THE PHENOMENON OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES

Tongues of men

Tongues of men, inspired tongues, tongues of angles, ecstatic tongues.

THE PHENOMENON OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES Tongues of men, inspired tongues, tongues of angles, ecstatic tongues. Copyright: Ionel Plesa

Translation from Romanian into English: Dianne Bailey

Biblical texts are from the New International Version Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Tongues of men

Unlike all the other forms of life on this earth, when man was created by God, he received the capacity to communicate ideas through speech. Endowed with a creative intelligence through the spirit of wisdom that he received, he became an ennobled spiritual being with thoughts of eternity. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon writes, ―I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion‖ (Proverbs 8:12). In the first stage of human existence, even after the phenomenon of the great flood, men spoke a single language. In Genesis 11:1 we read the following: Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. Through the intelligence of the spirit which he had received, man managed to name every living creature, every phenomenon or form of existence around him, (Genesis 2:19,20) and through the Holy Spirit which had been breathed into him, he received the capacity to communicate with the Creator, thus rejoicing in the law of love and universal harmony. The sin of disobedience, and later the violation of the moral precepts written on his own conscience (Romans 2:12-16), caused man to lose that fellowship with God. Spiritual rebellion as manifested by Cain, introduced the curse of fratricide (Genesis 4:8-12). After the flood, the curse was reactivated with even greater implications (Genesis 9:25-27). This dramatic post flood consequence gave birth to the slave system, based on hard labor and oppression from the powerful. The most conclusive expression of the situation regarding the social laws of the times was confirmed at the ―Tower of Babel‖. Going against the blessings given by God, when He said, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it […]‖ (Genesis 1:28), powerful people from the dominant class chose to do the inverse. They held counsel together and said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:4).

The ―Shinar‖ plain is the old Sumer, presently considered to be the ―Cradle of human civilization‖; a prosperous civilization, capable of building cities with a powerful economic development, 2,500 years before Christ. God confused their language in two ways. Firstly, by stimulating the existing conflicts between the social classes; the people who were working hard, feeling wronged by those who were giving them their orders, having motives for rebellion. This plausible hypothesis, although it is not mentioned in the Bible, was perfectly possible in such a social setting. In parallel with this ―language confusion‖, in order to fulfill His final plan, God confused their languages in a truly miraculous way, and from that moment every tribe spoke a language that wasn‘t understood by the others. By being scattered to all parts of the earth, God didn‘t intend that families be divided, but He chose to put an end to the construction by separating the tribes, who later formed the different nations of the earth. Every people, with its specific language and practices, is identified by its characteristics (Genesis 11:5-9). After the scattering of the tribes, a strong earthquake destroyed the city together with the ―Tower of Babel‖ which had been partially built, thus transforming it into a total ruin. ―Language confusion‖ became proverbial not only for the nations of the world, but also for the Christian denominations of our times. Whenever people are engaged in ideological conflicts, even those of a religious nature, accusing one another of being non-conformist, the phenomenon of ―language confusion‖ is repeated, which finally forces them to split and to move away from one another, each group trying to form its own system. The word ―Babel‖ means ―confusion‖. ―Babylon the Great‖ in Revelation, means ―the great confusion of ideas‖ which is promoted by religion in our times, and which will be imposed on all nations of the earth, under the control of the system of anti-Christ (Revelation 17:5).

The diversification of ideas and human languages, which hinders communication between fellow human beings, is the consequence of disobedience to God. After ―Babylon the Great‖ will fall, in the heavenly kingdom neither contradictory ideas nor languages will separate us. Merciful Father, we have dictionaries with tens of thousands of words, but with all that, we have lost the language of our first love and we can no longer understand one another. Not even the faithful who believe in God speak the same language, they cannot find the common denominator. Merciful Father, what can we expect from strangers? Even if we are given the ability to speak a lot of human languages that hamper our understanding, teach us all to be able to communicate in the language of love and of universal harmony, springing up out of the understanding of the truth discovered through Jesus Christ (Revelation 7:9-12). Towards the end of the 19th Century, L. Zamenhof created an artificial language from elements of language and grammar borrowed from the most wide-spread European languages. The aim of this language was to serve as an international language. This new language was named ―Esperanto‖ (that which hopes). How wonderful it would have been if all the human communities which are scattered throughout the world could speak the same language, while remaining in obedience to God. The phenomenon of the ―Tower of Babel‖ put its mark on all the peoples of the earth, confusing their languages not only in reality, but also in a symbolic way. Man‘s attempts are in vain. Only God can lead us to a common denominator.