My last blog was about religion. I think religion defines who we are when we have choices of what to believe. I think some people worship their religion instead of God. They will literally ignore the scripture if it interferes with their religion. Islam claims to believe in the first five books of the Bible, but that deed to Israel stating what is their land given to them by God himself? Yeah, they like to ignore that. So much for their belief in the first five books of the Bible.
I knew a woman who told me that she cried and begged and wept for the Lord to give her "what I've got." What she had was the ability to speak in tongues and she declared that it meant she had the Holy Spirit and therefore was saved. Not one time in all the years I knew her did I hear her speak of repentance or relying on Christ for her salvation. I love this woman with every fiber of my being but she considered me "less than" her and had no regard for the scripture I gave her regarding faith, "Yes, I have seen your faith and IF you ever get the holy ghost you will be something."
I was skeptical about her position on tongues because I noticed when I read the scripture that every time they spoke tongues the hearer understood what the speaker was saying and it benefited them. The miracle was that the speaker did not know the language they were speaking. The scripture says tongues are a sign for unbelievers. Peter didn't believe gentiles could come to the Lord. God sent him the same dream three times before he finally sent him to a gentile to witness to him. The gentile began speaking their language and we know this because they understood that he was glorifying God. This is when Peter declared that yes, gentiles could be saved. Peter was the one in unbelief.........and it echos "Feed my sheep and take care of my lambs........" That meant ALL of them. "Do not say something is unclean that the Lord has made clean."
I researched tongues specifically and here's what I found:
Other religious groups have been observed to practice some form of theopneustic glossolalia. It is perhaps most commonly in Paganism, Shamanism, and other mediumistic religious practices.[63] In Japan, the God Light Association believed that glossolalia could cause adherents to recall past lives.[64]
Glossolalia has been postulated as an explanation for the Voynich manuscript.[65]
In the 19th century, Spiritism was developed by the work of Allan Kardec, and the phenomenon was seen as one of the self-evident manifestations of spirits. Spiritists argued that some cases were actually cases of xenoglossia.
I must conclude from that information that speaking in tongues does not always come from God. My concern back in those days was that she might be trusting in the tongues for salvation instead of Christ and therefore had not yet attained salvation, but only confidence in her insurance policy. My concern was that many children in that denomination might do the same and go to hell as a result of it thinking all the while that they were safely on their way to heaven. I also found out that speaking in tongues can be taught rather than being a miracle.
Paul taught that unknown tongues should be spoken in private and that the gift given by the Holy Spirit was a controlled thing rather than something thrust upon you. In scripture, when Christ healed someone they never fell out and lost control of their faculties. Quite the contrary, they were much more in control of themselves than they had been before. Line upon line and precept upon precept.
The only time I want the ability to speak in tongues is if I'm in a foreign place and need to use the bathroom. Why don't they teach you that in school?
