Speaking in Tongues

[_Sean]

TK,

I'm curious whether you read the article and any comments you, or others, may have on it.

I read the article all the way through. I thought it was pretty good overall. However I think one of the most important passages: 1 Cor 13:8-11 was not explained very well from a cessationist perspective.

I also think Mark 16:17 could have been covered and explained better from a cessationist perspective.

While I don't speak in tongues but would like to, I think I'm in as close to "neutral" as I could hope for on this issue. Having considered the topic carefully even before reading this article, I still don't know 100% what to make of the biblical case either way. I do lean to tongues being a sign still for today as per my leanings in interpretation. So because of that I feel tongues is still a function of the Holy Spirit today.

Things like prophecy can be tested. Unfortunately, tongues can't be so easily tested. One thing I have noticed is that when people were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with tongues, they apparently didn't know anything about it ahead of time. It's something that just happened. In other words, they didn't have to mimic someone else, etc. It was spontanious

[_Sean]

duplicate post.

[Guest]

Sean wrote:

While I don't speak in tongues but would like to, I think I'm in as close to "neutral" as I could hope for on this issue.

So am I. and like you, Sean, i would also like to receive this gift. But i am afraid that perhaps "neutrality" is a hindrance to receiving the gift. in other words, maybe you really have to believe it really have to want it.. i seem to always have a little bit of doubt in the back of my mind-- particularly as to, as Seth noted above, "who is moving my lips?" i am trying to disable this doubt and also asking God to remove it. I don't want to resign myself to the fact that this may not be meant for me, although this may actually be the case.

TK

[Guest]

TK,

You said:

i would also like to receive this gift. But i am afraid that perhaps "neutrality" is a hindrance to receiving the gift. in other words, maybe you really have to believe it really have to want it.. i seem to always have a little bit of doubt in the back of my mind

And Sean said:

One thing I have noticed is that when people were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with tongues, they apparently didn't know anything about it ahead of time. It's something that just happened.

As Sean indicates, I don't think you can find any evidence in the narratives in Acts that anyone, including the Apostles at Pentecost, had any belief in, or even knew of, a gift of tongues before they spoke in tongues.

As the leading Pentecostals admit, they can't say whether the tongues they speak are as those at Corinth or whether they have any meaningful content at all. How would you know if you spoke in a tongue or an imitation? It seems the strongest support is experimental.

[Guest]

homer wrote:

As Sean indicates, I don't think you can find any evidence in the narratives in Acts that anyone, including the Apostles at Pentecost, had any belief in, or even knew of, a gift of tongues before they spoke in tongues.

is the implication then that in order for tongues to be valid, they must be spoken by someone who doesnt know what they are? if this is true, then it would seem to favor non-charismatics as the likely tongue-speakers, when just the opposite is the case.

when i noted above that i seem to have this lingering doubt, it is because of what you said Homer,--how can i know for sure that if i ever do speak in tongue, that it's of the HS? but my fear is that this lingering doubt may prevent the legitimate gift being granted.

TK

[Guest]

I know this is an old post, but I visited a Church where the person who spoke in tongues also interrupted what they just said. Is that the meaning of 1Co 14:5-5? Or is someone else supposed to interrupt what was said in tongues?

1Co 14:4-5 He that speaketh in a tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. Now I would have you all speak with tongues, but rather that ye should prophesy: and greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

[Guest]

I first spoke in tongues in 1979 and still speak in tongues everyday. I was not a Christian until that very moment. I had heard about tongues from a friend 2 days earlier and it wasn't what he said that got me but how he looked - he was shining. He told me he'd been baptised and spoken in tongues 3 days earlier and it pooped all over meditation (which I was into- I was into all manner of New Age stuff - Astology, Tarot, I Ching, Buddism etc etc) I felt all huffy when he said this but I could see he had something I wanted. (ie a powerful experience of the presence of God) So I spent the next 2 days meditating and thought I'd go and get baptized to "see what would happen". I had read Revelation a few months earlier and was totally convicted of my sin after reading chapter 21 verse 8 - I was praying for forgiveness ever since. Anyway I went to the Pentecostal church my friend was attending and sat at the back - very hostile. To my surprise it was a talk about Revelation 13 and 17 - the Historicist version - about the Papacy and the Catholic church. I saw it made sense though I was thinking if they knock my religion I'll never come back. I thought I'll just ask for this Holy Spirit and get baptized and never come back.

I answered the altar call - that's when I heard people speaking in tongues for the first time - I was just amazed. I thought, "God I want you but you know what I'm like." and "These people are so straight and I'm so bent." The guy who approached me asked me what I was there for. I said I wanted to get baptized. He asked if I'd received the Holy Spirit. I said, "I don't know, what do I do?" He told me just to praise God and say "Hallelujah." I was surprised because in eastern religion you had to tie yourself in knots for years, so I said , "Hallelujah" and spoke in tongues. THAT moment I realised it was Jesus - Not Krishna, Buddha , Shiva or Allah but Jesus." I thought my whole life I've rejected Jesus and it turns out that He's the One I was looking for all along.

That was the beginning of my new life and also of a full-on interest in the Book of Revelation.

My daughters received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues within 2 weeks of each other when they were 8 and 10 in 1994. The eldest suddenly had a fear of Hell and really called on the Lord and the younger was just jealous when she saw her sister speak in tongues and wanted it too. My son still hasn't at 15 - but he doesn't pray very often.

My husband was heard to speak Arabic. My mother-in-law Flemish-french. A couple of years ago we prayed for a Filipino who spoke in tongues straight away - his language sounded like Latin or Spanish.

[Guest]

SAB-

when you say you "speak in tongues" do you mean that you are "praying in tongues?"-- i.e. praying for your own edification? if you are speaking in tongues in a public setting, has anyone ever interpreted what you were saying?

TK

[Guest]

I usually pray in tongues alone for my own edification but I have had a 'gift of tongues' on several occasions which was interpreted. The first time I operated a 'gift of tongues' was several weeks after I was baptised in the Spirit. I had been praying and fasting - I just felt a general yearning for something more. I was at a meeting and it was 'left open for the voice girfts to operate'. Without particularly seeking for it I felt the power go through me and words blurted from my mouth. Someone else interpreted it. I forget most of the interpretation except the very end which was 'children of disobedience shall burn.'

Although I spoke in tongues everyday in my personal prayer time it was more than a year before I gave another gift of tongues. I was waiting for an anointing as heavy as that first time - that didn't happen - other times it was just a gentle urge. How do you describe the anointing?

[Guest]

Sab-

thanks for the response. i am not going to try to explain the anointing-- i am sure it differs from time to time and person to person.

i was just curious about if you ever had an utterance in tongues interpreted.

TK