Speaking in tongues?

Question

What I really would like to know is why does the speaking of tongues only happen in churches that believe in it? Noone to date has been able to give me an answer on this.

Answer 1

i once heard a teaching on a related subject. It was talking about the analogy of the body of Christ. You know, each part has its own function? Like a hand and an eye do not do the same job, so they have different gifts.

The teacher added that analogy to the gifts of the Spirit. He used the different local church bodies as different parts of the body of Christ as a whole. Now instead of each individual person having a role, each church has a corporate role. In that, whatever assignment that church body has in the big picture, they have the gifts appropriate to that task.

If one church has a ministry of evangelism, they would be given evangelical gifts. If they aren't in that place at the moment, they would have gifts more suitable to their state. I also believe that we have access to all the Spiritual gifts as need arises. God gives us the gifts that we need at the moment to fulfill our assignments.

I hope that makes sense, it seemed a bit muddled to me.

Answer 2

Jan P makes a good point. To those that say it simply a culture, I strongly disagree. Everywhere the Apostles went they saw people saved and then filled with the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in other tongues. This is a post conversion experience (See Acts ch 19)

Pentecost is not a branch of the church, it is the very root of the church. The church was born on the day of Pentecost when the 120 were filled with the Holy Spirit and they ALL spoke in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Answer 3

There is a culture that promotes it. It is not unlike other ecstatic religious experience. If you are not looking for it you'll never find it.

Interestingly some churches even have classes for speaking in tongues. As part of the learning process they tell you to empty your mind and just begin to make sounds. Given this it is not hard to understand where the phenomenon comes from.

Answer 4

Because those that start speaking in tongues, if their church doesn't believe in it, feel very out of place and so they leave and go to a church that does believe. If the church doesn't believe in it, they're not open to the Spirit and allowing the Baptism of the Spirit. (the baptism is the gift....speaking in tongues is just the evidence.)

Answer 5

You will find all the answers reading from Chapters 12 -14 in 1 Corinthians!

Answer 6

because to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit (which is where tongues come from) you must SEEK HIM. To truly seek Him (the Holy Spirit) you must believe that He IS and that He will fill you. If you don't believe, desire Him and ask, then you will not receive the experience. It is just like salvation - you have to believe and you have to ask. All things in God are accessed by FAITH.

Answer 7

The first occurrence of speaking in tongues occurred on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4. The apostles went out and shared the Gospel with the crowds, speaking to them in their own languages, “we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" (Acts 2:11). The Greek word translated "tongues" literally means "languages." Therefore, the gift of tongues is speaking in a language a person does not know in order to minister to someone who does speak that language. In 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14, where Paul discusses miraculous gifts, he comments that, “Now, brothers, 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?" (1 Corinthians 14:6). According to the Apostle Paul, and in agreement with the tongues described in Acts, speaking in tongues is valuable to the one hearing God’s message in his/her own language, but it is useless to everyone else – unless it is interpreted / translated.

A person with the gift of interpreting tongues (1 Corinthians 12:30) could understand what a tongues-speaker was saying even though he/she did not know the language that was being spoken. The tongues-interpreter would then communicate the message of the tongues-speaker to everyone else, so all could understand. “For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says” (1 Corinthians 14:13). Paul’s conclusion regarding un-interpreted tongues is powerful, “But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue" (1 Corinthians 14:19).

Is the gift of tongues for today? 1 Corinthians 13:8 mentions the gift of tongues ceasing, although it connects the ceasing with the arrival of the "perfect" in 1 Corinthians 13:10. Some point to a difference in the language in prophecy and knowledge "ceasing" with tongues "being ceased" as evidence for tongues ceasing before the arrival of the "perfect." While possible, this is not explicitly clear from the text. Some also point to passages such as Isaiah 28:11 and Joel 2:28-29 as evidence that speaking in tongues was a sign of God's oncoming judgment. 1 Corinthians 14:22 describes tongues as a "sign to unbelievers." According to this argument, the gift of tongues was a warning to the Jews that God was going to judge Israel for rejecting Jesus Christ as Messiah. Therefore, when God did in fact judge Israel (with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70), the gift of tongues would no longer serve its intended purpose. While this view is possible, the primary purpose of tongues being fulfilled does not necessarily demand its cessation. Scripture does not conclusively assert that the gift of speaking in tongues has ceased.

At the same time, if the gift of speaking in tongues were active in the church today, it would be performed in agreement with Scripture. It would be a real and intelligible language (1 Corinthians 14:10). It would be for the purpose of communicating God's Word with a person of another language (Acts 2:6-12). It would be in agreement with the command that God gave through the Apostle Paul, "If anyone speaks in a tongue, two — or at the most three — should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God" (1 Corinthians 14:27-28). It would also be in submission to 1 Corinthians 14:33, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”

God most definitely can give a person the gift of speaking in tongues to enable him/her to communicate with a person who speaks another language. The Holy Spirit is sovereign in the dispersion of the spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:11). Just imagine how much more productive missionaries could be if they didn’t have to go to language school, and were instantly able to speak to people in their own language. However, God does not seem to be doing this. Tongues does not seem to occur today in the form it did in the New Testament despite the fact that it would be immensely useful. The vast majority of believers who claim to practice the gift of speaking in tongues do not do so in agreement with the Scriptures mentioned above. These facts lead to the conclusion that the gift of tongues has ceased, or is at least a rarity in God's plan for the church today.

Answer 8

Indeed I can, Pirate! I'm producing a CD of my all time favorite nonsense jibberish! $21.95

Answer 9

It is a "culture" of tongues. Not biblical tongues.
This discussion is something that should be done "in-house" not in a secular forum.

Answer 10

Great question....

Unfortunately - the answer they'd usually give to this is:

"Well, we are the true Church!!" - and - that dog jes' don't hunt!