Ecstatic Tongues
History of 'Glossolalia'
History of 'Glossolalia'
Where did this ecstatic tongues, also known as glossolalia come from? We have already shown in this website that it did not come from the Bible, as speaking in Bible tongues is speaking in other languages of the world, in order to further the gospel to other nations. So where did this "babble" come from? Below is a brief history of ecstatic tongues and where it came from.
There is an estimated 100 million professing Christians around the world today speaking in this ecstatic tongues, and that number is growing rapidly all the time. And with so many people speaking in this "babble" it is important to know the truth about it, and expose it as a counterfeit tongue, that is not from the Holy Spirit. Remember, Satan always has a counterfeit for Bible truth.
Speaking in glossolalia actually predates the day of Pentecost in the New Testament and history records occasions of this ecstatic tongues being used by non believers. Back in 1100BC, a young "amen" worshiper became possessed by a "god" and began to make sounds just like the ecstatic tongues we hear today. Now when someone is possessed by a "god", it can only mean one thing, and that is they were possessed by a demon, or Satan. So the force behind this early incident of glossolalia was Satan.
Seven hundred years later in 400BC, the Greek philosopher Plato referred to a number of people who spoke in this ecstatic tongues, while they were praying. Now the interesting thing about these incidents is that people actually got healed by practicing these utterances. Is that a sign that these utterances were actually holy and from God? No, because Satan also has the power to heal people and make them think that what they are doing is from God.
In the century before Christ, Virgil described the account of the Sybilline priestess on the Island of Delos speaking in ecstatic tongues as the result of her being unified with the god Apollo. This happened while she meditated in a "haunted" cave amidst the sounds of the wind playing strange music through the crevices in the rocks. This type of account can easily be seen as being from Satan, not God.
The Mithra cult of the Persians, the Osiris cult of the Pharaohs, the Dionysian, Eulusinian, 
and
Orphic cults cradled
in Macedonia, Thrace and Greece, all record the same phenomenon of "speaking
in tongues". Also, Lucian
of Samosata (A.D. 120-198) describes in "De Dea Syria" an example of ecstatic tongues (glossolalia)
being spoken by a "roamer", who believed in "June" the Syrian goddess. This should cause great
alarm to these millions of Christians today speaking in this ecstatic tongues, that their utterances greatly
resemble the ecstatic tongues spoken by the people in these ancient cults.
Now we have already shown in this website that the tongues spoken on the day of Pentecost was basically speaking in different languages of the world, not the babble we hear today. So how come we see this ecstatic tongues being used by such large numbers of people today? Well, it began to grow fairly recently in history. The first "wave" of glossolalia started in 1901 through a man named Charles Parham of Bethel College in Kansas. The second "wave" was started through a man named Dennis Bennett in the 1960's. Dennis was the rector of St Marks Episcopal (Anglican) Church. Within ten years of this, speaking in ecstatic tongues had spread to many of the major protestant churches, and by 1990 it had reached 55 million Christians, including Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics and many others. The third "wave" of glossolalia was through the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement, which started in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1967, by students and faculty of DuQuesne University. Then by 1993 it had influenced the lives of over 100 million Roman Catholics all over the world. The fourth "wave" was started by evangelicals in 1987 at Fuller Theological Seminary, and specifically by a man named John Wimber. As a result, by 1990, 33 million professing Christians were living in the "signs and wonders" movement.
Believe it or not, speaking in ecstatic tongues is not just confined to Christian circles. Studies have revealed that ecstatic utterances is present in many non Christian religions all over the world. It is practiced in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Siberia, Arabia, Burma, and Arctic regions as well as many other places. Glossolalia is found among the Eskimos, Japanese séances in Hokkaido, in a small cult led by Genji Yanagide of Moji City, the shamans in Ethiopia in the zar cult and various spirits in Haitian Voodoo, and is also found extensively in African tribal religions.
So as we can clearly see, this speaking in ecstatic tongues did not come about through belief in the true Creator God, or through studying the Bible. It just happened suddenly. So we must ask, if speaking in Bible tongues is the God given ability of speaking in another world language in order to further the true gospel message, then how can this glossolalia, which many people speak who don't even know the gospel be from God? It can't be. We receive "power" from only two sources, God or Satan. It's that black and white. So if this ecstatic tongues is not from God and does not further the gospel message, then it can only be from one other source, and that is Satan.
Friend, end time Bible prophecy reveals that we are living in the end of time for this world, and these spiritual manifestations from Satan will continue to grow in number and power, deceiving "if possible, the very elect." We MUST study the Word of God in the Bible and find out the truth about these things, so that we will not be deceived. Please study this yourself and let God show you the truth, as the truth will set you free!