Growing up I went to a holiness pentecostal church of god. It was pretty small, maybe 30-40 members, though I lived in a very rural area so that's the norm. They didn't do any snake handling. All the women had really long hair and always wore long skirts and never pants, boys always wore khaki pants and never shorts, that kind of thing. What I've always wondered though, and the reason I'm making this thread (Other than being 5 beers deep on a Wednesday night) was the speaking in tongues. It seemed like everyone did it in the congregation when things got heated during the sermon. However the weirdest was when the pastor did it. He'd babble on in tongues, and then his mother in law (Who was the previous pastors widow) would translate whatever he supposedly said into english. It was usually about something that was going on in the church or with members of the congregation. Is translating tongues common in pentecostal or other protestants churches? I've always heard of people speaking in tongues, but never translating it, so now I'm wondering if mom and dad took me to some weird christian cult.

Sadly you went to a weird Christian cult.

Speaking in actual tongues.. knowing actual languages that no modern person would normally know, and speaking it fluently, would be "real".

Babbling and jumping around speaking gibberish babytalk is just overly dramatic insanity.

Speaking in tonuges must be translated

1st cor 14:27

that said I think the gifts are well overclaimed. Im not a cessationist but close, Ill leave that for another conversation.

There are pentecostal churches in Bush Alaska.
They are really wierd and demean women really bad.

I also went as a child to a church where tongues and translating was a regular occurrence. To be honest, it freaked me out as a kid. I simply don't believe the Lord was speaking in nonsense talk through so and so at church on Sunday. As I got older, and no longer at that type of church, I began to think it was simply an exercise in psychology. So and and so may really be feeling that sermon, they have worked themselves up, and, there's attention to be had. Maybe they even delude themselves into believing it. But, the person translating was false. I'm still not entirely sure about it all. Perhaps if old Mrs Jones in the 3rd row starting going off in excellent Greek  I would lose my skepticism. Someone will probably come along and say it's "Babel" cause that is what they believe. It really all comes down to faith I suppose. This post may not be much help but there are other people who question it.

Speaking in “tongues” simply meant another established language OP. The pentecostals speak gibberish and call it a “tongue”.

Won't see ya in hell pal.

You would no doubt have said that upon hearing the apostles speaking and rejoicing at Pentacost as well.

Always?  And you know this how?

I know of a woman who was speaking in tongues.  Afterward someone came up to her, astonished, and asked what part of Poland she was from.

She was an American, and she didn't know how to speak Polish--but the person absolutely heard what she was saying in Polish.



Here is how Paul advised the Corinthians regarding manifestations of the Holy Spirit during the assembly:

1 Corinthians 14

Intelligibility in Worship
1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.
3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.
4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.
5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.
6 Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction?
7 Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes?
8 Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?
9 So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.
10 Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning.
11 If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me.
12 So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.
13 For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say.
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.
16 Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying?
17 You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.
18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
20 Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.
21 In the Law it is written: “With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.”
22 Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers.
23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?
24 But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all,
25 as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”
Good Order in Worship
26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret.
28 If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.
29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said.
30 And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop.
31 For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.
32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets.
33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
34 Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.
35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
36 Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?
37 If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command.
38 But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored.
39 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
40 But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.





For those who say the Holy Spirit does not manifest in modern times--well, we can absolutely agree that it certainly doesn't happen to (or for) you.  You might try asking--in deep humility--for the Holy Spirit to come to you and unpack whatever gifts God desired for you, so that you might serve Him more powerfully and do greater works in His kingdom.

For the poster who implied that a lot of people are just faking it--with you I would sadly agree, and feel sorrow for their lack of self awareness.

Weird cult

Saw it many times in the 80s and 90s.  Slaying in the spirit usually followed.

For the win...

Is that similar to this?



Because that dancing is fuckin sweet

It’s not about a man made language or sounds. Its about complete acceptance,

This. The disciples spoke so that everyone could understand them regardless of language they spoke.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/glossolalia

I believe there are inconsistent christians who are christians who do this, but the practice is not biblical and therefore not christian.

You will find that what passes as tongues never meets the biblical standard.

It is not someone preaching in a language they do not know, it is not the hearers hearing the bible or gospel preached in their language when the preacher was not speaking their language, and it is not the language where people are speaking non-human stuff, because this is ALWAYS said to be accompanied by an interpreter who understands what is being said and translates it. Also, in those events (I don't think they happen anymore) it is ALWAYS for the good of those hearing and the church.

Glossolalia does not meet any of these standards.

It is a pagan practice. People whip themselves up into an emotional and or mental frenzy and babble complete sheer nonsense.

It seems to be accompanied by a caste system in the teaching of the institutions that push it - "you aren't fully / a real christian if you don't speak in tongues."

The excesses of the charismatics have no basis in the bible and beyond that they don't even help people.

1 John 4:1
King James Version
4 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world

The person translating might believe too. When a guy jumps up and starts auctioning in church he's probably not talking about last night's ball game, so some variation of "God is great" or "we should pray more" is a safe bet.

Unlike Jews where the men wore head coverings in Corinth men had bare heads and women covered.  Also, unlike other cities in the region, women were not educated in Corinth.

Pual wanted Christians to follow their local customs and norms--don't be weird if you want to reach people.

Accidentally double post

They'll start speaking English when they ask for money

Because I can read and know the Greek word for tongues in Acts 2 is the same Greek word in the verses you quoted, and that the meaning of that Greek word meant the native language of another.

Acts 2.

1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

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.

7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?

8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,

10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

Devout men from all over the world who naturally spoke other languages gathered in Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit gave the apostles the miraculous ability to speak to them in their native language. The whole purpose of miracles was to confirm the establishment of Christ’s church or kingdom, which Christ said would come with power (Luke 24:49). Once this was done, miracles including “tongues” would gradually cease.

1 Corinthians 13:8

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge (meaning miraculous knowledge given by the Holy Spirit <- my words), it shall vanish away.

The “tongues” people speak today is gibberish. These same people often practice “faith healing” as well. Funny though that I never see them visiting hospitals where the sick are.

I always find it interesting how quickly an energy of darkness and lovelessness converges on these threads.

lol

Interesting.  Because I see people praying for the sick--all the time.

What Christian denomination do you belong to, exactly, which believes that the works of the Holy Spirit has ceased and therefore prayer cannot heal the sick?

He said visiting hospitals to heal the sick. Not prayer.

If you’re honest you will know that I’m speaking of the apostles miraculous ability to heal the sick by the laying on of hands, something we know has ceased but which pentecostals claim to still do today. I never said prayer was of no effect.

Dude, you literally sound like a cult leader.

Sorry--but I unlike you I don't "know" that anything has ceased.  I myself recently felt called to lay hands on a man with a tumor on his spine.  This was just last Sunday.  He was an old family friend who happened to stop by the house out of the blue after ten years or so and it came up in conversation that he had this thing going on.  He isn't a believer, but just before he left I asked if he would mind if I prayed for him--and he looked startled but also happy and said no, he wouldn't mind at all.  I asked where the tumor was and he showed me, and I told him before I prayed aloud that I was not afraid to look like a fool--and then I asked God to open the door for him, for God to show him His great love for him, and for God to glorify His name, He the God who had called his child forth from nothingness and who knew every hair on his head.  I'll let you know if anything wonderful happens--maybe it will, maybe it won't, God has His own plan, but it is always worth asking, and I am not worried about looking like a fool.  How about you?

My only speaking in tongues and translating it story...

My dad was a Methodist minister. One of the women involved in the youth program when I was in high school was a crazy person who was into things such as speaking in tongues. During some event she brought up speaking in tongues and how great it was. I responded that the Bible says that speaking in tongues is useless unless there is some one who can translate it.  She shut up and moved on.  

CSB I know.

Overall, I'd agree, though I'm no scholar.  And my experience with Pentacostals is limited to work interactions for a few years in KY.  Nice enough to work with...

But like someone above said, I'd be impressed if it was a legit language.   Otherwise, color me skeptical.

Pentecostal is more a movement than a religion.  While not common, there are even pentecostal Catholic churches.  The real question is how a congregation deals with the movement.  I heard a story about how a semi-relative's church delt with it.  Their Baptist church developed a pentecostal movement.  The pastor (probably with directions of their elders or whatever their governing body is called) politely asked the pentecostal members to leave.  Net effect, the pentecostal members started their own non-denominational worship group.  The husband of the semi-relative that told me this story happened to be one of the pastors of the new group.

FWIW, I am Catholic.  I went to a few of his services out of politeness.  I don't have a problem with people worshiping in a way that is meaningful to them - but yes, pentecostal is not something I am comfortable with.  They did not bring out the snakes, but there was plenty of people "speaking" in tongues and being slain with the spirit.


As for the laying on of hands for healing - it is not an uncommon practice in the Catholic Church.  Many congregations have the priest do healing services.  I don't know how often it heals the body, but sometimes I am sure it heals the spirit.  I don't think my current congregation does it, but I have regularly attended to other Catholic congregations that did it monthly.  My priest honestly probably does it quite often, but it is a person to person thing, not a congregation thing.  My priest regularly visits members of the congregation that are in the hospital.  When my mother was in a hospital that he visited, I know he came by to talk with her (not sure if she talked with him - I doubt she went to church more than a dozen times in the 20+ years he was our pastor.  When she moved hospitals, I am fairly certain he made a call so another Catholic Priest would visit her.  And honestly - while not a supernatural miracle - it did heal her spirit (but not her body - she died at peace with the church, something I had not seen in 40 years prior).  I don't know if it was something the new priest said to her, or something I said to her.  She was depressed because she could not physically contribute anymore - I told her she could still pray for us, and apparently that was enough and she did.

What's the charismatic branch of judaism?

It seems all of the major worldviews have their charismatics.

The speaking in tongues is just as based in reality as a wafer and wine literally becoming the body and blood of christ. That’s what Catholics actually think is happening during mass (trans substantiation). I grew up catholic before anyone thinks I’m talking out of my ass.

In short, if you don’t have faith it’s nonsense. If you do have faith, it has a higher meaning. That’s what makes it faith is that you truly believe it without proof, otherwise it wouldn’t be faith, it would be fact.

op, thats a cult according to scripture.

by the way, if you know where to look you can find on youtube etc video footage compilations of people speaking in tounges that became demon possessed and started fighting and getting whiplash when benny hinn and others are doing that so called speaking in tounges thing with them or rather at them its telling.

demons are nothing to mess around with.

One Pentecostal-influenced ministry I worked for didn't refer to it as speaking in tongues. They called it "prayer language"

yeah well even if this was a cult that went out of their way to translate it according to scripture it was being translated in the congregation by a woman which is not allowed since a pastor must be the husband of one wife and its not for the edification of those in question.

its cult practice and i grew up in it. its what we deserve for closing our Bibles and wanting a mosh pit circus instead of comparing scripture to scripture for the cause of Christ. pentacostal tounges speaking is a cult. all of it.

There's a story of a pentecostal lady visitng a baptist church.

She said she had the gift of tounges and the pastor said you're in luck!  I have the gift of interpretation.

So the lady said: alkdhgaiuobianba;ejka;jdha;dkfajaslkdjfaldkfa

And the pastor said: oh, God's about to do a big work and a lot of people are going to become Christians.

And the lady said: Praise God!  alsdkhgaldkalbl;akdhalkdfjlaksdjfa;lkdvnaioe

And the pastor said: oh, God said that in order to make room for all the new Christians we're going to have to build a new addition on the church.

And the lady said: Praise God!  aldhbaoindak;jdafkhe;rhoaiahdavna;k;dkaf;lkdjfa

And the pastor said: and God says that this lady is going to pay for it all.

And the lady said: wait, what!

That's funny.

My understanding is that “tongues” was/is a temporary ability given to a person so that they could/can proclaim the gospel to people who spoke/speak a language the speaker did/does not know and that anytime it is granted, an interpreter would/will be there to tell the speakers native language listeners what was/is being said. In other words, if someone says they are speaking Spanish but there’s no one else who understands Spanish then it is not tongues…it’s just someone pretending to speak Spanish or someone who already knew Spanish pretending they didn’t know Spanish.

And…It’s not some spiritual gibberish. It would be an actual earthly language that a human being would benefit from and God would be glorified by.

Naw... I wouldn't.

Suggesting your local pastor bouncing around babbling nonsense just like the actual apostles is

Its nothing more than your pastor being dramatic and putting on a show for various reasons. If you believe that is actually god speaking, instead of an actual language.. like fluent ancient greek.. then do you dude.

And thats coming from someone who lived in the holy land for years.. and has seen just about everything when it comes to religions.

I’ve seen it in a lot of nondenominational churches. It’s attention whoring from parishioners trying to out holy each other. Same thing with testimonies.

So it's the translating it part that makes you think they are weird?

I am not asking God to prove himself but for me to believe any of these people speaking tongues are not full of shit I'd have to have a recording and have google translate automatically identify it as an ancient language and then verify it with at least a couple different independent scholars of said language.

The holy spirit gave the apostles the gift of tongues to be able to spread the gospel. If no one has any clue wtf these people are saying because it's incoherent gibberish that kind of defeats the point. They also make many Christians look fucking nutty.

I wonder if I start shouting Allahu akbar in a Pentecost church will they beable to translate

Paul said that speaking in tongues has value only if there is someone who can actually translate it.  Otherwise, it is nothing more than unintelligible babbling.

Paul wrote extensively on the topic.

My mentally unstable aunt goes to a Pentecostal church and speaks in tongues along with all her mentally unstable friends.  I guess the Holy Spirit doesn't like LCMS Lutherans enough to give us the "gift" of babbling like an idiot.