Can someone please tell me...?!

[josh]

Originally Posted by Sam

It is my understanding that all of the men listed in Barb's post were what we refer to as PCI one-steppers. In other words, they believed that a person was saved/regenerated at repentance and then that person was expected to go on and submit to water baptism in Jesus' name and to receive the Holy Ghost Baptism.

We don't really know how many ministers were one-steppers and how many were three steppers when the UPC was formed in 1945. I think people have been less than truthful when they have quoted numbers. Maybe they just didn't know or maybe they wanted to show that those of their particular viewpoint were more numerous than the others.

It is my understanding that when the UPC was formed the following were one-steppers:
Howard Goss, Gen. Supt.
E.E. McNatt, Sunday School Director
Wynn Stairs, Foreign Missionary Director
plus some of the district overseers, elders, or supts (whatever they were called) like Bro. Greer, Bro. Yadon and maybe more.

When the first issue of the Pentecostal Herald came out in 1945 it stated that articles presenting either opinion on the new birth were acceptable as long as they were not written in an argumentative way.

As far as I understand, in the new UPC organization the Bible Schools in Tupelo and Portland were one-stepper in doctrine, the schools in St. Paul and Tulsa were three-stepper in doctrine, and the school in Stockton was open to either opinion.

It is my understanding that over the years the one-steppers were minimized, trivialized, ostracized, demonized, marginalized and generally just plain despised by the three-steppers. As the three-steppers gained more political clout the one-steppers were pretty well pushed out. The Fundamental Doctrine Statement was modified in 1972 in an attempt to oust them. Then the Affirmation Statement was pushed through based on lies, deception, bullying, intimidation and disregarding the rules set forth in the bylaws to further remove these folks from the UPC.
A sad commentary on the situation is that an otherwise respected elder like Bro K. would lie like he did to get that AF through, thus silencing many good men and women in the faith.

Bro Sam, regardless of who the affirmation statement wound up affecting, this statement is patently false. I'm not sure where you got your information, but I sat in the living room of the late primary author of the affirmation statement and discussed it at length with him.

Neither the PCI doctrine nor its adherents were even on his radar. Though he was an elder pastor at the time, he got in church later in life and started preaching about age 40. His concern was with the mindset highlighted by a particular Charisma article on how a younger generation of preachers was seeking to change the direction of the UPC. Like it or dislike it, that was the motive. Like it or dislike it, there was never an underhanded or hidden agenda in his efforts.

The fact that men left who were still advocates of the PCI reflects more on their character (which I respect) than on some attempt to oust them. To be honest, their very existance came as a surprise to some of the backers of that statement.