Christian response,

Speaking in Tongues in Acts-Corinthians was a Spiritual Gift given to the early Church as a sign to unbelieving Jews of God’s work in establishing the New Covenant. These tongues which were actually understandable, intelligible, languages-dialects also assisted in spreading the Gospel to the known world…people who had never studied languages received the Gift of the Spirit to speak and/or understand languages they previously did not speak or understand.

With the publication of the first Canon of Scripture (Muratorian Canon – Circa 180AD) and circulation of the Gospels and epistles among the Churches, tongues were no longer needed and they ceased … but … at the pagan Temple at Delphi near Corinth, there was a pagan tradition where a pagan priestess would set atop a throne in the temple, below the throne was a burning substance that when inhaled became an intoxicant and the priestess would exhort awaiting parishioners with prophecy and often times her language was slurred and essentially gibberish due to her intoxication so that the waiting patrons left the temple more confused than when they entered seeking direction and guidance.

This pagan practice of a “priestess” chanting in gibberish prophecy carried-over into the Church at Corinth and provided much trouble for Paul and much confusion for the parishioners…this is most likely why Paul demanded that the women in the Corinthian Church remain silent (1 Corinthians 14:34).

Fast-forward to today…we now see “Churches” of Charismata like Pentecostalism and Church of God and non-Denominational…”full Gospel” Churches proclaiming the “Gift” of tongues which is actually nothing more than pagan gibberish and nonsense taught by those who simply cannot trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, alone, but rely on signs and wonders and gifts to prove salvation; in fact, some Pentecostal Churches insist that unless a man or woman or child speaks in a tongue, they cannot be saved as tongues is THE sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence in one’s life. I left a teaching ministry over this issue as I was ordered to teach others to speak in a tongue…I rejected the paganism. This practice of tongues is darkness in origin, this is works, this is heresy…this is apostasy and places Pentecostal parishioners under unnecessary burdens, doubts, fears, and coerces them to speak in tongues in order to prove their faithfulness to God…but these parishioners know they’re speaking gibberish and nonsense but legalism mandates that they comply. This is NOT of God…this is of the Devil.

If speaking in tongues is extant today, why must we methodically and with much effort train our missionaries in other languages before sending them abroad to proselytize the World with the Gospel? Tongues, the ecstatic utterance of gibberish in today’s Churches of Charismata, is man’s attempt to prove his spiritual superiority by signs and wonders absent the simplicity of faith, alone.