Editing Speaking in tongues (section)

===Theological explanations===
In [[Christianity]], a supernatural explanation for glossolalia is advocated by some and rejected by others. Proponents of each viewpoint use the biblical writings and historical arguments to support their positions.
* '''Glossolalists''' could, apart from those practicing glossolalia, also mean all those Christians who believe that the Pentecostal/charismatic glossolalia practiced today is the "speaking in tongues" described in the New Testament. They believe that it is a miraculous [[charism]] or [[spiritual gift]]. Glossolalists claim that these tongues can be both real, unlearned languages (i.e., [[xenoglossia]])<ref name=grudem1994p1070>{{Cite book|first=Wayne A. |last=Grudem |author-link=Wayne Grudem |title=Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine |publisher=[[Inter-Varsity Press]] |location=[[Leicester]] |year=1994 |page=1070 |isbn=978-0851106526 |oclc=29952151}}</ref><ref name=ag-baptism2000>{{cite web|author=General Presbytery of the Assemblies of God |date=11 August 2000 |title=The Baptism in the Holy Spirit: The Initial Experience and Continuing Evidences of the Spirit-Filled Life |url=http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Position_Papers/pp_downloads/pp_4185_spirit-filled_life.pdf |publisher=[[General Council of the Assemblies of God of the United States]] |access-date=9 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217141421/http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Position_Papers/pp_downloads/pp_4185_spirit-filled_life.pdf |archive-date=17 December 2008 }}</ref> as well as a "language of the spirit", a "heavenly language", or perhaps the [[Angelic tongues|language of angels]].<ref name=grudem1994p1072>{{Cite book|first=Wayne A. |last=Grudem |author-link=Wayne Grudem |title=Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine |publisher=[[Inter-Varsity Press]] |location=[[Leicester]] |year=1994 |page=1072 |isbn=978-0851106526 |oclc=29952151}}</ref>
* '''[[cessationism|Cessationists]]''' believe that all the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased to occur early in Christian history, and therefore that the speaking in tongues as practiced by Charismatic Christians is the learned utterance of non-linguistic syllables. According to this belief, it is neither xenoglossia nor miraculous, but rather taught behavior, possibly self-induced. These believe that what the New Testament described as "speaking in tongues" was xenoglossia, a miraculous spiritual gift through which the speaker could communicate in natural languages not previously studied.
*A third position claims that glossolalia does exist, but it is a form of [[prelest]], not the "speaking in tongues" described in the New Testament. It believes glossolalia is part of a mediumistic technique where practitioners are manifesting genuine spiritual power, but this power is not necessarily of the Holy Spirit.<ref name="Rose1997">{{cite book |last=Rose |first=Seraphim |title=Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future |date=1997 |publisher=St Herman Press |isbn=188790400X |page=137 |language=en |quote=There is scarcely to be found an example of "speaking in tongues" in any even nominally Christian context for over 1,600 years after the time of Paul...and yet this "gift" is possessed by numerous shamans and witch doctors of primitive religions, as well as by modern spritistics mediums and the demonically possessed.}}</ref>
* A fourth position conceivably exists, which believes the practice of "glossolalia" to be a folk practice and different from the legitimate New Testament spiritual gift of speaking/interpreting real languages. It is therefore not out of a belief that "miracles have ceased" (i.e., cessationism) that causes this group to discredit the supernatural origins of particular modern expressions of "glossolalia", but it is rather out of a belief that glossolalists have misunderstood Scripture and wrongly attributed to the Holy Spirit something that may be explained naturalistically.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/health/07brain.html|title=A Neuroscientific Look at Speaking in Tongues|first=Benedict|last=Carey |newspaper=The New York Times|date=7 November 2006}}</ref>