What is a Full Gospel church?

It is taught that we have not got the full gospel unless there is carried with it healing for the body and baptism of the Holy Spirit, with the indispensable mark accompanying it of the miraculous gift of tongues. We need not take up the first and last of the four sides of the Foursquare Gospel. We are all agreed that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour, and that He is the coming King.

It is taught that we have not got the full gospel unless there is carried with it healing for the body and baptism of the Holy Spirit, with the indispensable mark accompanying it of the miraculous gift of tongues. We need not take up the first and last of the four sides of the Foursquare Gospel. We are all agreed that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour, and that He is the coming King.

Pentecostalists teach that speaking with tongues is a necessary accompaniment of the baptism of the Spirit. This is stated by Pastor Thomas B. Barratt, for years in the movement, and working in fellowship with the Foursquare Gospel Movement. He write:—

“There has always been a constant and firm belief in the Scriptural statement, that the Baptism has to be followed by speaking in other tongues, just as in the case of the disciples at the beginning.” (The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire, p. 8).

Pentecostalists teach that speaking with tongues is a necessary accompaniment of the baptism of the Spirit. This is stated by Pastor Thomas B. Barratt, for years in the movement, and working in fellowship with the Foursquare Gospel Movement. He write:

"The particular proposition which we all, without regard to denominational connection, unite in affirming, is a definite and distinct work of the Spirit in the human soul, subsequent and in addition to regeneration or conversion. 'The promise of the Father,' which came upon the disciples at Pentecost, had been spoken of by the Lord Jesus in such terms as shew unmistakably that it was for every one who would keep His words (John 14:16-23), and Peter, in explaining the Pentecostal baptism to the wondering multitudes, declared that they also might receive the same, and that the promise was to them and their children, and 'to all that were afar off, even as many as the Lord our God should call.' The apostles were converted before this; they knew the Spirit (John 14:17), and the 'gift of the Holy Ghost' was an additional privilege and blessing, given of God to be the distinguishing characteristic of Christian experience during the dispensation which then began (John 7:39), and continues until now.

“All do not receive the gift of tongues, but all who receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost speak in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance.”

To begin with they all insist that healing of the body is as much in the atonement as healing of the soul. The great text that is relied on for this statement is Isaiah 53:4,

Because the Lord does all this they are commanded to rejoice, the children of Zion, which does not mean a spiritual Zion, but God's only true Zion. The early and the latter rain is restored to the land. Of late this term, too, has been strangely misapplied. It has been claimed that the early and latter rain mean spiritual blessing. The early rain, it is said, means the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and the latter rain, these deluded people tell us, is another Pentecost, a greater manifestation of the Spirit. This latter rain, they teach, consists, according to their conception, in a restoration of "Pentecostal gifts" and is especially evidenced in making strange sounds, which, it is claimed, is the original gift of tongues. This unscriptural teaching has led to all kinds of fanaticism and worse things than that.

Of course there is no question but that the early church possessed the gift of healing. There is no question but that the Lord can give healing of the body today. His power is the same. The sick saint may call for the elders of the church, if they can be found, and they may anoint the sufferer with oil, and the prayer of FAITH shall save the sick, and he shall be raised up. Of that there can be no question. It is a pity that it is not more often done.

It is significant that in all three cases it is that of companies and not individuals. Further, the Spirit is given without the believer seeking for His indwelling. The Holy Spirit is God’s seal, following and consequent on the reception of what the Apostle Paul described to the Ephesian believers (among them doubtless this third class) as “the gospel of your salvation.” Evidently there is no thought whatever in Scripture of Christians beseeching God for days and weeks for a baptism of the Spirit, and the gift of tongues. The Spirit continues to be given to believers, for He is an absolute necessity to their spiritual life, but the gift of tongues seems to have been confined to the inauguration of Christianity.