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Speaking in Tongues - Are we all wrong?

swordsman1

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As far as only human tongues, well another refutation to you, your being absurd in your strictness you dont acknowledge the Spirit to do with tongues what he wills.
1 Corinthians 13 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Greatest Gift
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

You might want to read the next 2 verses:

1 Cor 13:1-3 "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."

In this passage there are 5 parallel statements each with a hypothetical exaggerated example of a spiritual gift to make the point that having gifts even to the highest conceivable degree is worthless without love:

having the gift of tongues to ultimate degree of speaking the language of angels...

having the gift of prophesy to the ultimate degree of knowing ALL mysteries and ALL knowledge (ie. omniscience)...

having the gift of faith to the ultimate degree of moving mountains...

and having the gift of giving to the ultimate degree of giving way ALL your possessions, and even giving up your own life...

...are all worthless without love.
 
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Doug Melven

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Go back to the Acts 2 text I quoted, your position is refuted.

An unknown language is simply unknown to the speaker, but it is a human language as Acts 2 demonstrates plainly. You completely ignored the Linguistic Research.
Acts 22 refutes 1 Corinthians 14?

The word 'unknown' in reference to tongues does not appear in scripture. It was an addition by the old King James translators to try to help its readers understand that the language spoken was unrecognized. However in recent times the word has been hijacked to make it appear that tongues is an 'unknown' non-human language. However 1 Corinthians says nothing of the sort.

The context of 1 Cor 14 is Paul addressing the specific problem of speaking an unrecognized tongue in church meetings. So the "no one" in verse 2 is not referring to no one on the face of the earth, but to no one in the congregation. Thus anyone who speaks in an unrecognized tongue in church is not speaking to men but to God, because no one in the congregation understands. Only God, who understands all languages, knows what was spoken. That doesn't mean it was a non-human language. If someone was speaking say Persian in a small Greek house-church then it is no surprise that no one understands him.
1 Corinthians 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
14:2 For he that speaketh in an tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
14:3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
14:4 He that speaketh in an tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.
14:5 I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying

I took out the word "unknown" and as you can see it changes nothing.
Unless you want to take out the phrase "no man uderstands him, howbeit in the Spirit he speaks mysteries".
Also there is verse 5 where Paul wants them all to speak in Tongues, but he would rather that they prophesied.
If Tongues were just a known language, that verse would make no sense. Because you need a tongue, known language, to prophesy.
 
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Doug Melven

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Whatever happened to the original purpose of speaking tongues, that of spreading the gospel to people who speak another language?

Paul tells us not to speak in tongues if no one is there to interpret, so why are people looked down upon in some churches for not audibly speaking in tongues?
Because they are like the Corinthians who Paul was correcting. That is they don't understand the proper way to speak in Tongues.
These churches that have everybody speaking in tongues at once think they are emulating the early church. Like what happened in Acts 2 where everybody spoke in tongues.
And they say they do it because they were not rebuked.
I liken that to a child's first attempts at eating, nobody rebukes a child like that when they get more food on there face than in there mouth.
But, if 10 years later that child is still getting more food on there face than in there mouth, something is wrong.
So any churches today that do not use Tongues properly are like a full grown adult getting more food on there face than in there mouth. Something's not right.
 
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gideon123

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The Bible records clearly that when the real disciples spoke 'in tongues' that people from other lands understood them. The words were in foreign languages, but perfectly understandable to those hearing them. That was a true miracle.

This notion has been corrupted by modern churches. People stand up and talk complete gibberish.

So let's be clear. What is gibberish to man, is also gibberish to God. And I doubt for one second that God is happy to see his believers behaving in this way. It certainly does not honor God, in my view.

Better to stay silent and honor God with a sincere and respectful heart.
 
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swordsman1

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I took out the word "unknown" and as you can see it changes nothing.
Unless you want to take out the phrase "no man uderstands him, howbeit in the Spirit he speaks mysteries".

So long as we remember that the context of this chapter is church meetings and the 'no man' is referring to people in the congregation. No one in the congregation would understand someone speaking in an unrecognized tongue. What was said would be a mystery. That doesn't mean it is a non-human language.

Also there is verse 5 where Paul wants them all to speak in Tongues, but he would rather that they prophesied.
If Tongues were just a known language, that verse would make no sense. Because you need a tongue, known language, to prophesy.

Prophecy would be in the common language that everyone in the congregation recognized. Not a foreign language that no one understands.
 
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Doug Melven

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The Bible records clearly that when the real disciples spoke 'in tongues' that people from other lands understood them. The words were in foreign languages, but perfectly understandable to those hearing them. That was a true miracle.

This notion has been corrupted by modern churches. People stand up and talk complete gibberish.

So let's be clear. What is gibberish to man, is also gibberish to God. And I doubt for one second that God is happy to see his believers behaving in this way. It certainly does not honor God, in my view.

Better to stay silent and honor God with a sincere and respectful heart.
Could you expound on 1 Corinthians 14:1-5, 13-15, 27-28, 39 ?
 
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swordsman1

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And yet Paul wanted them all to speak in Tongues.

Paul's 'wish' in 1 Cor 14:5 is not saying that he expected everyone to speak in tongues. It was a wishful ideal the same as he wished everyone was single like him in 1 Cor 7.7 - not something he realistically expected to happen. Otherwise he would be contradicting himself because he makes it absolutely clear that not everyone would have the ability to speak in tongues:

1 Cor 12:29-30 "All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?

Rom 12:4-6 "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. "

1 Cor 12:8-10 "To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to anotherdistinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues."

1 Cor 12:17-20 "If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body."
 
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Saint Steven

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It is for the edification of the believer.
1 Corinthians 14:4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself;

The way tongues is done today is wrong.
If someone speaks in tongues in public there needs to be an interpretation.

And then some people think of it as a badge of honor. How silly is that? Having something you did not work for, but was a gift.
Have you ever spoken in tongues? Do you know anything about it?
Did you know that there are at least five kinds of tongues?
Not every kind of tongues requires interpretation.

Five Different Kinds of Tongues
1)
Personal prayer language - Speaking to/with God
2) Intercessory prayer language - Praying for others in the Spirit
3) Prophetic prayer language - Addressing the whole church/preferably with interpretation
4) Singing in the Spirit - Singing in tongues/worship activity
5) Evangelistic language - Speaking the message of God to a people in their own language (not yours)
 
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AlexDTX

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On the description page at Amazon <staff edited out the Amazon link> there is a book called the Doctrine And Teaching Of Speaking With Tongues, that suggest we are all wrong when it comes to speaking in tongues: that tongues is neither a language to aid the first disciple in the spreading of the gospel nor is it gibberish! Because they say that tongues is neither a language nor gibberish they draw the sword against themselves on both sides of the issue.

Now I can see how tongues can be proven not to be an unknown gibberish prayer language, but to prove that tongues is not a real language is another thing; which is close to impossible, I suppose, for those who believe tongues to be a language - only because they are so sure it is a language!

However if indeed it can be proven that neither of these teachings are true and that we are all wrong this would be a great turning point in the Christian world; and much need, I suppose, to end our endless debates; but especially for the weaker brethren and those searching for this truth that they should no longer be tossed to and fro from both sides of the issue.

Has anyone heard of this book that is supposed to show all that we are wrong or read of the great claims it makes on the description page on Amazon! Or is it possible that we are all wrong and have overlooked that one key element! And what about our teachers, what are they going to do! Would those teaching and defending their teaching for ten, twenty or even forty years put away their beliefs for the sake of truth, if indeed it turns out we are all wrong! Or is the Christian world even ready for this new teaching - if it can be called a new!
Tongues was never used to preach the Gospel. In the book of Acts it says:

Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Act 2:6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

The miracle was in the hearing, not the speaking. Tongues has always been a prayer language of the spirit speaking to the Holy Spirit, and is always gibberish to our minds, which is a part of our souls. We can pray for interpretation of our own prayer time, of course. And a prophetic tongue must have an interpretation, otherwise it will be gibberish to all the hearers.

BTW, an interpretation is not the same as a translation. Even in the natural if a diplomat from another country is provided an interpreter, the person doing the interpretation never translates word for word because different languages have different syntax structures, expressions and idioms that do not literally translate. Interpreters use their judgment in sharing the gist of the communication. This is true with interpreting a prophetic tongue.
 
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Speaking in tongues originally had the purpose of communicating the gospel to people who spoke in different languages, did it not? What is the purpose now?
I don't know where you got that notion from, because it is nowhere in the New Testament. If you carefully read Acts 2, you will see no mention of tongues as related to the preaching of the gospel. Peter explained why the crowd heard the praises of God (not the gospel) in their own languages, and then went on to preach the gospel in his native language (not tongues!). The only 'purpose' of tongues as described by Paul is in 1 Corinthians 14 where he says that tongues is spoken to God and it is the speaking of mysteries in the Spirit. There is no other defining purpose for tongues in the New Testament. So the notion that the original purpose of tongues was for the preaching of the gospel is a made-up notion from someone's own mind.
 
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The event in Acts referred to as "speaking in tongues" is actually a misnomer because what is described is more like "hearing in ears". In my single experience of tongues it appeared to be a form of mass hysteria, there certainly was nothing spiritually uplifting in it.
I have been praying in tongues for 50 years, and have closely fellowshipped in meetings where tongues were spoken, and I have never witnessed anything approaching mass hysteria. I guess 50 years of experience outweighs "one single experience". Also, if one has never spoken in tongues on a regular basis, he or she can never know whether it is spiritually uplifting or not. One cannot make definite assertions without commensurate experience. "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (Job 38:2).
 
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Speaking in tongues interprets to teaching in parables, which should be interpreted to edify the listener. Scripture is a manifold parable about belief, namely god who is belief.

With belief all things are possible + nothing is impossiible for god.

Now re-read 1 cor 14
Scripture is more than just a parable about belief. That is existential, blind "faith in faith" Scripture is God's communication to mankind about who He is and who we are.
 
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Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me speaking in tongues once had a purpose, but now is nothing more than a status symbol, in many cases.
Possibly so, but a generalisation no less.
 
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I don't see why the purpose of speaking in tongues should change. It makes sense when people did it to communicate the gospel to people who spoke different languages. Standing up in church and saying something that makes no sense to anyone makes no sense to me.
That might make sense to some, but there is nothing in the Act 2 passage that connects the speaking in tongues to the preaching of the gospel. The tongues speakers were praising God, but Peter preached the gospel in his own native language and not tongues. Read it for yourself. We need to be careful not to add our own opinions to what the Word of God actually says.

You are correct that it makes no sense to speak out in tongues in a church service, unless it is interpreted so that all may be edified.
 
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Doug Melven

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Paul's 'wish' in 1 Cor 14:5 is not saying that he expected everyone to speak in tongues. It was a wishful ideal the same as he wished everyone was single like him in 1 Cor 7.7 - not something he realistically expected to happen. Otherwise he would be contradicting himself because he makes it absolutely clear that not everyone would have the ability to speak in tongues:
What I am saying is Paul wished that they all spoke in Tongues, but the greater wish was that they all prophesied.
This would have been a senseless wish if Tongues was a known language because a known language is how prophesy is spoken.

Have you ever spoken in tongues? Do you know anything about it?
Did you know that there are at least five kinds of tongues?
Not every kind of tongues requires interpretation.
Yes I have spoken in tongues, not in church though, only in private.
 
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Acts 2:7-11 Good News Translation (GNT)
7 In amazement and wonder they exclaimed, “These people who are talking like this are Galileans! 8 How is it, then, that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages? 9 We are from Parthia, Media, and Elam; from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia; from Pontus and Asia, 10 from Phrygia and Pamphylia, from Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene. Some of us are from Rome, 11 both Jews and Gentiles converted to Judaism, and some of us are from Crete and Arabia—yet all of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done!”

Two Points:

1. None of the Linguistic Research finds that one is speaking a language of any kind.

2. Acts 2 above, people who were not born again from many nations heard them speaking in their own languages.

Thus the booklet you referred to is responded to.

Who is Gideon Hereb?

The Church Fathers understood it as being human languages.

I Cor 13, says if it were possible with the indication from the grammar it is not possible.


glossolalia language research


Basically, get a copy of scripture in a language that is not likely to be known in your area. Play it for all those who claim the gift of interpretation. You will not find a single person who gets the interpretation correct. This is a linguistic fact.

"In almost all instances, linguists are confident that the samples of T-speech represent no known natural language and in fact no language that was ever spoken or ever will be spoken by human beings as their native tongue. The phonological structure is untypical of natural languages. Some samples of T-speech, however, are more complex and cannot be clearly distinguished from a natural language on these grounds.15" age 372

“Glossolalia: Analyses of Selected Aspects of Phonology and Morphology,” M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1967, p. 95" (Linguistic and Sociological Analyses of Modern Tongues-Speaking: Their Contributions and Limitations by Vern S. Poythress

[Published in the Westminster Theological Journal 42/2 (1980) ***-388. Reprinted in Speaking in Tongues: A Guide to Research on Glossolalia. Watson E. Mills. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986. Pp. 469-489.)


Just google: Glossolalia in Contemporary Linguistic Study or google Samarin, Tongues

The highly respected 1972 study of John P. Kildahl (The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues) concludes that "from a linguistic point of view, religiously inspired glossolalic utterances have the same general characteristics as those that are not religiously inspired." In fact, glossolalia is a "human phenomenon, not limited to Christianity nor even to religious behavior." (Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements by Spittler, P. 340).

Experts in the field of linguistics have diligently studied the phenomenon of glossolalia over a period of many years. One of the early investigations was made in the early 1960's by Eugene A. Nida. He provided a detailed list of reasons why glossolalia cannot be human language. Another early study, that of W.A. Wolfram in the year 1966, also concluded that glossolalia lacks the basic elements of human language as a system of coherent communication.

In a massive study of glossolalia from a linguistic perspective by Professor William J. Samarin of the University of Toronto's Department of Linguistics published after more than a decade of careful research, he rejected the view that glossolalia is xenoglossia, i.e. some foreign language that could be understood by another person who knew that language. Samarin concluded that glossolalia is a "pseudo-language." He defined glossolalia as "unintelligible babbling speech that exhibits superficial phonological similarity to language, without having consistent syntagmatic structure and that is not systematically derived from or related to known language." (William J. Samarin, "Variation and Variables in Religious Glossolalia," Language in Society, ed. Dell Haymes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972 pgs. 121-130)

Felicitas D. Goodman, a psychological anthropologist and linguist, engaged in a study of various English - Spanish - and Mayan-speaking Pentecostal communities in the United States and Mexico. She compared tape recordings of non-Christian rituals from Africa, Borneo, Indonesia and Japan as well. She published her results in 1972 in an extensive monograph (Speaking in Tongues: A Cross-Cultural Study in Glossolalia by Felecitas D. Goodman, University of Chicago Press, 1972).

Goodman concludes that "when all features of glossolalia were taken into consideration--that is, the segmental structure (such as sounds, syllables, phrases) and its suprasegmental elements (namely, rhythm, accent, and especially overall intonation)-- she concluded that there is no distinction in glossolalia between Christians and the followers of non-Christian (pagan) religions. The "association between trance and glossolalia is now accepted by many researchers as a correct assumption," writes Goodman in the prestigious Encyclopedia of Religion (1987).

Goodman also concludes that glossolalia "is, actually, a learned behavior, learned either unawarely or, sometimes consciously." Others have previously pointed out that direct instruction is given on how to "speak in tongues," ie. how to engage in glossolalia.

In fact, it has been found that the "speaking in tongues" practiced in Christian churches and by individual Christians is identical to the chanting language of those who practice voodoo on the darkest continents of this world.

Let us briefly examine the results of eight linguists:

Eugene A. Nida, Secretary of Translations for the American Bible Society and world renowned expert in linguistics, concluded from his studies that the phonemic strata indicates that the phonomes of glossolalic utterances are closely associated with the language background of the speaker's native language.7

Felicitas D. Goodman made phonetic analysis of glossolalia from recordings she taped for her Master's Degree in Mexico and different sections of the United States. She concludes that the glossolalia she analyzed was not productive and noncommunicative.8

James Jaquith from Washington University in his research among English speaking tongue-speakers concludes that "There is no evidence that these glossolalic utterances have been generated by constituent subcodes of any natural language other than English."9

Ernest Bryant and Daniel O'Connell of St. Louis University studied nine tapes of glossolalia taken from among their respondents. The results of their studies proved that "all glossolalic phonemes are within the normal phonemic repertoire of the native speaker of English."10 He says, "If a foreign language system were used a much greater divergence of phonemes would be expected, but the opposite is the case."

Dr. Donald Larson of Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, began analyzing glossolalic samples in Toronto, Canada, in 1957. Since then he has analyzed many samples and observed glossolalic behavior in different parts of the world. His research also concludes that the phonological features of the native speaker's language carried over into his glossolalia experience.11

In a letter to Dr, William Welmers of U.C.L.A., I asked him, "In your studies of modern glossolalia have you detected any known language?" His reply was, "In short, absolutely not." He goes on to say that "Glossolalic utterances are consistently in important respects unlike human languages. They are characterized by a great deal of recurrences of closely similar sequences of syllables and usually employ a restricted number of different sounds." Dr. Welmers said that the same thing is true of hundreds of other utterances studied by Christian linguistics of his acquaintance.12

Dr. Samarin, by far the most thorough, says, "There is no mystery about glossolalia. Tape recorded samples are easy to obtain and to analyze. They always turn out to be the same things: strings of syllables made up of sounds taken from among all those that the speaker knows, put together more or less haphazardly but which nevertheless emerge as word-like or sentence-like units.13

F. Goodman, "Phonetic Analysis of Glossolalia in Four Cultural Settings," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1969), Pages 227 to 239.
F. Goodman, "Speaking in Tongues. A Cross-Cultural Study of Glossolalia," University of Chicago Press, (1972).
W. Samarin, "Tongues of Men and Angels. The Religious Language of Pentecostalism," Macmillan (1972).
W. Samarin, "Variation and Variables in Religious Glossolalia," Language in Society, (1972), 1:121-130.
W. Samarin, "Glossolalia as Regressive Speech," Language and Speech (1973), 16:77-89.
W. Samarin, "Review of Goodman (1972)," Language (1974), 5:207-213.
D. J. Janes, "Glossolalia: The Gift of Gibberish," available at the Institute for First Amendment Studies
J.G. Melton, Ed., "The Encyclopedia of American Religions," Volume 1, Triumph Books, Tarrytown, NY, (1991), Page 41 to 47.
Jussi Karlgren, "Speaking in tongues," The Linguist List, #6.385. A compilation of responses by linguists to a question on the structure of Glossolalia.
Jeff Wehr, "Speaking in Tongues," Our Firm Foundation, Vol. 11, #11, 1996-NOV-11.
Steve Paulson, "Divining the Brain," Templeton-Cambridge Journalism, 2006-SEP-20,
Andrew Newberg, Nancy Wintering, Donna Morgan, and Mark Waldman, "The Measurement of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow During Glossolalia: a Preliminary SPECT Study." Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging for 2006-NOV. This is the official publication of the International Society for Neuroimaging in Psychiatry.
"Language Center of the Brain Is Not Under the Control of Subjects Who 'Speak in Tongues'," University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 2006-OCT-30,


Kildahl (1975) points out that:

"There are no reported instances of a glossolalist speaking a language which was then literally translated by an expert in that language…"

Malony & Lovekin (1985:5) conclude:

"Although tongue speakers often claim that their new language is French or Italian or Spanish, and so on – languages they never knew before – scientific studies to date have not confirmed their claims."

T. H. Spoerril has described this speech as "unsemantical conglomerations of sounds" and "as sound externalized without sense which sometimes produces the impression of coherent speech." The terms "unintelligible," "meaningless," and "jibberish" have also been applied to the entities representing this type of speech.
Boisen, A. T. Religion in Crisis and Custom: A sociological and Psychological study. New York, Harper, 1955.

On Youtube: Creationist Study, Disproves Glossolalia As Language.

Why did Jesus forbid prayer with babbling/long repetitions if he was going to give it as a special gift?

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition (battalogeó/battalogēsēte) as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” (Mat 6:7)

If modern tongues are the same as those in Acts, why is there no verifiable xenoglossy?

“devout men from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) around the first tongue speakers clearly stated “we hear them in our own tongues” (Acts 2:11).

If glossolalia is a real language, why are different interpretations given for the same phrase?

“Interpretations do in fact take place, but they are usually pious exhortations in the language of the group where the glossic utterances are made. They are often strikingly longer or shorter than the glossic utterance.” (1)

“I have heard the same glossolalic phrases repeated by the same glossolalist in different services, but each time the identical glossolalic utterances are given a different translation.“ (4)

“the interpreters gave different meanings to identical words in the same set of words. When confronted with this inconsistency, the interpreters simply said, ‘God gave different interpretations.'” (14, 23)

Why is Priming the Pump needed in Pentecostal training? I once visited Happy Church in Denver, CO. They hearded non-tongue speakers into a room and said, repeat after me. I asked what this this all about and they called it priming the pump.
I have met many people who have had the same thing happen to them in different churches in different cities.

"
A variety of linguistic analyses of glossolalia (the religious phenomenon of “speaking in tongues”) were performed to determine both the extent to which glossolalia is language‐like and the extent to which it is linguistically dependent upon the glossolalist's native language. The results indicate the glossolalia is, in more ways than not, both language‐like and unlike the speaker's native language. These results are contrary both to earlier studies of glossolalia and to the predictions of current psycholinguistic theory. The implication is that glossolalia manifests a unique sort of speech encoding which cannot now be, but must eventually be, accounted for by psycholinguistic theory."
(A linguistic analysis of glossolalia: Evidence of unique psycholinguistic processing
Michael T. Motley)


1 Timothy 6:20,

“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings…”

1 Corinthians 14:19-20 “Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. 20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”

google Glossolalia Project for more research.

Glossolalia and Linguistic Alterity: The Ontology of Ineffable Speech
Evandro Bonfim

A linguistic analysis of a corpus of glossolalia
Speer, Blanche Corder, 1922-


Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2004 pp. 171–184
Glossolalia and Altered States of Consciousnessin two New Zealand Religious Movements

"Abstract
In nine tape-recorded samples of glossolalia, there is a remarkably low correlation with English samples from the same Ss, ascribable primarily to variation in vowel frequency. Nonetheless, all glossolalic phonemes are within the normal phonemic repertoire of native speakers of English. There is a divergence of syllables per pause rates between glossolalia and English. Optional articulatory choices characteristic of glossolalic samples can evidently be studied by means of accepted scientific procedures independently of theological or religious explication."(A phonemic analysis of nine samples of glossolalic speech
Ernest BryantDaniel O’Connell)
Because the things of God are spiritually discerned, then non-Christian researchers will always come to different conclusions but not any real answers about how something can be real and genuine. The natural man cannot discern or understand the ways of God no matter how hard he tries or how much research he does.

Natural man cannot truly explain the born again experience where a person can undergo a comprehensive change from being a person totally consumed with evil to someone totally righteous in his life. Nor can he explain how a person with terminal cancer can be totally healed to the point where there is no evidence of him having cancer in the first place. Or how a prophetic word given to a group of people, and one person's life is totally changed by it while the others are not.

The Bible does not justify what it says. it just says it, and we either believe it or we don't. If the Bible shows that tongues can be an understandable language at times, and at others a language quite unknown to anyone, and that a person can speak out in tongues in a meeting and another person can give an interpretation which may or may not be a direct translation of it, then we believe it or we don't. The Bible does not force us to believe anything it says. We have the choice, and therefore we also choose the consequences of our choice.

So, one has the choice to believe what the linguists say and go with those theories, or not. It makes little difference to what the Bible teaches. God, in His communication with mankind through the Bible, does not try to prove anything to anyone. His attitude is: Believe it or not. That is your choice.
 
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Go back to the Acts 2 text I quoted, your position is refuted.

An unknown language is simply unknown to the speaker, but it is a human language as Acts 2 demonstrates plainly. You completely ignored the Linguistic Research.

Acts 2:7-11 Good News Translation (GNT)
7 In amazement and wonder they exclaimed, “These people who are talking like this are Galileans! 8 How is it, then, that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages? 9 We are from Parthia, Media, and Elam; from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia; from Pontus and Asia, 10 from Phrygia and Pamphylia, from Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene. Some of us are from Rome, 11 both Jews and Gentiles converted to Judaism, and some of us are from Crete and Arabia—yet all of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done!”

Two Points:

1. None of the Linguistic Research finds that one is speaking a language of any kind.

2. Acts 2 above, people who were not born again from many nations heard them speaking in their own languages.

Thus the booklet you referred to is responded to.

Who is Gideon Hereb?

The Church Fathers understood it as being human languages.

I Cor 13, says if it were possible with the indication from the grammar it is not possible.


glossolalia language research


Basically, get a copy of scripture in a language that is not likely to be known in your area. Play it for all those who claim the gift of interpretation. You will not find a single person who gets the interpretation correct. This is a linguistic fact.

"In almost all instances, linguists are confident that the samples of T-speech represent no known natural language and in fact no language that was ever spoken or ever will be spoken by human beings as their native tongue. The phonological structure is untypical of natural languages. Some samples of T-speech, however, are more complex and cannot be clearly distinguished from a natural language on these grounds.15" age 372

“Glossolalia: Analyses of Selected Aspects of Phonology and Morphology,” M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1967, p. 95" (Linguistic and Sociological Analyses of Modern Tongues-Speaking: Their Contributions and Limitations by Vern S. Poythress

[Published in the Westminster Theological Journal 42/2 (1980) ***-388. Reprinted in Speaking in Tongues: A Guide to Research on Glossolalia. Watson E. Mills. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986. Pp. 469-489.)


Just google: Glossolalia in Contemporary Linguistic Study or google Samarin, Tongues

The highly respected 1972 study of John P. Kildahl (The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues) concludes that "from a linguistic point of view, religiously inspired glossolalic utterances have the same general characteristics as those that are not religiously inspired." In fact, glossolalia is a "human phenomenon, not limited to Christianity nor even to religious behavior." (Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements by Spittler, P. 340).

Experts in the field of linguistics have diligently studied the phenomenon of glossolalia over a period of many years. One of the early investigations was made in the early 1960's by Eugene A. Nida. He provided a detailed list of reasons why glossolalia cannot be human language. Another early study, that of W.A. Wolfram in the year 1966, also concluded that glossolalia lacks the basic elements of human language as a system of coherent communication.

In a massive study of glossolalia from a linguistic perspective by Professor William J. Samarin of the University of Toronto's Department of Linguistics published after more than a decade of careful research, he rejected the view that glossolalia is xenoglossia, i.e. some foreign language that could be understood by another person who knew that language. Samarin concluded that glossolalia is a "pseudo-language." He defined glossolalia as "unintelligible babbling speech that exhibits superficial phonological similarity to language, without having consistent syntagmatic structure and that is not systematically derived from or related to known language." (William J. Samarin, "Variation and Variables in Religious Glossolalia," Language in Society, ed. Dell Haymes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972 pgs. 121-130)

Felicitas D. Goodman, a psychological anthropologist and linguist, engaged in a study of various English - Spanish - and Mayan-speaking Pentecostal communities in the United States and Mexico. She compared tape recordings of non-Christian rituals from Africa, Borneo, Indonesia and Japan as well. She published her results in 1972 in an extensive monograph (Speaking in Tongues: A Cross-Cultural Study in Glossolalia by Felecitas D. Goodman, University of Chicago Press, 1972).

Goodman concludes that "when all features of glossolalia were taken into consideration--that is, the segmental structure (such as sounds, syllables, phrases) and its suprasegmental elements (namely, rhythm, accent, and especially overall intonation)-- she concluded that there is no distinction in glossolalia between Christians and the followers of non-Christian (pagan) religions. The "association between trance and glossolalia is now accepted by many researchers as a correct assumption," writes Goodman in the prestigious Encyclopedia of Religion (1987).

Goodman also concludes that glossolalia "is, actually, a learned behavior, learned either unawarely or, sometimes consciously." Others have previously pointed out that direct instruction is given on how to "speak in tongues," ie. how to engage in glossolalia.

In fact, it has been found that the "speaking in tongues" practiced in Christian churches and by individual Christians is identical to the chanting language of those who practice voodoo on the darkest continents of this world.

Let us briefly examine the results of eight linguists:

Eugene A. Nida, Secretary of Translations for the American Bible Society and world renowned expert in linguistics, concluded from his studies that the phonemic strata indicates that the phonomes of glossolalic utterances are closely associated with the language background of the speaker's native language.7

Felicitas D. Goodman made phonetic analysis of glossolalia from recordings she taped for her Master's Degree in Mexico and different sections of the United States. She concludes that the glossolalia she analyzed was not productive and noncommunicative.8

James Jaquith from Washington University in his research among English speaking tongue-speakers concludes that "There is no evidence that these glossolalic utterances have been generated by constituent subcodes of any natural language other than English."9

Ernest Bryant and Daniel O'Connell of St. Louis University studied nine tapes of glossolalia taken from among their respondents. The results of their studies proved that "all glossolalic phonemes are within the normal phonemic repertoire of the native speaker of English."10 He says, "If a foreign language system were used a much greater divergence of phonemes would be expected, but the opposite is the case."

Dr. Donald Larson of Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, began analyzing glossolalic samples in Toronto, Canada, in 1957. Since then he has analyzed many samples and observed glossolalic behavior in different parts of the world. His research also concludes that the phonological features of the native speaker's language carried over into his glossolalia experience.11

In a letter to Dr, William Welmers of U.C.L.A., I asked him, "In your studies of modern glossolalia have you detected any known language?" His reply was, "In short, absolutely not." He goes on to say that "Glossolalic utterances are consistently in important respects unlike human languages. They are characterized by a great deal of recurrences of closely similar sequences of syllables and usually employ a restricted number of different sounds." Dr. Welmers said that the same thing is true of hundreds of other utterances studied by Christian linguistics of his acquaintance.12

Dr. Samarin, by far the most thorough, says, "There is no mystery about glossolalia. Tape recorded samples are easy to obtain and to analyze. They always turn out to be the same things: strings of syllables made up of sounds taken from among all those that the speaker knows, put together more or less haphazardly but which nevertheless emerge as word-like or sentence-like units.13

F. Goodman, "Phonetic Analysis of Glossolalia in Four Cultural Settings," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1969), Pages 227 to 239.
F. Goodman, "Speaking in Tongues. A Cross-Cultural Study of Glossolalia," University of Chicago Press, (1972).
W. Samarin, "Tongues of Men and Angels. The Religious Language of Pentecostalism," Macmillan (1972).
W. Samarin, "Variation and Variables in Religious Glossolalia," Language in Society, (1972), 1:121-130.
W. Samarin, "Glossolalia as Regressive Speech," Language and Speech (1973), 16:77-89.
W. Samarin, "Review of Goodman (1972)," Language (1974), 5:207-213.
D. J. Janes, "Glossolalia: The Gift of Gibberish," available at the Institute for First Amendment Studies
J.G. Melton, Ed., "The Encyclopedia of American Religions," Volume 1, Triumph Books, Tarrytown, NY, (1991), Page 41 to 47.
Jussi Karlgren, "Speaking in tongues," The Linguist List, #6.385. A compilation of responses by linguists to a question on the structure of Glossolalia.
Jeff Wehr, "Speaking in Tongues," Our Firm Foundation, Vol. 11, #11, 1996-NOV-11.
Steve Paulson, "Divining the Brain," Templeton-Cambridge Journalism, 2006-SEP-20,
Andrew Newberg, Nancy Wintering, Donna Morgan, and Mark Waldman, "The Measurement of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow During Glossolalia: a Preliminary SPECT Study." Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging for 2006-NOV. This is the official publication of the International Society for Neuroimaging in Psychiatry.
"Language Center of the Brain Is Not Under the Control of Subjects Who 'Speak in Tongues'," University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 2006-OCT-30,


Kildahl (1975) points out that:

"There are no reported instances of a glossolalist speaking a language which was then literally translated by an expert in that language…"

Malony & Lovekin (1985:5) conclude:

"Although tongue speakers often claim that their new language is French or Italian or Spanish, and so on – languages they never knew before – scientific studies to date have not confirmed their claims."

T. H. Spoerril has described this speech as "unsemantical conglomerations of sounds" and "as sound externalized without sense which sometimes produces the impression of coherent speech." The terms "unintelligible," "meaningless," and "jibberish" have also been applied to the entities representing this type of speech.
Boisen, A. T. Religion in Crisis and Custom: A sociological and Psychological study. New York, Harper, 1955.

On Youtube: Creationist Study, Disproves Glossolalia As Language.

Why did Jesus forbid prayer with babbling/long repetitions if he was going to give it as a special gift?

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition (battalogeó/battalogēsēte) as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” (Mat 6:7)

If modern tongues are the same as those in Acts, why is there no verifiable xenoglossy?

“devout men from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) around the first tongue speakers clearly stated “we hear them in our own tongues” (Acts 2:11).

If glossolalia is a real language, why are different interpretations given for the same phrase?

“Interpretations do in fact take place, but they are usually pious exhortations in the language of the group where the glossic utterances are made. They are often strikingly longer or shorter than the glossic utterance.” (1)

“I have heard the same glossolalic phrases repeated by the same glossolalist in different services, but each time the identical glossolalic utterances are given a different translation.“ (4)

“the interpreters gave different meanings to identical words in the same set of words. When confronted with this inconsistency, the interpreters simply said, ‘God gave different interpretations.'” (14, 23)

Why is Priming the Pump needed in Pentecostal training? I once visited Happy Church in Denver, CO. They hearded non-tongue speakers into a room and said, repeat after me. I asked what this this all about and they called it priming the pump.
I have met many people who have had the same thing happen to them in different churches in different cities.

"
A variety of linguistic analyses of glossolalia (the religious phenomenon of “speaking in tongues”) were performed to determine both the extent to which glossolalia is language‐like and the extent to which it is linguistically dependent upon the glossolalist's native language. The results indicate the glossolalia is, in more ways than not, both language‐like and unlike the speaker's native language. These results are contrary both to earlier studies of glossolalia and to the predictions of current psycholinguistic theory. The implication is that glossolalia manifests a unique sort of speech encoding which cannot now be, but must eventually be, accounted for by psycholinguistic theory."
(A linguistic analysis of glossolalia: Evidence of unique psycholinguistic processing
Michael T. Motley)


1 Timothy 6:20,

“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings…”

1 Corinthians 14:19-20 “Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. 20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”

google Glossolalia Project for more research.

Glossolalia and Linguistic Alterity: The Ontology of Ineffable Speech
Evandro Bonfim

A linguistic analysis of a corpus of glossolalia
Speer, Blanche Corder, 1922-


Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2004 pp. 171–184
Glossolalia and Altered States of Consciousnessin two New Zealand Religious Movements

"Abstract
In nine tape-recorded samples of glossolalia, there is a remarkably low correlation with English samples from the same Ss, ascribable primarily to variation in vowel frequency. Nonetheless, all glossolalic phonemes are within the normal phonemic repertoire of native speakers of English. There is a divergence of syllables per pause rates between glossolalia and English. Optional articulatory choices characteristic of glossolalic samples can evidently be studied by means of accepted scientific procedures independently of theological or religious explication."(A phonemic analysis of nine samples of glossolalic speech
Ernest BryantDaniel O’Connell)
I choose to ignore the linguistic research, because I don't believe it. I believe what the Bible says about tongues.
 
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The Bible records clearly that when the real disciples spoke 'in tongues' that people from other lands understood them. The words were in foreign languages, but perfectly understandable to those hearing them. That was a true miracle.

This notion has been corrupted by modern churches. People stand up and talk complete gibberish.

So let's be clear. What is gibberish to man, is also gibberish to God. And I doubt for one second that God is happy to see his believers behaving in this way. It certainly does not honor God, in my view.

Better to stay silent and honor God with a sincere and respectful heart.
Have you ever heard a conversation in Hindi, Chinese, Arabic, or Vietnamese? These languages sound like absolute gibberish to me, but those speakers understand each other. So, if I pray in a language that I believe, on the basis of 1 Corinthians 14, is a language understandable to God, even though it may sound like gibberish to me, then who is there to doubt that what I am praying is genuine language?
 
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