Speaking in tongues is the New Testament phenomena where a person speaks in a language that is unknown to him. This language is either the language of angels or other earthly languages (1 Cor. 13:1). It occurred in Acts 2 at Pentecost and also in the Corinthian church as is described in 1 Corinthians 14. This New Testament gift was given by the Holy Spirit to the Christian church and is for the purpose of the edification of the Body of Christ as well as for glorifying the Lord. Some churches erringly maintain that you must speak in tongues in order to be saved. This is a grave mistake since not all people speak in tongues because not all people are gifted by the Holy Spirit this way.

Glossolalists could, apart from those practicing glossolalia, also mean all those Christians who believe that the Pentecostal/charismatic glossolalia practiced today is the "speaking in tongues" described in the New Testament. They believe that it is a miraculous charism or spiritual gift. Glossolalists claim that these tongues can be both real, unlearned languages (i.e., xenoglossia)[13][14] as well as a "language of the spirit", a "heavenly language", or perhaps the language of angels.[15]

Cessationists believe that all the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased to occur early in Christian history, and therefore that the speaking in tongues practised today is simply the utterance of meaningless syllables. It is neither xenoglossia nor miraculous, but rather learned behavior, possibly self-induced. These believe that what the New Testament described as "speaking in tongues" was xenoglossia, a miraculous spiritual gift through which the speaker could communicate in natural languages not previously studied.

Does every Christian who receives the Holy Spirit speak in tongues?The book of Acts records many healings and other miracles, but only three incidents of tongues. This suggests that tongue-speaking was not a common occurrence, but rather a miraculous sign for special occasions as the apostles preached the gospel and established the church.VSThe gift of tongues was the most common spiritual gift in the New Testament church. The Bible tells us in Acts 2:4 that all of the original 120 disciples at Pentecost spoke in tongues in the Upper Room:"All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tonguesas the Spirit enabled them."We don't know if they all received the gift of faith or healing or discernment, but we know for a fact that all of them received the gift of tongues. Does speaking in tongues prove that the Holy Spirit has come to a person?It seems that most New Testament Christians did not speak in tongues. Several verses tell us that people were "filled with the Holy Spirit," but without any mention of tongues.This doesn't prove that tongue-speaking did not occur, but it does indicate that it was not important to mention it. Last, we note that the Gospels do not describe Jesus himself as speaking in tongues.5. What are people saying when they pray in tongues?The Bible reveals five main things that happen when believers pray in tongues:1. They are speaking directly to God. 1 Corinthians 14:2,"For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit."Tongues is an intimate and direct line of communication with God.2. They are declaring God's wonders. Acts2:11,"We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"Far from being nonsense, when we pray in tongues we are actually declaring the wonders and mysteries and majesty of God. How could that possibly be a bad thing?3. They are praising God. Acts10:46,"For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God."Even if we don't understand what we are saying when we speak in tongues, we are praising God in the Spirit (1 Cor.14:16).4. They are edifying themselves. 1 Cor. 14:4,"He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church."Praying in tongues is like a spiritual workoutit builds you up and makes you stronger spiritually.5. The Holy Spirit is praying through them, declaring God's will. Romans 8:26-27,"We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express...because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."Praying in the Spirit will bring revelation and insight into God's will for your life.

Summary of scientific findings1. Tongues does produce measurable changes in brain activity and blood flow in the brain.2. Certain part of the brain experience decreased activity- those that reflect conscious (cognitive) control, structured language, and learning and memory. What this means is that the mind is a. not controlling the tongues, b. language become unstructured and something the person is NOT familiar withc. real tongues is NOT a learned, or remembered, manifestation.3. Speaking in tongues is not due to increased mental effort. It is equated with deep sleep or deep relaxation. 4. There are spike events with Tongues, showing momentary decreased blood flow. Spikes are also found in epilepsy, but at a more intense level. Before one becomes concerned that tongues is harmful, one needs to understand what epilepsy is, and how the EEG (brain electrical activity) is different from tongues. Epilepsy reflects abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. This means that during the disease state, excess neurons are firing in unison, causing a seizure. In this case, the spikes are continuous, and excessive.However, during tongues, the neurons are firing in spikes at much lower frequency intervals. There is a certain advantage to neurons firing in unison, to achieve a successful effect. But in tongues, they are working together but the participation is NOT excessive.What can also cause brain malfunction, is if the neurons never work together, in unison. Tongues seems to be a condition between the two extremes of excess spikes, and none at all.

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I find it interesting, though, that proponents look at this study as proving that the Holy Spirit is what makes people speak in tongues. All thats really shown here is that the frontal lobe of the brain is not active as it would be in normal speech. If this proves the Holy Spirits involvement, well, that opens up a lot of other questions, doesnt it? For one thing, it is essentially monergistic (that God takes over and the human will and action are suppressed). But isnt that essentially possession? Does God do that? Even if you are a Bible-only Christian (sola scriptura), I dont see that sort of thing elsewhere in the Bible, that God possesses people and controls their actions while they watch as observers.ach speaker only seems to use phonemes normal to his native language. Why is that? If God really is taking over here, why is He limiting the sounds of Anglophones tongue-speaking to English phonemes? Surely theres room for an Arabic-style deep H or a few African clicks or Korean-style diphthongs or even some voiced palatal or retroflex fricatives.