Encountering God and Speaking in tongues

[RevelationWriter]

11 hours ago, Paul James said:

Doesn't the Scripture say that those who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution, and didn't Jesus say that our enemies can be member of our own households?  Seems to have come true in your case.  When people get genuinely filled with the Spirit and flow out with the gifts in a legalistic environment, it can either cause others to praise God because of what you have received, or they can gnash their teeth on you out of envy and jealousy because they are not getting from God what you have received.

True.

[Paul James]

On 9/26/2018 at 12:38 PM, Waggles said:

I see that unbelief and calling the Word of God a lie is still prevalent and abounds. 

No wonder the likes of Bishop John Shelby Spong, the great unbeliever, is so popular and sells his books on unbelief in great numbers.

Amongst his many blasphemies is the claim that the accounts in the gospels of the many miracles done by Jesus are fictitious and made up to 

give the claims about Jesus' divinity some credibility.

Well why not? If Mark 16:15-20 can be disputed and trashed by unbelievers - the word of God is not true - then why not any other parts of the 

scriptures? 

Did you know that Spong and his ilk dispute much of the scriptures, as all unbelievers do: for example, the claim that Jesus ascended into heaven 

(Acts 1:9 vv) is completely false and impossible. 

Unbelief - there are no boundaries. 

I believe that the particular Mark passage was inserted very early on because that is what the early church believed and practiced.  Later manuscripts that were copied when the church became formalised and the gifts and miracles had largely declined, the scribe left the passage out because he saw that because it was not happening in his neck of the woods, it was better not to be there.  This is why some manuscripts have the passage in there, and others don't.  The earliest manuscript we have was copied in the 4th Century, when the supernatural gifts had largely ceased because of the invasion of paganism and formalism into the church.   So it is understandable that a scribe copying a manuscript would find it more convenient to leave the passage out rather than question why his area of the church no longer experiences what the passage says.

[CaptWalker]

Well when i was a brand new Christian over 24 years ago, this subject really bothered me a great deal, and the fact that i never did have that experience of spiritual tongues or anything else. But now it's not so much, but am still very much confused about a lot of it, especially these apparently true stories of Christians in other countries who suddenly have some "experience" and started speaking the native language of those around them, and never could figure out why other than it being a sign to those people that God and the Holy Spirit are real? 

But as far as how it is in Pentecostal or Charismatic circles, it seems that the main emphasis is 100% on Tongues, and the Prophesying part is somehow dismissed, or maybe they consider that to be a part of the utterance in other languages??  Either way, after all these years my basic understanding of it is that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit will include speaking in other tongues, even if no one else around understands or even cares what you are saying. And unless you have this experience, then your main goal in life as a true Believer is to continue to seek this experience...even though you are already basically "saved", but still lacking in these things.  Even if those who actually claim to have experienced this "baptism" are actually in the vast minority in comparison to most normal Christians? And if it really were such a big deal then you would think there would be preachers EVERYWHERE pushing this as something that is essential to every believer as far as there relationship with God?! But apparently it must not be that essential...???