Practical and effective examples of tongues in modern times

Paul was an apostle and evangelist to the Gentiles who could speak many tongues, or foreign languages, in addition to Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. He would have had to communicate in the local language because he would have encountered foreigners in every place he visited.

Pauline tongues

Even if the languages spoken were not those of the specific regions being visited, early believers could pray and sing praises in the native tongues of foreign travelers coming to those places, serving as a sign to them. Tongues were a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit designed to shortcut the challenges of missionary pioneering. Therefore, the more destinations one traveled to for evangelism, the more frequently they would speak in tongues, in direct proportion to their travels.

​The phenomenon seen among modern Charismatics and Pentecostals—where people suddenly and voluntarily break into unintelligible, gibberish-like utterances that sound like "shababababā♫ karakarakara♫" at any given time—is not the biblical gift of tongues. It cannot be translated, and it is nothing more than a mantra induced by a state of mass hypnosis. When people with a spiritual sensitivity chant such mantras, they end up seeing strange, misleading visions.

​Today, because the Gospel has spread extensively throughout the world, there is no longer a necessity to speak in tongues within the church. It can be said that any such speaking should be done individually before God, entirely at one's own responsibility.

Deuteronomy 18:9 "When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.

A valid case of practical tongues with

A certain group of missionaries traveled to the Philippines and arrived at a small island inhabited by indigenous people who could not understand the missionaries' native language. During their stay, a tragic incident occurred in which a local indigenous woman passed away, and the villagers asked one of the missionaries to pray for her. Overwhelmed with deep sorrow, the missionary began to offer an intercessory prayer. Suddenly, a foreign language spoken by the local villagers—a language he had never learned—poured out from his mouth.

​Ultimately, through this prayer in tongues, the deceased woman was resurrected to life. It appears that miraculous incidents like this still occur from time to time even today. Upon witnessing this miraculous sign of tongues, the local villagers came to believe in God.

The phrase "no one understands" in verse 2 means that even if the words are unintelligible to the believers within their own circle, they can be understood and believed by the local people in the foreign country because they are a "sign" for unbelievers. In the case of tongues, even if the words are "incomprehensible" to Christians, they can be understood by local people as a "sign" of evangelism to unbelievers.

In summary, Christians with the Holy Spirit can pray in front of the natives and those who do not know the gospel at all in languages other than their native tongue, as needed, and their prayers and praises in tongues can be translated for the local people. In verse 28, he says that he speaks to himself and to God, and he advises them to make good use of the gift of authentic tongues, which was in effect at all times in the first century. As it is described as a gift, the gift of tongues, if received, would have been in effect at all times throughout one's life.

Some say that tongues will continue until the second coming of Christ, but unlike prophecy and knowledge, which are still needed at this stage, if there is no effective situation for tongues as a sign to unbelievers, that is, if you are not forced to be in a situation to witness in an unreached area of the local population, etc., you do not have to intentionally imitate tongues and say "Shabakalasambhava" with believers already familiar with the gospel.  Paul makes a concession and instructs that if you must speak in tongues and cannot translate, "do it alone, praying that you can translate, that is, at your own risk". Sometimes people tell you to pray in tongues while emptying your head, but that is absolutely ridiculous.

Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail(if not needed); whether there are tongues(if not needed), they will cease; whether there is knowledge(if not needed), it will vanish away.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, "Do not use meaningless repetition when you pray." The original Greek word used here is battalogeo, which means "repeating the same sounds, uttering wordless noises, or using language that does not function as speech." Therefore, the tongues mentioned by Paul were not monotonous, mechanical utterances either; rather, they were legitimate, structured languages that carried actual meaning. Even though they were mysterious foreign tongues incomprehensible to human ears, they were surely delivered directly to Christ.

However, in the case of modern tongues, I actually found it funny when an African woman was praying in tongues and didn't know that she was saying "Chi-ko chi-ko ♫" when she was praying in tongues, but there's no point in continuing like this forever, so you probably shouldn't do it.

※Even if we assume angelic tongues are spiritual prayers, if they are spoken with a pure heart and sincere thoughts, without emptying one's mind, they could be considered praise to God or the groaning of the Spirit.