NAME: Oneness Pentecostalism. (Many like to call them "Jesus Only" as well, and their view of the Trinity, is commonly held by the United Pentecostal movement as well)
FOUNDER: Many give credit to R.E. McAlister for founding the Oneness Pentecostal movement during a 1913 Pentecostal camp meeting in Los Angeles, California.
MEMBERS: It is very hard to give a number of members to this movement, considering it is such a vast number of groups who hold to it. Some of them are:
Apostolic Assemblies of Christ Inc., Apostolic Church of Pentecost of Canada, Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ. International Apostolic Ministries, Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, True Jesus Church, World Wide Pentecostal Church of Christ, etc. Some of the schools who teach Oneness Pentecostalism are: Apostolic Bible Institute, Christian Life College, Indiana Bible College, Northeast Christian College, Texas Bible College, etc. We have no interest in supporting all these groups with links so if you have a desire to look them all up yourself, that is your decision. We also would like to recommend that if you are part of a Pentecostal Church, please check with Church officials to see if they agree with any of the teachings that are associated with "Oneness Pentecostalism". If so we highly suggest that you find another church that is more pleasing to God.
ONENESS PENTECOSTAL VIEWS
GOD: The Oneness Pentecostals (From here on out they will often be referred to as O.P.) hold to a Unitarian view of God. In that there is one God, who acts in three different modes: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
"We do not believe in three separate personalities in the Godhead but we believe in three offices which are filled by one person." ("Consider Him" by: Nathaniel A. Urshan. )
THE TRINITY: The O.P. would consider the doctrine of the Trinity held by Biblical Christians to be pagan, they often like other cults use the same types of wording when trying to disprove the Trinity:
the trinity doctrine exists only on paper. . . . No apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ ever taught such a doctrine. . . . None of the immediate disciples of the apostles (e.g., Clement Ignatius, Hermas, or Polycarp) taught such a doctrine . . . Trinities Abound in the ancient, false religions. . . (Chalfant, Ancient Champions of Oneness, 116-18.)
"Someday our great God who is Jesus is going to utterly destroy that so-called Trinity doctrine..." -- Wilbur King
The O.P's in their ignorance of the truth of the Trinity present a number of problems. If one denies the Trinity they have to deny other truths such as: regeneration, justification, sanctification, the resurrection, etc. Lorraine Boettner could write:
"If there were no trinity, there could be no incarnation, no objective redemption and therefore no salvation; for there would then be no one capable of acting as Mediator between God and man. In his fallen condition man has neither the inclination nor the ability to redeem himself." -- Lorraine Boettner, 'Stuides in Theology'.
Before we move on to the next topic though we would like to just add a quote to show that Ignatius in his writings seems to make it obvious that he realized a distinction between the Father and Son.
Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus [“God-inspired”], to the Church which has obtained mercy, through the majesty of the Most High Father, and Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son; the Church which is beloved and enlightened by the will of Him that willeth all things which are according to the love of Jesus Christ our God, which also presides in the place of the report of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honour . . . and which presides over love, is named from Christ, and from the Father, which I also salute in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. . (Ignatius' introduction to the Romans.)
JESUS CHRIST: At the beginning of this belief system. O.P had the Father as the one with the physical body and the other spheres such as Jesus Christ only appearing as a man. But they realized that this view resulted in problems with the atonement, so they changed it to have Christ as the one with the physical body (the main one), while the Father and the Holy Spirit were just roles that Jesus Christ took on. But this still results in problems for the O.P. because if the Father is not a distinct person then who did Christ propisitate? The O.P's confused view of who God is, leaves them greatly wanting in theological soundness. Some of their teaching and quotes are blasphemous to the true nature of God.
HOLY SPIRIT: Because of their view of who God is, they do not hold to the Biblical view of the Holy Spirit, but believe he's just a role that God is currently filling, as He comforts the believers etc. They would reject the view of the personage of the Holy Spirit.
VIRGIN BIRTH: They would agree with the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
SALVATION: When a O.P was given the question concerning the topic of salvation. Some of the things he could say on the site http://en.allexperts.com are:
"the three principle things; repentance, water baptism and the infilling of the Holy Spirit."
A quote that may help sum up their view of salvation is below:
"that the grace of God through the work of Christ is not alone sufficient for our salvation. Indeed one entire tract of the UPCI is devoted to just this point. It is entitled Grace + 0 = Salvation? and in it the UPCI explicity argues against the view ... Hence... the UPCI and the other Oneness gropus maintain that it is Grace + Faith + Obedience that equals Salvation." - Gregory Boyd, Oneness Pentecostals and The Trinity, pg 216-217
The individual on the allexperts site refers to the Mormons as having teaching that is not correct, yet in a small way their view of Salvation is very similar to the Mormons. The Mormons would agree too that salvation is by faith plus all that we can do. And the O.P's agree that obedience keeps your salvation. They do not realize that because of your salvation obedience is the over all normal result.
The O.P according to the man on "allexperts" and also one of their tracts, titled "New Testament Salvation -- Acts 2:38" states that true evidence of salvation is a seen when one speaks in tongues. Something that is once again contrary to scripture.
HEAVEN: They would believe in an eternal heaven.
HELL: They would believe in an eternal hell.
SIN: They would hold to the view of sin the same as many, but everything becomes distorted once you have an improper view of God.
INSPIRATION/AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE:
THE RAPTURE:
THE SECOND COMING:
