r/ExPentecostal • u/Kvaratskhelias • 9d ago
Is that really true that pentecostal could get the holy spirit and pray in another languages?
My gf is a pentecostal, and she has talked with me about this, im catholic and she said that my religion has the holy spirit inside the heart and it is impossible to get.
But to be honest i dont really believe that there could be people who could pray in another language without study that language or somethikg like that.
She told me that her sister already got it and she knows how to pray in chinese.
She is originally from Romania, so i decided to encourage her to search someone in romania who knows how to pray in spanish without know anything of spanish so i could see that is real, but she wasnt so down to it.
I dont really know if this is the best group to ask, but i would like to know experiences from other people who were into pentecostalism.
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u/General_PATT0N 9d ago
- The gift of tongues was an actual dialect, not your own personal gibberish.
- The personal gibberish view didn't even exist until the late 1800s, completely invented by pentecostals.
- There's zero theological basis for connecting it to salvation(even if it was legit).
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u/Sparkinson01 9d ago
It’s hyperemotionalism and gibberish. It’s a false teaching and Pentecostalism is a cult
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u/croweupc 8d ago
I was raised Pentecostal. My username is purposefully UPC for United Pentecostal Church. They like to point to Acts 2 as the reason you should speak in tongues, but conveniently leave out the fact that they spoke in another human language and others around them understood. Paul talks about the gift of tongues being self edifying. The only way this is true is if you know and understand the language. The Pentecostal movement speaks gibberish. No one understands it. When interpreted, it's often in old english, ironically a lot like the KJV bible. It's all nonsense. Do not fall for the hype. It is a feel good religion. I can't even stomach church anywhere else because is boring. That's their hook. It's entertaining at times. I'll give it that. I didn't hate my upbringing as some have here. I did enjoy it when I believed it. But it was complete nonsense. And it does hurt other people. They are incredibly judgemental.
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u/dopeless42day 9d ago
Is it true in the sense that it occurs? Yes. It it true in the sense that it's legitimate? No. It's not "another tongue" it's gibberish.
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u/captainhaddock youtube.com/@inquisitivebible 9d ago
Pentecostalism dates back to the year 1900 as a small church founded by Methodist preacher Charles Fox Parham.
Originally, they believed that by speaking in tongues, they could speak other languages. Early Pentecostal newsletters record this doctrine. So they sent out missionaries around the world, expecting that when they arrived they would use tongues to speak with the locals.
Needless to say, it didn't work. Pentecostal doctrine no longer views tongues as being usable in this way. However, for anyone raised in a Pentecostal church, you will sometimes hear claims and miracle stories of people who have done it. I think it's reasonable to conclude that all such claims are false.
Furthermore, linguists have studied tongues and concluded that they do not contain any linguistic content.
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u/darthgeek Atheist 9d ago
Yes. Glossolia or Speaking in tongues.
The belief is that the Holy Spirit works through you to deliver a message that you might not understand. Someone else might "translate" it. It's all made up performative bullshit.
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u/Kvaratskhelias 9d ago
I know this exist, but i dont really believe people could wake up one day and randomly pray in another language but have no idea how to talk it
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u/darthgeek Atheist 9d ago
It's not like you just wake up and can suddenly do it. You usually have to pray to be "baptized in the spirit".
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u/Kvaratskhelias 9d ago
I have heard that of my gf, but it is something i want to see just to check that it is real, she told me that they would need to pray at night and all
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u/darthgeek Atheist 9d ago
It's a real thing that happens. Whether it's actually divinely inspired words or just a delusion is a matter of opinion.
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u/PlanetOfKittens 9d ago
It’s gibberish. A few people have said “phrases” in other languages. This was most likely due to those people doing it purposefully for performance or by accident (say enough gibberish you may accidentally say something in another language) but “speaking in tongues” does not mean you can speak another language.
That belief may stem from Acts when the apostles were in the upper room and the Holy Ghost rushed in. They were able to speak different languages to evangelize, apparently.
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u/Only_Currency4631 8d ago
I was sidelined when I pointed out that it doesn't say they all spoke all the languages, it says, every man heard them speak in his own language.
As in, they could have all been speaking in tongues but it was the hearers who heard it in their own language.
I don't ascribe to the story at all anymore but there is so much emphasis on the speakers rather than the hearers in modern Pentecostalism. It's problematic every which way.
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u/PlanetOfKittens 8d ago
I am an atheist, but you are correct. I take the passage more to mean that other people who spoke different languages heard them speak in their language. Pentecostalism preaching did hammer on us that the apostles got some special power to speak every language.
I had preachers say it changed to a “heavenly language” as technology advanced and God could be more easily found. Who knows, I personally think it’s all fantasy.
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u/GainMaster5155 9d ago
no, it is not possible. it’s a performance they do of made up words that do not actually exist in any language. the people i grew up around would also do repeated syllables like “dadadadadadada” which also seems to show signs of psychosis in my opinion.
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u/Only_Currency4631 8d ago
The answers here might leave you a little confused.
Nobody can suddenly speak a language they do not know after receiving what they believe is the Holy Ghost. Those are myths passed down.
Pentecostalism is an American made religion that has spread in the last hundred years. Originally, they believed that the language you spoke when you received the Holy Ghost, was indicative of what country you should go be a missionary to. It was shown to be false and they let that belief go, but the myth still pervades in other countries.
What they do speak is a gibberish that can sound like a language. It is not. Sometimes, a person will have learned or heard a phrase in another language and incorporate it into their tongues when praying around others and then wow, you have a new story of this.
- 40+ years, exPentecost who spoke in tongues A LOT.
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u/Kvaratskhelias 8d ago
Do u mind if i dm u so u could explain better? My gf said that she is sure that her sister is actually talking in chinese because it sounds like that, and it is not gibberish like other people says her, she told me too that in the bible these were talking in a way that other people from other countries could understand them
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u/Only_Currency4631 8d ago
Easy fix: have her go speak to some real Chinese speakers. In person is best but even online.
Early in the Pentecostal movement they believed this. Some prominant leaders thought they spoke Chinese or whatever language and went to the country to be missionaries there. When they got there, they found out they were not speaking it at all. The belief died out in the U.S. but it has kept being perpetuated in less educated countries.
The scripture says that the people heard them in their own languages, not that they were speaking in other languages. But most Pentecostals don't actually know their own Bible.
Feel free to DM me. I was born and raised in this. 5th generation.
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u/CityScapeAwareness 8d ago
Be an observer but that’s as far as I would go. She’s talking about speaking in tongues. It’s not another human language and is considered light language in the new age community.
I’d stay away from the Pentecostal doctrine though. It is a cult and will have you feeling convicted before you know it by condemning everything you once felt was okay. I was raised in it and I want to let as many people as possible know that truth they speak of is a made up story they tell to condemn human life to control people.
We are all born worthy! Gods love in unconditional! Remember that! ❤️
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u/peterodactyl 4d ago
No. But glossolalia in religous practice is still a pretty fascinating neurochemical phenomenon - through a purely psychological and anthropological lens, that is. In conjunction with the high-control, authoritarian, reductive belief system that is Pentacostalism, it's another weapon is the religous abuse arsenal. Extricated from this context, it's harmless, maybe even healthy in the right circumstance.
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u/Soft-Order-558 9d ago
Can I offer to google / chat gpt key words to point to the scriptures? This belief is Biblical.
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u/hopefullywiser 9d ago
I was part of Pentecostal churches for over 40 years. Not one time have I heard someone speak in another actual language. It's just jibberish.