So I'm curious to see how many believers out there believe in the power of speaking in tongues/have experienced it or are against it.

I myself attend a Church of God denomination church and I am a strong believer in the power of the Holy spirit!

but a local church not to far from my current is preaching that our church is satanic and that we worship man and that we are wrong for speaking in tongues....

what are your thoughts on this? Show me some scripture!

Speaking in tongues means that you're granted another known language by the holy spirit. (Not jibber-jabber blabber, but another known language, for the purpose of sharing the gospel.) This was a miracle that happened often in the 1st century apostles because the gospel needed to go out to other nations with other languages.

So if you suddenly can speak Chinese and begin preaching the gospel to a Chinese person, then you are speaking in tongues under the holy spirit.

It never meant mindless blabber. (The correct translation would be: "Speaking in different tongues") Therefore it depends on what you mean by "Speaking in Tongues"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenoglossy

This post was edited by Torm1 on May 26 2011 07:36pm

So is my church wrong for teaching this?

From the understanding of my church, they say its another language ( language that only god knows ) that prays a powerful prayer.

(The random blabber one) - It works for communicating with cats, I suppose its a way to communicate intention, for example, you could possibly use it to help you communicate with an extra-terrestrial (alien) who can also use ESP if they were standing right in front of you. (More just to help you get your point across without having to speak english)

But the biblical tongues meant that they were actually speaking in other languages. For example, a first century Christian who only spoke "Aramaic" would be suddenly granted "Greek" by the holy spirit, so they could get the message across to Greeks.

I won't shoot down what your church does or call it Satanic, because to be honest, I don't know enough about it.

And as far as one prayer being more "powerful" than another, God has the power, not us. His will, His strength. We can't make God do anything. He just wants Honesty and Obedience.

This post was edited by Torm1 on May 26 2011 07:42pm

Tongues is a gift and is only meant for communication between you and God. No one else understands what you are saying.

The other church is so clueless lol... why they call you satanic is beyond me.

There is more than a single version of tongues .

The Bible is clear that the Holy Spirit prays through us in a spiritual language that is meant for the edification of the individual . The teachers I trust most believe this is a private affair and not a public exhibition .

ofc



This post was edited by UncleMuscles on May 26 2011 07:52pm

Yea there are different meanings of tongues, but the one I think your talking about is in 1 Corinthians 14

For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. (clearly this is demonic......... lmao)

Your church is not Satanic for practicing the gift of tongues. It is one of the twelve gifts of the Spirit, which should operate in the church.

Additionally, there is prayer in tongues, which is a personal prayer language for your own edification. There is nothing Satanic about it and there are MANY people who practice it, teach it, and even write about it in Systematic Theology text books.