Speaking in tongues, compulsory or not?

Adam81 · Feb 7, 2005

I am wondering on peoples beliefs regarding this topic, as well as why they believe so, including as many bible passasages that they can find on the topic.

Spiderlashes · Feb 7, 2005

Read Acts 2, the entire chapter.

No, I do not believe it is compulsory. I believe it is a gift that some people may have and others not.

Some have said that a person has not been filled with the Holy Spirit unless he/she can speak in tongues. I would disagree -- God sent the HS for everyone. We can all prophesy but not necessarily in a different tongue.

jdw4jesus · Feb 7, 2005

Also read 1 Corinthians 14! It is an important chapter

tulc · Feb 7, 2005

John 3 Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him. 3In reply Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

4How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked. Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!

5Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, You must be born again. 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

9How can this be? Nicodemus asked.

10You are Israel's teacher, said Jesus, and do you not understand these things? 11I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaventhe Son of Man.14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

...nope I don't see anything in there about speaking in tongues.
tulc(we shouldn't add things to what Jesus lists as requirements for being born again)

jdw4jesus · Feb 7, 2005

who said anything about John 3?

tulc · Feb 7, 2005

who said anything about John 3?

I did!
tulc(speaking in tongues isn't compulsory, being born again is )

Abbadon · Feb 7, 2005

It amazing how many churches that require speaking in tongues exist in my part of the world. What's funny is that if you take their idea of "being possessed by the Holy Spirit," along with the casting out of demons and prayers for health and (financial) prosperity that almost always accompanies it, it's similar to more "primative, and Satanic" religions, like Voodoo.

Check Romans 6:14. We aren't required of anything except being a Christian.

Adam81 · Feb 7, 2005

I believe that speaking in tongues is not a requirement, but I am amazed at the amount of churches that believe it. This is one topic that I am passionate about.
In Corinthians, I believe it says that speaking in tongues is the smallest gift (?), as it doesn't glorify God, only yourself (ie God doesn't gain anything from it.)
I know of people who have been turned off from church because the church they went to said you had to speak in tongues, which is on reason why I really dislike it.

Jarrodinabubble · Feb 7, 2005

Ok.. my mom told me about people speaking in tounge when I was younger, and never really herd of it again till a year ago. What exactly is speaking in tounge? Just by it being called tounge I picture it being people making up noises and pretending to talk with each other.

Adam81 · Feb 8, 2005

Well, speaking in tongues is talking to the Holy Spirit in His own language, which makes it easier for us to find the right words to pray.
Generally, it is encountered when one person prays for another, but I don't believe I have witnessed someone speaking in tongues.

tulc · Feb 8, 2005

Well, speaking in tongues is talking to the Holy Spirit in His own language, which makes it easier for us to find the right words to pray.

Uhmm God has His own language?
tulc(that seems...unlikely)

apenman · Feb 8, 2005

Adam81 said:
Well, speaking in tongues is talking to the Holy Spirit in His own language, which makes it easier for us to find the right words to pray.

From what I've witnessed, it's just a bunch of babble.

chopper77 · Feb 8, 2005

apenman said:
From what I've witnessed, it's just a bunch of babble.

Linguists that have studied it agree that it is just a bunch of babble.

Studies have found that people "speaking in tongues" use sounds that English speakers tend to think of as common in foreign languages--e.g. trilled "r" and the "zh" sound. They also tend to avoid sounds that English speakers perceive as less like foreign articulation (the "a" in "bat"). The interesting thing is that they never use exotic foreign sounds that English speakers tend to be unfamiliar with--imploded stops, glottalized consonants, pharyngeal vowels, whispered vowels, clicks, unrounded back vowels, and so on.

Maybe people subconsciously think it's real, I don't know. It seems like kinda silly showing off to me, but it's also pretty obvious that they aren't speaking any real language.

chopper77 · Feb 8, 2005

Adam81 said:
Well, speaking in tongues is talking to the Holy Spirit in His own language, which makes it easier for us to find the right words to pray.
Generally, it is encountered when one person prays for another, but I don't believe I have witnessed someone speaking in tongues.

Do you find it kind of odd that the Holy Spirit's own language doesn't incorporate any foreign sounds that English speakers aren't familiar with, yet it does have an abundance of sounds that English speakers pereive as common in foreign languages?

*Starlight* · Feb 8, 2005

Hello!

Has anyone made a study which compares 'speaking in tongues' in different parts of the world? Does it have the same syntax, grammar, spelling, etc anywhere on Earth?

chopper77 · Feb 8, 2005

starlight_86 said:
Hello!

Has anyone made a study which compares 'speaking in tongues' in different parts of the world? Does it have the same syntax, grammar, spelling, etc anywhere on Earth?

Yes, linguists have studied it. See what I wrote above about English? They found the same results for other languages too.

You can do some research on it, I don't have time to crawl for links right now. The technical term is glossolalia.

chopper77 · Feb 8, 2005

starlight_86 said:
Hello!

Has anyone made a study which compares 'speaking in tongues' in different parts of the world? Does it have the same syntax, grammar, spelling, etc anywhere on Earth?

Here's something from Wikipedia:

From a linguistic point of view, the syllables that make up instances of glossolalia typically appear to be unpatterned reorganizations of phonemes from the primary language of the person uttering the syllables; thus, the glossolalia of people from Russia, Britain and Brazil all sound quite different from each other, but vaguely resemble the Russian, English, and Portuguese languages, respectively. Linguists generally regard most glossalia as lacking any identifiable semantics, syntax or morphology i.e., as nonsense and not as language at all.

*Starlight* · Feb 8, 2005

chopper77 said:
Here's something from Wikipedia:

From a linguistic point of view, the syllables that make up instances of glossolalia typically appear to be unpatterned reorganizations of phonemes from the primary language of the person uttering the syllables; thus, the glossolalia of people from Russia, Britain and Brazil all sound quite different from each other, but vaguely resemble the Russian, English, and Portuguese languages, respectively. Linguists generally regard most glossalia as lacking any identifiable semantics, syntax or morphology i.e., as nonsense and not as language at all.

Thanks for the information!

Adam81 · Feb 8, 2005

As far as I am aware, there is a gift of interepreting tongues, which is needed to understand this language, and if you don't have it, it sounds like babble.

Also, a lot of people believe that interpreting tongues means understanding people who use a foreign language, and speaking in tongues is being able to communicate with them (ie acts when everybody understood the disciple's sermon, even though most of them didn't know the language).

artybloke · Feb 9, 2005

Adam81 said:
As far as I am aware, there is a gift of interepreting tongues, which is needed to understand this language, and if you don't have it, it sounds like babble.

Also, a lot of people believe that interpreting tongues means understanding people who use a foreign language, and speaking in tongues is being able to communicate with them (ie acts when everybody understood the disciple's sermon, even though most of them didn't know the language).

During the time when I was still evangelical, I sometimes would visit a pentecostal church, and I heard this "interpretation." Mostly, it consisted of generalised statements about keep faithful to the Word, or generalised warnings about this unspoken evil or that unspoken evil. It never struck me as having any relevance, really, to anything other than possibly bolstering the speaker's ego.

Speaking in tongues, compulsory or not?

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