I don't recall that in either of the Assemblies of God churches I was a part of growing up. I asked about that on an A/G forum, and a lot of them did that sort of thing. I sort of associated everyone praying at the same time more with the denominations that were 'Holiness' in their doctrine, predominantly southestern denominations. Some of the A/G folks who said they did that were from the Southeast or Texas, though. So it could be regional influence. One A/G I attended was in Louisiana and the other was in the Georgia suburbs.
In comparison to prophecy and in the context of the church meeting, I would agree. But, of course, Paul instructed that speaking in tongues and interpretation be allowed in the church gathering and that 'ye may all prophesy.' Reading some second century writings, I get the impression that prophesying in church was practiced in churches. The Shepherd of Hermas warned that false prophets preferred to prophesy outside of the church meetings.
The idea that speaking in tongues is languages is the historical Pentecostal view and also the experience of the early Pentecostal movement. I have come across three references to situations where someone spoke in tongues at the Azusa Street Mission during the years of the Azusa Street revival and someone who knew the language heard it and recognized it. Seymour mentioned it in a newsletter. The Comforter Has Come describes another case. Val Dez gave another account in Fire on Azusa. Vincent Synan did an interview that was posted on YouTube with two elderly folks in the early 1970's who had been children at the Azusa Street revival. One of them said that what drew people was the fact that people would come in and hear their languages, Japanese, or whatever, during the meetings. I've read accounts of the interpretations being verified by those who knew the languages naturally at well.
I don't see any reason to read into the Corinthian descriptions of tongues, the idea that they could not have been speaking real languages. It is just obvious from the text that no one present actually understood the languages naturally and the congregation needed the gift of interpretation to understand it.
Some tongues may be 'tongues of angels'. No one on earth may be able to understand that with their natural understanding.
If we look at the actual text of the Bible for instructions from the apostles themselves regarding what to do in gatherings of the church, the one lengthy passage we have on what to do implies that a predominant characteristic of the church is that it is 'charismatic', that is, that the spiritual gifts are active in the church. Paul commands the church to allow speaking in tongues and for the saints to prophesy. He doesn't say anything about pastors preaching sermons or specify a particular liturgy. He also seems to imply that he is appealing to universal church practice and calls his instructions commandments of the Lord. Paul encourages readers to be zealous for spiritual gifts and instructs them to covet to prophesy.
The phenomenon was horribly named, IMO. There are plenty of cases where prophets and other individuals fell down, or were not able to stand (e.g. priests in the temple when the cloud was present). Daniel felt physically weak after an encounter with what seems to have been an angel. The guards who came to arrest Jesus fell on their backs when He said, "I am".
One note - you will find some Orthodox that are vehemently against it, and others that don't preclude it but see it as a minor gift. My husband would be among those who dismiss the tongues of angels side of it.
Do you have a particular book in mind?
I'm pretty exhausted, as I am on serious jet lag right now, so I will try to answer this better once I am more awake. I just got back from vacation yesterday and am on a 6 hour time change!
Perhaps a quote from the Greek Archdiocese would help:
I think this misrepresents the beliefs of Pentecostals and Charismatics. In my experience, the belief that those who are truly saved will speak in tongues (prerequisite is not the right word) is pretty much exclusively a belief of Oneness Pentecostals. The last I read, that was maybe 5% of Pentecostals. I do not know that I have ever heard of a Pentecostal or Charismatic outside of the Oneness movement who believed that way.
Maybe if they said 'or to having received the Holy Spirit.' Most Pentecostal denominations and Charismatic churches believe that Christians can be baptized with the Holy Spirit subsequent to conversion.
From the same quote,
Paul put a clarifier on it. He spoke in tongues 'more than ye all.' But he said, "Yet in the church" he would rather speak five words with the understanding that he may instruct others than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue.
He does not say that in terms of his personal prayer, tongues is any lower than prayer in a language he understood. This is part of an argument in the passage that speaking in tongues edifies the speaker and not the listener and is not beneficial to the rest of the congregation unless it is interpreted.
