Speaking in Tongues
Speaking in tongues is not gibberish. It’s the language of angels, according to the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 13:1). If you can interpret the language, you can edify the Church.
“If anyone has an ear, let him hear.” (Revelation 13:9)
Speaking in tongues has long been associated with gibberish because nobody, who knows what it means, will correct you. They can’t. It’s against the ‘rules.’
When Jesus brought the mountains low and the valleys high, the plane of existence meant cohabitation for all sides. Emmanuel means God with us or in our midst as he is among us. The flaming sword guards Eden from all sides, which maintains division. That division requires people to speak in a certain way that only those indoctrinated can understand, which is why Jesus only taught in parables.
The Sense of Words
I used to call this speaking in the sense of words, but it is more than that. It’s very creative, candidly. In short, speaking in tongues is a strange combination of allegory, metaphor, and saying everything but what you mean. Think of it as a game of verbal charades. Perhaps an easy distinction is to think of how language evolved from cave paintings. How do you say cow without saying cow? You draw the picture. Tongues is no different. It is saying cow while using other words and images. It’s charades.
Gibberish
What speaking in tongues is not, however, is gibberish. That idea may be ecstatic prayer, which I also discovered was real. Strangely real. It’s not tongues, though. It is somehow being overwhelmed with the spirit to the point you may not be able to speak at all. If you can, it is deep enough that you probably don’t care to break the spell, so to speak, that the Holy Spirit puts over you. This is different than tongues. At least, that is my bizarre experience.
Tongues
Quite different from ecstatic prayer, speaking in tongues is communicating in the essence of things – riddles. It is saying everything you need to communicate without directly saying anything at all. Things are often said backward to hint at what you mean. The Bible, for example, uses a dog in this way. That’s a backward god, lowercase, as a fallen angel. It is someone who eats scraps from under the table (Judges 1:7, Matthew 15:27).
The Apostle Paul was a tentmaker. These were not tents used for camping but temporary spiritual dwelling places – the human body divided from its spiritual side. A tent is an empty temporary dwelling place.
A pineapple pizza is like the fruit of the tree of life, or evergreen pine, on an unleavened round bread product with a halo. It is baked in an oven like an Egyptian desert. The idea is someone who is stuck in the circus of life and can’t get out. The pineapple in the oven is something out of place.
Interpreting the Bible requires us to consider every aspect of the kind of thing discussed, or we will miss the layers and depth. For example, a plant is short with a fibrous root system. A tree has fruit and a tap root. The nuance of things adds flavor to the text and explains why a tree can clap. It’s a family tree and personifies the existence of the line. Remember the blind person who Jesus healed? He could see trees. Then Jesus healed him ‘more’ and he could see the trees were men. Accordingly, clapping is the coming together of the left and right side or the righteous and unrighteous meeting as a lesson of joy.
Language Comes to Life
Sometimes it can be hard to pick up on, but many memes, are this kind of language. Cats are used, as they are biblical, and lie in wait. The lion of Judah, like the whelp of Dan and Judah (Gen 49:9, Deut 33:22), comes to unlock things in the end. The leopard depicts someone with spots who leaps from one generation or person to the next; as Jesus said, the son of man has no place to rest his head. Jesus also taught some will never taste death. The representation is a form of recycling through life experiences, as Ezekiel 16:61 promises. Jesus was the son of David, which is impossible unless the essence of a person can hang out in the DNA for periods. Of course, Adam and Eve hid in the trees before being clothed by God (Genesis 3:8). Likewise, Judas hung himself in a tree.
I offer scientific solutions for this in one of my pending books, but the idea is spiritual reincarnation. Of course, reincarnation should surprise no Christian as we expect the second coming. The interesting twist is how it happens in the temporal world. This, however, is the curse of the money changers who keep casting lots or throwing “ransoms” back into the boiling pot of life, hoping for a return. The process adds to spiritual debt. Jesus changes that, but it takes time. He did this by confusing languages as the Word. Jesus, however, taught people how to understand tongues, but he called them parables. This parabolic system of riddles maintains division (Matt 13:13-17), which allows the appropriate period of time to pass. That is how Jesus stopped the system while Jesus’ truth spreads to every corner.
The Key – What’s Not Said
The key to the modern application of speaking in tongues is to gather all information, including locations, colors, animals, actions – and everything else. Each detail is a potential piece of the puzzle. That is what it means to speak in this layered language. These riddles are used to this day.
Biblical Metaphors
This concept of metaphor is used throughout the Bible as a form of speaking in tongues, such as in 1 Corinthians 9:9, where oxen are used as a metaphor for men. Revelation 11:8 says Egypt and Sodom are metaphors for the great city.
The Bible decodes itself, like the examples above, in various places across the Bible. While Revelation calls Egypt and Sodom allegory, oxen are decoded as men. Human souls are decoded as children, while skin is a body or human tent (Gen 3:21). Circumcision is being cut off, not the medical procedure we have today (Galatians 5:24, 6:12-15).
Consider this image depicting actual foreskin from the wall of the Sistine Chapel:
Important concepts are lost in history as traditions of men overtake some other kind of reality. Secrecy and the order of things keep us from understanding what is really going on in the world around us.
For this reason, slaves work while they do not know what the master is doing, but a friend knows what the master is doing (John 15:15-16). Sacrificial animals are kinds of people measured according to ‘your’ valuation (Leviticus 27:27). A horn is a voice or testimony (Daniel 7:11, 1 Sam 2:11). Fish represent a kind of man (Habakkuk 1:14).
Application
The Apostle Paul woke up from the curse of pride when Jesus came and removed the scales from his eyes. He no longer judged, but he remained silent though he preached. This was accomplished through riddles, which are tongues. Paul said in 1 Cor 1:17 he used riddles so the cross would not be voided. This is a short introduction to tongues and why they come into play. Simply put, it is protection for the period of time Jesus’ ministry spreads throughout. That is, until all of the cities are desolate, Isaiah 6:11.
Nothing is as it seems.
Connection
I’m sharing this because it adds context to everything in the Bible, but it also adds to the context of art, songs (Psalm 49:4, Revelation 14:3), literature, and temporal speech. When you hear a song and can’t figure out what it means, you have to think of the sense of the words. You have to listen for anything that is not said. Then you can recognize the message.
