Is Acts 2:38 Really Supported by History?

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by Aquila

I have two issues with the above. First, I'd like to examine the evidence myself. Second, such absolutism isn't wise. Many human reference materials have mistakes and errors, yet they also contain some very true facts. If your logic is taken to an extreme one could even question the idea of there being one God since it was in Arnold's book. No one would jump to such a conclusion...so I admonish we not do the same in relation to the rest of Arnold's work. Maybe some things will need to be revisited and updated with more accurate information. Such is the case with any work of reference literature.

Originally Posted by Aquila

So let's consider Arnold's inaccuracy. Does that mean that Arnold was wrong or that Acts 2:38 is wrong?

I think you have missed the point of the criticism of the book. I don't criticize because I reject his soteriology. Soteriology isn't really the premise of his book - it's not a book about "how to get saved."

Arnold himself declares his purpose as shown below. Note: I am using the PDF file available at http://www.threeq.com/pdf/apo.pdf. This has not been run through an OCR and it would be difficult to do so because of the markings that the original owner had added. The electronic versions of Arnold's writings that I have are of the self-published variety and are not as accessible as this version.

The Preface to Apostolic History Outline by Marvin M. Arnold:


He makes quite an assertion there. To "revisit" or "revise" his work would mean to revisit and revise his underlying premise. His work was never intended to be a chronicle of "what's out there" in the historical record. It was specifically targeted to prove his hypothesis, that the "UPPER ROOM CHURCH" ... was alive and doctrinally intact in every century until this moment."

My hypothesis is that we have no record of any group in the years from ~200 A.D. until the events surrounding the Arroyo Seco camp meeting in 1913, which practiced the "whole package" of Acts 2:38 salvation as practiced by the Oneness Pentecostal movement today.

For sake of breivity that "whole package" does not include the various holiness issues that have been taught - just the soteriology of repentence, baptism by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ and the infilling of the Holy Ghost as evidenced by speaking in other tongues.