A Question About the Book of Acts

Justin Taylor asks an important question (and one which is relevant to some of the disagreements between Pentecostals and Reformed people):

How Do We Know What's Normative in the Book of Acts?

Obviously there are normative things in Acts: the best example I can think of is the "kerygma" doctrines that you find in the speeches of Peter. More difficult to answer, however, is the question: "Are particular stories or events in Acts recorded because they were important (and mostly once-off and unrepeatable) phenomena in early church history, or were they recorded because they serve as valid and enduring patterns which the church down the ages is obliged to follow?"