Introduction.
The first time we come across the expression speaking in tongues in the Bible is in Mark 16:17. We will return to this verse later. First, let us look at what the Bible says about the origin of speaking in tongues. To be able to find this out, we must go to the day of Pentecost, and in Acts 2:1-3 we read the following, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them”.
The background to this can be found in Acts 1:8, where Jesus explains to his disciples that they will receive a helper after Jesus ascends to heaven. «But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth”. In Acts 2:4, we read, «And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance«.
18 times in 16 verses in the Bible, all in the New Testament, the word tongues, in connection with speaking in tongues, is used. Despite the fact that the Bible is clear about what speaking in tongues means and entails, there are two different interpretations of this.
What we should think about is why the gift of speaking in tongues was given, and look at how the Bible explains this. We will also look at another side of the phenomena speaking in tongues, the popular «glossolalia», what this is and where it has its origin. In other words, we have two different understandings of what speaking in tongues means.
- It is the Pentecostal charismatic form with a gibberish «language», an incomprehensible babbling.
- Speaking in tongues simply means being given the gift of speaking other known languages as needed.
All Bible texts are from King James Version 1611/1769. Where I have used other translations, this is indicated.
The gift of the Spirit in the Bible; speaking in tongues.
“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”, (Acts 2:4).
Why were the disciples given this gift? One of the answers Jesus gives us in Acts 1:8 where He says that they should be Jesus’ witnesses and unto the uttermost part of the earth. This is an important reason that most people seem to completely overlook. Another, and no less important, reason is what we read in the next verses of Acts chapter 2.
In verses 5 to 7, we read, “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold,are not all these which speak Galileans?”
Peter began his famous speech on the day of Pentecost, after the disciples had been filled with the Holy Spirit and given the gift of speaking in tongues. It appears from the text in verse 7 that the other disciples must have translated what Peter spoke in his language into the languages spoken by all the other visitors to Jerusalem. It says in verses 9 to 11, where they came from all the visitors and we read. “1) Parthians, and 2) Medes, and 3) Elamites, and the dwellers in 4) Mesopotamia, and in 5) Judaea, and 6) Cappadocia, in 7) Pontus, and 8) Asia, 9) Phrygia, and 10) Pamphylia, in 11) Egypt, and in the parts of 12) Libya about 13) Cyrene, and strangers of 14) Rome, Jews and proselytes, 15) Cretans and 16) Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God”.
After this speech on the day of Pentecost, which many nationalities heard preached in their own language, over 3,000 people were baptized and added to the church. Later, after the stoning of Stephen, the disciples had to flee from Jerusalem and Judea, and we know that Thomas went all the way to India and preached the gospel to everyone he met on the way there. This means that Thomas had been given the gift of speaking other known and used languages, (in the plural).
In 1 Corinthians 14:10 we find this text: «Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning» (New International Version 1984). Here the Greek word phóné is used. This word means a sound, noise, voice, language, dialect. Other use voices, as KJ, and sounds as New Heart English Bible.
In the vast majority of Bible translations into Norwegian and English, glô’ssa is translated as tongues in the plural, (see Mark 16:17). The Greek word glô’ssa, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, means tongue, language, speaking in tongue, tongue; of uncertain origin; the tongue; implied a language (specifically one not naturally acquired), tongue. From biblehub.com the following explanation can be added: the tongue, a language, a nation (usually characterized by their speech).
It is one of my fads to point out what I believe to be mistranslations of words. I claim that this is done deliberately in most cases, perhaps every time what can be called a vicarious translation has been made. It is also possible in relation to glô’ssa, because even if tongue is one of the choices for translation, the context of all the verses in which the word is used in the New Testament indicates that it is in connection with to speak other familiar languages. It would be a more correct and accurate translation to use language as a translation into English.
In 1st Corinthians 14:9-11, Paul explains this miracle as speaking in tongues. “So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to me”.
There are many kinds of languages, dialects, voices and sounds (phóné) in the world says Paul, but if those who hear Paul speak do not understand the languages, dialects, voices or sounds he uses, it will simply be pointless to preach the gospel to them. If we take off the glasses called prejudice, we will all see that this is about different well-known and used languages to what Paul refers.
The purpose of the gift of speaking in tongues.
We can describe the purpose of this gift from what Luke says in the Acts of the Apostles.
- The gift overcame the language barrier.
- Those who listened heard their own language.
- The speech did not consist of unintelligible, babbling sounds.
- It was the content of the gospel that was preached and heard.
- The speech was given without Paul, and those who translated for him, being in ecstasy, or that they were in a trance.
- The speaker understood what he himself preached, namely the gospel.
- Both speakers and listeners used sense, intellect and reasoning skills.
- The fruit of this gift was that many accepted the preaching, were converted and baptized.
The reason why this gift was given.
If we put the reason why this gift was given up against what Jesus says in Mark 16:17, we might get a better understanding of what speaking in tongues really means. “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues”. Jesus says here in Mark that those who believe in Him will speak with new tongues. When Jesus uses the expression new tongues, it means that they already had one or more “old” tongues.
Questions! When Jesus uses the expression new tongues, does it mean that Jesus’ disciples engaged in such Pentecostal charismatic babbling in gibberish, or were they given the ability to speak new languages in a supernatural way?
Jesus also predicted that his disciples would speak with new tongues. This is in a context where Jesus just gives the command to evangelize; «Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation«, (Mark 16:15). Since tongues mean nothing but tongues or language, the promise of this gift is both understandable, logical, and appropriate. How could they preach the gospel if they could not speak the language of the people to whom they were to preach the gospel?
By being given the ability to speak, for the disciples a new language, which was the mother tongue of those to whom they preached the gospel, this miracle of speaking in tongues could cause the gospel to reach all people groups no matter what language they spoke. This gift enabled the disciples to preach to people who spoke a language they themselves did not know. The tongues were new to the disciples, (new tongues), but they were still understood by the listeners, because they had this tongue or language as their mother tongue.
In 1 Corinthians 12:28, Paul says the following: “And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues«. The question of why they were given the ability to speak in different tongues has already been answered, but it can be elaborated upon by looking at the city of Corinth and what it was like in the first century.
The Greek city of Corinth was a metropolis in Paul’s time, a city where the inhabitants came from all over the Roman Empire. In other words, it was not enough to speak Greek in Corinth, and that is probably why Paul writes as he does in his first letter to the church in Corinth. The conditions in Corinth 2,000 years ago were probably no different from the conditions we find in Oslo today. People from almost every country and region in the world live here.
In my church, Bethel Adventist Church, there are members from more than 40 nations. Some of these members speak neither Norwegian nor English and must therefore have their own ‘interpreter’ who can translate for them so that they can understand what is being preached. This is not speaking in tongues in the biblical sense, because those who translate have learned Norwegian or English in the usual way. Nevertheless, the principle is the same. There are people who master a language that is not their mother tongue. Those who truly speak in tongues receive this gift in an instant, and in a supernatural way by God giving them the ability to speak, to them, new languages fluently.
In 1 Corinthians 14:23, Paul makes a startling statement: «So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?”
Anyone who has been present during a charismatic Pentecostal service will be able to confirm that it is exactly as Paul describes it in this verse. There is babbling in an incomprehensible «language», not just by one, and not just one at a time, but by many, and often many at the same time. After all, it is ‘proof’ for Pentecostals that they are baptized in the spirit when they babble like, pardon the expression, crazy. It’s not me who says «crazy» but Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.
The Greek word in 1 Corinthians 14:23 which is translated as from the mind is: mai’nomai, and means, rage, be furious/crazy, go/be from the mind, be from sense and collection, to rave like a «madman» : to be beside (or outside of) oneself (mad).
The modern tongues of the charismatic Pentecostals.
As already mentioned, Pentecostals consider this in modern tongues to be proof that they have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues is therefore a sign for believers, say the Pentecostals. The Bible strongly disagrees with the Pentecostals with this. According to Paul, believers do not need a sign that they are baptized in the Spirit. Speaking in tongues, in the biblical sense, is indeed a sign, which Paul says, but it is not for God’s people, it is for unbelievers. “Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers”.
Why should speaking in tongues be a sign to the unbelievers? The answer is quite simple. You are sent on a mission to the Amazon in South America to carry out a mission among the indigenous people there. You have your own language, your mother tongue. Moreover, you have learned possibly English and/or Spanish. When you arrive, you discover that you do not understand a single word of what they say to you, and they do not understand the languages you speak. This is where the purpose of speaking in tongues comes into view. Suddenly, God miraculously gives you the ability to speak the language of this tribe. It then becomes a sign to the tribe that you are a person sent from God.
When did modern tongues originate?
The phenomenon that today is called «speaking in tongues» originated at ‘Bethel Bible College’ or ‘Bethel Gospel School’, in Topeka, Kansas, USA. It is this university that has been credited with having started the Pentecostal movement by having several students and teachers have several fasting periods, which eventually resulted in what is today called speaking in tongues. This happened on the New Year’s weekend 31 December 1900 – 1 January 1901.
It all started when Reverend Charles Parham laid his hands on the students who suddenly started making unintelligible noises. Eventually one of the students, Agnes Ozman – who was the first to receive the gift of «tongues», went to Los Angeles and passed on the new experience to various Pentecostal churches in the city, by laying hands on church members. Those present experienced that tongues channelled to others by touch. That the speaking in tongues was channelled to others by touch should worry those involved because channelling is something we find in spiritualist, gnostic and occult cultures, not in true Christianity. Let’s take a look at the concept of channelling.
Channelization.
Many shamans practice channelling, and the following is taken from Shamanism – Wikipedia. “Shamanism is a practice that involves changing states of consciousness to achieve contact with the spirit world and be a link in communicating and channelling out energy or messages to the physical world. Those who practice shamanism are referred to as shamans. Shamanism is a distinctive technique for achieving ecstasy or trance. The shaman acts as a link between the people in his culture and the spirits, including the spirits of the ancestors.
The religious historian Mircea Eliade has expressed the core of shamanism, «A shaman is a human being who, together with his spiritual helper, goes on a spiritual journey to another world (the spirit world), in order to bring help and/or power back to this world, for the benefit of everyone/society.” Since such worlds are not widely recognized, there are also other ways of explaining shamanism through different interpretations of the external manifestations
The shaman’s journey goes either to the upper world, to the underworld or to the spirit world in the middle. In several cultures, including the Norse, this is linked to the story of the world tree. The core of shamanism is clothed in different cultures’ customs, songs, mythology, etc. The shaman has various techniques and tools at his disposal. In Sami culture, the shaman is called ‘noiade’. In the Norse context, it is ‘seiden’ and ‘volvene’ that represent the local form of shamanism.
The term shamanism originates in Siberia, where it was studied early on. A shaman means ‘one who sees‘ and ‘one who knows/one who has knowledge’ and has its origin from the Siberian Tungusic language (sáman) and originally meant a doctor or sorcerer. Shamanism is used for similar practices among, for example, Sami noaids (shamans) or Native American medicine men. In Sami, shamanism is referred to as noaidevuohta and noaide has been translated as ‘sorcerer, troll, and witch’.»
What does the Bible say about sorcerers, spirit mediums and the like?
- In Malachi 3:5, we read this. “So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud labourers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,» says the LORD Almighty”.
- In Leviticus 20:6 Moses says the following. “And the soul that turneth unto necromancers and unto soothsayers, to go a whoring after them, I will set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people”, (Darby Bible Translation).
This phenomenon has become interdenominational. In addition to Pentecostal-related congregations, more and more Catholic priests and nuns now speak in tongues. This alleged spiritual gift has no preference for the recipient’s faith, teachings, ideology or life. It does not matter if you are Christian, Hindu, Buddhist or Satanist or if you are a pagan and practice paganism and occultism, this is no obstacle to being given the gift.
Summary.
We should always, and without exception, when it comes to controversial topics put it all into the right context. In 1 Peter 5:8 Peter tells us: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour«. Now, the devil probably does not go around eating people literally, but he wants to seduce as many people as possible. Satan’s goal is to lead everyone away from the God of heaven, our Creator. To be able to do that, he uses all means of action.
The fact that Peter uses expressions such as be sober probably has its own special meaning. This can be interpreted in two ways, and both are equally correct in this context. The first interpretation is the literal one. Do not drink alcohol. What happens to us when we drink alcohol? Our senses are dulled by the effect alcohol has on our brain. The second interpretation is the spiritual; do not seek out places where Spiritism and the like are practiced under a cloak of Christianity. What is happening to us there? Exactly the same, our senses are dulled by this influence too. This is called suggestion in another word, and suggestion is a process that leads a person to uncritical action or belief.
We humans also have the characteristic that we like what itches in the ear, that is, what we find pleasant to hear and do. Many of us also choose the path of least resistance when we are put to a choice, but if we want a good result, something that lasts, we must rather choose away what itches in the ear and choose the path that is the most difficult to walk, whatever the cost. As always it is only one’s own attitude and prejudice that is decisive for which choices are made and which ultimately determines where one spends eternity.
When a person goes and acquires a new mobile phone, that person investigates the matter thoroughly. The person chooses a model, but not before the mobile phone has been checked and evaluated in relation to other models to be sure that this is the mobile phone the person really needs. What friends and others say about this means very little in the grand scheme of things. When the same person is asked to take a position on the modern speaking in tongues that we are dealing with here, then that person follows in blind faith those who say that this is the gift of the spirit.
In a sense they are right, it is probably a gift from some spirit, but it is not the Holy Spirit, which gives such gifts. It is a completely different spirit that comes up with such gifts. The spirit that gives such gifts is the same one that said to Eve, «Ye shall not surely die» (Genesis 3:4).
Once a recording was made of such a modern Pentecostal charismatic speaking in tongues. This recording was sent to several people who had «received the gift of interpret tongues«. Before I go any further, I must say that God is a God of order. God’s word does not contradict itself. God’s word is harmonious, and the Bible is a homogeneous book. I do not expect everyone to agree with me on this claim. Anyway, this recording, which was sent out to several people, had to be translated and sent back to the sender in writing. None, I repeat, none of the translations was identical, and they did not resemble each other even once. Instead of being identical, they contradicted each other. They therefore cannot possibly come from God, and the Pentecostal charismatic speaking in tongues is something completely different from what Pentecostals, Catholics and other charismatics think it is.
Stubbornly, Pentecostals claim that the speaking in tongues they practice is exactly the same that Jesus’ disciples used on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. The Pentecostals claim just as stubbornly that their form of speaking in tongues is the most important of all the gifts of the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verses 8 to 10, Paul lists the different gifts. “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. To another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit. To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another [divers] kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues”.
Then follows an analysis in verses 12 to 27 that the church (the body) needs all these gifts of grace given by the Holy Spirit. In verse 28, Paul ranks these gifts according to their importance. As said, the church needs everyone, absolutely everyone, but there are some, which according to Paul, are more important, and others who are less important, and he lists them like this. “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, (and finally!), diversities of tongues”.
The gift of speaking in different tongues is mentioned as the least important, and this gift probably has the least relevance in our time. According to figures from Ethnologue 2021, there are 7,139 languages in the world. Of these, English is the most widely used. This means that most people in the world speak this language, or know someone who knows it. Then it is no longer as important to have the gift of speaking in several tongues. But, it happens that missionaries are sent to areas where there is an unknown language, and then this gift is shown by the missionary(s) when they inexplicably suddenly starting to speak the local language – fluently – as if it were the person’s mother tongue.
Where was this gift hidden from the day of Pentecostal in the year 31 until New Year’s Eve 1900 / 1901? I would like an answer to this question. Perhaps it was on loan to other religions and various occult sects. Nevertheless, what do I know!
If this type of speaking in tongues is really one of the gifts of the Spirit, and at the same time, according to the Pentecostals, the most important gift, where did it go before it appeared at Bethel College in Kansas over 120 years ago? Here, in this school, some students began to make inexplicable and unintelligible noises when Reverend Charles Parham laid his hands on them. Today there are well over 300 million who ‘speak in tongues’. The false speaking in tongues and in many cases the accompanying noisy exercises have long been regarded as gifts of the spirit, which God has placed in the church. The only problem is that they have not been practiced in the time from the time of the early church until the turn of the year 1900/1901. However, before the modern speaking in tongues was adopted at Bethel Bible College, Topeka, the same phenomenon was well known in certain African tribal religions such as Voodoo. This gibberish babbling occurs when people are under possession and when they are in trance states. It is also found in oriental initiation rituals and we find this in several occult sects in Brazil.
The following is taken from https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungetale.
Religious speaking in tongues is associated with possession (religious trance) and prophetic rapture where a deity speaks through a chosen person, often to make predictions and warnings. According to the Pentecostals, Agnes Ozman (1870-1937), an American Methodist and Bible school student, is considered the first to speak in tongues in recent times when she received the spirit at Bethel College in Topeka, Kansas on January 1, 1901. However, the same phenomenon is known from several religious contexts, both among the close predecessors of the holiness movement, in certain African tribal religions, in oriental initiation rites and from several occult sects in Brazil. Also the Pythia at the Apollo oracle in Delphi made predictions during a trance which were then interpreted by priests.
Ellen G. White says in Testimonies for the Church 1, 412.1 the following. Some of these persons have exercises, which they call gifts and say that the Lord has placed them in the church. They have an unmeaning gibberish which they call the unknown tongue, which is unknown not only by man but by the Lord and all heaven. Such gifts are manufactured by men and women, aided by the great deceiver. Fanaticism, false excitement, false talking in tongues, and noisy exercises have been considered gifts, which God has placed in the church. Some have been deceived here. The fruits of all this have not been good. “Ye shall know them by their fruits”, Mateo 7,16. Fanaticism and noise have been considered special evidences of faith.
False speaking in tongues.
“Fanaticism, false excitement, false talking in tongues and noisy exercises have been considered gifts which God has placed in the church. Some have been deceived here. The fruits of all this have not been good. “Ye shall know them by their fruits”. Fanaticism and noise have been considered special evidences of faith. Some are not satisfied with a meeting unless they have a powerful and happy time. They work for this and get up an excitement of feeling. But the influence of such meetings is not beneficial. When the happy flight of feeling is gone they sink lower than before the meeting because their happiness did not come from the right source”, Ellen G. White, Last Days Event 159.4.
The deceptions of recent times are a key to understanding the modern «speaking in tongues».
In order for Satan to prepare the world for his last great deception, he uses the fallen church where he allows fake miracles to happen. I have mentioned in other writings what this entails, but to repeat, false healings will be performed, a false spirit will fall from heaven and similar manifestations of ‘God’s power’. These are things that itch in the ear, and Satan knows that what itches in people’s ears is what most easily finds its way into their lives and beliefs. It seems that many believe the false speaking in tongues (see English; The end times begin; the Church of God in the last days) is proof of the presence of God’s Spirit, but this form of speaking in tongues has its origins in pagan tribal religions such as Voodoo, and is used by shamans in many tribal religions worldwide. Nevertheless, the false representation of ‘speaking in tongues’ as the greatest of the ‘gifts of the Spirit to the church’, which the charismatic churches present it as, is not biblical. The false speaking in tongues together with the miracles performed in certain denominations constitute the preparations that Satan uses to deceive people before he himself suddenly appears as Christ. When these counterfeits get such a firm hold in the fallen churches, how will it not be when Satan personifies himself as Christ and performs real miracles? It will be a hysteria like no other. People will come from all places to see the ‘saviour’ and to hear what he has to say and to see mighty miracles. Then he will also preach a false gospel and say that the Sabbath has been changed and moved from Saturday to Sunday.
When we see how the fallen church, and the world at large, has developed in the last 120 years, from the time when modern «speaking in tongues» came into vogue in the charismatic churches until our days, we see an exponential increase in all types deception that Satan is behind. One of the reasons for that is that Satan wants to block the influence of the advent movement, in that after 1844 they have found back many of the forgotten truths in the Bible, truths that were forgotten when the Catholic Church was dominant. Another reason and the biggest reason is that Satan knows he has little time left, and he uses all the means at his disposal to deceive, if possible, the whole world. Fortunately, there are some who stand guard on the walls and uphold God’s word. It is about these watchmen that God says the following. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, [which] shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence … // … Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward [is] with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, the holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken, (Isaiah 62:6; 62:10-12).
As I said, seductions have always been part of Satan’s tools to lead people away from God. In the book Early Writings, under the heading Mysterious Rapping, Ellen G. White says that she had a vision regarding such rapping phenomena on August 24, 1950, and that it was Satan who was behind it. This is part of the spiritualism that in our time flows into almost all churches and denominations, which, also use this false «speaking in tongues». However, there was real speed in the seductions at the turn of the year 1900/1901, when on January 1, at Bethel College in Kansas in the USA the modern speaking in tongue was introduced. They claimed that this was the form of speaking in tongues that the Bible refers to in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, where Paul discusses the gifts of the spirit. Bethel College is credited with starting the Pentecostal movement. Since then there has been an inflation of deceptions, and our enemy uses all sorts of dirty tricks to make us fall.
Regrettably, there are many people who believe that speaking new (other) tongues is the same as babbling along in some kind of slangy language. This form of ‘speaking in tongues’ is something we find both in the old occult mystery religions, and in all pagan tribal religions all over the world. Does anyone really believe that the disciples whom Jesus sent out to bring the gospel to the Gentiles babbled in an incomprehensible ‘language’? In order for the gospel to be understood, they had to speak the local language, this is also something we see in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2, which is about the apostles who were given the Holy Spirit, and about Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost. It says in verse 4 that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance, while in verse 6 it says that every man heard them speak in his own language. It is quite clear that the disciples were endowed with the ability to miraculously speak other known languages, see verses 7 to 11. Thomas, for example, went all the way to India where he preached the gospel, the Indians certainly did not understand Hebrew, and Thomas had certainly not study Indian at university, but he preached the gospel so that it bore fruit. Thomas miraculously spoke the languages necessary to make himself understood. He had received the gift of the Spirit to speak in other tongues.
In conclusion, I would like to refer to the apostle of love, John, who writes something important in 1 John 4:1. We should all take this to heart: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.