Tongue Speaking in Churches Today

“He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand...”  (2 Peters 3:16)

Glossolalia is very common in the Pentecostal churches, but in the past 20 years, this phenomenon has found its ways into many branches of Protestant churches in Taiwan.  We in the Taiwan Churches of Christ do not subscribe to such practice, nor do we believe it is a sign of the Holy Spirit.  We do believe when we are baptized, the Holy Spirit became a seal of our salvation and begins to dwell in each of us to help us in our walk with God.

What is “glossolalia?”  The word is derived from two Greek words, “glossa,” which means “tongue” or “language,” and “lalia,” which means “to speak.”  In Acts 2, the phenomenon that the Holy Spirit enabled to occur was “xenoglossia,” which means speaking in an actual language without ever being exposed to or taught to speak it.  However, today’s “glossolalia” is just simply nonsense syllables uttered in a heightened psychological state, or as a well-versed habit.

In a 10-year-long linguistic study by Professor William J. Samarin of the University of Toronto's Department of Linguistics in the 1970s, he concluded that glossolalia is merely "unintelligible babbling speech” that can not qualify as a communicable true language of any kind.  Another expert in psychological anthropology, who is also a linguist, Felecitas D. Goodman, undertook a study of various English - Spanish - and Mayan-speaking Pentecostal communities in the United States and Mexico. She also took tape recordings of non-Christian rituals from Africa, Southeast Asia, and Japan to compare.  She not only concurred Samarin’s finding, but also concluded that there is no distinction between the glossolalia of the charismatic movement and those of the followers of pagan religions!  Some people even go as far as comparing the “glossolalia” practiced in some churches to the chanting language of the voodoo practitioners in the dark corners of this world!  (Both are babbling speeches and done under psychological dissociation or trance.)

Why, then, is this practice so popular these days in many churches?  I believe the following reasons contributed to this phenomenon:

1.      Many churches are dead or dying.  The ability to speak in tongue gives a person the reassurance that they are still connected and alive in their faith.  When everything else in their lives has fallen short of their expectations or just falling apart, at least one can still feel great by speaking in tongue!

2.      Today’s world is full of pressure, and many emotions are bottled up inside.  When a person speaks in tongue, or go through the accompanying “rituals,” a psychic catharsis takes place to enable a person to “feel good” inside.  Within a church environment, it becamse safe to “let it all hang loose.”  This process is extremely “theraputic” for many.

3.      Once a church starts to thrive because they discovered this “power,” the sense of accomplishment further jumps start their ministry.  This positive cycle reinforces the phenomenon and their belief. 

4.      Speaking in togue allows them to develop more sophiscated rituals such as “holy laughter,” “holy crying,” or “slain in the spirit.”

From the second century’s Montanists to the Taiwanese pagan spiritists of today, men have searched for the added experience of power and the occult.  I believe the worst part about glossolalia is that it induces a person to trust in experience, rather than the Word of God.  If it feels “so real,” or “so right,” it must be from God.  Or, is it? 

The Bible teaches us to watch out for “deceiving spirits.”  (1 Tim. 4:1)  Feelings and experience do not equal the Truth, and at times, they are even deceptive.  The writings of the New Testament were done in a time when the Holy Spirit was actively witnessing the message through all kinds of wonders and signs.  Today, these wonders and signs have ceased.  As the early Church Fathers condemned the Montanists and their ecstatic utterance, we also disapprove the practice of speaking in tongue.

Steve Chin

Lead Evangelist

Taiwan Churches of Christ