Speaking in tongues has been a hot-button topic for evangelicals for quite some time. One side challenging the efficacy of its practice within churches today and the other side wholeheartedly embracing it's practice as a standard for Spirit-filled living. The historical record of glossolalia is not without controversy. The faithful believe that its inception stems from the book of Acts with the Holy Spirit descending upon faithful as fire. While there is evidence that speaking with tongue was not confined to the day of Pentecost and existed both within and outside of the Jewish and Christian traditions alike. However, Pentecostals would say that this was not an authentic practice in earlier forms prior to the New Testament church.With the emergence of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Churches of the 21st century, the question of biblical credence of glossolalia is one which clergy continue to grapple with and brings out deep feelings on both sides--continualist and cessationist. I Timothy 2:15 reads ..".study to show our selves approved unto God a workman that doesn't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." He would only want us to study, pray and have an open heart to whatever that practice reveals. With that, I believe that it is a worthwhile endeavor to test the viability of speaking in tongues within the framework of the continuity of its practice within history from early Christianity through the present. The Bible illustrates several instances of speaking in tongues in the New Testament church. If study of doctrine and history bears out that its practice continues through the present, then it is plausible that the intent is that believers continue its practice in modern day church. Conversely, if the cessation of its practice in history and the biblical interpretation agrees, then the cessationist view is plausible. Again, God is not unnerved by any question, but our finite understanding gives Him the opportunity to provide Himself strong, omnipotent and omniscient for all the world to see.

This study focuses on the history of speaking in tongues ("glossolalia") without regard for differences of denomination. Under consideration are Christian theologians, leaders, clergy and prominent protestant figures in light of their viewpoints through the centuries to the present. Our objective is to trace the occurrences of glossolalia in the world primarily within the Christian tradition without regard for denomination or church dogma. For many believers, the baptism of the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues is a concurrent event. However, for the purposes of discovery and to follow the tradition from the day of Pentecost, we will attempt to follow tongues through the centuries. The purpose is to show if speaking in tongues occurred in Christian history without interruption and if its practice was a necessity for salvation as some churches and theologians have taught and continue to the current era.

Every critic who desires to deny the validity of modern tongue speech must develop a scheme to destroy Paul's teaching.Through the centuries, there has been a wide variety of answers regarding the validity and veracity of speaking, praying, and singing in tongues, and its place within the life of the Christian and the Church. What is it? Is speaking in tongues such a radically supernatural experience that language is totally unknown, or is it, as some have contended, actual human languages that are simply unknown to the speakers? Several have believed it to be the language of heaven or at least from heaven. Others have declared it to be ecstatic, unintelligible utterances that require a highly charged emotional moment to experience. Should each Christian pray and sing in tongues, or is it reserved for a special few deeply spiritual ones? Did Jesus pray in tongues? These questions and more are answered by author and pastor Richard Hogue inTongues: A Theological History of Christian Glossolalia. His academic approach begins by firmly establishing biblical evidence before launching a chronological connect-the-dots exercise through Christian history. The design revealed is the undeniable influence of the Holy Spirit. From Saul of Tarsus to John Wesley, from Pentecost to Azusa Street, Richard Hogue follows the gift of tongues and clearly draws a picture of today's role of the Holy Spirit inTongues: A Theological History of Christian Glossolalia.

From the eyes of a minister raised in the traditional Pentecostal church, The History of the Glossolalia From The Pentecostal Perspective traces the art of speaking in tongues from its Pentecostal roots shortly after the death of Jesus Christ to its more recent practices in the modern church. By referencing current events and popular debate this study shows how this rare language remained unchanged despite many attempts to redefine its significance and meaning.

In three carefully researched volumes, this ground-breaking study examines the gift of tongues through two thousand years of church history. Starting in the present and working back in time, these volumes consider (1) the modern redefinition of “tongues” as a private prayer language; (2) the church’s perennial understanding of “tongues” as ordinary human languages; and (3) the Corinthian “tongues,” which, in light of Jewish liturgical tradition, turn out to have been a Semitic liturgical language requiring bilingual interpreters. This second volume tracks the perception and practice of tongues back through the first eighteen hundred years of church history, demonstrating that “tongue-speaking” was always active but puzzlingly different from today’s glossolalia. From Pope Benedict XIV’s detailed treatise in the 1700s, it works back through long-forgotten scholastic and patristic debates to the earliest Christian writers such as Irenaeus. No other resource on the subject approaches the depth and scope of the present volume.

In three carefully researched volumes, this ground-breaking study examines the gift of tongues through two thousand years of church history. Starting in the present and working back in time, these volumes consider (1) the modern redefinition of “tongues” as a private prayer language; (2) the church’s perennial understanding of “tongues” as ordinary human languages; and (3) the Corinthian “tongues,” which, in light of Jewish liturgical tradition, turn out to have been a Semitic liturgical language requiring bilingual interpreters. This second volume tracks the perception and practice of tongues back through the first eighteen hundred years of church history, demonstrating that “tongue-speaking” was always active but puzzlingly different from today’s glossolalia. From Pope Benedict XIV’s detailed treatise in the 1700s, it works back through long-forgotten scholastic and patristic debates to the earliest Christian writers such as Irenaeus. No other resource on the subject approaches the depth and scope of the present volume.

In three carefully researched volumes, this ground-breaking study examines the gift of tongues through 2,000 years of church history. Starting in the present and working back in time, these volumes consider (1) the modern redefinition of "tongues" as a private prayer language; (2) the church's perennial understanding of "tongues" as ordinary human languages; and (3) the Corinthian "tongues," which, in light of Jewish liturgical tradition, turn out to have been a foreign liturgical language (Hebrew or Aramaic) requiring bilingual interpreters. In the first volume, the authors establish that modern glossolalia, far from being a supernatural gift enjoyed by certain believers since the time of Pentecost and undergoing a resurgence in modern times, has no precedent in church life prior to the nineteenth century. They discuss why German theologians, responding to the Irvingite revival, coined the term "glossolalia" in the 1830s; why Pentecostals between 1906-8 quietly began redefining "tongues" to mean a heavenly language unintelligible to human beings but pleasing to God, instead of foreign languages useful for evangelism; why Protestant cessationists believed miraculous tongues had ceased; and why interpolated idioms like "unknown tongues" in Protestant Bibles were aimed originally at Rome's use of Latin.