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Israel at Acts 28: 26-28, then they have believe that what was experienced during the
Acts period should be experienced today. A wrong appreciation of the baptism and
filling with the Holy Spirit leads some to think that evidence required to prove that the
Spirit indwells a person. This evidence is sought not in the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22,
23) but in the miraculous signs and displays of power which were common during the
Acts period and peculiar to it. Naturally these wonders are not forthcoming. It is hard to
heal all the sick, let alone do it immediately. It is even harder to raise the dead, to drink
poison or to survive venomous snake bites, but to manifest tongues is easy! Thus, some
conclude, tongues is the sign which signifies that the Holy Spirit indwells a person. Such
a view is unscriptural and dangerous. If people do speak in tongues today, is it ecstatic
utterance, angelic languages or foreign languages, and by whose power do they perform
this feat?
"If glossolalia today are not explainable by demon power, they may be due to
psychological suggestion and psychosomatic manifestation produced under high
emotional excitability" (Merril Unger, New Testament Teaching on Tongues).
"The desire for experience coupled with instruction, motivation and the approval of
the peer group produces ecstatic speech. I have publicly said, `Give me a group of people
who will do what I tell them to do, sing, relax, anticipate and go through the right
motions and it will be only a matter of time before some will speak ecstatically'."
(George E. Gardiner, The Corinthian Catastrophe).
Gardiner speaks of "instruction" and going "through the right motions". Is it, then,
possible to teach people to speak in tongues? Yes, and books have been written on it, and
there are a variety of methods. In his book, Speaking in Tongues, Larry Christenson
states:
"In order to speak in tongues, you have to quit praying in English . . . . . you simply
lapse into silence and resolve to speak not a syllable of any language you have ever
learned. Your thoughts are focussed on Christ . . . . . you take no thought of what you are
saying. As far as you are concerned it is just a series of sounds."
Stuart Allen discusses this in detail in his booklet Tongues Speaking Today--a Mark
of Spirituality or Deception?. A comparison of this section of Christenson's book with
that of certain publication produced by the Transcendental Meditation people is rather
enlightening. There are also similarities between it and certain literature dealing with the
religions of the East which go in for self-hypnosis and trances. Such similarity is not
surprising, for speaking in ecstatic utterances is not uncommon among Indian fakirs and
Moslem dervishes. It has also been experienced by Mormons and Irvingites and, as the
Encyclopaedia Britannica puts it, by "savages and people of lower culture". There is
nothing particularly Christian about the phenomenon and it can be produced from within,
by learning how to do it. Group pressure or mass hysteria coupled with the right
instruction will also result in the language of religious ecstasy. However, if the tongues
(glossa) of the N.T. were to be a specific sign to the unbelieving people of Israel then
they could not be ecstatic utterances or languages of angels. They had to be recognized
languages (dialektos), and this is exactly what they were, as is clearly demonstrated in
the only passage which gives full details of the phenomenon, Acts 2: 1-11. Other
passages of Scripture must be interpreted in the light of that chapter and not in the light of
present-day experiences.