SPEAKING IN TONGUES?

tk

In today s ministry and in deed the past, what is the essence of speaking in tongues?
To what degree does it influence our communication to God?
How and where did it all begin spiritually and to what extent does this connect to scriptural teachings.
As kids during Easter in my village I had witnessed some faithful after long seclusions and prayers fall into a trance like situation and worshiped God with all seriousness and attention. This was a nice period and it was ok I believe.
But today, the situation is like a pastor at a sign will instruct the congregation to speak in tongues at which all will start making some noise [ noise because listeners do not understand and in most cases the persons uttering the sounds]
About 3 yrs ago a friend [ spent 5yrs in same class and were in school choir together in secondary school 1979/84] confided in me that he had cried and felt rejected because he failed when their pastor asked them to speak in tongues.
The pastor had warned that whoever failed was a sinner.
My friend ‘s junior brother had asked him why he was sad; that he [junior ] only spoke in his mother dialect and it was fine with the pastor!

minatasgeel

[quote author=tk link=board=1;threadid=4194;start=0#msg58241 date=1154019378]
In today s ministry and in deed the past, what is the essence of speaking in tongues?
To what degree does it influence our communication to God?
How and where did it all begin spiritually and to what extent does this connect to scriptural teachings.
As kids during Easter in my village I had witnessed some faithful after long seclusions and prayers fall into a trance like situation and worshiped God with all seriousness and attention. This was a nice period and it was ok I believe.
But today, the situation is like a pastor at a sign will instruct the congregation to speak in tongues at which all will start making some noise [ noise because listeners do not understand and in most cases the persons uttering the sounds]
About 3 yrs ago a friend [ spent 5yrs in same class and were in school choir together in secondary school 1979/84] confided in me that he had cried and felt rejected because he failed when their pastor asked them to speak in tongues.
The pastor had warned that whoever failed was a sinner.
My friend ‘s junior brother had asked him why he was sad; that he [junior ] only spoke in his mother dialect and it was fine with the pastor!



well, let's see what the bible said:


Acts 2:4
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
they were never commended it to speak in tongues but they had the power and the ability to do so. Tk, first, what ever your talking about is very differnt because i know for a fact you are not Coptic Orthodox. and am sure your freind is not either. so i really dono what religion that commends you to speak in tongues. i think you can ask your freind himself but you don't have to inform us with that.

Unknown

In recent times, many Protestant groups, mainly the Pentecostal movement, which began in the early 20th century, have placed a great emphasis on “the gift of tongues” as part of worship.

Further more, many of these groups actually teach that speaking in tongues is a confirmation that one has been born again, and that anyone who cannot speak in tongues is not born again, and therefore not “saved.”

There are a number of problems with this view. First of all, St. Paul clearly states that the gift of tongues is not given to everyone in the Church, but only to a few. “For to one is given by the Spirit a word of wisdom; and to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; and to another faith in the same Spirit; and to another free gifts of healings in the same Spirit; and to another operations of works of power; and to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits; and to another kinds of tongues; and to another interpretation of tongues; but the one and the same Spirit energizeth all these things, distributing to each separately as He will.” (1 Cor. 12:8-11).

So quite clearly, tongues is not the only gift given by the Spirit, but one of many. And it certainly is not a prerequisite for salvation.

Secondly, its important to clarify what Scripture means when it speaks of “tongues.” Most of those within the Pentecostal movement erroneously believe it to mean unintelligible babbling. But this is not the case. Tongues quite simply means languages. English is one tongue, Arabic another, German another, Greek another tongue, etc. When we read in the Old Testament about the confusion of languages, it says: “Come, and having gone down let us there confound their tongue, that they may not understand each the voice of his neighbour.” (Gen. 11:7).

Many Protestant translations translate the word in Genesis as “language” but the word in Corinthians as “tongues,” as if they mean two different things. But if you compare the LXX to the NT, you will see that it is the same word “glosson” that is used in both cases.

This is further illustrated in the book of Acts, which describes the Apostles receiving the gift of tongues. We read in chapter 2:6-11, “And the report of this having arisen, the multitude came together and was confounded, because they were hearing, each one of them, speaking in his own dialect. And they were all amazed and wondering, saying to one another, “Behold, all these who are speaking are Galilaeans, are they not? And how do we each hear in our own dialect in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those who dwell in Mesopotamia, also Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontos and Asia, also Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya which are in the region of Cyrene, and the Romans, both Jews and proselytes, who sojourn here, Cretans and Arabians – we hear them speaking in our own tongues the magnificent works of God.”

So here we clearly see that the gift given to the Apostles was to preach in the languages of the listeners, so that everyone could understand what was being said. This is very different to what you see in Pentecostal prayer meetings where everyone are saying “bababababa” and no one understanding a word; quite pointless I’m sure you’ll agree.

Today this gift is very rare; I’ve certainly never met anyone who has it. My guess is that it is simply not necessary today, when the Scriptures have been translated to pretty much every language known to man.

Hope this goes some way to answering your question.

Please pray for me.

tk

Hi Orthodox,
it did and more.
This is one of those explainations that not only ans but settles ones mind.
As for my dear Minagir, do not be tired or impatient with questions or queries concerning God as long as there is an interested person.
You just might be the source of that person's rebirth.
Thanks.

minatasgeel

[quote author=tk link=board=1;threadid=4194;start=0#msg58292 date=1154101630]
Hi Orthodox,
it did and more.
This is one of those explainations that not only ans but settles ones mind.
As for my dear Minagir, do not be tired or impatient with questions or queries concerning God as long as there is an interested person.
You just might be the source of that person's rebirth.
Thanks.


i never said anything against that. a person should believe first than can go deep to his faith. you said an interested person, intrested in what, the Bible!!!!. the Bible and Christianty as simple as it can be even little children can understand it as our Lord said.