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Speaking in Tongues

According to the biblical record found in the book of Acts, the purpose for the speaking in tongues was for foreigners to understand the gospel. There is no description of anyone speaking giberish or rolling on the floor as if possessed.
 
Many years ago I was working as a camera assistant video taping one of these Pentacostal services. I just couldn't stop giggling at these people. I tried really hard to be polite and respectful of their religious practices, but I found it impossible to keep a straight face. Fortunately they were all too busy babbling nonsense and falling over to notice.
 
Brainache said:
Many years ago I was working as a camera assistant video taping one of these Pentacostal services. I just couldn't stop giggling at these people. I tried really hard to be polite and respectful of their religious practices, but I found it impossible to keep a straight face. Fortunately they were all too busy babbling nonsense and falling over to notice.
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I was a child when first exposed to this phenomenon and my reaction was fear of being physically attacked by people whom I perceiuved to be posssessed by some malevolent entity. My first instinct was to run out of the church but I imagined them all streaming after me, you know, like in the film Body Snatchers. So I just stood there hoping for the best.
 
A short video on Speaking In Tongues

I have a video on YouTube, called Speaking In Tongues Part A, which is helpful in understanding tongues, prophecy and knowledge. My user name on YouTube is christianissues

God bless,
Mick
 
ChristianIssues said:
I have a video on YouTube, called Speaking In Tongues Part A, which is helpful in understanding tongues, prophecy and knowledge. My user name on YouTube is christianissues

God bless,
Mick
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How about a text version posted here?

A "video" is not really well suited to that sort of presentation ... I mean it's just you reading the words (very slowly), it's a VERY inefficient medium to convey your ideas.

No offense intended but I only managed about 20 seconds.
 
Drewbot said:
I witnessed a speaking in tongue incident at church a few years back.

I was curious if there is any inside info on this:

Here is the basic breakdown of what happens;

The minister is speaking about a story in the bible, perhaps starts into a prayer, and in the middle of the congregation(audience) someone will start yelling in what appears to be a foreign language.

Then later someone will say, 'That was Ancient Aramaic! only six people in America can speak that, it must be GOD speaking through her'

Please tell me is:

1. The person planted with the words to say at a cue from the minister?

2. The person speaking gibberish, and the planting is in the people saying that it was an ancient language


Sometimes, the person will Speak in tongues, and then all around them people will start speaking in a gibberishy language, as though they are also being filled with the H.S. and don't want to be left out.
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If you tape record this gibberish you will hear english mixed in with meaningless nonsense. It will not resemble Aramaic at all.
 
Radrook said:
According to the biblical record found in the book of Acts, the purpose for the speaking in tongues was for foreigners to understand the gospel. There is no description of anyone speaking giberish or rolling on the floor as if possessed.
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There is, of course, also what Paul has to say about speaking in tongues in 1 Cor. 14:1 - 33, 36, 37. This would seem to be something entirely different from Acts 2, where the disciples supposedly spoke in foreign languages. What Paul seems to be addressing is the phenomenon of glossolalia, and this is what goes on today in Pentecostal churches.
 
pipelineaudio said:
Bikewer said:
I once saw two prominent TV evangelists speaking in tongues to each other....Silliest thing I've ever seen.
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Please please please [please please please please please please puh-leez please please please please please please] find a video of this!!!!!!
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Adding more pleases to pipelineaudio's plea :) (sounds like televangelical tonsil hockey).
 
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kerikiwi said:
This post is written 'in tongue' isn't it?
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Prince George: Ah, Dr. Johnson, damn cold day!
Dr. Samuel Johnson: Indeed it is sir - but a very fine one, for I celebrated last night the encyclopedic implementation of my pre-meditated orchestration of demotic Anglo-Saxon.
Prince George: Nope - didn't catch any of that.
Dr. Samuel Johnson: Well, I simply observed, sir, that I'm felicitous since during the course of the penultimate solar sojourn, I terminated my uninterrupted categorisation of the vocabluary of our post-Norman tongue.
Prince George: Well, I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds damn saucy, you lucky thing! I know some fairly liberal-minded girls, but I've never penultimated any of them in a solar sojourn, or for that matter, been given any Norman tongue.
Blackadder: I believe, sir, that the Doctor is trying to tell you that he is happy because he has finished his book. It has apparently taken him ten years.
Prince George: Well, I'm a slow reader myself.


Andrew Wiggin said:
Given that these aren't folks with a lot of exposure to latin, I should lay some latin on them. Obscure medical terms, perhaps.
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Charley: Dominus vobiscum nabisco. Espiritu sanctum. De gustibus.
Prisoner: [hands Johnny a part of a tommy gun] So long, Johnny.
Charley: Me gustibus. You gustibus. We missed the bus. They missed the bus.
Prisoner: [hands Johnny another piece of the gun] Be brave, huh, Johnny.
Charley: When's the next bus?
Johnny Dangerously: [begins putting the gun together behind the wardens back] Always, Nails.
Charley: Summa cum laude. Magna cum laude. The radio's too laude. Adeste fidelis.
Prisoner: [gives Johnny another piece] Good luck, Johnny.
Charley: Centra fidelis. High fidelis.
Johnny Dangerously: [struggling to put it together] Why didn't I take shop?
Charley: Post meridian. Ante meridian. Uncle meridian. All of the little meridians.
Prisoner: [adds another piece] Bye bye, Johnny.
Johnny Dangerously: [adds piece to gun] Bye, Rock.
Charley: Magna carta. Master charga.
Prisoner: [hands piece to Johnny] Spit in his eye, Johnny!
Johnny Dangerously: [finishes putting the gun together] OK, rabbi.
Charley: [opens his bible to reveal the guns clip] Dum procellas. Lotsa Vitalis.





JWideman said:
One of the other nerds cut him off and says "No, what he said 'Long ago, a storm was heading for the city of Quin'lat. Everyone took protection within the walls except one man who remained outside. Kahless went to him and asked what he was doing. "I am not afraid," the man said. "I will not hide my face behind stone and mortar. I will stand before the wind and make it respect me." Kahless honored his choice and went back inside. The next day, the storm came, and the man was killed, as the wind does not respect a fool."
While all the churchgoers stood around in confusion and surprise, a third one said "That's what he would have said if his pronunciation wasn't so bad."
The whole group of them were still arguing in the parking lot after the Pentecostals had asked them to leave.
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Reminds me of this:

"And though I had killed a thousand foes less one, the thousandth knife found my liver and the thousandth enemy said to me, 'now you shall die, now none shall know.' And the fool, looking only down believed this, not seeing above his shoulder the naked stars, each one remembering."

It was from the old FASA's Star Trek RPG and I thought it was so cool, I memorized it. Still remember it even after twenty some odd years...
 
My step-dad loved to make fun of people who spoke in tongues, as half of his family was avowedly Christian (the other half was Native American, and he was a practicing Shaman), and he was quite adept at mimicking them. I had never seen it outside of television and his mimicking, until oddly enough at his funeral. One of his relatives broke into a mix of speaking in tongues and proselytizing about how only those who truly loved Jesus would get into heaven, right in the middle of the funeral service. I have to admit, while part of me was quite angry at the lady for not only interrupting, but for the fact her little speech was basically condemning him to hell since he was "pagan", the rest of me was quite amused, since all it made me think of was him mocking that sort of behavior. I had to fight the urge to laugh, and at that time that made her rude interruption almost worth it, since I had desperately needed to laugh at that time.

So hey, maybe that speaking in tongues stuff has some practical application after all. :rolleyes:
 
Yeggster said:
How about a text version posted here?

A "video" is not really well suited to that sort of presentation ... I mean it's just you reading the words (very slowly), it's a VERY inefficient medium to convey your ideas.

No offense intended but I only managed about 20 seconds.
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I appreciate your comment however I can't do much of a job as the graphics in the video can't be put into words as well.

Basically the beginning of the video focuses on the words 'cease' and 'remain' used in the passage 1 Cor. 13:8-10. The word cease is used in reference to tongues, prophecy and knowledge and the word remain is used in reference to faith, hope and love. The following is what I am saying in the graphics -

Another way to look at the ceasing and remaining is like this - There are six men. Three die (cease to be) leaving 3 alive (remaining). Then, some time later on, 2 more die leaving just 1 alive. This is the sequence of events with the six items in 1 Cor. 13:8-10 -
1) Tongues, Prophecy and Knowledge cease first
2) this leaves Faith & Hope remaining to cease when Jesus returns
3) this leaves Love to remain forever.
So, it plain that tongues, prophecy and knowledge cease before Jesus returns. I don't know of any other way to interpret these words without compromising the English language. Is there another way to look at this?

God bless,
Mick
 
ChristianIssues said:
I appreciate your comment however I can't do much of a job as the graphics in the video can't be put into words as well.

Basically the beginning of the video focuses on the words 'cease' and 'remain' used in the passage 1 Cor. 13:8-10. The word cease is used in reference to tongues, prophecy and knowledge and the word remain is used in reference to faith, hope and love. The following is what I am saying in the graphics -
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Thanks .... sounds like some pretty wide latitude in interpretation ... but not outside the norm for many other areas of religious dogma
 
Yeggster said:
Thanks .... sounds like some pretty wide latitude in interpretation ... but not outside the norm for many other areas of religious dogma
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I'm also not seeing the connection to the thread.

For my heathen interpretation, that chapter of 1 Corinthians seems to be saying that Love (in the KJ, Charity) is the greatest of gifts because it never fails. Tongues fail, prophecy fails, knowledge fails, and faith fails, so even if you have all four gifts, if you don't also have charity, it doesn't help. 1 Cor 13:9 says that knowledge and prophecy are incomplete, and will therefore be no good when the kingdom of God, which is perfect, comes. 1 Cor 13:13 ends with "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." The passage says little about tongues - except that they shall cease. The passage is all about Charity.
 
arthwollipot said:
I'm also not seeing the connection to the thread.

For my heathen interpretation, that chapter of 1 Corinthians seems to be saying that Love (in the KJ, Charity) is the greatest of gifts because it never fails. Tongues fail, prophecy fails, knowledge fails, and faith fails, so even if you have all four gifts, if you don't also have charity, it doesn't help. 1 Cor 13:9 says that knowledge and prophecy are incomplete, and will therefore be no good when the kingdom of God, which is perfect, comes. 1 Cor 13:13 ends with "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." The passage says little about tongues - except that they shall cease. The passage is all about Charity.
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Hello there,

The Chapters 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 are all about gifts and the bit in 1 Cor 13:1-8 is saying that love is greater than any gift. This is said because the people the letter was written to made a big issue out of speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues was simply a sign to the Jews that they were going to be judged because they rejected Jesus. Tongues was not for spreading the gospel, not a prayer language and not an angelic language but simply a sign of judgment to the Jews. The Old Testament shows three other occasions where God used tongues as a sign of judgment and this New Testament use of tongues if for the same purpose. Speaking in tongues would have ceased in the 1st century, probably when God judged Israel through the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.

God bless,
Mick
 
Except that it didn't cease, and we still see people trying to do it today, which is why I wondered how your post linked to the OP.
 
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