In Acts 2, the Day of Pentecost is described, when the Holy Spirit falls on the gathered disciples for the first time (this is after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus). The upper room where they were gathered was filled with the sound of a rushing wind and what appeared to be tongues of fire. The disciples began to preach to the gathered crowds, and (according to the record in Acts) the people in the crowd heard the message of the gospel in their own native language. However, it is also noted that some in the crowd thought that the disciples were drunk. So there is a bit of a common thread - some people react to hearing tongues with skepticism, and some hear the spoken word in a language they recognise. I am of the opinion that the Holy Spirit work in the ears of the hearer, if that is what God wants them to hear - the (very few) times that I have been present when this has occurred, I certainly did not hear the tongue as any recognisable natural human language, but someone else apparently did.
In Romans 8:26-28 , Paul talks of the Holy Spirit within a christian “praying with groans that words cannot express” when the christian does not know how to pray. This is considered (in the church I attend, anyhow) to be a personal and private use of tongues, to enable us to pray or worship when we run out of words or the ability to express something. There is no need or necessity for interpretation in this context.
The verse quoted above from Corinthians describes the public Gift of Tongues - a message of exhortation and praise given by the Holy Spirit to edify and encourage the church - this is a gift that is matched with the Gift of Interpretation (often in someone else), and in churches I have been in, there is always a period of waiting following such a tongue until the interpretation is brought forward. It is the responsibility of the service leader or pastor/elders to bring forth the interpretation if one does not come from the congregation. I have never been given the gift of interpretation, but I understand that as the tongue is brought forth, the sense of what the message is saying is given to someone, and as they start expressing that, the interpretation wells up. It seems pretty hard to describe.
Anyhow, I hope this gives some context. I personally would feel that having a word in tongues during a funeral (no matter how involved the deceased and family were in the church) would be inappropriate - a funeral is a public service and Paul is clear that services should be appropriate and well-ordered. Prophecy and Words of Knowledge are more appropriate to challenge unbelievers.
Speaking in tongues is a sensitive area - I have been involved in charismatic churches since I was a teenager, and once in a while I find myself in a situation where the use of tongues makes me feel profoundly uncomfortable. On the other hand, my personal use of tongues can be incredibly comforting, and as a worship leader, I have led many times of Spirit led worship that involved people singing in tongues (or using words of praise and adoration) that sometimes lead to the Gifts of Tongues and Interpretation being manifest.
What you don’t seem to realize, Quasi, is that urge you felt to leave was actually evidence of a Demon within you, one which could not bear to hear “The Word and the Voice of God.”
In my Mother’s home chruch you would have been chased down the street by people yelling and blessing, and competing to be “the One” who successfully drove out the Demon.
[Shudder]
Competing is the key word there. In her Church, there was much competition to be the “closest” to God or the “only really real” one flopping on the floor or jabbering. There were gentlemen of the congration standing by with blankets to cover the many women who fell over kicking with their skirts flying up. I never once saw a “flopper” with a run in her hose.
I’m sorry if my bitter is showing, I don’t mean to trivialize any true spiritual experience that anyone has had. Self-stimulation as an alternative to drugs or alcohol or unsafe sex is also an excellent thing - go for it. But when you insist on it defining your status as “closer to God” than someone else, well, you need to re-read that part of the Bible which describes the words and life of Jesus; 'cause I don’t believe he’d approve. In fact, he was kinda hard on the disciples when they started that stuff.
I’ve gotten a little lost in the pronouns. Are you saying that you’ve rarely heard gibberish people speak in tongues well? What do you mean about the syllables being “wrong”? Is “shonda my honda” gibberish or tongues?
It’s a cute way to get noticed (akin to declaring someone a witch back in the day), but that’s about it. I think it’s about as ridiculous as ridiculous gets.
Has this sort of thing been observed in other, non-christian, religions? If so, how do Pentecostal christians view this? Coincidence? The Holy Spirit acting on nonbelievers? Imitation? Supernatural intervention by something other than god?
Personally, I’d think for being all-mighty and all-powerful, he could at least convey his message in English rather than gibberish. Kinda like psychics and their messages from the dead being “fuzzy” or vague. What the hell, are the ghosts’ calls dropping or something?
When I was much younger, I went to a Pentacostal service with a friend once, hoping to see the famous “speaking in tongues”. Unfortunately, no one felt the call that evening.
I have seen it since, but in a circumstance that I felt it was faked and only done because they thought it should be. (It was some sort of college “reach out” meeting. The glossolalia started IMMEDIATELY as soon as the short introductory prayer started, and seemed to consist only of “la la la la la la la”. No one attempted to interpret.)
I have to say that I’d find it extremely inappropriate at a funeral. I can’t say that it would surprise me, though. I have (more than once) seen “altar calls” at funerals, which I also find incredibly distasteful.
Almost as bad was my bro-in-law, who felt the need to sermonize at length about all the people going to hell because they don’t follow his version, at his father’s funeral, where he knew for a fact were a number of people (including family) of other faiths. Tacky, tacky, tacky, tacky, no class jerk.
The one time I did not find this distasteful was at a funeral for a close friend of mine who was evangelical, and she would have wanted an altar call!
As for talking in tongues, well, I was raised Catholic, too. Now I’m Baha’i. The closest I come to ‘speaking in tongues’ is that I know how to chant a couple of things in Farsi. . .
But I remember seeing a Christian (Pentacostal, I guess) TV show a couple of years ago where the woman who was giving the sermon/message/whatever, came right out and said "If you’ve never spoken in tongues, you’re not a ‘real’ Christian! You haven’t received ‘the gift’ of The Spirit’.
I found this so curious that I started a thread on it here, but I’m gosh-darned ( ) if I can find it now!
The consensus was that, while some Christians find it necessary, most don’t, and some think it’s downright creepy/scary.
To Quasi’s question about the interpretation… In I Corinthians 14, Paul recommends that if one does give a public message in tongues, then either the speaker or someone else in the assembly should pray for the interpretation.
So either God gave someone the interpretation OR the person had some thoughts that he thought was God’s interpretation & spoke them, YMMW.
Yes, speaking in tongues does occur in non-Christian religions. The usual Pentecostal explanation is that those are either human psychological constructs or, in the case of actual recognized languages being spoken, demonic counterfeits.
Again I repeat, I’ve never seen any use of tongues at a Charismatic church funeral. An altar call- yeah, at every one. It would be considered amiss not to have one. Often it starts with something like “And if the deceased were here right now, the one thing he would want you to know is that Jesus is waiting on the other side and wants to be your Saviour…”
If you don’t want an altar call at your funeral, make sure it’s not done by an evangelistic minister.
The church we went to most when I was a kid was a Pentecostal church. There were quite a few services where people would “speak in tongues” and usually, though not always, someone would “interpret,” sometimes even telling what language it was supposed to be. Even as a believer it was kind of scary, which is not exactly undesirable from the church’s point of view. You’re supposed to feel awe at God’s presence among the congregation.
When I started experiencing more skepticism as I got older, I noticed that the languages they spoke in resembled the jabbering of Ewoks more than anything else. And for all they railed against being possessed by spirits or the devil, they sure seemed to be pretty comfortable with people in the church doing things that appeared indistinguishable from demon possession to me.
As far as I know, there is no evidence that any people claiming to speak a particular language in one of these states is actually speaking a recognizable language. I.e.: if you recorded it and shopped it around to linguists who actually know Aramaic, you wouldn’t find anyone who could translate what was claimed to be Aramaic by one of the “translators” or the “speakers” in the church. I doubt you would find more than a few words in one of the sessions that corresponded to any actual language we know of.
From an objective interpretation, it’s the byproduct of an ecstatic trance state. There have been at least a couple of studies on it, one of which is cited in the Skeptic’s Dictionary entry on glossolalia.
