Dunn's weak thesis on Pentecostal alternatives

Pentecostal alternatives to Dunn’s thesis are not uniform. When the variations are studied, some varieties prove stronger than others. With respect to Christian initiation, Petts and Turner are more convincing than Stronstad. 

With respect to what exactly the empowering of the Spirit was for, Stronstad and Shelton are more accurate than, on the one hand, Menzies, for his concept is too narrow, and, on the other hand, Turner, whose concept somewhat misrepresents what Luke wrote, about both “prior works” of the Spirit and the inception of salvation.

The Pentecostal gift of the Spirit was linked programmatically to other aspects of Christian initiation (Acts 2:38, which must be allowed its full force). 

However, this did not mean that the early steps of discipleship could not occur without it (e.g., in Acts 8:4–24). However anomalous the Samaritan episode was, it indicates clearly both the conceptual distinctions to be drawn between coming to faith in Christ and receiving the Spirit, and the chronological gaps that this distinction then allows. This does not mean, for Luke, that the Spirit was inactive before someone received the Spirit. 

The Spirit could perform individual acts, such as granting a vision or opening a heart, giving wisdom, or assuring of sonship (if Jesus’ childhood experience may be extended by analogy to the experience of others), before the convert was filled with the Spirit in fulfilment of the Acts 1:8 promise. 

Thus the Spirit was, so to speak, soteriologically involved, but the Pentecostal reception of the Spirit was not soteriological. Ongoing Christian life, according to Luke’s silence, was unknown without reception of the Spirit, but saving conversion could occur before this reception.

When the Spirit did arrive in this way—when the Pentecostal gift was granted—the recipients were enabled. They were enabled, programmatically, to take part in the growing church's worldwide evangelistic mission (Acts 1:8). 

Clearly, this enabling included boldness in verbal witness (e.g., Acts 4:31), guidance in the conduct of the mission (e.g., Acts 16:6–10), and on occasion the ability to perform miracles of healing and exorcism (e.g., Acts 10:38, which by extension would apply to anointed disciples of Christ as well [Acts 1:1]) and even judgment (Acts 13:9–11). But the enabling was broader than that. 

The Spirit also granted recipients joy, encouragement, and guidance in the internal affairs of the church. On the individual level, with Turner, the Spirit granted recipients their subjective awareness of the presence of Jesus, which no doubt played its part in emboldening them in their personal “mission” (see, for example, Acts 18:9–11, which, again by extension, might in Luke’s eyes have been the experience of any Spirit-filled believer).





Atkinson, W. P. (2011). Baptism in the Spirit: Luke-Acts and the Dunn Debate (pp. 90–91). Pickwick Publications.