A preface; I use wikipedia a lot in this post. Sorry. Bad English major. I also happen to use bad grammar. Bad, bad English major. I would also like to mention that while I did read everything on the websites I link to, I very well could have misread or missed something. So, if you all find something that makes me look like a complete tool, please feel free to point it out. Just try and do it nicely instead of like anonymous poster who felt it was his/her right to tell me I'm an idiot. I already knew that, so please be kind. Now...
I'm gonna piss everyone off. Yep. Everyone. I'm gonna write about religion. Not just any religion though, no sir. I'm gonna write about Christianity, but not just any old Christianity, I am gonna write about... get ready for it... SPIRIT FILLED CHRISTIANITY!!! Yep, here I go writing about the Apostolics, Charismatics, and everyone's favorite evidence of "yep, Christians are crazy, look at them babble!" For those of you who are wondering what a spirit filled Christian is (as I wanted a few more denominations to mention) here is a Wiki-Answer to the question 'What is a spirit-filled Christian?"; A spirit filled christian is a person who has accepted the Lord as their savior they then are filled with the holy spirit. Thanks for clearing that up. I'm glad I now know absolutely nothing about their theology, lifestyle, services, worldwide impact, etc. etc. Really though, I can sum up what this whole thing is for you, as good as any wiki answer can.
The term "spirit-filled Christianity" is something that I have recently had some experience with, but for most of my life I knew it as Pentecostalism or Charismatic Christianity. My first one on one experience was with a friend I had my freshman year of high school who assured me that the evidence of being filled with the holy spirit was speaking in tongues. This didn't sit well with my 15 year old mind, which more or less took him as saying, "you aren't a true Christian because you don't do x." This has been my view of the whole issue for sometime. It still is. I have always viewed this particular "manifestation" of the spirit serving one purpose in the early church, if you are going to follow the Bible as your authority on the matter. It was meant to speak the words of Christ to people in their own language, i.e. no translator. The original Greek phrases used to describe the act of speaking in tongues are the root words of glossa and dialektos which mean, respectively, "tongue" and "language." They are used synonymously and can therefore be seen as the disciples speaking in known languages to the crowd they were speaking to (check out Acts 2:7-8). It was a means to spread the word of God, not a means to communicate to God. That was the gift of no more intercessor, i.e., no more rabbi. The important element in the Pentecost was to allow the direct interaction of everyone with God through prayer, not simply so a select few "chosen ones" who have the "manifestation of the Spirit" can.
There is more though. Did you know that studies have show a heightened sense of emotion that comes with "speaking in tongues?" By the way, from here on out I will simply refer to it by the scientific term of glossolalia, which is the combination of Greek words glossa"tongue,language" and lalein"to talk" Yep, that's right, all those intense moments you see on t.v. where people are crying, babbling, and raising their arms are emotionally charged. It's very easy to follow a crowd when the emotions run high. Think about it in terms of music concerts. How charged up and emotional can you get seeing your favorite band play. Your brain is a delicate instrument and when something gets too much activity and is too focused upon one thing, like emotions, the rest of your brain functions suffer. However, this emotional element does not discount it altogether as there is evidence that glossolalia is still similar to human speech. It has rhythm, intonation and syllables. However, there is no structure, coherence, or intentional methodology associated with forming glossolalia. In essence, it appears close enough to human speech to be able to be picked up, but not close enough to be understood.
So why does this happen? That, I don't know. I'm on the fence. On the one hand, if God is as all powerful as he is supposed to be, then why not? But then why would God chose such an esoteric and foreign way to communicate with his children? If glossolalia is simply some sort of learned, emotional, trance-hypnosis babble, the why can seemingly normal people suddenly become infatuated with it? Are we all open to being "hypnotized" by incredibly emotional experiences? Or, on a far out limb, could this whole movement of "spirit-filled Christianity" be one huge ploy by the dark spiritual forces of this world to lead the faithful astray? Could the second largest movement in Christianity today be one big, misleading, emotional fraud? Hey, at least I'm seriously considering spiritual things again.
Told you I wasn't going to make any friends.
P.S. Read more Here and here.
P.S.S. This is not meant, in anyway shape or form to be the final authority on the matter. I plan to read far more and talk to more individuals about this, including ones who claim that glossolalia is for real and they participate in it. Like everything on this blog, it's something that sparked my interest and I wanted to see if anyone else's interest was sparked.
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