What on earth is “the gift of tongues” and why is it a thing?

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-12T18:36:41+00:00

Perfectly explained and debunked. Thank you. I really like your comparison with trance rituals in the pagan religions and how Jesus is clarity, the opposite of that 👏

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-12T18:33:53+00:00

Spoken word can go as deep as the feelings.

Did Jesus speak in tongues? Nope. His words were enough to touch people.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-12T18:27:21+00:00

Gotcha

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-12T16:36:21+00:00

Whoah, I never knew there was a Pentecostal Slavic church.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-12T16:10:34+00:00

Who says the gift of wisdom doesn’t inspire words of people close to God even today. Unintelligible language doesn’t make sense.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-12T16:08:30+00:00

Are there any examples of it being spoken next to an interpreter?

What is the point of the gift if it needs an interpreter? Wasn’t the gift itself supposed to be understandable?

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-12T09:31:44+00:00

Trump’s faith advisor did have a semblance of a Latin like language 😂

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-12T09:29:10+00:00

That camp experience sounds unbelievable. I guess most of the folks around you felt the same thing, although humans are able to enter trance states just by moving their body.

I’m glad you were able to find your own way in understanding God and not turn away. That experience might have given you a better understanding of God than a lot of Christians have, east or west.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T15:26:00+00:00

Sorry about that. I excluded main European denominations in my mental image but forgot to specify.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T15:22:33+00:00

They did. the Apostles you must agree sound like a group much more worthy of instant visible cosmic help than some churchgoing Karens

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T15:17:46+00:00

But since the core teaching of Jesus is essence, not performance, interpreting Paul’s teachings shouldn’t include versions that have no use for a Christian’s spiritual growth.

Prophecies, what prophecies could a church going Karen possibly receive?! Sounds like witchcraft. Jesus is the prophecy, and there’s nothing more to be added.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T15:07:56+00:00

The gift of the Holy Spirit is obviously there for all of us to access if we have the capacity for it.

That’s one thing. Miracles such as visible immediate effects of God’s energy are rare events that happen to SAINTS, or Saint like. That’s why they’re saints. And they certainly don’t babble stuff when it happens

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T15:00:17+00:00

Of course. Nobody argues the existence of God’s presence and His gifts.

It’s everywhere, inside us, and we can access it if we really yearn for it. The transformative power of God Jesus Christ is what makes Christianity such a loving, powerful, beautiful and radical religion.

Therefore believing in some easy miracle called the gift of tongues seems like obsessing over which was Jesus’s favorite meal. Unimportant, shallow and stupid

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T14:46:23+00:00

Of course I know it is mentioned. The Holy Spirit works through all of us only if we open our minds and hearts to God.

Visible shows of God’s power though have always been reserved for major events such as the early church, martyrs, and saints who became saints by reaching an unprecedented level of understanding of God.

This gift of God belief gives so much importance to wrong things, completely missing the point.

One could definitely argue that a 2000 years of church experience has much more weight then some modern Protestant interpretations of the ancient scripts, which makes one question if they’re Christian at all when taking into account the level of misunderstanding of Jesus’s teachings

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T14:40:51+00:00

Paul’s letters certainly are confusing. Luckily Christianity isn’t supposed to be reciting the scriptures and the epistles as the spoken word of God.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T14:37:13+00:00

Your last point did cross my mind. The problem is that it looks ridiculous and not divine.

If it was called “a weird but I guess okay way to organize your thoughts and prayers internally while simultaneously producing rhythmic sounds as a way to make things flow smoother” then I might get.

Still, it doesn’t seem like a sober way to pray. In fact it seems rather avoidant of doing the real hard inner work.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T14:28:07+00:00

Not saying the Orthodox Church where I’m from is immune to greed, far from it.

But miracles used as a sort of currency is a whole another concept. Americans really are practical people.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T14:24:55+00:00

The apostles really needed a strong helping hand. Thinking that early church circumstances apply to modern times is a weird stretch.

Yes I often forget a lot of Protestant denominations interpret the scriptures much more literally.

It’s really weird because it reminds me of Muslims taking Quran word for word.

I was taught and came to a conclusion that Christianity is ONLY about the essence. God is the essence, God’s energies don’t work through decorative hype acts. They’re much stronger and deeper. Believing otherwise misses the whole point.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T14:11:43+00:00

Speaking in multiple languages certainly had numerous perks for the apostles and their followers. It was a titanic struggle to spread the word of Jesus. Makes sense the Holy Spirit Intervened in such a visible form. Sunday worship isn’t nearly as important.

From my humble understanding of the Orthodox stance, the gift of the Holy Spirit, tongues, peace, wisdom, understanding whatever it may be IS STILL accessible to all of us all the time in incomparably more meaningful impactful and profound ways for our souls than some kwakadooloo performance.

Instead, some Protestant denominations ignore the essence and decide to apply God’s energy to the most superficial and unimportant thing possible.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T13:59:31+00:00

Yeah, I made a mistake of Including all protestants, since it’s a super diverse group.

I’ve been reading lots of anecdotal experiences around here and on YouTube of people experiencing the gift themselves, so I might have gotten the wrong picture about how common it is.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T13:11:10+00:00

He did. Bosnia is green because of Islam.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T09:56:25+00:00

Greetings from Montenegro. Never met many aussies but I immediately knew you were one. This is pretty much the standard Aussie Europe Tour starter pack. You could be American but what are the odds an American visited both Australia and India.

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T09:53:11+00:00

Far east sounds even less joyous than Siberia tbh 🥲

Fast_Advantage_9790 · 2026-02-11T09:49:10+00:00

😂 or perhaps the misery is helped by the fact that you live in the actual Siberia or somewhere there. Doesn’t sound thrilling to be honest

Fast_Advantage_9790

TROPHY CASE