Onle Have Seen It Twice (Speaking In Tongues)

[antix]

Never experienced it personally. Both times were in the early 80s. A coupl etimes at a Bible study one older guy would mumble for extended periods and said it was speaking in tongues and this church i went to a couple times; the lady pastor would yell out phrases in some odd language. Other told me they do it in private though. I never bought into that. Very Very odd. I do agree the psychological aspect and mass hysteria aspect can be strong with people, but when people talk of speaking in tongues and the gift of prophesy and people who can interpret the prophesy in tongues: Why not just prophisize in english and if the prophecy does not come true, it will open people's minds.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

To the choir preacheth you.

 

If they didn't speak in tongues, it wouldn't create the psychological effect they seek. Also, proof its not a language is in the fact that the language parts of your brain aren't really so much so affected, its just making sounds found in your language (familiar to you).

[LivingLife]

Because they think gawd speaks a fuddy language. The excuse is that when you speaketh in mindless babblespeek, teh debbul cannot infiltrate your thoughts and pollute teh message from gawd.

 

So gawd needs to speak in a foreign tung so that Lucy who should know the heavenly language of angels and according to international xians speaketh in all languages

 

Awe fuck it, no real way to explain this shit...

[freeasabird]

Back in my believing days at AOG they told us it was god's language which the devil couldn't understand so it was a way for god to communicate a message to a church crowd without the devil knowing what god was saying. Never did I stop to think, "well won't the devil know what the message was once some other designated person translates it to English?" Besides, I now firmly believe that my pastor there is and has always been a charlatan. There is no way a true blue believer could say with a straight face the things he did.

[Thought2Much]

I had always been told that speaking in tongues was necessary because we don't always know what to pray for or the best words to pray for something. Since speaking in tongues is using a "heavenly language," it is direct communication with God.*

 

That's what they told me, anyway.

 

 

 

* I guess even though God is able to read our every dirty thought and threaten to punish us for it unless we tell Jesus "I'm sorry" all the time, he is completely unable to read our minds to understand what we would like to pray for. I guess it would violate "free will," or something. Stupid God.

[antix]

I had always been told that speaking in tongues was necessary because we don't always know what to pray for or the best words to pray for something. Since speaking in tongues is using a "heavenly language," it is direct communication with God.*

 

That's what they told me, anyway.

 

 

 

* I guess even though God is able to read our every dirty thought and threaten to punish us for it unless we tell Jesus "I'm sorry" all the time, he is completely unable to read our minds to understand what we would like to pray for. I guess it would violate "free will," or something. Stupid God.

 

I heard that one, but I never bought it. trust me peeps, I am having my doubts (about christianity).

[Thought2Much]

I'll also point out that I've never heard an actual "prophecy" in any church. I've many times heard people give a "word from the Lord," which is always pretty much the same: "I am still God, I still love you, I am Jehovah Jireh, I am Jehovah Rapha, I am Jehovah [insert other Hebrew word that the person learned in a Bible study once here], I am the alpha and the omega, yadda yadda yadda" and so on. I have never once heard a "word from the Lord" that has predicted anything, or pointed out anything that everyone in the room didn't already know.

[MrsRoper]

shandala!

[freeasabird]

I'll also point out that I've never heard an actual "prophecy" in any church. I've many times heard people give a "word from the Lord," which is always pretty much the same: "I am still God, I still love you, I am Jehovah Jireh, I am Jehovah Rapha, I am Jehovah [insert other Hebrew word that the person learned in a Bible study once here], I am the alpha and the omega, yadda yadda yadda" and so on. I have never once heard a "word from the Lord" that has predicted anything, or pointed out anything that everyone in the room didn't already know.

 

You forgot to say 'annointing' at least once ever other sentence.

[Thought2Much]

I'll also point out that I've never heard an actual "prophecy" in any church. I've many times heard people give a "word from the Lord," which is always pretty much the same: "I am still God, I still love you, I am Jehovah Jireh, I am Jehovah Rapha, I am Jehovah [insert other Hebrew word that the person learned in a Bible study once here], I am the alpha and the omega, yadda yadda yadda" and so on. I have never once heard a "word from the Lord" that has predicted anything, or pointed out anything that everyone in the room didn't already know.

 

You forgot to say 'annointing' at least once ever other sentence.

 

I guess that would be part of the "yadda yadda yadda."

[MrsRoper]

Speaking in tongues never came naturally to me. I was coerced into via the pressure of the church, then once you start doing it's very easy. I could do it right now if I wanted to and I believe it's absolute bullshit. Just another good cult tool to get people locked in.

[Thought2Much]

And then, after the "word from the Lord," everyone has to nod their heads solemnly, and say "Amen," and "Praise God!" and "Thank you, Lord," quietly and reverently, as if the most astounding wisdom ever heard by humankind was just delivered.

 

Right after that blessed moment, they take the tithes and offerings.

[Akheia]

It's just a cathartic release. I'm not too proud to admit I did it twice myself in church when I was fundie. Just the twice though. And I didn't inhale. Much. Actually Evil Ex was very worried about me, as were my friends and pastor, since I didn't speak in tongues every Sunday night at least--because speaking in tongues meant you were spiritually pure, that you were 100% good with God, since he couldn't inhabit a sinful vessel. If you weren't doing it, you might not really be in lockstep and might not really be saved. But once or twice I just bubbled over with this catharsis and it happened.

 

I've since felt that same bubbling catharsis in other contexts that were DECIDEDLY not Christian, so I know the feeling itself isn't Christian, and I also know that none of the thousands of times I ever heard other people speaking in tongues were actual instances of languages. They all tended to sound vaguely Arabic/Hebrew. I knew several languages at least a little, enough to know that what I was hearing was infant-level babbling, not language at all. It actually was a problem for me because in Acts the miracle was presented as real language that foreigners heard and understood, as a tool for saving them, but since nobody in my churches spoke anything but Redneck English, who was going to hear and understand it?

 

We did the whole "word of prophecy" shit too in my churches, and as T2M has said, not a single damn time did anything come out of it that was vaguely prophetic. You'd think God would have mentioned some of the important things to come out of the late 80s/early 90s, like the 1988 Rapture scare, but oh no, not a word.

[FeelHappy]

I used to babel in tongues all the time, I'd sit at home and at work speaking in the "heavenly language"......luckily I realized what a crock it was, but not for a long time. I find it funny that I deny the holy spirit, reject Jesus as the son of god and disbelieve that yahweh exists but I can still speak in "tongues" on demand. If that's not proof that its not the spirit of god, I don't know what is. Anyways I thought from Paul we were supposed to speak in tongues (probably just a misunderstanding of the text though).

 

1 Corinthians 14

 

 

14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.

 

15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

 

16 Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?

 

17 For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.

 

18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:

[Thought2Much]

I never spoke in tongues in all of the years I spent in Assemblies of God churches, but I think I could speak in tongues very easily now, because I'm no longer worried about saying the "right" things while doing it. I'm pretty sure I could walk into any pentecostal church and start babbling away, and no one there would know that I'm not "saved."

[Ouroboros]

I spoke in tongues... a lot. I can still speak it at whim. I can even control the flow, sound, articulation, etc, without using real words. It's very much like improvising music on an instrument. I used to do that on piano (and singing in tongues) at the same time.

[MrsRoper]

I never spoke in tongues in all of the years I spent in Assemblies of God churches, but I think I could speak in tongues very easily now, because I'm no longer worried about saying the "right" things while doing it. I'm pretty sure I could walk into any pentecostal church and start babbling away, and no one there would know that I'm not "saved."

 

Why is this the one spiritual gift that everyone can get? What BS. Were you embarrassed you didn't have it? They obviously didn't do a good job of coercing you. I got phone calls from altar counselors asking my if I got it yet, and then prompting me to just start with one phrase.

[Thought2Much]

I never spoke in tongues in all of the years I spent in Assemblies of God churches, but I think I could speak in tongues very easily now, because I'm no longer worried about saying the "right" things while doing it. I'm pretty sure I could walk into any pentecostal church and start babbling away, and no one there would know that I'm not "saved."

 

Why is this the one spiritual gift that everyone can get? What BS. Were you embarrassed you didn't have it? They obviously didn't do a good job of coercing you. I got phone calls from altar counselors asking my if I got it yet, and then prompting me to just start with one phrase.

 

Somehow, almost nobody ever noticed that I didn't speak in tongues. If they noticed, they never said anything to me about it, except for the one guy who told me that he and his wife were praying that my wife and I would get filled with the holy spirit.

[MrsRoper]

I never spoke in tongues in all of the years I spent in Assemblies of God churches, but I think I could speak in tongues very easily now, because I'm no longer worried about saying the "right" things while doing it. I'm pretty sure I could walk into any pentecostal church and start babbling away, and no one there would know that I'm not "saved."

 

Why is this the one spiritual gift that everyone can get? What BS. Were you embarrassed you didn't have it? They obviously didn't do a good job of coercing you. I got phone calls from altar counselors asking my if I got it yet, and then prompting me to just start with one phrase.

 

Somehow, almost nobody ever noticed that I didn't speak in tongues. If they noticed, they never said anything to me about it, except for the one guy who told me that he and his wife were praying that my wife and I would get filled with the holy spirit.

 

Do you think subconsciously you knew it was off? I spent a few years after deconverting trying to understand these very "real" spiritual experiences I thought I had. I still have a hard time trying to explain the group dynamic psychologically that gets you to believe in this stuff and feel things.

[hereticzero]

If they claim to speak in tongues they are liars because there has to be flames dancing on their heads or shoulders, otherwise it is just one more fabricated Christian event. It's amazing the amount of lying Christians do.

[Thought2Much]

Do you think subconsciously you knew it was off? I spent a few years after deconverting trying to understand these very "real" spiritual experiences I thought I had. I still have a hard time trying to explain the group dynamic psychologically that gets you to believe in this stuff and feel things.

 

Intellectually, I always had a problem with speaking in tongues (yes, I "thought too much"), for the reason that Akheia mentioned: in Acts, people were clearly speaking real languages and understood by other people that spoke those languages; fast forward to Paul, and he's clearly talking about glossolalia. They are two completely different things. The first was a miracle, the second was not.

 

The pentecostal mindset always bothered me, because whenever I questioned them about speaking in tongues, they would give some answer that involved Acts, when it's bloody obvious that what they're doing isn't anything like what happened in Acts.

 

The way I see it, the events happened like this: Paul converted a number of Pagans to Christianity, and they brought their use of glossolalia as a spiritual manifestation with them. The people standing around and babbling became such a problem that Paul actually had to lay down rules on how speaking in tongues should be done in church. Pentecostal christians have since interpreted speaking in tongues as something that should be done in church, and that people are somehow spiritually deficient (or not even "true believers") if they don't.

[LivingLife]

Do you think subconsciously you knew it was off? I spent a few years after deconverting trying to understand these very "real" spiritual experiences I thought I had. I still have a hard time trying to explain the group dynamic psychologically that gets you to believe in this stuff and feel things.

This vid shows the group dynamic and how even non believers can be conned.

 

[Akheia]

It's worth noting that many years after my deconversion, I attended a large party at which a hired hypnotist was performing. The hypnotist picked me to play with It was a lot of fun. I don't think it worked in the sense of OMG!HYPNOSIS, but I was already three sheets to the wind and happy to play along. I was supposed to be an alien queen giving an interview to CNN through an interpreter. I was supposed to speak my alien "language," and the interpreter would then tell the interviewer what I'd said.

 

The audience had a number of questions and I suspect the bit went on longer than expected because I turned out to be so extraordinarily good at speaking improvisationally in a completely made-up language. People afterward all night long told me they were trying to figure out if it was a real language or not. Ha! I never wondered that about any of my churchie friends' babbling, so TAKE THAT, CHRISTIANS.

[jblueep]

When I met with my former pastor last summer before leaving the church, I told him I was struggling with my faith. He had no answers for me other than the following two pieces of advice:

 

1. "Speak in tongues more". He knew I didn't (much). I guess that way I can pray whatever God wants me to?

 

2. "Diversify your prayers". Specifically, he told me to pray for everything, even things I knew would happen anyway. Then, when those things happened, I could claim them as answers to prayer, and that would build my faith.

 

I walked away thinking "Holy shit! That's all he's got?"

[Thought2Much]

When I met with my former pastor last summer before leaving the church, I told him I was struggling with my faith. He had no answers for me other than the following two pieces of advice:

 

1. "Speak in tongues more". He knew I didn't (much). I guess that way I can pray whatever God wants me to?

 

2. "Diversify your prayers". Specifically, he told me to pray for everything, even things I knew would happen anyway. Then, when those things happened, I could claim them as answers to prayer, and that would build my faith.

 

I walked away thinking "Holy shit! That's all he's got?"

 

Your pastor didn't include "Read the Bible more"? Clearly, this man's credentials should be revoked. If he had told you to read the Bible more, then you probably wouldn't be a filthy apostate today.