Psychological speaking in tongues?

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I believe in the Biblical gifts of the Spirit, but I also believe there are counterfeits.

Tongues are easy to take. Demons can speak in foreign languages, but I also believe there are psychological tongues. I'm not expert on the subject, but I ahve read a little on it. My bachelors is in Linguistics. I've studied many languages (not that I really know them all.)

Some tongues I've heard sound like they could be real human languages. Other tongues seem to be repetition of the same syllable over and over.

One mega-church here in Jakarta has many branch congregations. In spite of I Corinthians, one of their branch churches used to practice speaking in tongues all at the same time during the meeting at times. I often heard people in that meeting say 'badabadabadabada' (with the 'd' representing a retroflex 'r' sound- which sounds the same to me as an Indonesian phoneme.) Some people would say 'bababa.' I even heard one person with what sounded to me like a Xena war cry. (I think that's a type of Egyptian cheer.)

Then, some time later, I went to a big meting of theirs with about 5000 people. It sounded like the whole room was saying 'badabadabada.' At the end of the meeting the guest speaker told those who wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit to raise their hands. Others gathered around them, and spoke in tongues as instructed. The person seeking was to just say whatever words came to them.

With this kind of set-up, it would be really easy for someone to speak in fake psychological tongues. They just blank their mind, and say whatever comes to them- which happens to be the same repetition of one syllable every one else is repeating.

Frank bartleman was at the Azusa street revival at the beginning of the pentecostal movement in the early 20th century. His writings have been edited togehter into the book _Azusa Street_. Bartleman wrote mentioned fake tongues that appeared later in the movement. Whould we expect things to be different today?

I think one of the reasons psychological tongues seem to be so common is because a lot of teaching makes people desparate ot speak in tongues. They are taught, without good scriptural grounds, that they can't be filled with the Spirit unless they speak in tongues. The Bible doesn't spend that many pages on tongues. Just a few. And one of the verses on tongues asks 'do all speak with tongues?' The answer to the other questions in the list in which this question appears is 'no.' This question is found in a chapter about different parts of the body having different roles.

Charismatics who don't speak in tongues are often made to fill like second-class Christians, Christians without 'the anointing' they need. So some are desparate to speak in tongues to make it to the next level.

A Christian who says 'badabadabada' can be considered to be 'Spirit-filled,' even if his life isn't powerful or holy. A Chriistians who lives a holy, powerful life, is considered non-Spiri-filled because he doesn't speak in tongues. Where is this idea in the Bible? I don't see it.

-- Link Hudson (Linkh@bigfoot.com), September 14, 2001

Answers

Hi!

It's true that there can be psychological tongues with the individual either coerced to speak in tongues via peer pressure, or the individual is mimicing the one that is leading them into "tongue- speaking" (the one leading a person into "toungue speaking says "Just do as I do...") I question the legitimacy of such.

If someone truley wants the gift of toungues all they have to do is ask the Father for it, do they need a third person to lead them into tongue speaking? No. See the account of the outpouring on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.

I have to agree that because a Christian doesn't speak in tongues does not mean that they are somehow spiritually deficient. I've written a study on speaking in tongues, if you want to read it go to:

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/godzone/tongues.html

Brian Simms

-- Brian Simms (besimms@paradise.net.nz), September 14, 2001.


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