Personally, I *still* find it strange that so many people are Oneness and believe in baptism in Jesus' name yet claim to be 'one steppers'. Seems like most 'one steppers' not only have a low view of baptism, but have a low view of Oneness itself. What I mean is, just as they see Jesus' name baptism as being a small matter of a 'preferred formula', they see Oneness/Trinity as a small matter of interpretation.
Almost as if the 'one steppers' so called are really just adherents to Barth's 'economic trinitarianism' rather than being full-blown 'Oneness'????
Also, I just never understood the idea that Jesus' name believers could maintain the modern evangelical view of baptism.
I am suspecting the original PCI folks did not feel quite the same way about baptism that their claimed descendants do.
I have stated before that I think the PCI folks should have seen the writing on the wall and started their own organization way back at the birth of the UPC. Because if you really believe the 3 step doctrine there is no room to allow for one steppers because the 3 step doctrine makes it clear that if you don't agree with it you are not saved. How could one stepper's expect people who didn't believe they were saved to call them brother?
I wonder if maybe enough of the three steppers believed in the "light doctrine" or some other doctrine allowing for exceptions to the 3 step salvation belief that they tolerated the other view but over time that changed.
My friend the problem looking back and not being there is this. Those PCI guys so fervently preached Acts 2:38 that when you heard them you wouldn't know the difference unless you listened closely to the terminology. Elder Gurley baptized 100's if not 1000's in Jesus and preached the HGB for strong his converts recieved it. And did the majority of PCI guys. However when personally speaking with them they believed folks were saved at repentance but the only Bible baptism was in Jesus Name and receiving the HGB was essential to living a overcoming life as a saint. So I am sure it seemed more semantical back then. But as time progressed the PAJC men believed Acts 2:38 was the new birth and preached it as so. It was destined to fail.
I understand that Burr believed in the "light doctrine".
I think your are misinformed.
__________________ For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. (Romans 14:11- NASB)
My friend the problem looking back and not being there is this. Those PCI guys so fervently preached Acts 2:38 that when you heard them you wouldn't know the difference unless you listened closely to the terminology. Elder Gurley baptized 100's if not 1000's in Jesus and preached the HGB for strong his converts recieved it. And did the majority of PCI guys. However when personally speaking with them they believed folks were saved at repentance but the only Bible baptism was in Jesus Name and receiving the HGB was essential to living a overcoming life as a saint. So I am sure it seemed more semantical back then. But as time progressed the PAJC men believed Acts 2:38 was the new birth and preached it as so. It was destined to fail.
My church today does not preach baptism as a requirement for salvation (our take is that it should not be a question of being necessity but one of why would anybody giving their life to Christ not want to identify with him through baptism)
However to your point about old time One stepper's preaching Jesus name fervently and baptizing many my church has baptized more than 450 people in Jesus name in the last 4 1/2 years. I am willing to bet that is more than all of the 3 steppper churches combined in a 50 mile radius. Maybe a 100 mile radius.
__________________ "I think some people love spiritual bondage just the way some people love physical bondage. It makes them feel secure. In the end though it is not healthy for the one who is lost over it or the one who is lives under the oppression even if by their own choice"
Titus2woman on AFF
"We did not wear uniforms. The lady workers dressed in the current fashions of the day, ...silks...satins...jewels or whatever they happened to possess. They were very smartly turned out, so that they made an impressive appearance on the streets where a large part of our work was conducted in the early years.
"It was not until long after, when former Holiness preachers had become part of us, that strict plainness of dress began to be taught.
"Although Entire Sanctification was preached at the beginning of the Movement, it was from a Wesleyan viewpoint, and had in it very little of the later Holiness Movement characteristics. Nothing was ever said about apparel, for everyone was so taken up with the Lord that mode of dress seemingly never occurred to any of us."
Quote from Ethel Goss (widow of 1st UPC Gen Supt. Howard Goss) book "The Winds of God"
My church today does not preach baptism as a requirement for salvation (our take is that it should not be a question of being necessity but one of why would anybody giving their life to Christ not want to identify with him through baptism) However to your point about old time One stepper's preaching Jesus name fervently and baptizing many my church has baptized more than 450 people in Jesus name in the last 4 1/2 years. I am willing to bet that is more than all of the 3 steppper churches combined in a 50 mile radius. Maybe a 100 mile radius.
__________________ For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. (Romans 14:11- NASB)
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