Gospel Hall Brethren

The Gospel Halls are a group of independent Christian assemblies throughout the world that fellowship with each other through a set of shared Biblical doctrines and practices. Theologically, they are evangelical and dispensational. They are a conservative strand of the Open Brethren movement and tend to only collaborate with other assemblies when there is doctrinal agreement.

According to Acts 2:42 of the Bible, the first assembly of Christians commenced in Jerusalem around AD32. Gospel Hall assemblies consider this to be their true roots in a spiritual sense. As Christianity spread throughout the Near Eastern world, other churches were planted in new locations (see Revelation chapters 2–3). Two popular books among Gospel Halls — The Pilgrim Church by E.H. Broadbent and Church History by Andrew Miller make the claim that throughout the centuries of church history, there has always been a remnant independent evangelical testimony, and that the modern Gospel Hall movement, which began in the 1800s, with hundreds of new independent assemblies appearing almost simultaneously in various places around the world (particularly in Ireland, Scotland, England, and continental Europe) was a recovery of numerous New Testament beliefs and practices which had been largely lost in Christendom over the centuries. One book discussing this phenomenon is an anonymous work called Assembly Life Experiences by "an old disciple", recording the story of a group of Christians who were converted in the 1859 revival in Scotland. Through reading only their Bibles they concluded that clericalism and denominationalism were unscriptural and subsequently met together to break bread and depend on God for gifting and leadership.

During the Revival of 1859 which affected much of Northern Ireland and Scotland, exercised evangelists, such as Alexander Marshall, Donald Ross and Donald Munro, crossed the Atlantic to preach the gospel, leading to numerous assemblies being planted in United States and Canada. Norman Crawford has documented this story in a chapter of his book Assembly Truth published by Gospel Tract Publications (Glasgow, 1994). (See also J.J. Rouse for information on an early Canadian Gospel Hall pioneer). Currently, there are hundreds of Gospel Halls worldwide.

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