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Use of tongues today


inquiry

Speaking in tongues

I need some clarification. Recently my best friend joined a church where they
believe in speaking in tonuges and being slain into the spirit. In the Bible,
when people heard "speaking in tongues", they all heard their own language and
understood, correct? So how can someone at my friend's church be truly speaking
in tongues if someone has to translate it to English?? Doesn't that contradict
the use of speaking in tongues? And another thing. My friend's pastor (Pastor
Jenny) told her not to tell me anything that goes on in their church because I
may disagree with it. That sends up flags in my mind. If what they were doing
was Biblical, why would Jenny tell my friend not to share it with me? Does
anyone else find that strange? Christians are supposed to share in the faith...
Thank you so much for your time, and helping me clear this up.

response

The New Testament recognizes a false kind of tongues as well as the
true gift which is from God.

The gift of tongues on the Day of Pentecost allowed people from other
countries visiting Jerusalem to hear the God of Israel praised in
their own natives languages, even the disciples knew only Hebrew,
Aramaic and Greek. The New Testament specifies that when tongues are
spoken in a church meeting the speech must be interpreted by a second
person so that everyone understands what was said.

I am convinced that what we see today is almost always the false kind
of tongues which is not of God but from the flesh. The true gift of
tongues is always praise directed by God and never a message from God
to the people.

There are four very helpful messages on tongues at the following URL:

http://pbc.org/dp/stedman/tongues.

I also recommend the following article by one of our team members:

http://pbc.org/dp/wise/shundula.html

I find nothing in the Bible to indicate the being "slain in the
spirit" is from the Lord. I believe this also is something that
originates from the flesh, or even may be demonic in some cases.

If Pastor Jenny is a woman and in authority over a church she is
violating the New Testament teaching about male headship over a
congregation, see

http://pbc.org/leadership/

What is taught in churches is public knowledge and everyone should be
free to study and critique everything that is said there:

"The brethren (at Thessalonica) immediately sent Paul and Silas away
by night to Beroea; and when they arrived they went into the Jewish
synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica,
for they received the word with all eagerness, examining the
scriptures daily to see if these things were so."  (Acts 17:10-11)

Please let us know if we can help you further in any way.

Sincerely, for the Paraclete Forum team,