,obvious veterans,did not even blink.

On neither the speakers nor the interpreters part was there a scintilla of hesitation,pausing or verbal stumbling.I truly believe that that was an authentic gift of tongues and interpretation.The amazing thing was that it was accepted as completely normal by the rest of the congregation as if it was nothing else but completely normal.
 
Soutane said:
I was at a healing mass last year and I observed one young man stand up and with no hesitation begin speaking in a language I had never heard before and believe me having lived in Toronto for 20 years I believe I have heard most.At the conclusion of this speech,a woman stood up and without hesitation INTERPRETED (I presume)every word that the young man had said.

There was no barking,growling or yipping.The young man’s speech was normally cadenced.It was remarkable.The rest of the congregation,obvious veterans,did not even blink.
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so what did he say?
 
CHRISTINE77 said:
so what did he say?
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As it was over one year ago I cannot give you a word for word transcription but the voice identified Himself as Christ and stated how pleased He was that His children had gathered in His Name and that He loved us.🙂
 
If speaking in tongues is still meant for “building up the Church” (and by Church I mean not a single church community–Catholic Charismatic or Protestant Charismatic/Pentecostal–but THE mystical Body of Christ…the one true Church…then where, exactly, is the gain? I don’t think that it is enough, for the entire Body, to state "well, so and so was speaking in tongues, and another so-and-so intepreted it to mean “I’m glad you’ve gathered and I love you”. As beautiful as that message is, it isn’t necessarily something which is going to move beyond those individuals or that little parish/gathering/community. I’m thinking that the original Pentecost was something much larger (it was, and was, while completely miraculous and awe-inspiring, also very PRACTICAL). As for speaking in tongues, in modern times (and I’m not a complete skeptic, but close enough)…you’d think that it would have a larger purpose than ‘individuals’ being amazed at each other’s charisms.

I’m a big proponent for the ordinary charisms that we christians all possess. I believe and have seen the Holy Spirit work through those charisms, in amazing ways…and, as a whole, I think that they are much better for building up the body than one single (unusual) gift that seems to have more to do with proving how ‘annointed/blessed’ one is, than actually building up the Body.

Does that make sense?
 
byzgirl said:
If speaking in tongues is still meant for “building up the Church” (and by Church I mean not a single church community–Catholic Charismatic or Protestant Charismatic/Pentecostal–but THE mystical Body of Christ…the one true Church…then where, exactly, is the gain? I don’t think that it is enough, for the entire Body, to state "well, so and so was speaking in tongues, and another so-and-so intepreted it to mean “I’m glad you’ve gathered and I love you”. As beautiful as that message is, it isn’t necessarily something which is going to move beyond those individuals or that little parish/gathering/community. I’m thinking that the original Pentecost was something much larger (it was, and was, while completely miraculous and awe-inspiring, also very PRACTICAL). As for speaking in tongues, in modern times (and I’m not a complete skeptic, but close enough)…you’d think that it would have a larger purpose than ‘individuals’ being amazed at each other’s charisms.

I’m a big proponent for the ordinary charisms that we christians all possess. I believe and have seen the Holy Spirit work through those charisms, in amazing ways…and, as a whole, I think that they are much better for building up the body than one single (unusual) gift that seems to have more to do with proving how ‘annointed/blessed’ one is, than actually building up the Body.

Does that make sense?
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When the apostles spoke in tongues at Pentacost, they were speaking real languages, because all the foreigners around them could understand them. I don’t know how speaking in tongues morphed into speaking in gibberish.
 
"If speaking in tongues is still meant for “building up the Church” (and by Church I mean not a single church community–Catholic Charismatic or Protestant Charismatic/Pentecostal–but THE mystical Body of Christ…the one true Church…then where, exactly, is the gain? I don’t think that it is enough, for the entire Body, to state "well, so and so was speaking in tongues, and another so-and-so intepreted it to mean “I’m glad you’ve gathered and I love you”. As beautiful as that message is, it isn’t necessarily something which is going to move beyond those individuals or that little parish/gathering/community. I’m thinking that the original Pentecost was something much larger (it was, and was, while completely miraculous and awe-inspiring, also very PRACTICAL). As for speaking in tongues, in modern times (and I’m not a complete skeptic, but close enough)…you’d think that it would have a larger purpose than ‘individuals’ being amazed at each other’s charisms.

I’m a big proponent for the ordinary charisms that we christians all possess. I believe and have seen the Holy Spirit work through those charisms, in amazing ways…and, as a whole, I think that they are much better for building up the body than one single (unusual) gift that seems to have more to do with proving how ‘annointed/blessed’ one is, than actually building up the Body.

Does that make sense?"

I am the original skeptic when it comes to these things but all I can tell you is what I experienced.I’m not looking for your approval or validation.Someone asked a question and I answered it.The most germane part of my answer was that I witnessed what I believed to be the charism of tongues but most importantly there was immediate interpretation as Holy Scripture admonishes and that this occurred in a Catholic not a Pentecostal Church and that there was a message that made sense.There were a number of non-Catholic Christians present,one of whom was my girlfriend so perhaps Our Lord’s gift was meant to edify THEM and build up the True Church in THEIR eyes.I know my girlfriend was pretty impressed… .
 
CHRISTINE77 said:
When the apostles spoke in tongues at Pentacost, they were speaking real languages, because all the foreigners around them could understand them. I don’t know how speaking in tongues morphed into speaking in gibberish.
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That’s exactly right. Me neither. That’s what I meant when I said it was both awesome and practical. They were speaking ***real ***languages, expressing things prompted by the Holy Spirit, but real tongues that were identifiable and of this earth at the time.
 
Soutane said:
"If speaking in tongues is still meant for “building up the Church” (and by Church I mean not a single church community–Catholic Charismatic or Protestant Charismatic/Pentecostal–but THE mystical Body of Christ…the one true Church…then where, exactly, is the gain? I don’t think that it is enough, for the entire Body, to state "well, so and so was speaking in tongues, and another so-and-so intepreted it to mean “I’m glad you’ve gathered and I love you”. As beautiful as that message is, it isn’t necessarily something which is going to move beyond those individuals or that little parish/gathering/community. I’m thinking that the original Pentecost was something much larger (it was, and was, while completely miraculous and awe-inspiring, also very PRACTICAL). As for speaking in tongues, in modern times (and I’m not a complete skeptic, but close enough)…you’d think that it would have a larger purpose than ‘individuals’ being amazed at each other’s charisms.

I’m a big proponent for the ordinary charisms that we christians all possess. I believe and have seen the Holy Spirit work through those charisms, in amazing ways…and, as a whole, I think that they are much better for building up the body than one single (unusual) gift that seems to have more to do with proving how ‘annointed/blessed’ one is, than actually building up the Body.

Does that make sense?"

I am the original skeptic when it comes to these things but all I can tell you is what I experienced.I’m not looking for your approval or validation.Someone asked a question and I answered it.The most germane part of my answer was that I witnessed what I believed to be the charism of tongues but most importantly there was immediate interpretation as Holy Scripture admonishes and that this occurred in a Catholic not a Pentecostal Church and that there was a message that made sense.There were a number of non-Catholic Christians present,one of whom was my girlfriend so perhaps Our Lord’s gift was meant to edify THEM and build up the True Church in THEIR eyes.I know my girlfriend was pretty impressed… .
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I am niether approving nor disproving your experience. I’m a strong believer in miracles, and the workings of the Holy Spirit. But I’d just like to point out that any one person’s “being impressed” is definitely not the same thing as building up the Body and the gift as having a God-directed purpose.
 
byzgirl said:
I am niether approving nor disproving your experience. I’m a strong believer in miracles, and the workings of the Holy Spirit. But I’d just like to point out that any one person’s “being impressed” is definitely not the same thing as building up the Body and the gift as having a God-directed purpose.
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Everyone’s entitled to an opinion,even a remote one far removed from the actual place of occurance.Were you there?No.

I was.

I am not asking you to believe,but your OPINION is quite irrelevant.Please do not be so dismissive of other people’s experiences.
 
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