Father Rick
Peace be with you
- Jun 23, 2004
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While a few scholars do believe that the 120 were speaking in their native tongue, yet the hearers were actually hearing them in foreign languages, those who hold to that view are clearly a small minority. The linguistics of the passage make it appear that the 120 were actually speaking multiple languages they did not understand. Either way, however, I've never known of the ability to speak/understand a foreign language to be a symptom that would appear as drunkenness. Quite the contrary, I have been in many multicultural situations where multiple languages were being spoken by those present-- with no confusion.habeas said:
When I am in a multicultural crowd (as was the case on the Day of Pentecost or Shavuot, which was a pilgrimage feast in which Jews from around the world travelled to Jerusalem) and I hear someone speak a language I know, I just think they speak the language I know. Now, if they are acting drunk and speaking the language I know-- well, I think they are drunk and speaking the language I know. If you have ever been in an international market where people are around you speaking multiple languages you can understand what it would have been like on that street--
How do people act when they are drunk? I've never heard of it INCREASING one's intelligence/abilities and they can suddenly speak multiple languages. That argument doesn't even follow good logic.
Well, I've been around people who were drunk, who laughed and 'cackled'. Even when sober, I have on occasion laughed so hard that I was almost out of breath and only made "OOOHHHH" noises (such as are heard on those tapes) that could be interpretted as a 'mooing' or a 'cooing' noise.
It should also be noted that in his writings to the Corinthians, Paul specifically addressed the fact that the way in which genuine spiritual gifts and manifestations were taking place caused observers to think they were crazy. Paul was therefore placing some restrictions on how/when those manifestations were to be exercised. Notice that Paul did NOT say the manifestations were demonic-- only that they should be controlled depending on the situation. While I fully agree that in some of these meetings there are things that go into excess-- to go so far as to call the occurrences demonic, is IMO bordering on blasphemy.
Just one scripture to note here-- "when the Lord brought back the captive of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with singing..." In that passage, a sign of their freedom was that they laughed. In Nehemiah, when the temple was restored, it states that the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. Mirth literally means "gladness or gaiety as shown by or accompanied with laughter". So we see on at least a couple of occasions we see laughter as a 'sign' of God's deliverance/blessing on His people.
Interestingly, I have ministered in deliverance for a number of years. I have never seen a demonic manifestation like what is being seen on those tapes. I have been in a number of these services personally-- and while I have seen demonic manifestations during those services, as someone was being delivered from demonization-- that was night and day difference between this.
There are documented cases throughout church history of similar manifestations of the Spirit. When John Wesley would preach, those sitting in the tree branches listening to his sermons would be overtaken with violent shaking-- sometimes so hard they would fall out of the trees-- where they would roll/slither around on the ground uncontrollably. Sometimes these people would laugh uncontrollably. During the early days of the modern Pentecostal movement (Azusa Street, etc.) there are numbers of documented occasions when identical spiritual manifestations occurred. I recommend reading "Like as of Fire", which is a reprint of 3 years of the Azusa Street mission newspaper published during that revival that simple records the various things that occurred. If you think this is strange, this doesn't hold a candle to some of the things that occurred then.
There are also documentation of similar occurrences within the lives of the early church fathers. For the sake of time, I won't list them all here.
Nice quote.... does absolutely nothing for this whole discussion (unless you are saying you alone have the spiritual discernement to know what is/is not from God)... but still a nice quote.
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