yesterdays prophecies / todays headlines

[Ninurta]

Basically, My husband studied the New Testament when he was called upon to become a Pastor after their Pastor interpitted what his Mother had said one Sunday night when she was Filled With The Spirit of The Holy Ghost and Speaking in Tongues.   He was 12 years old and Mr. G. said it Scared The Holy Shit Out Of Him when he was asked to stand in Church.
He thought he'd been caught kissing the Preachers Daughter, again.

He doesn't believe and has not been convinced that Prophesies that are more than 2000 years old are reliable.
Just His Humble Opinion.

I'm impressed he got that far. Just speaking in tongues is enough to freak me out. When I was in high school, my last year, and again when I was at a community college a couple of years later, I worked as a radio DJ. one of my duties was to come in on Sunday morning (because no one else wanted to) and run the religious programming. We had live preachers who ran half hour shows all morning long from about 9 am up to 12 noon or 1 PM. All of them appeared to be trying to crowd their entire congregations into that bitty little sound studio, and some of them were what is called around here "holiness" or "full gospel" preachers, and occasionally someone would break out into tongues, and it always raised the hackles on the back of my neck.

I had to set my foot down and draw the line one fine Sunday when some Snake Handlers brought in a box of live rattlesnakes.

Anyhow, that sort of thing gives me the willies - not just the snakes, but the whole tongues thing. Later in life, I was at an Assemblies of God Church one Sunday evening when what I thought was a pretty weird and curious thing happened. Folks were jumping up at random and gibbering in "tongues", and it was all just gibberish to me... until one lady about 20 yards to my right, and slightly behind me, jumped up and started gibbering away. Now, that was not the weird part, to me. What was weird to me is that I could understand what she was saying, and it wasn't in English - it was in Ancient Sumerian. Now, I'm no slouch at languages, but Ancient Sumerian is NOT one of the ones I can speak or understand... generally speaking. It started with me just catching a word here and there and understanding it, with streams of gibberish in between, and as it went on, I understood more and more of it, until I could understand everything. That struck me as pretty weird, especially since I was just visiting, not a member there. It's not like I'd had a lot of practice at it or anything.

What was being said was not anything that ought ever to be uttered in a house God is supposed to own.

A few minutes into it, a guy to my left got up and started "interpreting" what she was saying, but I knew that what he was saying was nothing like an  actual "interpretation" - it was more gibberish-ish than what she was saying, because it had no bearing at all on what was actually being said. At that point, I stood up, gathered up my wife at the time, and walked away... really fast. it wasn't anything I wanted anything to do with.

I didn't have much use for tongues before that, and absolutely none after it. I still can't speak or understand Ancient Sumerian - it seems to have been a one-shot deal, for what purpose I'll never know.

After that, I decided to research the subject to try and understand what had actually happened, and hopefully why. It seems that in Acts, where this phenomenon is first mentioned, some itinerant preachers were preaching to crowds from several different nations, and each person understood what was being said in HIS OWN LANGUAGE - not any sort of "unknown tongues". I couldn't find any reference in the Bible to anything resembling the modern concept of "unknown tongues". A Pentecostal explained to me that it was a "secret language" understood only by your soul and God, and taught me how to speak in tongues at will and on purpose. I can still do it - but I don't. I'm not about to say anything to God that I don't even know what I'm saying MYSELF. I'm not buying that whole concept - it seems sort of spiritually dangerous to me... and I no longer trust any "interpretations".

Even though I researched it as thoroughly as I could, I've never found out or understood what happened in that church that evening. It's not anything I ever want to repeat, though. What that woman was saying... it was as if Pazuzu himself was speaking, and planning to steamroll the congregation.

I can understand Mr. G's trepidation - if someone said in tongues "get thee to preaching", I'd run as fast and hard as I could.

Temple or no.


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