presidente....is it the languages of men?
if it is, what's all the incoherent burbling stuff?
Burbling? Maybe that's your experience. If you want to hear babbling and burbling, listen to Hotenton or even Vietnamese.
if it's the languages of angels, can you please find an example of angels speaking something NOT in the languages of men?
No, I can find a verse that says, 'though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.' There are a lot of things we don't know about angels. That's not the main focus of the Bible.
just answer simply: when you, or your friends, speak in tongues in church...do/you/understand/each/other - yes, or no?
I have never gotten an interpretation in church, so no I don't.
there's NO EXCUSE for not understanding now - the Gospel has gone GLOBAL and we now know all languages.
That's the way the gift works. No one understands. Someone may receive an interpretation. Sometimes two get the interpretation and another gives it according to some people I know who've operated in the gift. The same thing can happen with prophecy and the word of knowledge sometimes.
Who is the 'we' that knows all languages. How do you say, "I'd like more ice cream, please" in Hottentot? The last I heard, not all languages had been written down.
so do you have any record at all of your church or any other church (there are hundreds of millions of people doing this - we should have ONE example on record) actually speaking in a known foreign language (unknowingly), then an unbelieving (or believer at this point...who cares) person coming in and translating that? it STILL has to be a known foreign language.
Fire on Azusa tells an account of this from Azusa Street. There was also a book put out in 1971 by Paul Harris called 'Spoken by the Spirit' that has about 70 accounts of incidents like this. I think it may have had names of people giving the testimonies if I remember right, though consider the time it was written that may not be so helpful tracking them down these days. The book was available free online in a cumbersome format a few years ago.
Generally, though, I wouldn't expect people present in church to understand. Paul said of the Corinthian context 'no man understandeth him.' I don't believe church meeting are primarily for unbelievers.
sounds like real languages?
no, they HAVE TO BE real languages. not sounds like.
you're a linguist.
Oh, yeah, like linguists can automatically know all languages they hear, or just figure them out in a few minutes. This is real life, not Star Trek. My bachelors is in Linguistics.
you either understand what's being said, or know someone else who will.
Supposing all tongues were contemporary, excluding the ancient languages, how would you identify one among the 2500 to 5000 languages in the world? Do you really know people who speak all the Dayak languages or all the languages of the Amazon?
uh....this is always taking place overseas. stories.
Most of the world lives overseas. I spent a lot of my life overseas.
if you don't have documentation that the speaker actually spoke in a known human language, how do you know the "translator" isn't speaking out of their vain hearts?
It's the type of thing that needs to be discerned like prophesying.
it happens, right? you've said people are willing to fake this.
I think you are referring to another poster. But out of the billions of people on the earth, there are probably willing to fake anything.
look. if this stuff isn't confirmed by actual simple translation from one known language to another it's NOT FROM GOD.
Like many things you say, you can't show any scripture to support your opinions. Show me chapter and verse where the Bible teaches this. Paul said, "No man understandeth him" but the underlying assumption was that the gift was genuine.