Tongue speaking is gibberish!

"Isn't it a load of rubbish? This speaking in tongues?"  Some say that speaking in tongues is just gibberish resulting from over-emotionalism. Isn’t there danger in getting mixed up in something like that?

No, not unless you deliberately seek out a place where such goings-on are encouraged. Certain individuals and churches indeed show more emotion in their worship than others. Some shout and some cry. But these displays we find disturbing mainly because of their contrast to the quiet way we worship. 

This doesn’t mean that noise is wrong and silence is right; it merely means their ways are different from ours. We may think their worship noisy and unseemly while they consider our worship dead and lifeless. Church history shows that all great revivals have been marked by the presence of physical phenomena such as trembling, weeping, shouting, fainting, and even dancing. 

They are not necessarily the work of the Holy Spirit as much as they are human reactions to the working of the Holy Spirit.

Yet, we should recognise that the baptism in the Holy Spirit often brings with it such transforming power that the recipient may seem suddenly overwhelmed. He may praise God in a loud voice; he may lift his hands in an act of involuntary worship; or he may fall on his knees in humble thanksgiving. 

When the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost, the disciples were somewhat less than reserved. In fact, they behaved in such an unusual manner that when Peter rose to preach, he began his sermon with a defence of their behaviour, assuring the crowds they were not drunk.

Some of us think any emotion in religion is too much. We worship God much as we serve Him, with grave reservations. We equate reverence with silence and save our enthusiasm (a word that means “in God”) and our shouts for football games and political rallies. 

We simply have not considered Christianity worth getting excited about. But the baptism in the Holy Spirit is an exciting experience. One young minister was so infused with joy when he received the Holy Spirit that conservative friends suggested he should be “put away for a while.”

“That’s all right with me,” he replied. “For I’d rather be locked up with what I have than running loose with what I had.” Yet for most, the experience is one of quiet joy. There may be deep emotion present when praying in tongues, but never any loss of control. This kind of prayer, like any other, is completely subject to the control of the prayer.

Some modern translations of the New Testament call speaking in tongues “ecstatic speech,” which is an unfortunate and inaccurate translation. In his booklet, “Speaking In Tongues: A Gift for the Body of Christ,” Reverend Larry Christenson makes this clear.

The terms “ecstatic utterance” or “tongues of ecstasy” are never used in the Bible in reference to a speaker in tongues. Those who hear a speaker in tongues are sometimes described as “ecstatic” or “amazed” (existanto in Acts 2:7; exestesan in Acts 10:45), but the speaker himself is never described in this way. 

These misleading terms occur frequently in commentaries and even in versions of the Bible, but there is no basis for this in the Bible text itself. This seems to be an assumption of the commentators, who perhaps had not had the experience and are, therefore, at a disadvantage in describing the subjective aspects.

There is nothing in the nature of speaking in tongues which is, per se, “ecstatic.” It is, as the Bible so accurately puts it, simply “a speaking.” It has the same emotional potential (and the same possibility of self-control) as speech or prayer in one’s native tongue. 

The terms “ecstatic utterance” and “tongues of ecstasy” should be abandoned in reference to speaking in tongues. We should use the terms the Bible uses: “speaking in tongues” or “praying in the spirit.”

The idea that one has to become “ecstatic” or go into a trance or “lose control” in order to receive the Holy Spirit or manifest His gifts is simply not true. 

While emotional excesses may be indulged in by certain fringe groups, the fact is that most people receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit today receive it among people who worship in churches similar to their own and whose religious backgrounds are compatible with theirs. God does not require us to be any other kind of person than who we are in order to be filled with His Spirit.

Almost without exception, this kind of question comes from people who have not had the experience. It is only natural that they should defend their position by gathering as many objections as they can. Most persons who have received the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues once held such views themselves. I did. 

But once you receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, once you speak in tongues yourself, you will understand how unfounded the fears and objections are.