But they all sound like random sounds to someone who doesn't understand the language.
Not necessarily. Children don't understand vocabulary until they learn it, but they somehow know what's being said anyway, because communication is the conveying of ideas and they can read the body language to understand the effect that the words are having. So even though they don't know what's being said, they know what the impact of the words is, and that's why Paul says "I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others" because words that aren't understood are meaningless.
That also happens to be exactly what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:9:
unless you utter speech that is intelligible, how will what is spoken be understood? For you will be talking to the wind! (TLV).
I have a friend who spoke in a tongue that seems to have some disconnected sounds in it and very simple. I just wondered if it was a language at all. However, in a prayer meeting where there was a visiting Ghanaian, The visitor stopped the meeting and told my friend that he was praising God in his own village dialect. I knew the Ghanaian guy, and he was a very pleasant, godly and enthusiastic believer, and was excited to hear someone praising God in his own particular dialect. He and I knew that there was no way my friend could ever have known that dialect, and all he was doing was "babbling" in tongues as you describe Pentecostals doing, and yet he was speaking a particular understood language at that time.
Yes I am sure it does happen (
JLB, look), and I've heard a similar testimony. What the difference is in the exercise, whether it is according to scripture. Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 14:23, that if an unbeliever comes in and sees them speaking in tongues (without an interpreter), they're are going to look crazy. There's plenty of memes mocking it if you search them out on YouTube.
Heres a pretty good video I just found that I think may be useful. What he's saying is that there is a powerful testimony and sign for unbelievers when the tongues are done right (1 Corinthians 14:22) but there's also danger in the abuse of the gift, that does harm to the ministry (1 Corinthians 14:23).
So we cannot know whether the "babbling" that is heard in Pentecostal meetings is or isn't language that can be understood if a native speaker of the language is present.
That's the purpose of 1 Corinthians 14:28, don't you agree? Then why do we see so many churches not observing it? The answer can only be that they don't want to be deprived of the glory of thinking that they are exercising a heavenly gift. ... Unless you might be able to suggest a different answer?
The only reason why you think that Mandarin, Hindi, or Latvian isn't babbling is that you already know they are understandable languages.
Well as I said, the words that are being spoken do have a definite meaning and the person who is using them knows what is being conveyed by them. The difference is that neither the speaker or the hearer understands what is being said because it quite literally is just babble.
There's a technical term for it actually, "glossolalia". If you want to see a video about that, I'd recommend the first 2m 15seconds of this one:
But if you were in a Pentecostal meeting and a European person who had not learned New Zealand Maori was speaking in that language while praising God in tongues, you wouldn't know that he was doing anything else but "babbling".
The example I mentioned above is of someone who told me a story of her friend who went to a Marae and didn't know how to speak Maori and she prayed before she got there and she just spoke English to them. Afterward she was told that she had spoken the most fluent Maori they had ever heard and they were all amazed. As I said in the first place though, there's a visible difference between someone using language that has meaning as compared to someone speaking gibberish. You can see in the body language whether the words are carrying meaning to one or another.
I believe that many kinds of tongues spoken in Pentecostal churches are understandable world languages, but are not understood because there are no native speakers of those languages present.
Why is it allowed to happen though, when scripture so clearly tells us to not do it?
As far as "angelic" languages are concerned, it is important to note that Paul said "If I speak in the languages of angels and have not love, I am just a useless noise." He did not use the word when, so there is no indication that he viewed tongues as the language of angels.
He said "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but have not love, then..." In doing that he is saying that whenever he does speak in the tongues of men and of angels, unless it is with love, then...
The fact that he is speaking in the tongue of a man while he says it, shows that he does in fact speak in the tongues of men from time to time. In order to recognise when he is speaking in the tongues of angels, one first must be born again because "no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" and it is not as though we don't ever hear the tongues of angels, because "are they not all ministering spirits sent out for service to those who are Inheriting salvation?". Therefore we have a share among them when we speak, for "in my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so I would not have told you. So I go now in order to prepare a place for you", and "you have not come to a mountain that can be touched (or a crowd speaking gibberish, as it were) but to the heavenly city and a throng of angels".
So to say that tongues is or is not angelic language is building a belief on a very shaky foundation.
Only if they don't know the difference (Luke 6:39). On the contrary, we are receiving an unshakable kingdom (Hebrews 12:28) and that kingdom is ruled by God's law (Matthew 6:10). Jesus warned about that "whoever breaks the commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered least in the kingdom", so therefore given the gravity of the offences whereby stumblings occur, it is our responsibility to bring to light the errors in the ways of the churches so there is an opportunity for repentance (2 Timothy 3:16, James 5:19-20, Luke 17:1-2, Matthew 13:41).