Glossolalia Book 2

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Tongues are an initial evidence of the spirit baptism. It is a spiritual experience. He observed that tongues cannot be understood by ordinary people. They can only be understood spiritually. He noted that when he speaks in tongues he feels out of himself. The feeling is very strange. One can cry, get excited, and laugh.

As our respondent prayed, he uttered: He jumped and clapped his hands in excitement and charisma. He observed that if God allows a believer to speak in tongues there is a purpose for that. One can speak in tongues and interpret them at the same time. However, in his church there is no one who can interpret tongues. According to our respondent, tongues are intended to edify a person. Tongues are beneficial to the person who speaks in tongues. A person does not choose to pray in tongues. Tongues come through the Spirit of God. When speaking in tongues, it feels as if one has lost one's memory.

It is as if one is drunk and the person seems to be psychologically disturbed. This is because of the power of the influence of the Holy Spirit. Tongues are a special visitation symbolising a further special touch of the Holy Spirit. Our observations regarding the six case studies above.

At the end of our research we decided to analyse the case studies to see what they had in common. To our great amazement, we found that many of the statements our respondents made in regard to their spiritual experiences of speaking in tongues were described in psychological terms; that is, they made references to the state of their mind such as ecstasy, anxiety, fear, memory loss and the like.

For example, a number of them said that when they speak in tongues they feel like 'flying' to heaven.

In other words, they are overpowered with great excitement. In a number of cases our respondents noted that they speak in tongues when they are concerned that something bad is going to happen to them or their loved ones. In other words, there is an element of anxiety involved. We also noted that those who speak in tongues said that when they speak in tongues they display strange behaviour.

For instance, they fall down, crawl on the ground no matter how dirty it is and roll over with tremendous speed as a whirlwind. At other times they jump and clap hands and move around hissing and making noise which may be awkward to those who do not understand the works of the spirit. In our observation this displays elements of spirit possession leading to some form of recognisable set of symptoms or behaviour associated in most cases with distress and interference with personal functions, which is a sign of mental disorder.

Strange as it may sound, we observed that a number of our respondents spoke languages which were made up of disjointed vowels and consonants such as: This is in line with the hypothesis of Crapps that glossolalia bears some resemblance to children's language. We also observed that in some instances there is a human element involved in glossolalia.

For instance, some of our respondents noted that when asked to stop praying in tongues the worshipper can stop there and then, which shows that in speaking in tongues there is also an element of self-control. Not every action is controlled by the Spirit of God. We took cognisance of the fact that in some churches believers are taught how to speak in tongues, which shows that glossolalia can be learned and spoken as a result of pressure from a group to which one belongs. At other times, the Holy Spirit was conceived as a drug.

He takes control of everything. The connection between the Holy Spirit and drugs is a very interesting one. It is held that when the worshipper speaks in tongues it feels as if one is acting under the influence of drugs. It causes ecstasy in the mind. If this assertion is correct, then, from a psychological perspective, it becomes a matter of serious concern, because research shows that drugs particularly psychoactive drugs such as alcohol, amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, narcotics to name a few act on the nervous system and alter states of consciousness, modify perceptions and change moods.

It is held that continued use of psychoactive drugs can lead to tolerance and addiction. This also becomes a matter of grave concern. The importance of memory is crucial in the everyday life of individuals. Gross citing Blackmore noted that 'without the capacity to remember Without memory, we would be servants of the moment, with nothing but our innate reflexes to help us deal with the world. Finally, we noted one very positive element in glossolalia. We observed that after speaking in tongues the worshippers feel that they are in a world of happiness. This shows that glossolalia leads to joy and physical and spiritual well-being.

On the basis of the above observations, we concluded that speaking in tongues involves a complex matrix of forces at work in the mind of the worshipper, which includes the presence of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit, however, does not rule out the existence of other psychological elements possibly reinforcing one another.

Glossolalia from a psychological perspective. As stated at the beginning of this paper, this is not a theological study of glossolalia but a study of the gift of speaking in tongues based on the psychological study of religion. Psychology has been formally defined as the scientific study of the behaviour of individuals and their mental processes. Crapps indicated that glossolalics forsake typical language forms because they consider themselves to be grasped by the inexplicable God. Their aim is to overcome human language which they regard as a rational hindrance to genuine encounter with God and the sacred.

The worshiper, usually under the state of intense emotional excitement, utters a series of disconnected and unstructured syllables. Although the utterances exhibit vocalisation patterns that can be measured, they are non-communicative as language. The tongue-speaker uses ordinary vowel and consonant sounds, but strings them together haphazardly. Speed, volume and inflection may give the impression of sentences but decoding them and translating them are impossible In Pentecostalism glossolalia is an expected and highly desirable experience.

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It is available to all believers, the capstone of a progressively intense relation with God. In Pentecostalism salvation is perceived to come in three stages namely; regeneration, sanctification and baptism with the Holy Spirit. The last stage happens when the Holy Spirit comes down, takes up residence with a person and generates a blessed state of unimaginable ecstasy. From a psychological perspective, when a tongue-speaker is engaged in glossolalia, he or she is unable or cannot describe what happens in words but by analogy or figure of speech.

This is typical of religious experiences. In the context of speaking in tongues, the believer can only say I have been baptised by the Holy Spirit and the necessary sign and ultimate assurance that such an event has taken place is glossolalia. This is considered as the ultimate or superlative gift of the Holy Spirit. At this point the words uttered and the language used is supposed to be the words and the language of the Holy Spirit and not the words of the believer.

In Pentecostalism, speaking in tongues or glossolalia is considered a manifestation of the mind of the Spirit of God using human speech as a means of communication.

Glossolalia Book 2

Crapps pointed out that a Pentecostal describes the experience of speaking in tongues as a: Manifestation of the mind of the Spirit of God employing human speech organs. When man is speaking with tongues, his mind, intellect, understanding are quiescent. It is the faculty of God that is active. Man's will, certainly, is active, and his spirit, and his speech organs; but the mind that is operating is the mind of God through the Holy Spirit.

Interestingly, this phenomenon seems to have also been noticed by those who studied glossolalia scientifically. For example, Kildahl indicated that when a person is speaking in tongues the ego which is the conscious agent in the mind by which persons make choices and judgments does not exercise control in the usual way.

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The tongue-speaker temporarily discards some of his or her ego functioning as it happens in such times as in sleep or in sexual intercourse. The researchers noticed that when the participants were engaged in glossolalia, activity in the language centres of the brain actually decreased, while activity in the emotional centres of the brain increased. The fact that the researchers observed no changes in any language areas, led them to conclude that this phenomenon suggests that glossolalia is not associated with usual language function or usage.

Having said this, however, it should be noted that a good number of psychologists do not accept this line of argument. They dismiss the gift of speaking in tongues as psychoticism or severe neuroticism. When engaged in glossolalia, tongue-speakers, as we have seen in this study, tend to display abnormal behaviour. Such behaviour is only appreciated when it is explained theologically as an act of God in which case it is a matter of belief.

It is interesting to note that as a result of what appears to be abnormal behaviour, as displayed in some of our case studies, a number of psychologists have attributed glossolalia to mental illness. Those who have stressed this perspective such as Pattison quoted in Spilka, Hood, Hunsberger and Gorsuch , claim that glossolalic individuals demonstrate 'overt psychopathology of a sociopathic, hysterical or hypochondriacal nature'.

An American experience noted that there is an implied correlation between glossolalia and schizophrenia, but rejected that the two are identical. He was more willing to see glossolalia as a lesser neurotic symptom but also doubted applying such a label to people who speak in tongues. It should be noted that modern researchers are taking a slightly different approach from the above by insisting that a distinction should be made between glossolalic behaviour and other superficial clinical parallels. The majority of clinical psychological and psychiatric professionals are inclined towards explanations that stress deviance.

Be that as it may, psychologists seem to be in agreement that there is evidence that speaking in tongues usually follows a period of crisis and works to resolve the resulting anxiety. There are certain factors that lead people to speak in tongues such as anxiety caused by things such as marital difficulties, financial concerns, ill health and general depression. This explanation of glossolalia has led a number of scholars such as Preus quoted in Spilka et al.

In some research it has been found that more than 85 per cent of tongue speakers have experienced a clearly defined anxiety crisis preceding their speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues has been found constructive and anxiety reducing. In this context glossolalia is a form of healing. To support this view, examples have been drawn from the Pentecostal experience which is said to have occurred during the time of very intense anxiety.

The apostles had lived days of oppressive strain and waiting. Suddenly the floodgates of emotion were opened and a great revival occurred. Under the influence of this intense emotion some of the individuals started expressing their newly-found joy in either some real language which they knew but which was not their own, or in the kind of meaningless syllables that are used by other people today.

A word of caution needs to be said here. It would be fallacious to think that glossolalics are different from other people in the community in terms of mental health. This point has been made poignantly by Kildahl who indicated that glossolalia is not necessarily a symptom of mental illness and that glossolalics suffer less stress. They have even gone further to note that the mental health of those who speak in tongues and of those who do not speak in tongues is equal. Both tongue-speakers and non-tongue-speakers are equal in their ability of doing things.

On broad criteria of emotional well-being, tongue-speakers and non-tongue speakers are about the same. One of the issues that have been raised in this study is whether we should consider glossolalia as a learned language. So far there is a pool of evidence that shows that glossolalia is, to a certain extent, a learned behaviour which is enforced in certain group settings into which glossolalic individuals are socialised.

In such cases glossolalia has been found as performing the social function of integrating a glossolalic person into an approving religious group. Nevertheless, Paul was concerned that unbelievers who walked into the assembly would think the brethren "mad" 1 Cor He made it a point to prompt the Corinthian church to seek more useful gifts, such as prophecy. While tongues edify the tongues-speaker 1 Cor Paul's primary point of discussion was that all spiritual gifts should be handled with decency and order.

His discussion of tongues prompted the famous verse: Twentieth-century Pentecostalism was not the earliest instance of "speaking in tongues" in church history after the events described in Acts and Paul's letters. Indeed, there were a number of recorded antecedents in several centuries of the Christian era, e.

Today, some Christians practice glossolalia as a part of their private devotions and some denominations of Christianity also accept and sometimes promote the use of glossolalia within corporate worship. This is particularly true within the Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions. Both Pentecostals and Charismatics believe that the ability to speak in tongues is a supernatural gift from God. Pentecostals vary in their beliefs concerning the times appropriate for the practice of public glossolalia.

First, there is the evidence of tongues at the baptism of the Holy Ghost - a direct personal experience with God. This is when a believer speaks in tongues when they are first baptized by the Holy Ghost. For some, this may be the only time an individual ever speaks in tongues, as there are a variety of other "gifts" or ministries into which the Holy Spirit may guide them 1 Cor Secondly, there is the specific "gift of tongues.

The gift of tongues may be exercised anywhere; but many denominations believe that it must only be exercised when a person who has the gift of "interpretation of tongues" is present so that the message may be understood by the congregation 1 Cor The "sign of tongues" refers to xenoglossy, wherein one speaks a foreign language he has never learned. The "giving of a tongue," on the other hand, refers to an unintelligible utterance by an individual believed to be inspired directly by the Holy Spirit and requiring a natural language interpretation if it is to be understood by others present.

Lastly "praying or singing in the spirit" is typically used to refer to glossolalia as part of personal prayer 1 Cor Both "giving a tongue" and "praying in the spirit" are common features in contemporary Pentecostal and Charismatic church services. Christians who practice glossolalia often describe their experience as a regular aspect of private prayer that tends to be associated with calm and pleasant emotions.

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Testifying to its freeing effects on the mind, proponents tell of how their native language flows easier following a prolonged session in prayer in tongues. The discussion regarding tongues has permeated many branches of the Christian Church, particularly since the widespread Charismatic Movement in the s. Many books have been published either defending [13] or attacking [14] the practice.

And another night — God knows, I do not, whether within me or beside me — most words which I heard and could not understand, except at the end of the speech it was represented thus: And on a second occasion I saw Him praying within me, and I was as it were, inside my own body, and I heard Him above me — that is, above my inner self.

Speaking in tongues

He was praying powerfully with sighs. And in the course of this I was astonished and wondering, and I pondered who it could be who was praying within me. But at the end of the prayer it was revealed to me that it was the Spirit. And so I awoke and remembered the Apostle's words: But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for utterance [Romans 8: During the 20th century, glossolalia primarily became associated with Pentecostalism and the later charismatic movement.

The holiness preachers Charles Parham and William Seymour are credited as co-founders of the movement. Parham and Seymour taught that "baptism of the Holy Spirit was not the blessing of sanctification but rather a third work of grace that was accompanied by the experience of tongues. After studying the Bible, Parham came to the conclusion that speaking in tongues was the Bible evidence that one had received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. During a service on 1 January , a student named Agnes Ozman asked for prayer and the laying on of hands to specifically ask God to fill her with the Holy Spirit.

She became the first of many students to experience glossolalia, coincidentally in the first hours of the 20th century. Parham followed within the next few days. Parham called his new movement the Apostolic Faith. In , he moved to Houston and opened a Bible school there. One of his students was William Seymour, an African-American preacher. This revival is considered the birth of the global Pentecostal movement. Witnesses at the Azusa Street Revival wrote of seeing fire resting on the heads of participants, miraculous healings in the meetings, and incidents of speaking in tongues being understood by native speakers of the language.

A Mohammedan, a Soudanese by birth, a [m]an who is an interpreter and speaks six[t]een languages, came into the meetings at Azusa Street and the Lord gave him messages which none but himself could understand.

He identified, interpreted and wrote [a] number of the languages. Parham and his early followers believed that speaking in tongues was xenoglossia, and some followers traveled to foreign countries and tried to use the gift to share the Gospel with non-English-speaking people. From the time of the Azusa Street revival and among early participants in the Pentecostal movement, there were many accounts of individuals hearing their own languages spoken 'in tongues'. It is likely that the majority of Pentecostals and Charismatics still consider speaking in tongues to primarily be human languages.

The revival at Azusa Street lasted until around From it grew many new Pentecostal churches as people visited the services in Los Angeles and took their newfound beliefs to communities around the United States and abroad. During the 20th century, glossolalia became an important part of the identity of these religious groups. During the s, the charismatic movement within the mainline Protestant churches and among charismatic Roman Catholics adopted some Pentecostal beliefs, and the practice of glossolalia spread to other Christian denominations.

The discussion regarding tongues has permeated many branches of the Protestantism, particularly since the widespread Charismatic Movement in the s. Many books have been published either defending [39] or attacking [40] the practice. In Christianity , a supernatural explanation for glossolalia is advocated by some and rejected by others. Proponents of each viewpoint use the biblical writings and historical arguments to support their positions. There are five places in the New Testament where speaking in tongues is referred to explicitly:. Other verses by inference may be considered to refer to "speaking in tongues", such as Isaiah The biblical account of Pentecost in the second chapter of the book of Acts describes the sound of a mighty rushing wind and "divided tongues like fire" coming to rest on the apostles.

The text further describes that "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages". It goes on to say in verses that when the Apostles spoke, each person in attendance "heard their own language being spoken". Therefore, the gift of speaking in tongues refers to the Apostles' speaking languages that the people listening heard as "them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God". Glossolalists and cessationists both recognize this as xenoglossia , a miraculous ability that marked their baptism in the Holy Spirit. Something similar although perhaps not xenoglossia took place on at least two subsequent occasions, in Caesarea and Ephesus.

Glossolalists and cessationists generally agree that the primary purpose of the gift of speaking in tongues was to mark the Holy Spirit being poured out. At Pentecost the Apostle Peter declared that this gift, which was making some in the audience ridicule the disciples as drunks, was the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel which described that God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh Acts 2: Influenced by the Holiness movement , baptism with the Holy Spirit was regarded by the first Pentecostals as being the third work of grace, following the new birth first work of grace and entire sanctification second work of grace.

Because Pentecostal and charismatic beliefs are not monolithic, there is not complete theological agreement on speaking in tongues. Generally, however, it is agreed that speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift that can be manifested as either a human language or a heavenly supernatural language in three ways [ citation needed ]:. Many Pentecostals and charismatics adhere to Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 14 which established guidelines on the public use of glossolalia in the church at Corinth. The gift of tongues is often referred to as a "message in tongues".

This is accomplished by the interpretation of tongues , another spiritual gift.

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