This is a personal reply that I recieved from a Trinitarian theologian when I asked him his thoughts concerning Lee Grady's push for unity between Oneness and Trinitarian believers (his remarks are inserted in between Grady's essay. I haven't had much contact with Trinitarians, but for those of you who have, have they seemed to be as anti-oneness as this person is? Although I disagree with some of this persons theology, I do think he brought forth some interesting observations about the nature of truth.
By the editor of Charisma magazine.
Grady- As we celebrate 100 years of Pentecostalism this month, let's ask God to heal the ugly rift that divides us.
They speak in tongues and shout hallelujah. Their fervent gospel music has influenced the Christian music scene for decades. They trace their roots to the 1906 Azusa Street Revival, just like members of the Assemblies of God (AG), the Church of God in Christ or other mainline Pentecostal groups do.
But the similarities stop there. In the Pentecostal family tree, the so-called "Jesus only" Pentecostals are viewed as the strange cousins who broke ranks with their brethren in 1916. They have lived in a murky parallel universe ever since, invisible to most mainstream Christians even though their numbers have grown.
They are officially known as Oneness Pentecostals, a large but isolated subset of Christians who are too orthodox in their beliefs to be compared with Mormons but too sectarian to mix with other evangelicals.
******It is a mistake to chalk it up to sectarianism. The differences are strongly doctrinal--on the Trinity, on the incarnation, on the efficacy of baptism (baptismal regeneration and remission), on justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone--i.e., the doctrinal differences strike at the essence of Christianity and the gospel.
Grady-Many of them belong to the United Pentecostal Church (UPC) or the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (PAW), the two largest Oneness denominations, but hundreds of smaller Oneness groups exist.
They wear the Jesus-only label (a phrase they dislike) because they insist that converts must be baptized in the name of Jesus rather than in the more common Trinitarian formula ("in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit"). They also refuse to use the term "trinity" to describe the Godhead, even though they affirm that God has a triune nature.
*******That ambiguous way of putting it avoids the very substance of the debate between Oneness Pentecostals and Trinitarians. The writer either is unaware of or intentionally obscures the real issue in debate. For Oneness Pentecostals, god is "triune" only in His relations with creatures--to whom he relates as Father/Creator, as Son/Redeemer, and as Spirit/Sanctifier. For Oneness Pentecostals, there are no internal relations in the deity; the deity is but one person. For Trinitarians, God is triune in His internal relations: while He is but one God (being), He is three distinct Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who relate to Each Other as Person to Person.
Grady-And besides these doctrinal quirks, they are extremely strict about holiness standards.
*******That is tied, as Grady doesn't tell us, to the justification-by-works doctrine of the Oneness Pentecostals.
They forbid their members to play sports or watch television, and they instruct their women not to wear pants, makeup or short hairstyles. Some people have gone so far as to label Oneness Pentecostalism a cult, partly because of its isolationism but also because some UPC leaders have suggested that only Oneness believers are truly saved.
*******I call them a cult because they claim to be Christian but deny defining doctrines of Christianity like the Trinity and justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Grady-Call me an idealist, but wouldn't it be great if leaders on both sides of this family feud attempted to resolve it? 2006 would be a great time for reconciliation, since all of us are celebrating Pentecostalism's 100th anniversary this month.
Does anyone out there want to take the first step?
As in all broken relationships, healing of this rift will require apologies on both sides. This is no time for childish rantings such as, "They started it first!"
*******That would indeed be childish. But to insist that we not ignore the substantive doctrinal disagreements would not; it would be earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints (
Jude 3).
Those of us on the Trinitarian side of this debate need to be willing to embrace our Oneness brethren. The devil split the Pentecostal movement 10 years after it began, yet we don't seem to care. We've kept a 90-year-old wound infected by ignoring it. Some of us have condemned Oneness believers to hell for their legalism when love should have moved us to reach out to them.
********If they are indeed legalists--if they teach that justification is by works (even if by faith plus works) and not by faith alone--then they are teaching another gospel, and Paul's judgment fits: let them be anathema (
Galatians 1:8). Certainly we should in love reach out to them to persuade them to embrace the true triune God and the true gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But it is not an act of love to allow people to remain captive to a false gospel that is not the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (
Romans 1:16).
Grady-I think it is odd that the headquarters of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Mo., is located on the corner of Boonville Avenue and Division Street. Every day when leaders of that denomination pull into their parking lot they are reminded of the divided state of our movement. Yet daily reminders haven't pushed us toward healing. The AG and the UPC have little or no dialogue.
On the Oneness side, leaders of the UPC and other groups must apologize to the rest of us for splitting doctrinal hairs and insisting that their narrow interpretation of the Bible is the only view.
********Here the Oneness Pentecostal leaders have seen what Grady fails to see: that the differences between Trinitarianism and Oneness, and between the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and between baptismal regeneration and baptismal remission, on the one hand, and baptism as sign and seal of regeneration and remission, on the other, are not "doctrinal hairs" but gigantic, towering mountains that divide genuine Christianity from counterfeit Christianity.
Grady-God is bigger than a baptismal formula,
**********Such rhetorical flourish is no argument for anything. Further, Grady fails to see that the Oneness Pentecostals fight over the baptismal formula precisely because they see that the God of Trinitarianism is not theirs. Either they or we Trinitarians are worshiping a false god. They recognize that; Grady doesn't and those who make mountains out of theological molehills Athanasius and Eusebius of Caesarea and Alexander of Alexandria and Hosius of Cordova and the other leaders of the Council of Nicaea, and the Three Cappadocians, and others who led the church through the Arian controversy of the fourth century, would be shocked to hear an heir of their faith calling the doctrine of the Trinity a theological molehill. Augustine and Gottschalk and Anselm and Luther and Calvin and Knox and Zwingli and Beza and Bucer and Whitefield and Wesley and Edwards and Hodge and Moody and Warfield and Sunday and Machen and Graham would be shocked to hear an heir of their faith calling the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone a theological molehill.
will answer to Him for the division and confusion they caused.
Grady-Oneness folks also must apologize for spiritual elitism. They must stop teaching people that they have a corner on the truth.
********Granted the doctrinal squishiness of the rest of this editorial, one must wonder if Grady writes thus because he thinks there is no truth. Sure, Oneness Pentecostalism teaches that Trinitarianism is pagan and contra-Biblical and insists that there are no personal distinctions in god, and Trinitarianism teaches that Oneess Pentecostalism is pagan rationalism and contra-Biblical and insists that there are personal distinctions in God. Sure, Oneness Pentecostalism teaches that water baptism regenerates and remits sins and that one can have neither without it, while evangelical Protestantism--Lutheran, Reformed, Arminian, Baptist, and Wesleyan--teaches that baptism is a sign and seal but not the effective instrument of regeneration and remission and that one may have both without it. Sure, Oneness Pentecostalism teaches that one can trust in Jesus for salvation but still go to hell because one's works don't measure up, while evangelical Protestantism--Lutheran, Reformed, Arminian, Baptist, and Wesleyan--teaches the Reformation gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. If Grady is right, those differences are inconsequential. We should ignore the facts that we worship different deities and believe different gospels. Let us all embrace religious relativism!
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