[Evang.Benincasa]

Originally Posted by Esaias

I have posted excerpts from newsletters published by Pentecostals prior to the 1913 Arroyo Seco campmeeting demonstrating that many Pentecostals understood receiving the Holy Ghost with the initial evidence of speaking with tongues as the initial reception of the Spirit in regeneration. Also, again prior to Arroyo Seco, many did baptise in Jesus name instead of using the trinitarian formula. So the "water and spirit" concept was already floating around Pentecostal circles pretty much from the beginning. Those ideas were argued against by prominent pioneer leaders which proves those ideas existed and were gaining traction.

Further, there is not a single distinctive Protestant doctrine that can be traced historically in continuous fashion from the first century to the present. Nor is there a single distinctively catholic doctrine that can be similarly traced although most catholic doctrines predate any Protestant groups.

But the records DO show that Oneness was at one time the predominant view, that immersion in the name of Jesus of believers (not infants) was at that same time the predominant mode and that baptism was considered at least part of regeneration, that John 3:5 was understood as including water baptism, and that receiving the Holy Spirit was at least near universally understood as an ecstasis with accompanying oral charismata, again during the same period of time. And those records are largely found in the anteNicene writings.