Is Oneness Pentecostalism a Modern Invention?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Acts 2, Acts 1, 1 Corinthians 14, Hebrews 2

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--is-oneness-pentecostalism-a-modern-invention
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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well absolutely so let me give you a little historical overview certainly what we call as the modern Oneness Pentecostal movement as an organized movement of people with a distinctive identity and set of doctrines that would come from the early 20th century however we say we're restoring the original Apostolic church so we say the actual core doctrines that Define us come from the New Testament from the first century church and we also say that while history is not comprehensive and we can't always find the evidence that we would like for one thing history is written by The Victors so the losers don't get get to write their history because they're dead and their books are destroyed uh and their testimony is not preserved but having said that we can still find evidence of these doctrines at various times throughout history especially among revivalistic or reform movements um and so even other denominations the Protestants as a movement at most go back to the 1500s many of them much later the Roman Catholic Church claims to go back to the beginning the Eastern Orthodox Church as well but their key Traditions aren't aren't in the Bible and they aren't in the first century 2 Century even third Century in most cases their core structure like um the Roman Catholic Church pable infallibility is really much later development in stages the doctrine of the Trinity is later development in stages in fact the doctrine of papal infallibility was not officially proclaimed until 1870 and the doctrine of the bodily Assumption of Mary was not officially proclaimed till 1954 so if you're going to go no church can claim an unbroken historical Heritage uh especially if you look at core doctrines as opposed to you know people trying to find labels um so the only solution is everybody should go back to the Bible and more particularly as Christians we go back to the New Testament and what it records uh with the New Testament Church starting in in the day of Pentecost the book of Acts so we restore doctrinally and on that basis we think every church and every generation should be compared to the original Apostolic church and on that we're very confident uh in fact I've made the statement every book of the New Testament was written by Pentecostals think about it every everyone who wrote the New Testament Bears witness of the gifts of the Spirit in most cases speaking in tongues so for example Matthew was one of the 12 apostles who according to Acts 2 received the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues if you read acts 1 and acts two John same thing Mark of course he records speaking in tongues in his gospel Luke he records speaking in tongues in his book acts um the 13 Paul and Epistles Paul testified in 1 Corinthians 14 I thank God I speak with tongues more than you all um the the um the Epistles of Peter the Epistle of John again of the twel Apostles uh James and Jude they were brothers half Brothers of Jesus they were in the upper room and they received the Holy Ghost spoken tongues according to to acts 1 and two the book of Hebrews was by an unknown author but a close associate of Paul and Timothy from the writing there and but but in in in Hebrews 2 he specifically says the gospel is confirmed by miracles signs wonders and gifts of the Spirit so you can literally go through every book of the New Testament and you can say they were written by someone who spoke in tongues Pentecostals whereas if you're are a Catholic or a Lutheran or uh some other denomination you really can't say that you have the same experience as the writers of the New Testament you have to say our church is an exception to all the churches we see in the New Testament you know all the writers in the New Testament our our leaders would not have the same experience so I was talking to someone who's actually a member of a trinitarian Pentecostal Church a minister and I made that statement every WR book in the Bible is written New Testament was written by Pentecostals he said well I can tell you something even better than that I said what is it he said every book of the New Testament was written by oness Pentecostals I said well how do you explain that he saidwell would you agree with me that the doctrine of the Trinity was not Sol solidly established until the end of the 4th Century so people in the first century could have really no concept of the later official docu doctrine of the nyine Creed well that's a matter of historical fact um and so no even if even trinitarian Scholars that say well these are the basic teachings of the Trinity will have to admit the fully established formal Doctrine is not there the key terms is not there the term Trinity the ter the phrase three persons and things like Eternal son and eternally begotten and um other other key terms co-equal co-eternal consubstantial you know you take 10 or 15 20 terms uh that Define the doctrine of the Trinity and none of them are the New Testament so while you could argue that some of the writers thought in somewhat early protot trinitarian ways you cannot say they were really credal trinitarians like the Council of NAA the Council of Constantinople and the athonian Creed so really um they didn't really know the Trinity and even trinitarian limit that's a historical development okay however so this guy was saying so would you agree they didn't really have a fully developed doctrine of the Trinity and he said but you can see they believe in the deity of Jesus Christ they weren't just seeing just a man not like Jehovah's Witness or Aryans or modern unitarians that he's primarily a uh a good man or maybe an Angelic figure or some kind of semi Divine being you know they they say Jesus is God God manifests in the flesh that's repeated over and over in various ways I said yes he says so what would you call someone who doesn't know about the Trinity but affirms the deity of Jesus Christ he said you call them Oneness right I said right so every book of the New Testament was written by one these Pentecostals so far from that being a modern invention I would say that's the original message now the way it's explained or Nuance that can change over the centuries if you're interested in more I have a series of books a history of Christian doctrine volumes 1 two and three there's also a bridged in one volume that traces developments of doctrines and traces historical groups over the centuries and also traces evidence of people in many centuries who baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and who spoke in tongues and in some cases this in the same group we can identify water baptism in Jesus name and uh receiving the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues also my book The New Birth traces people with those experiences over the centuries while we can't find an unbroken historical line or we don't necessarily find organized groups who taught all the specific ramifications we can be confident that the concept of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ and the experience of receiving the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues is found over the centuries almost every Century there is some documentation and that's with the fact that history is written by The Victors and sources are limited destroyed many people probably never wrote down their experiences or shared with others or if they did it was destroyed but even all those limitations especially before printing uh you know it's very difficult to maintain historical records the way we do today yet with all that there are many witnesses throughout church history that's not the basis of our belief but it's interesting confirmation so to summarize I would say our core beliefs of the deity of Jesus Christ the humanity of Jesus Christ the Oneness of God the importance of faith in Jesus Christ repentance from sin water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues we do find that in the first century church we find abundant evidence in say the first three centuries we find uh various spots of evidence throughout the subsequent centuries and we find a dramatic renewal uh starting in the beginning of the 20th century and continue even today

yes well and and you have to be cautious because they're not necessarily any direct historical link and also we don't always know uh exactly what they believe because they don't have written records and it's kind it's kind of like if all you knew about one is Pentecostals reading the writings of our critics what would you think and then some of them are called Heretics because that label has been put on them but but we don't really know what all they believe but having said that our understanding of the Oneness of God you can see strong parallels in What's called the apostolic fathers of the the early 2nd Century uh the popular Christian writings of the second and third centuries the people that are labeled different people labeled as modalist uh people like uh praus sabellius and so forth uh as far as speaking in tongues you find that very common among all in the 2 and third centuries now when you go into later centuries um in the Middle Ages you find the waldensians uh you find uh reformed um like a priesthood groups that were their reports of speaking in tongues um when you come to the Reformation among the anabaptists uh among the early Methodist among the Holiness people and then there are various other groups early Quakers uh people in France known as the camisards um the Irving ites in the uh in in the 1800s in uh England you just find many many examples but more directly you find pretty common uh speaking in tongues in the the weslan movement which is the methodists the Holiness movement and culminating in the Pentecostal movement now again in these groups different groups you do have uh examples and citations of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ the Baptist some of the Baptists in England for example um uh some of the early Christian Church in the 1800s uh Churches of Christ um and so just many different references