Why does God give us the gift of speaking in tongues today?

Answer 1

For strength and power in our lives.

For a prayer language whereby we can pray His perfect will.

For help when we don't know how to pray.

Answer 2

I do not believe He does. I hear of tongues all the time, but to date have never witnessed anything that could be real. I have seen many people acting a complete fool, and muttering unintelligible gibberish. But no tongues. Usually this kind of behavior is seen around uneducated people of the Charismatic and Pentecostal persuasion. These churches are very new, with none to very little developed theology. All I have seen is false.

Answer 3

Throughout history many religions have had a "speaking in tongues" culture. The ancient Greek mystery religions did; Hinduism does; shamanism does; Sufi does in Islam, etc etc. It is nothing unusual for religions to assume some special or even secret "sacred language" that only initiates can interpret. Early Christians adapted the practise when they began to spread into Rome and Greece where it was very common among pagan religious ecstatics.

Answer 4

It's not a gift... it's an insanity. A mass insanity brought about by an irrational belief in the supernatural. Only radical evangelical churches acknowledge it as anything but insanity.

Answer 5

Yes, He does, through His Holy Spirit.

Answer 6

"Yes, he does, through His Holy Spirit."

She must be 'reading' in tongues

Answer 7

because he chose human to be the highest creature of all.....(anyways...tongue is the strongest muscle)

Answer 8

So normal people can tell who the true lunatics are so we can avoid them.

Answer 9

The Holy Spirit can inspire people to speak in languages which they have not learned, as was demonstrated conclusively on the Day of Pentecost (see Acts 2) when people from all over the world heard Galileans speaking foreign languages which they could not have known. In the modern era similar episodes have occurred many times.13

The expression "initial physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit" refers to the first outward, observable sign that the Holy Spirit has come in filling power. The repeated testimony of Scripture is that this physical sign occurred at the time the Spirit was poured out on individuals. When the 120 disciples were filled with the Spirit, they spoke in tongues (Acts 2:4). They spoke then, not a day, week, or year later. When Cornelius’s household was baptized in the Spirit, members spoke in tongues, and the believing Jews were amazed (Acts 10:44—48). Again, they spoke in tongues at the same time they were baptized, not at some later time. When the Ephesian believers were baptized in the Spirit, they spoke in tongues and prophesied (Acts 19:1—6). There is no statement or implication of a delay between the event of the baptism in the Spirit and the evidence of speaking in tongues. Those who teach there can be a delay in speaking in tongues draw their conclusions from personal experience or the testimony of others, not from a clear statement of Scripture. Scripture nowhere teaches, implies, or gives an example of a delay occurring between the baptism in the Spirit and the evidence of speaking in tongues; therefore we must adhere to the testimony of Scripture.

Prior to the Day of Pentecost, many within Israel had concluded that after God spoke to and through the last of the Old Testament prophets, He was speaking directly to Israel no more. Only after Messiah was to arrive, along with the anticipated Age to Come, would God again speak to His people through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Suddenly, in this spiritually lifeless context, the Spirit is poured out, not just on selected individuals as in the Old Testament, but upon masses of people, essentially everyone in the fledgling Church. It was as if the cry of Moses’ heart had been fulfilled: "I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!" (Numbers 11:29). In some marvelous sense the Age to Come had begun, and a church filled with people who spoke in tongues was a sign signifying the dawn of a new period in God’s eternal plan for humankind.

Luke understands speaking in tongues to demonstrate the infilling presence of the Holy Spirit; this is clearly indicated by an examination of Acts 10:44—48.

"While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God" (Acts 10:44—46).

The conclusion is clear: If someone, even someone unexpected, hears the Word and speaks in divinely inspired tongues, that person has received the Holy Spirit. This was the reasoning of Peter and the other Jewish Christians present. Speaking in tongues is clear evidence someone has received the gift of the Holy Spirit (or been baptized in the Holy Spirit). The evidence was so clear for Peter he insisted Cornelius and his Gentile friends be baptized in water (10:48).

Later, as Peter discussed the Cornelius incident with the apostles and believers in Jerusalem, he again referred to the phenomenon he had witnessed: "So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" (Acts 11:17). The next verse confirms the apostles and believers accepted tongues as convincing evidence of the baptism in the Spirit: "When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God" (11:18).

While Acts 10:45,46 establishes that speaking in tongues is clear evidence of Spirit baptism, evidence supporting this doctrine is also provided by the overall pattern of Acts associating speaking in tongues with baptism in the Spirit. Acts describes five occasions on which people received an empowering of the Spirit for the first time (i.e., baptism in the Spirit). In none of these accounts are all of the details given, but four of these occasions include significant detail. (For Paul’s reception of the Spirit recorded in Acts 9:17,19, hardly any detail is recorded.) As previously noted, supernatural phenomena are a sign of the coming of the Spirit. The New Testament simply picks up on a very important Old Testament motif.

In Acts 2, 10, and 19 various phenomena are indicated, such as the sound of wind, tongues of fire, prophecy, and speaking in tongues.14 The only phenomenon occurring in each case, however, is speaking in tongues.

In the Acts 8 account of Peter and John’s ministry among the Samaritans, speaking in tongues is not specifically mentioned but it is strongly implied. After the apostles had laid their hands on the Samaritans, some visible and extraordinary manifestation accompanied the reception of the Spirit. This is evident for, after seeing something remarkable, the magician Simon wanted to buy the ability to confer the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:18 notes explicitly, "When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money." Based on the pattern found in Acts 2, 10, and 19 it seems most likely that what Simon saw was the Samaritan believers speaking in tongues. Had the experience been only by faith without any accompanying sign, Simon would not have known whether the Samaritan believers actually received the Holy Spirit.

Acts 9:17—19 suggests that Saul of Tarsus (i.e., the apostle Paul) was filled with the Holy Spirit through the ministry of Ananias. Though no details of this filling are given, we know from 1 Corinthians 14:18 that Paul prayed in tongues regularly and often. It would hardly be surprising if that pattern was begun at the time he was filled with the Spirit.

Despite the sketchiness of the report about Paul’s baptism in the Spirit, and despite the fact tongues are not explicitly mentioned in Acts 8, the evidence of chapters 2, 10, and 19 demonstrates an overall pattern of speaking in tongues as regularly accompanying the baptism in the Holy Spirit. When these three witnesses are linked with (1) Luke’s underlying awareness of the Spirit’s presence in divinely inspired speech and (2) the strong inference of Acts 10:45,46 connecting speaking in tongues with the gift of the Spirit, the Pentecostal doctrine that speaking in tongues constitutes evidence of Spirit baptism is clearly established.15

Answer 10

a sign to non believers