Clearly, true Biblical tongues are not gibberish, but languages. What passes for tongues in the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, however, are not true languages. Modern tongues-speaking, often called glossolalia, is not the same thing as the Biblical gift of languages. William Samarin, professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto, wrote:
Over a period of five years I have taken part in meetings in Italy. Holland, Jamaica, Canada, and the United States. I have observed old-fashioned Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals; I have been in small meetings at private homes as well as in mammoth public meetings; I have seen different cultural settings as are found among the Puerto Ricans of the Bronx, the snake handlers of the Appalachians and Russian Molakans in Los Angeles...Glossolalia is indeed like language in some ways, but this is only because the speaker (unconsciously) wants it to be like language. Yet in spite of superficial similarities, glossolalia is fundamentally not language.
William Samarin is one of many men who have made studies of glossolalia. The studies all agree that what we are hearing today is not language; and if it is not language, then it is not the Biblical gift of tongues.
The mystery religions in and around Corinth in the first century made wide use of ecstatic speech and trancelike experiences. It seems some of the Corinthians had corrupted the gift of tongues by using the ecstatic counterfeit. What they were doing was very similar to modern-day glossolalia. Paul was trying to correct them by telling them that such practices circumvented the whole point of the gift of tongues. If they used tongues that way, they would do harm and not good for the cause of Christ.
(from Charismatic Chaos by John F. MacArthur, Jr.)
The Grand Poo-Bah says -- If tongues do not support the cause of Christ, the only logical conclusion is that tongues support the cause and purposes of Satan. If that is true and you claim to be a Christian, why would you have anything to do with speaking in tongues or what is known to be counterfeit tongues? It could logically be said that anyone speaking in tongues or attempting to speak in tongues is serving Satan.
1 comment:
How true this is!! I think these people all have something wrong with them. Have you been the the old Vineyard and watched their behaviour? Phooey! Love reading your blog. Keep up the great insight.
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