The charismatic movement in Christianity seemed to appear out of nowhere in the 1970s and has become a dominant force in that religion. It has largely fed off the growing dissatisfaction with Catholicism and the mainline protestant denominations. But there appears to be more to this story.
I researched a key feature of this movement which is, in their terminology, speaking in tongues. This practice falls under the more general heading of ecstatic utterances since the faithful are whipped into a frenzy by the service and respond with what is typically shouted babble.
Ecstatic utterances are/were practiced by:
· The prophets of Aphrodite (female and male prostitutes whose influence infiltrated the church in Corinth.)
· Priestesses at Delphi
· "In ancient times the practice of speaking in unintelligible languages during religious ecstasy was not unknown. From eleventh-century B.C. Egypt come reports of ecstatic speech, and later in the Greek world the prophetess of Delphi and the Sibylline priestess spoke in unknown tongues. Amongst the Roman mystery religions, the Dionysian Cult was known for this practice.” Millard Erickson's Christian Theology and Walter Elwell's Evangelical Dictionary of Theology
· Virgil in his Aeneid stated that the pagan sibylline oracles on the island of Delos spoke in ecstatic utterances
· Shakers - established in the US in 1776, by mother Ann Lee, who claimed she was the embodiment of God. Declared that all sex is evil. To purge the sexual desire she instituted the practice of dancing around naked while speaking in tongues. They also had séances to call up Indian guides.
· Irvingites - founded by Edward Irving. Irving taught Christ was a sinner and the second coming would be in 1864.
· Joseph Smith stated "arise upon your feet speak or make some sound, continue to make sounds of some kind and the Lord will make a tongue or language of it."
· Sects of Buddhists
· Sects of Hindus
· Sects of Muslims
· Pentecostals
· Charismatics
· Word of Faith
In my research I also discovered Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order was also fond of this practice:
Later, in order to examine and discuss the election I had made, I took out the reasons I had written down to examine them. I prayed to our Lady, and then to the Son and to the Father, to give me their Spirit to examine and distinguish, although I was speaking of something already done, and felt a deep devotion and certain lights with some clearness of view, I sat down, considering, as it were in general, whether I should have complete or partial revenue, or nothing at all, and I lost all desire to see any reasons. At this moment other lights came to me, namely, how the Son first sent the Apostles to preach in poverty, and afterwards, the Holy Spirit, giving His Spirit and the gift of tongues, confirmed them, and thus the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit, all Three Persons confirmed the mission.
It should not surprise anyone that the current Jesuit Pope is also a fan::
“I don't think that the charismatic renewal movement merely prevents people from passing over to Pentecostal denominations,” Pope Francis said. “No! It is also a service to the church herself! It renews us."
“The movements are necessary, the movements are a grace of the Spirit,” the pope added, speaking of ecclesial movements in general. “Everyone seeks his own movement, according to his own charism, where the Holy Spirit draws him or her.”
It is not unusual for Jesuits to use the term charism. It essentially means magic, and it is the root of the word charismatic. The Pentecostal church is growing really fast in what have been Catholic countries such as Mexico. It's not like Pentecostalism was started by a guy nailing theses to a door. It appears to be another form of Catholicism, which in turn appears to be a form of Gnosticism.
Where did the Bible say glossolalia would stop? Were the Apostles demonicly inspired too? And Paul when he talked about praying in the Spirit? So are all manifestations of God evil, or just the ones that make you feel weird?
Apostles did not practice ecstatic utterances. That was a gnostic thing. It made inroads into Christianity around 150 AD with Montanus. What surprises me is that there is nothing in the biblical books that specifically addresses the practice given that the canonical list was not established until the 4th Century.
Why did they accuse them in Act 2 of being drunk? What happened there?
I'm not sure. That story does not exclude the possibility that the Christians suddenly started speaking in a foreign language without any prior training or practice. It certainly does not explicitly state that's what happened. An unconditioned reader would assume they did study and used the opportunity to spread the gospel to a diverse audience.
They were in fact accused of being drunk, its the plain reading of the text. Conditioning would have the same effect on the the resurrection event - maybe Jesus was just tired after being crucified and just fell asleep.....