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Don Murphy: “Full Gospel” Includes Both Miracles and Sharing Material Goods

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The Pentecostal Hutterite Don Murphy writes in his pamphlet The Church and the Narrow Path, to which I agree completely:

The Book of Acts chapter 2 records the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ and it describes what that Church was like. In the first part of Acts 2, we see the Church born in the power of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus said (Acts 1:8). Then in the last part of Acts 2, we see the lifestyle of the early church, they were together daily, sharing their lives together, giving up private possessions as Jesus commanded (Luke 14:33), having all material possessions in common.

Using Acts 2 as a guide, we see that there are four types of churches today.

  1. Churches that bear little resemblance to the description of the Church in Acts 2 since they do not expect to have the power of the Holy Spirit in them as was in the early church and they do not follow the holy lifestyle of the early church as shown in the last part of Acts 2.
  2. Churches that meet the description of the early church in the first part of Acts 2. They do proclaim the power of the Holy Spirit with demonstrated signs and wonders. The Pentecostal churches fit this description. They like to say that they are ‘Full Gospel’ churches but they actually are only ‘Half Gospel’ churches since they do not fit the description of the last part of Acts 2.
  3. Churches that meet the description of the early church in the last part of Acts 2, meeting together daily and having all material goods in common. This is a very rare church indeed! However, they tend to not expect the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives as did the early church.
  4. Churches that meet the description of the entire chapter of Acts 2, a true ‘Full Gospel’ church. They not only proclaim the power of the Holy Spirit with demonstrated signs, wonders and holy living but also meet together daily and share all material goods in common as did the early church. Where does this church exist today?

When we use Acts chapter 2 as a guide we find that the way to the Kingdom of God is narrow indeed!

“Struggle to enter the Kingdom through the narrow door. The road to hell is wide with plenty of room and most go that way. But the door is small and the path is hard and narrow that leads to life and only a few find it.” (Mt 7:13-14, Luke 13:23-24).


1 Comment

  1. garycummings says:

    I read this and am in deep disagreement with Don Murphy about “receiving the Holy Spirit” and “living in community” as the early church did in the Book of Acts. As far as the Holy Spirit in the life of the Holy Spirit goes, there are no Christians who do not have the Holy Spirit. As far as living in community goes, living in community was never mandatory in either the Book of Acts or the rest of the New Testament. The major mistake which Murphy makes in his exegesis is mistaking descriptive narrative of what happened then as prescriptive commands for all time. I wrote a detailed analysis of community in the New Testament, which was entitled: “Is living in community mandatory?” He ignored the evidence I listed and proceeded to merely repeat his claims about mandatory community for Christians.

    Over the years, I have found his understanding of Scripture as very polemic and having a very shallow and prejudiced approach.

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Micael Grenholm, a Swedish charismactivist, apologist and author.

Micael Grenholm, a Swedish charismactivist, apologist and author.

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