Ask Questions – Is Speaking in Tongues Real

Here is another question that I was asked about speaking in tongues…

 

Thanks for the question!  It is a very common topic for discussion.  There has always been a lot of debate and confusion regarding the topic.  

The short answer to your question is:  Yes.  Speaking in tongues is a real thing.  

The confusion revolves around two major points though.  

First, speaking in tongues does not mean the same things to everyone who uses that term.  
In many instances in the Bible, people are given a Spiritual Gift by God to be able to speak another known language so as to communicate with people who don't naturally speak Greek.  Check out Acts Chapter 2.  In this instance the apostles are given a gift where they can speak in many languages and the people who are listening are shocked that they each can hear their teachings in their own native language.  It is also spoken of many times in the book of Revelation, (chapter 5,7,10,11,13, 14 and 17).  One cool thing about this gift of the spirit is that it is one of the first ways that God truly demonstrates that the Gospel of Jesus is intended for everyone, no matter their language, race, or previous creed or religion.  

Personally, I have not seen this gift or experienced this gift in the way it seems to be described in Acts and Revelation.  I have seen people who on mission trips where they don't know a language all that well be amazed at how well they are able to communicate with people of other languages, and how well these people seem to understand their broken Spanish or Swahili or whatever the language may be.  

When Bible scholars refer to this gift, they call it Xenoglossy, and there is much debate over other occurrences and mentions of the gift of Tongues on whether this is actually what they are referring to.

Second.  The more mysterious and controversial version of the Gift of Tongues is referred to as Glossolalia.  This is a gift that the Holy Spirit bestows on a person where they are able to speak their own personal language to communicate with God.  This gift seems to be much more common.  This seems to be what Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 14 when he is talking about the gift of tongues.  Make sure that you note what Paul says about how it is only meaningful to the person doing it unless someone can interpret it, and how in church it would be better to utter 5 intelligible words than ten thousand in a personal prayer language.

Among many churches who consider themselves Pentecostal or Charismatic, they will tell you that they believe that anyone who is "filled with the spirit" should be able to speak in tongues (glossolalia).  Many of these churches give time and opportunity during the services for people to do this, or even to learn how to do it.  I personally went to one of these types of churches a few times in college.  I had decided that if speaking in tongues was something that God wanted me to do, I wanted to do it.  I prayed for the gift, and several other people prayed for the gift for me.  I never received the gift.  A couple of people told me that at the time I was too shy.  Other people told me that I was not full of the spirit.  Since then, I have been told that "in order to start speaking in tongues, you have to just start speaking in tongues."  When I let them know I was baffled by this, they told me that I needed to start opening my mouth and uttering noises, and more would come.  This has not worked for me either.  I believe at this point that it is not a gift that God needs for me to have or use right now.  

Since that experience in my life, I have seen churches who use tongues do quite a bit of harm by being divisive and labeling people as either "spirit filled" or "not spirit filled" based solely on the possession of this one gift.  In my personal opinion and interpretation of scripture, this puts WAAAAAY too much emphasis on what Paul clearly states is a less important gift.  It also causes people to believe that we manipulate the spirit for our own needs and desires, but in actuality scripture seems to teach that the Spirit is not ours to control, it is God's wild presence with us that won't be limited by our desire to tame and domesticate it.  

Our church chooses to not feature this gift in our services.  We believe fully that it can be and is a part of some people's personal relationships with God.  We don't deny that it happens, but we believe that featured in our services without explanation and interpretation it would add more confusion than it would be worth for the body.  Because of our "Safe Place to Visit" mission statement, we wouldn't want a newcomer to be overwhelmed, scared or confused by it.

For more information...

Wikipedia has some interesting information about it, but much of it is biased by either people who are extreme on either side of the debate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia

Also Bible.org has a very informative article on it with tons of great scripture references at http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=393

Let me know if you have any other questions.