Speaking in Tongues

The Coffee Shop
1

A little background, I recently started dating this girl that is very religions. (two dates in) When I say very religious I mean church every Sunday, praying every evening out loud, and overall involved in her church. No I admire her commitment and it isn’t my place to judge.

Myself on the other hand was raised Methodist but haven’t been to church in over 10 years and don’t consider myself spiritual in the normal sense. I believe that there is a god or higher power but question a lot of things about organized religion. Enough said!

The big question is she and I were talking last night over dinner and she said that people in her church speak in tongues and she is trying to free her mind enough to do so. I admitted that I didn’t know much about the subject and she said it was basically the holy spirit speaking through someone’s body.

Like I said I don’t know much about it or have not given it a lot of thought. My initial reaction is to question it. Is it on the verge of cultism or is it main stream?

Can someone explain what it is, the background or history? I just want to understand better.

Thanks,

2

Speaking in tongues is a gift you either have it or you don’t.
The spirt of God reaches people in many different ways.

Next you are going to get alot of* hateful* comments.

3

Can this relationship really make it if you two are so far apart on a very important area?

4

Is she Pentecostal? This is the only Christian denomination that I am aware of where speaking in tongues is fairly mainstream even then I think it varies from church to church.
http://en.wikipedia.org/.../Speaking_in_tongues

5

Speaking in tongues is not part a “cult religion”. It is evidence of a person praying in the Holy Spirit. You can read more about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia and here http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=83.
FWIW, I also question a lot of things about “organized religion”, but I am a Christian and go to church every Sunday. One thing for you to remember, many things in the Bible are going to be difficult for you to understand unless you are a Christian. Take what she and her church tells you with an open mind. Check it out for yourself and make your own desicions. Forget about all the man-made religious stuff. It all comes down to just you and Christ.

Heh, coming to ST for info about this subject is going to open up all kinds of negative comments. Get ready!

6

Speaking in tongues is a gift you either have it or you don’t.

No offense but I’m rather…well skeptical in this. I spent the first 14 years of my life immersed in religion. Fairly varied and often times exposed to two or more different types at the same time. I have gone thru the ceremonies of several including first communion at a catholic church and baptism in an evangelical church, a couple actually. I have spent weeks in a row where I went to church 8-9 times a week and during “Revivals” often times would spend 6-12 hours a day there. Soooo I feel I speak with some experience on the subject.

On the subject of “Tongues”, well I have, and granted I was only 10, but it wasn’t a gift for me. Instead it was simply acting like everyone else. You should not be surprised that it was hailed as a “Glorious” moment and a blessing from god by the entire congregation, yet I was certainly not touched by the hand of god. But of course no one else knew that, even from the acting of a 10 year old.

While we are on the subject I also managed to repeat several “Miraculous” healings including lengthening of limbs, straightening of spines and several others I had forgotten. These “miracles”, not by myself but by the evangelist, were often times hailed as just that miracles. Yet an 8 year old and his brothers could repeat them in their very own front room.

In my years with religion and post those years I’ve talked to MANY people that either “Pretended”, just to fit in, or actually believed they were speaking in tongues and later came to understand something different.

This is not meant as a “Hateful” comment merely a recounting of my experiences. The mind is a VERY powerful thing and the power of “Group” is a very strong motivator. I’m certainly not discounting the possibility of those that are truly “touched by the hand of god” and are speaking in “tongues”, just that in my experience MANY that do are merely convinced that they are, or are just plain old pretending.

~Matt

7

Next you are going to get alot of* hateful* comments.

The fact that you anticipate it means I don’t need to say it ; ^ )

8

Its always been “debate” , is it a gift, is it needed now, etc.

Read Act 2.1-11 I believe that Tongues are just different languages , and that God had the Apostles speaking in them so that all the different cultures there could understand the message.

I dont think what people consider speaking in tongues today is what was spoken of in the Bible.

Get ready, this could be fun!

9

I went to a southern baptist church with a brand new girlfriend quite a few years ago, and they had a couple people start speaking in tongues. The highlight of the day was when the lady in front of my fell into the aisle and started shaking “in the spirit”. Well me, being fresh out of EMT school, jumped over the pew and tried to cram a hymnal between her teeth.

Swear to god, she looked like she was having an epileptic seizure. She immediately jumped up and started screaming.

Needless to say, that was the last date with the girlfriend.

As far as the rest, I guess it’s a matter of your own belief. If you are a skeptic, then you tend to think “Oh, it’s fake”, and if you have faith in that particular belief, you honor it as real.

So it’s going to pretty much boil down to what each particular person believes as to the response you get.

“You believe in free speech? Let me see you acknowledge a man standing center stage advocating at the top of his voice that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. Acknowledge that, celebrate that in your classrooms, then you can talk about the land of the free.”

John

10

Well me, being fresh out of EMT school, jumped over the pew and tried to cram a hymnal between her teeth.

That’s hilarious!

11

The fact that it did not really exist for 1900 years then all of a sudden it becomes mainstream? The Apostles were the only and last ones that had that gift.

12

as one forum member posted, the book of acts, chapter 2, refers to those who “spoke in other tongues.” if you’re “full gospel” or “pentecostal” you believe this is a miracle (like healing the sick) that is part of what makes up your faith (this is part of the “evidence of things not seen”).

if you’re a baptist, among other denominations, you believe that these miraculous manifestations were limited to that particular time, immediately post-resurrection, that helped congeal and coalesce the early church. these miracles were god’s kick start. but they faded as the church matured (that’s what baptists and methodists and lutherans and most of the rest of christianty believes).

by “full gospel” what these denominations believe (and we’re talking primarily “assembly of god” and “foursquare” churches) is that the rest of protestantism denies that part of the bible specific to these miracles or “gifts.” pentecostals refer to paul’s letters to the early churches, where he delineates these gifts, among them “speaking in tongues” and the “interpretation” of these utterances. so, in a pentecostal church service, you’ve got two types of this manifestation. you’ve got your garden variety pew sitter quietly speaking in tongues, and then you’ve got your occasional “announcement” in tongues, which is sort of an oration to the congregation. then everybody sort of sits quietly waiting, and another person gives the “interpretation”, all in accordance with the gifts paul writes about.

if you’ve got a particularly uncreative church you’re dealing with, the interpretation often or invariably falls along the lines of II chronicles 2:14: “if my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then i will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” blah blah blah.

what these people believe is that you are “born again.” fair enough. then, however, there’s a “second blessing,” and this is to be “filled with the holy spirit.” that’s what this gal is looking for.

now, pardon me, i’m sticking my two cents in here, but you asked for it: me, if i were you, i’d be careful. if this is what she wants, this is what she’ll get. and you are always going to be sucking hind tit, on the outside looking in, and she and her church will always look at you as a sort of spiritual mongoloid. there will be things you just can never understand, because you’ve got the spiritual IQ of 70, while they’ve got the holy spirit in them. you’re going to heaven, perhaps, but just barely. i wouldn’t like to be thought of that way, especially by somebody that i cared a lot for. i would not want my significant other to think of me as a spiritual lesser.

13

The fact that it did not really exist for 1900 years then all of a sudden it becomes mainstream? The Apostles were the only and last ones that had that gift.
Apocryphal. There is nothing other than a collection of stories written a few hundred years after the fact by eyewitnesses and second hand reports to substantiate this.

Or you could look at it that we are getting near to the second coming, and the nearness of Jesus is awakening the talent in people that might have otherwise been dormant.

John

14

“Well me, being fresh out of EMT school, jumped over the pew and tried to cram a hymnal between her teeth.”

pics or it didn’t happen. nevertheless, i like to think it did happen. your mistake was shoving a hymnal, not her bible, into her mouth. you could’ve made a case for the latter, what with the word of god being her sustenance and all.

15

“Well me, being fresh out of EMT school, jumped over the pew and tried to cram a hymnal between her teeth.”

pics or it didn’t happen. nevertheless, i like to think it did happen. your mistake was shoving a hymnal, not her bible, into her mouth. you could’ve made a case for the latter, what with the word of god being her sustenance and all.

Hah! I wish I did have pics! :smiley:

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if you’ve got a particularly uncreative church you’re dealing with, the interpretation often or invariably falls along the lines of II chronicles 2:14: “if my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then i will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” blah blah blah.

You may have missed the memo…

II Chronicles 2:14 has been updated. It how reads:

If my people who are called by my name will form Political Action Committees, be Pro Life and do their best to keep birth control out of the hands of women, vote a straight Republican ticket, flood the FCC with email about anything offensive on TV and publicly condemn anyone who doesn’t share these beliefs, then I will hear from Heaven, will forgive their sin and heal their land.

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“sucking hind tit” - that’s the funniest expression i’ve heard in ages and i’ll be stealing it, thanks.

-mike

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“sucking hind tit” - that’s the funniest expression i’ve heard in ages and i’ll be stealing it, thanks.

-mike
Let me guess, nobody in your family owned/grew up on a farm? :wink: I got that from my uncle years ago when he owned a pig farm.

John

19

That is the root of my question and whether I would continue to pursue a relationship. I consider myself very open minded and want to understand many things. So I want to understand speaking tongues.

If I couldn’t get past speaking tongues or her level of engagement in religion then it’s probably best to stop in the early stages and explain why. I would only want to be in a committed relationship with someone that carries the same or similar views when it comes to something as important as religion.

Appreciate the input,

20

grew up all over the world, and am still bouncing around a lot. lived in Oz for a while, and on an army base in Germany - got plenty of lines there, rest assured. and i was born and mostly raised in sarnia, ON, which is surrounded by farms. had lots of friends who raised livestock, but honest to god i’d never heard that.

as they say, it must be rare as rocking horse shit.

-mike