What brought the United Pentecostal Church into being? By this, I mean the merger? My understanding from the book, United We Stand, published by WAP and endorsed by our former and present leadership, Bro's. Urshan, Becton, Tenny, Gray, and others, is that two diverse organizations decided to come together. These organizations being namely, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ and the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated. Bro. W. T. Witherspoon, our first Assistant General Superindent wrote, "While in prayer a few days ago, the Lord burdened me with the terrible conditions, not only in the world, but in the Jesus Only church. It seems to me that God is letting enough happen to show the brethren of like precious faith the absolute necessity of getting together, regardless of machinery or offices. No one group can point their fingers at the other. Division is keeping back God's power. The only division there should be is between righteousness and unrighteousness: holiness and sin."
I believe that God did speak to Bro. Witherspoon. He was an instrument of God in bringing together two organizations that were at the time in disagreement of how certain Scripture should be interpreted. There were doctrinal differences. I quote again from the book, United We Stand: "The Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ and the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated believed in repentance, water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and receiving the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking with other tongues. To be a minister in either organization, one must have obeyed these gospel precepts, and must teach and preach them. But in general, the two groups differed in the spiritual significance attached to each of these "steps" in the plan of salvation. The vast majority of the ministers in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ believed that water baptism in Jesus' name remitted sins and was the birth of the water. They further believed that the baptism of the Holy Ghost was the birth of the Spirit. The belief of some in the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated was identical with this. Others, however, believed that the word "for" in
Acts 2:38 meant "because of," and that one was baptized because his sins had been remitted, through the efficacy of Jesus' shed blood, at the time of repentance. The Pentecostal Church, Incorporated had accepted ministers who believed either way, seeking to keep the unity of the Spirit until they all came into the unity of the faith."
Enter Bro. Witherspoon again. Bro. Witherspoon, as these two groups met, left the committee room and went downstairs to the Pentecostal Publishing House and, he authored, I believe again, as the Lord moved upon him, the Fundamental Doctrine of the United Pentecostal Church International. I'm sure you have read it many times but I do want to quote it again. "The basic and fundamental doctrine of this organization shall be the Bible standard of full salvation, which is repentance, baptism in water by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. We shall endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit until we all come into the unity of the faith, at the same time admonishing all brethren that they shall not contend for their different views to the disunity of the body."
Bro. Witherspoon was an instrument of God to bring this merger about. He later summed up the success of the merger like this, "Truly it was nothing less than supernatural, the way the blessed Spirit of God enabled the brethren to overcome. It means more than the average preacher can understand to bring about the uniting of two such bodies, with the many, many matters that have to be considered (bold emphasis my own). There were practically no dissenting voices, and as we look back over the proceedings of the convention, we can only exclaim, 'What hath God wrought!'" I agree that this was a God thing. However, I do not believe it would have happened had the Fundamental Doctrine not been authored properly. Here is the fact, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ, and the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated, merged because of what they agreed upon, not what they disagreed upon. Each organization could live with "The basic and fundamental doctrine of this organization shall be the Bible standard of full salvation, which is repentance, baptism in water by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance." They were willing to embrace this. But, I believe that the latter part of the Fundamental Doctrine was truly the deciding factor of the merger, and this is my opinion, but I also believe United We Stand and our History bears this out. "We shall endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit until we all come into the unity of the faith, at the same time admonishing all brethren that they shall not contend for their different views (bold emphasis my own) to the disunity of the body."
The merger came about despite the "many, many matters that had to be considered." The merger came about despite the fact that there were at the time disagreements of how certain Scripture should be interpreted. The merger came about despite the fact that there were some doctrinal differences. The merger came about despite the fact that there were "different views."
More and more, the allowance of "different views" is being done away with in the UPCI. I'm sad to say today - I'm not certain this merger could take place if it had been proposed in 2004 with the current "United Pentecostal Church." I'm even more certain that the debate over the latter part of the Fundamental Doctrine would have eventually prohibited any such merger.
I want to quote from a letter I received a few weeks ago. I quote, page 1, paragraph 5, the first sentence, "Of major concern to many is the subtle and gradual ignoring of the Manual of the United Pentecostal Church." I share that concern, because the Manual is indeed being ignored. Our Fundamental Doctrine Statement is being ignored - at the very least, the last paragraph is being ignored. "We shall endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit until we all come into the unity of the faith, at the same time admonishing all brethren that they shall not contend for their different views (bold emphasis my own) to the disunity of the body."
My understanding from the historical facts of the merger is that two oneness organizations came together with the full recognition that there were some different views. They could fellowship and accept one another despite these different views permitting that the brethren hold fast to the first part of the Fundamental Doctrine, "The basic and fundamental doctrine of this organization shall be the Bible standard of full salvation, which is repentance, baptism in water by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (which in 1973, the words "for the remission of sins" were added after this phrase), and the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance." My concern is that the division spoken of in the letter is because many of us absolutely embrace repentance, water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and the infilling of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance; many of us embrace without equivocation, separation from the world, and holiness without which no man can see the Lord; you can come to the churches we serve as pastor to and see the evidence of this; but we have serious problems with the continuing effort and even success in making the United Pentecostal Church International a legislative body with more and more legislative language being inserted into the Manual by this "less than 25% of our fellowship voting" as was stated in the letter that was sent.
I have a serious concern that our true mission and vision is being clouded and even hindered by this continued feeling that we must legislate to our ministry what they can and cannot do. Then we as ministers are required to abide by that, even if we disagree, and then language is even inserted instructing us that we are to legislate the same to our “autonomous” churches. “You cannot go here and be United Pentecostal. You cannot go there and be United Pentecostal. You must first get permission from us to do this or that if you want to be United Pentecostal. You cannot preach here or there and remain United Pentecostal. You cannot have this or that and be United Pentecostal. You cannot use this to preach the Gospel or that to preach the Gospel and be United Pentecostal.” The list seems to grow and grow each year. I mean, what truly is our goal here?
CONTINUED.....