@bygrace (response to post 3,707)
I am very familiar with the Univ. of PA study using SPECT imaging. The results are rather inconclusive as they can be presented to support either view.
I would argue that the results are
exactly as one would expect. The language producing centers of the brain are not overly engaged in the production of glossolalia simply because glossolalia is not language; it’s non-cognitive, non-language utterance. Parts of the brain that control things like pleasure, relaxation, the feeling of euphoria, etc. are heightened which, seems to account for the positive “tongues experience” as previously described. One could also reasonably argue that the latter effects are produced because that’s what the ‘speakers’ expect to happen – another argument for a self- produced/created phenomenon.
I am by no means mocking or attacking. Just stating fact. As I’ve previously stated, tongues/glossolalia is indeed a powerful spiritual tool (but a self-created tool nonetheless).
@Waggles (post 3,711) –
Sorry – nothing in that passage addresses modern tongues-speech. Praying in the Spirit is as how I have described it above. Equating ‘praying in the Spirit’ to “speaking tongues-speech” comes from the reworking and redefinition of these passages by the early Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. Praying in the Spirit describes
how you’re praying,
not what language you’re doing it in.
Again, let me remind you that I am neither a so-called ‘cessationist’ nor a ‘continuationist’ – I do not identify with either term; in fact, I had never heard the two terms until just late in 2016. Cessationist vs, non-cessationist is a bit of a false dichotomy; gifts ceasing is mentioned only once in one short sentence and the remainder of the Bible is totally silent on the matter. The one place it is mentioned is rarely taken into context of the entire passage. As far as I’m concerned, quite frankly, since the Biblical reference of “tongues” is to real, rational languages, obviously “tongues” haven’t “ceased”; people still speak.
@ Presidente (post 3,722) –
Rational from whose perspective? If someone were to speak in tongues in Hottentot, the speaker does not know the language and no one in the audience does not know that, is that 'rationale.'
No, that would be xenoglossy, of which no legitimate true cases have ever been found/documented.
18 I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; 19 yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. (NKJV)
You’re making these passages to fit the modern tongues experience. What you’re suggesting just isn’t there. “tongues” = real language. Paul puts it this way to illustrate a point (see original post and further below).
There are two schools of thought on Lyaconian – possibly an Anatolian language related to Hittite (making it also an Indo-European language), or just a dialect of Greek. The evidence in Acts seems to strongly support the Greek view.
So basically, you take speaking in tongues to mean speaking with the understanding. But Paul treats them as two different categories.
No. For the speaker it is just speaking a foreign language regardless of the level of fluency. Paul seems to treat them separately for the reason I described in the original post. He’s trying to make a point.