I've already made up my mind because the bible does not support, and actually discourages, ecstatic babblings. Coupled with christian maturity, I refuse to dishonor God by babbling at him in gibberish. If He really is God, and he is omniscient, He does not require or need me to babble ecstatically at Him.
Praying in tongues is not a salvation issue anyway; it's one of the gifts of the Spirit,
Praying in tongues is not only NOT a salvation issue, it's not even a biblical issue. Do you mean speaking in tongues? I spoke in tongues once, in Mexico. I spoke english and a mexican national spoke spanish. We both understood each other. it greatly increased my faith. However, I've never prayed in tongues. There is no such biblical idea and God does not needed it.
The Bible says that when we pray in an unknown tongue (or language) we edify ourselves (build ourselves up). This is not the kind of building ourselves up to puff up our egos, it is a building up of our faith.
First: The bible, in I Cor 14:, says "speak" not "pray".
Second: Paul is using sarcasm. Gifts are to be used to build up others in the church, they are not for building up one's self. That idea is anathema to the bible.
Last: They were originally intended to demonstrate to the jews of the diaspora, that God was doing a new thing.
Praying in tongues is the enabling of our spirit by the Holy Spirit to do something that is not comprehensible to our natural mind. It requires us to put aside our "logic and wisdom" and let our spiritual side connect with the Spirit of God.
God desires to be worhsipped in spirit and in truth. It is impossible to worship Him apart from understanding. The word "logic" comes from the greek logos.
Isaiah 43:10
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servants whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
The idea is that people will know and understand. Any religion can offer ecstatic babbling, based on emotionalism and apart from any truth or logic, but Jehovah is the only God that offers truth and understanding. To babble ecstatically is silly and childish at best -- idolatry at worst.
This operation of the gift of tongues is different than being able to speak to someone from a foreign land and have them hear you in their own language. It is different from the speaking in tongues that is accompanied by an interpretation and is meant for the body of believers. All of these are manifestations of the gift of speaking in tongues, and all of them have their proper place and usage, and are backed up by Scripture.
You make a distinction between praying in tongues and the biblical use of speaking in tongues. You then state that it is supported biblically. It's not and I can't seem to locate it in my bible after innumerable, careful, prayerful study of it.
I find for most people, the whole issue of speaking or praying in tongues is a personal preference issue. . . . My point would be that I would be careful about calling someone's personal, spiritual experiences with God "hogwash" just because you don't have a spiritual understanding of it, or maybe don't even want to.
I have a mature, biblical understanding of the ecstatic babbling that charismatics perform and pretend is biblical. I won't we swayed, not because I am some egotistical narrow minded fundamentalist, but because ecstatic babbling is unbiblical and hogwash.
If you were more mature or less stubborn, you might realize your biblical error.
You claim there is no Biblical support, yet every time anyone has offered it on this thread you have dismissed it because it doesn't fit with your personal theology, so you therefore choose to ignore it.
1Cor.14:2 says, "For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. For no one hears, but in spirit he speaks mysteries." You want to try and make the distinction between speaking and praying, but when you pray to God, are you not speaking to Him? What do you think it is if not speaking to Him? Duuhhh!!
But I guess if that makes you comfortable to try and split hairs like the Pharisees were fond of doing, then go ahead. Just don't tell me about your "mature biblical understanding" when all you do is label, ridicule, name call, and display your close-mindedness.
Yeah, you've got it all figured out.