United Pentecostal Trinity

[Troy_Niems]

Hello everyone!

I was told by a Pentecostal friend of mine that they didn't view the Trinity as other Christians do.  Can someone please give an accurate explanation of their true view for me?   Thank you very much!

 Marked by Christ:  Forgiven,

        Troy

 

[Contarini]

Troy Niems:

Hello everyone!

I was told by a Pentecostal friend of mine that they didn’t view the Trinity as other Christians do. Can someone please give an accurate explanation of their true view for me? Thank you very much!

 Marked by Christ:  Forgiven,

        Troy

The United Pentecostal Church is not Trinitarian. But contrary to their name, they are one particular branch of the very large and diverse Pentecostal movement. Most Pentecostals are Trinitarian.

The UPC and other 'Oneness" groups seem to hold a form of “modalism”–they view Jesus as divine and as the revelation of God to us. The Father and the Spirit are other ways in which God is known. But I may not be entirely accurate in this description. Their basic objection is to what they see as the un-Biblical philosophy involved with the Trinity–they tend to say “Father, Son, and Spirit are God, and God is One” and leave it at that.

They baptize in the name of Jesus only, hence their popular designation of "Jesus-Only Pentecostals.’

While the UPC is quite large, my understanding is that the African-American and even more so the Hispanic “Oneness” groups (the UPC is mostly, though not entirely white) are even larger. Among Hispanics the Oneness folks may even be the majority, though I think not. On the whole, they are a minority within Pentecostalism, but a very significant one.

Edwin

Edwin

 

[RHooker]

For several years my parish was up the street from a United Pentecostal Church. The pastor, at that time, explained to me their doctrine in this way: Since Matt. 28:19 says baptism is in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and Acts 2:38 says baptism is in the name of Jesus Christ, therefore, Jesus Christ equals Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, while Trinitarians have God at the hub of the wheel with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the end of three spokes, the UPC has Jesus as the hub who manifests himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Look up Sabellianism. In ezboard the ex-pentecostal board is ex-UPC people.

“Jesus Only” Churches by Calvin Beisner

Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity by Gregory Boyd

apologeticsindex.org/o00.html#oneness

Christianity Without the Cross: A History of Salvation in Oneness Pentecostalism (Paperback)
by Thomas A. Fudge

 

[cestusdei]

We had trouble with them at one parish. I was sent in to do a seminar to innoculate the parishioners against their new anti-Catholic pastor. He cursed me by name in his Sunday homily lol. I was honored.

 

[QUICUMQUE_VULT]

RHooker:

For several years my parish was up the street from a United Pentecostal Church. The pastor, at that time, explained to me their doctrine in this way: Since Matt. 28:19 says baptism is in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and Acts 2:38 says baptism is in the name of Jesus Christ, therefore, Jesus Christ equals Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, while Trinitarians have God at the hub of the wheel with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the end of three spokes, the UPC has Jesus as the hub who manifests himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

that is correct. This is indeed their teaching. Classic modalism. The heresy of Sabellus

 

[billiefan2000]

QUICUMQUE VULT:

that is correct. This is indeed their teaching. Classic modalism. The heresy of Sabellus

I agree and it should be noted that TV Preachers TD Jakes and Arnold Murray and Tommy Tenney are all followers of modalism.