Are You Familiar With The Oneness Pentecostal Theology?

Are You Familiar With The Oneness Pentecostal Theology  ~  Which teaches that we should pray "only" in the name of Jesus Christ, NEVER in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit - because Jesus Christ is not the Son, He is God Alone?  Thus their teaching of Jesus Only, totally denies the Trinity.  So let's follow the bouncing yellow ball and see if we can disprove that teaching.

First let me say that we are not talking about all Pentecostals for there is another side of the Pentecostal house which is Trinitarian and acknowledges the Triune God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  I am addressing the Left side of the Pentecostal house which has taken a totally different path, a path leading away from the Truth.  So let's begin our journey down the Oneness Yellow Brick Road and see if we can find Dorothy and Toto.

But before we get into the dialogue below, let's talk TRINITY!  One problem those who oppose the idea of a Trinity have - is that they are relating to the word God as a personal name.  God is not a personal name, it is a title.  Whether we call it God or the Godhead, that is the title of that entity.  The three Persons within the Godhead all have personal names:  God the Father, God the Son or Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit.  Those are personal names of the the three Persons within the Godhead.  That is the Trinity or Triune God.

"In English and in Hebrew, the word 'God' (or El, or Elohim) is not a name, but a generic title for a deity that could be applied to other, lesser, spiritual beings. .   .   . There were many such beings who were lesser than the one true God because they were created, not the Creator" (God Has a Name.. Many, Actually! .  .  . by BibleProject Logo Tim Mackie)

My Oneness Pentecostal Friend shared a challenge of "Acts 2:38, Acts 19:1-7, Ephesians 2:8" on Facebook recently which I have to assume was his way of initiating a discussion.  Yet I get confused when he becomes upset and deletes responses which challenge his Oneness theology.  I have been deleted several times, as have Friends who commented on my response, for I totally disagree with their teaching of Jesus Only, their teaching of Baptismal Regeneration, and their flavor, almost Arminian, of Salvation Lost.

Let's take a look at his "Acts 2:38, Acts 19:1-7, Ephesians 2:8" challenge and see if we can make reliable Trinitarian sense of it:

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HE POSTS:  "Paul never meant Ephesians 2:8 to be used against water baptism in Jesus' name, as Paul was in full support of the Plan of Salvation found in Acts 2:38."

MY RESPONSE:  Let's first look at Acts 2:38 in context.  Jesus had been crucified and after 3 days, He had risen from the grave.  He appeared to His apostles and to over 500 believers, and then instructed His apostles to wait in the Upper Room in Jerusalem until the Father's promise was fulfilled. Then Jesus ascended into heaven. The apostles gathered with other believers,120 in total, in the Upper Room, waiting and praying for 40 days.

What was the "promise from God the Father" they were waiting to receive all that time?   Back in Acts 1:4:5 Jesus reminds them that John the Baptist, the last OT prophet, only baptized them with water - as was the Jewish practice in the Old Testament.  Jews practiced baptism, or cleansing, as a traditional act of purification (not salvation).  And for the initiation of converts to Judaism long before the coming of the Messiah - but never for salvation. 

The origins of baptism / cleansing might be found as far back as the book of Leviticus - the Jewish act of purification before bringing sacrifices to the altar.  So John the Baptist was baptizing folks in water as an act of repentance and cleansing, not salvation - as was done in Judaism.  But John also was preparing them for the Messiah who would bring a new and deeper meaning to "baptism."

In Luke 3:3-4, John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, came preaching baptism / cleansing under the OT Law, "And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD; .  .  . "  Notice once again, repentance of sins, not salvation.

In Acts 1, before His ascension, Jesus was speaking of the coming "Baptism of the Holy Spirit," i.e., the sealing or indwelling, of the Holy Spirit which was, and is, God's promise to all believers since we are all under Grace, not Law.

Indwelling of the Holy Spirit did occur occasionally in the Old Testament, but not for salvation and not for all OT saints and in some cases, not permanently.

Numbers 27:18, "And the LORD said to Moses: 'Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;' "

Judges 3:9-10, "When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them: Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the LORD delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim."

Compare those OT occurrences with this NT occurrence.  In the OT, rare, never for salvation, and no promise of permanence.  In the NT, indwelling only occurs during salvation, occurs in all believers, and is permanent until death or rapture.

John 14:16-17, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

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HE POSTS:  Acts 2:38, "Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.' "

MY RESPONSE:  As usual, my Oneness Friend just plopped down a Scripture verse, with absolutely no indication that he knows what it means.  He wants us to assume he knows the meaning.  Then when we answer he can boldly say, "Yeah, that is what I meant to write."  DUH! 

So let's help my Oneness Friend understand what he has copy/pasted.  What was on the minds of the million or so folks who had come to Jerusalem on this fateful Passover, many of whom were still in town?  They had come to celebrate the Passover and found themselves witnesses to one of the most important events in the history of mankind - the crucifixion of the man, Jesus Christ, who told them He is the Son of God.  So in effect they had witness the murder of God, in a sense.  That is not an everyday event in the lives of believers or non-believers.  That had to have made a deep impression on the minds of everyone.

The apostle Peter, wanting to reach as many as possible with the Gospel message - connected the witnessing of this major historical event together with his teaching of the Gospel.  In Acts 2:14-36 Peter is sharing the Gospel with the multitude which had gathered when they heard the noise of the Holy Spirit coming upon the 120 in the Upper Room.

Acts 2:1-3, "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them."

Many felt convicted in their hearts by this truth and in Acts 2:36-37 as Peter continued, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ - this Jesus whom you crucified."  Now when the people in the street heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what are we to do?"

In Acts 2:38 Peter points them toward Jesus Christ, "Peter said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.' "

What did we read about John the Baptist, the last of the OT prophets?  In Luke 3:3-4, John the Baptist, came preaching baptism / cleansing under the OT Law, "And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

When you want a teaching to ring true in the minds of the people - if you can tie that teaching with an event already strongly on their minds - that is half the battle.  These are OT people who most likely are familiar with John the Baptist, for he was not the type to be forgotten too easily.  And the event of the crucifixion was on everyone's minds.  Tie those two together and you have a winner!

John the Baptist preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Peter preaching, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;

Peter cleverly tied the two things strongest on their minds together -  (1) John the Baptist's OT repentance for the remission of sins and (2) the name of Jesus Christ, so recently crucified.  How could Peter not win? 

And that day 5000 men and an untold number of women and children became believers, part of the Day of Pentecost 33 AD church - which went from 120 to most likely well over 6000 in a matter of hours. 

And later that week, another 4000 men and some number of women and children joined them in the Day of Pentecost 33 AD church.  When have you seen a church, any church, go from 120 at startup - to over 10,000 in less than a week?

Peter's and the apostles sales technique would be the envy of every company in the world.  But of course they had the greatest product in the world to sell - the Gospel of Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

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HE POSTS:   In Ephesians 2:8 Paul never speaks against acts of obedience, such as (1) Belief in the Lord, (2) Repentance of sin, and (3) Water Baptism in Jesus' name.  The "works" mentioned by Paul, are in reference to additional good works, which should come natural to Christians.

MY RESPONSE:  I have no problem with either of those, assuming you mean: (1) Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,  (2) Repentance of sin leading to forgiveness of sin, not meaning salvation.  Christ died on the cross to pay "in full" the sin debt for all people, past, present, and future.  But that gift is null and void unless activated before we breathe our last breath in this mortal body.  After that, all bets are off - no second chance. 

When a person does believes and receives Christ as his Lord and Savior (John1:12) all his/her sins are forgiven, ALL - and (3) Water Baptism in Jesus' name - or in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - for when we pray in Jesus' name, all three are included since He is one person in the Trinity.

The second part of his posts reads:  The "works" mentioned by Paul, are in reference to additional good works, which should come natural to Christians.

While I agree that our good works post-salvation should be a part of every believers life, in Ephesians 2:9 I believe Paul is speaking of works done in an attempt to "earn" salvation, i.e., works based salvation.  And in that sense, I agree with the apostle Paul completely, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, not a result of works."  That would be a works based salvation which is not going to happen.

The Bema Seat or Believers' Judgment is a rewards based judgment completely.  Our eternal life has already been established or we would not be at the Believers' Judgment.  This is a judgment of the rewards or lack of rewards we will receive in our eternal home.

Ephesians 2:8-10, "For by grace you have been saved through faith (in Jesus Christ, Son of God); and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (the Father);  (9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  (10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus (the Son) for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

Actually our salvation was established in Ephesians 1:

Ephesians 1:13. "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were sealed (indwelled) in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise,"

And we have His promise that our salvation cannot be lost, stated in Ephesians 4:

Ephesians 4:30, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."  The day of redemption is the day we die in this mortal body - or are Raptured out of it.  Until then we are sealed and safe in the Holy Spirit.

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HE POSTS:   The Ephesians were doing good works, in the hopes of attaining a greater salvation. This is what Paul speaks against.  This is proven in (Acts 19:1-7) when Paul commands the believers to be re-baptized, this time in the name of Jesus Christ.  Only those who promote false doctrine, will disagree.

MY RESPONSE:  We need to break this into two parts, for they are tackling different issues.

1. You wrote:  The Ephesians were doing good works, in the hopes of attaining a greater salvation.

1. Response:  I disagree, for when Paul writes "not as a result of works" he was looking back at verse 8 which is addressing the issue of eternal salvation, i.e., "by grace you have been saved through faith (in Jesus Christ, Son of God);"   This was not an issue of greater or lesser rewards, but of salvation, i.e., works salvation.   Which is a no-no.

2. You wrote:   This is proven in (Acts 19:1-7) when Paul commands the believers to be re-baptized, this time in the name of Jesus Christ. Only those who promote false doctrine, will disagree.

2. Response:  First let's look at Acts 19:1-7 to see if we can identify the confusion problem:

Acts 19:1-3, "Now it happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. (2) He said to them, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?'  And they said to him, 'On the contrary, we have not even heard if there is a Holy Spirit.'  (3) And he said, 'Into what then were you baptized?' And they said, 'Into John's baptism.' "

Acts 19:4-7, "Paul said, 'John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.'  (5) When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. (6) And when Paul had laid hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them (indwelled them) and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.  (7) There were about twelve men in all."

Two facts seem obvious (1) these men were disciples of John the Baptist, still preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins - and not salvation, i.e., "John baptized with a baptism of repentance (not salvation), telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus."   In other words, John the Baptist baptized them into repentance - but for salvation he pointed them toward Jesus Christ, who was soon to come.

That is why they had to be baptized again - and to avoid confusion Paul told them to be baptized in the name of the one who is their salvation, Jesus Christ.  Keep in mind that this is all new to these twelve men, so Paul took the most certain avenue and baptized them in the name they had come to know, through John the Baptist and now through Paul, the name of Jesus.  Introducing a new set of names at that time might confuse them.  So Paul saved the Trinity for later, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and baptized them in the name of Jesus Christ.  As a career salesman, that makes perfect sense to me.

To my Oneness Pentecostal Friend, I have made every effort to address your points and answer them from Scripture.  If there is an area where you disagree, or are confused - I would love to see your response, supported by Scripture the same as I have done for you.

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill 

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