The basis of speaking in tongues is firstly that it is not something done by the person - it is an ability afforded by the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life, just like all of the other spiritual gifts. To put it in my simplest paraphrase, speaking, praying and singing in tongues is like a hotline to God. The bible says that the spirit 'groans with utterances that man cannot understand,' but yet God understands. The one thing with human language is that it has limitations. Take the english word 'love'. There are no fewer than five different words in the original Greek that are translated into 'love', and yet 'love' is a pathetic, incomplete description of each. Therefore you could say that tongues are God's language, without limitation. It gives him a perfect picture of your spirit's cry. The other thing with this is that often you don't know what you're saying, so your spirit may be asking for what you really NEED, when you are praying for what you WANT. Speaking in tongues is believed by most pentecostal churches to be a sign of baptism of the Holy Spirit, as exampled by the twelve at the Pentecost, when they all began speaking in different tongues. There have been cases where people have spoken out in other human languages that they had never studied - grammar perfect. This is what is supposed to have happened at Pentecost, and it amazed the people because they saw these simple men speaking different languages. This is also classed as the gift of tongues. An extension of tongues is the gift of interpretation of tongues, where a believer is given knowledge of the meaning of the utterance. Unless several separate people confirm the same words, though, it comes down to a matter of trust - do you trust the person's interpretation?

Tongues can serve as a powerful conversion experience, particularly for someone considering Christianity, who has the "academic" knowledge yet still needs "heart knowledge" to seal the deal. I speak from personal experience. While raised in a decidely different faith (Conservative Judaism), even as I child I didn't believe in the God of the Bible (OT or NT, it didn't matter) and thought religion was a terrible thing. Thus as an adult I was a secular agnostic, but I always wondered... Around Christmas 2005, I decided to read some Christian apologetics aimed at skeptics like me. CS Lewis Mere Christianity (Part 1) presented logical arguments for the existence of God that left me no wiggle room to deny this fact any longer, and then a critical overview of the NT by Lee Stobel in The Cast for Christ showwed me it wasn't just "made up" by Paul & Co. for political reasons--which is the gist of what I'd been taught as a child. But I needed to be sure. I was worried I was betraying my ancestors, and didn't take the decision lightly. I decided to ask God to show me what path He wanted me to follow and told Him that if He would just show me the answer in a way that I would know it was Him, that I would do just that. It didn't matter to me what His answer was, I just wanted to know the Truth and was prepared for whatever answer He provided. As I prayed (outloud, by myself, in English--something I'd done many times over a period of about 2 weeks) I finally got my answer. I felt "something" in my rib cage, it moved up towards my nect and throat and "pushed" out of my mouth. Suddenly I was speaking in tongues. It shocked and scared me, (I'd always been a pretty rational/logical person and up till that moment, God and supernatural events were still an abstact concept) but it also gave me the answer to the most important question that anyone can ever ask in life. It was only later that I read in the New Testament that "Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers..." (1 Cor 14:22). Pretty amazing to know that those words were written almost 2000 years before I was born. Quite honestly, before I spoke in tongues that first time, I had only heard of it in passing once, and didn't believe it was real--I thought people made it up and that is was some weird form of chanting for kooks. (And I've heard that some people do, in fact, make it up.) But that doesn't change the fact that sometimes it is very real.

It serves me well....I think it would be hard to speak without my tongue.

it doesn't

I don't come from a religious tradition that speaks in, but historically, it has been one of the mystical ways that God's people have communicated with God and in that I believe it probably has some authenticity. I first learned about it at a retreat a few years ago. I was taught that it is a way of clearing one's mind so that the still, small voice could be heard. I was taught to do it in privacy and through doing this I could possibly hear God. I tried it once or twice and got something out of it, but not as much as I had other practices. I think that certain people respond to certain spiritual practices better than others. So I guess that the way I understand it, speaking in tongues gets all of the normal dialogue out the your head to make room for the Holy Spirit.

“Speaking in tongues among Christians originally served to edify the listeners with information about God’s purpose in connection with Jesus Christ. In harmony with this, the apostle Paul directed that all speaking in tongues be translated, “that the congregation may receive upbuilding.” (1 Cor. 14:5, 27, 28) Of interest, is the fact that miraculous gifts of God’s holy spirit were not to remain with the Christian congregation indefinitely. The Scriptures, at 1 Corinthians 13:8, state: “Whether there are gifts of prophesying, they will be done away with; whether there are tongues, they will cease.” When would they disappear? According to Acts 8:18, God’s spirit as expressed in miraculous gifts was given “through the laying on of the hands of the apostles.” And after Pentecost each recorded case of outpouring of God’s spirit accompanied by miraculous gifts took place in the presence of one or more of the apostles of Jesus. (Acts 8:9-20; 10:44-46; 19:6) Evidently the transmitting of these God-given powers ceased with the death of the apostles; and when those who had received them died, such gifts ceased altogether from the Christian congregation. But today’s tongue speaking, if it can be translated at all, often means simply “God is great,” “God is good,” or like expressions. On occasion even filthy speech may occur. D. A. Hayes, in his book The Gift of Tongues, relates such an experience: “At Los Angeles not long ago a woman had the gift of tongues, and a reputable Chinaman who heard her said that she was speaking his dialect of Chinese. When he was asked to interpret what she said, he refused to do it, saying that the language was the vilest of the vile.” Certainly God could not be responsible for “vile” speech. What, then, is behind tongue speaking that does not conform to the Biblical pattern? It is noteworthy that the apostle Paul spoke of a coming “apostasy” from true Christianity and the appearance of a class called “the man of lawlessness,” whose presence would be “according to the operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and portents and with every unrighteous deception for those who are perishing.” (2 Thess. 2:3, 9, 10) Could tongue speaking be part of an “unrighteous deception” promoted by Satan? Interestingly, An Encyclopædia of Occultism states: “Speaking and writing in foreign tongues, or in unintelligible outpourings mistaken for such, is a very old form of psychic phenomenon.” This reference work continues: “Instances are to be found in plenty in the annals of modern spiritualism . . . Comparatively early in the movement there are evidences of speaking and writing in Latin, Greek, French, Swiss, Spanish, and Red Indian languages. Judge Edmonds, the well-known American Spiritualist, testified to these faculties in his daughter and niece. . . . Some of these cases are well attested.” Speaking in tongues today, therefore, does not indicate an outpouring of God’s spirit. This ability ceased as a gift from God shortly after the death of the apostles of Jesus. In view of Scriptural warnings and the fact that tongue speaking “is a very old form of psychic phenomenon,” people will do well to be cautious. Speaking in tongues today may well signify, not God’s influence, but that of “wicked spirit forces” opposed to God”. —Ephesians 6:12. References cited in article, please see your own copy of the Bible for the scriptures, and some information taken from Awake! Magazine 12/22/74

It serves the purpose of helping the cynical separate the credulous from their money.

Read 1 Cor. 14:1-6,13,21-22 and also Acts 2:1-4 This gift is given for the common good and is intended to be used for the edification of the body as a whole. This is a person that God has gifted with the ability to listen to another person speak in foreign tongues and then repeat the message in a language that the hearer can understand.

True speaking in tongues allows the person to speak in a language that he does not know in order to be understood by people who speak that language. I really don't think that is what's happening when the TV preachers do it...it just sounds kind of dumb.

1) The original purpose of speaking in tongues is to communicate with people above the language barrier. It has been described it at the possibility of adressing others in a language that they understand, but it does not seem that this means the natural language of the listeners. It rather looks like the communication would happen at a non verbal (or non linguistic / protolinguistic) level. For such a communication to take place, it seems that the people first have to be "believers". So it look like a mean to communicate some religious "feelings" to people who are in a receptive state. It is not useful and does not work much if people are not receptive. Speaking in tongues seems to be a quite wide spread phenomenon, at least in some religious groups within the Christian Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions. 2) This practice did not originate in Christianity, and still exist in many traditions outside Christianity: "Aside from Christians, many other religious groups also have been observed to practice some form of theopneustic glossolalia. It is perhaps most commonly in Paganism, Shamanism, and other mediumistic religious practices. Glossolalia was exhibited by the renowned ancient Oracle of Delphi, whereby a priestess of the god Apollo (called the Pythia) speaks in unintelligible utterances, supposedly through the spirit of Apollo in her. Certain Gnostic magical texts from the Roman period have written on them unintelligible syllables such as "t t t t n n n n d d d d d..." etc. It is believed that these may be transliterations of the sorts of sounds made during glossolalia. The Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians also features a hymn of (mostly) unintelligible syllables which is thought to be an early example of Christian glossolalia. In the nineteenth century, Spiritism was developed by the work of Allan Kardec, and the phenomenon was seen as one of the self-evident manifestations of spirits. Spiritists argued that some cases were actually cases of xenoglossia (from Greek,xenos, stranger; and glossa, language. When one speaks in a language unknown to him). However, the importance attributed to it, as well as its frequency, has decreased significantly. Some present-day spiritists regard the phenomenon pointless, as it does not convey any intelligible message to those present. Glossolalia has also been observed in the Voodoo religion of Haiti, as well as in the Hindu Gurus and Fakirs of India." 2) "Glossolalia is commonly called "speaking in tongues"." "Glossolalia (from Greek glossa γλῶσσα "tongue, language" and λαλεá¿–ν "to talk") is the vocalizing of fluent speech-like but unintelligible utterances, often as part of religious practice. Its use (including use in this article) sometimes also embraces Xenoglossy - speaking in a natural language that was previously unknown to and that is not understood by the speaker." "While occurrences of glossolalia are widespread and well documented, there is considerable discussion within religious communities (principally Christian) and elsewhere as to both its status (the extent to which glossolalic utterances can be considered to form language), and its source (whether glossolalia is a natural, supernatural, or spiritual phenomenon)." "In the New Testament, the book of Acts recounts how "tongues of fire" descended upon the heads of the Apostles, accompanied by the miraculous occurrence of speaking in languages previously unknown to them, but recognizable to others present as their own native language. The phenomenon described in the Book of Acts (2:1-11) is variously interpreted either as religious xenoglossia, the speaking of an actual foreign language, or as the gift of interpretation being given to those present: the ability to understand the tongues (each person in his own language). Some of the Orthodox hymns sung at the Feast of Pentecost, which commemorates this event in Acts, describe it as a reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel as described in Genesis 11. In other words, the languages of humanity were differentiated at the Tower of Babel leading to confusion, but were reunited at Pentecost, resulting in the immediate proclamation of the Gospel to people who were gathered in Jerusalem from many different countries." "Some Christians practice glossolalia as a part of their private devotions; some accept and sometimes promote the use of glossolalia within corporate worship. This is particularly true within the Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions. Both Pentecostals and Charismatics believe that the ability to speak in tongues, and sometimes the utterance itself, is a supernatural gift from God. Three different manifestations or forms of glossolalia can be identified in Charismatic / Pentecostal belief. The "sign of tongues" refers to xenoglossia, wherein one speaks a foreign language he has never learned. The "gift of tongues" or "giving a tongue" refers to a glossolalic utterance by an individual and addressed to a congregation of, typically, other believers. This utterance is believed to be inspired directly by the Holy Spirit and requires a natural language interpretation, made by the speaker or another person if it is to be understood by others present. Lastly "praying in the spirit" is typically used to refer to glossolalia as part of personal prayer. Christians who practice glossolalia typically describe their experience as a regular and even mundane aspect of private prayer that tends to be associated with calm and pleasant emotions. This is in contrast to the perception of glossolalia amongst Christians who witness but do not practice glossolalia, and those who have no experience of glossolalia. Both tend to see speaking in tongues as a group activity associated with heightened emotion and excitement. The discussion regarding tongues has permeated many branches of the Christian Church, particularly since the widespread Charismatic Movement in the 1960s. Many books have been published either defending or attacking the practice. The issue has sometimes been a contributing factor in splits within local churches and in larger denominations. The controversy over tongues is part of the wider debate between conservative, evangelical Christians whose approach to the Christian Scriptures requires addressing the texts that endorse glossolalia. Within that debate, continuationists who believe that glossolalia has a role to play in contemporary Christian practice, and cessationalists and dispensationalists who believe that all miraculous gifts, including glossolalia, featured only in the time of the early church. From the Azusa Street Revival, there have been numerous accounts of bystanders hearing speaking in tongues as their native languages or languages they knew or understood. During the early days of the Charismatic movement, Ralph W. Harris wrote a book, available now for download for free on the Internet, documenting 75 cases of people speaking in tongues in the presences of speakers of those languages. In some cases, an interpretation in tongues was given which the speaker of the language could identify as accurate."." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia

It's a load of bollocks, designed to make those in on the joke look good to themselves. It is just like a little clique giggling in the school canteen

There is much information available on this topic in 1 Corinthians 14. I remember that Paul and Sosthenes wrote there that in a church meeting there should only be two or three persons allowed to do this and only if there is an interpreter available to give the meaning to the congregation. The congregation ought to be able to weigh up what is said against scriptures. (Acts 17)A few plain words of teaching are stated to be better than 10,000 words in a tongue that is not understood. Obviously, these instructions are disregarded by many congregations who ought rather to behave in accordance with Jesus's instructions. Paul was chosen to be a special messenger.(Acts 9) Best wishes, Eddie Cairns.

nope.

yes it has. . . but its difficult to instantly determine what it is, you'd have to let the speaker finish his longgggggggg explanation. . attend in a nearest Toastmaster center in your area, and observe to their new members. .

Not to me it don't.