Oneness Pentecostalism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Beginnings of the Oneness movement=== [[File:Urshan-andrew-fig1.jpg|thumb|right|[[Andrew David Urshan|Andrew D. Urshan]], an early leader in the Oneness Pentecostal movement.]] In April 1913, at the Apostolic Faith Worldwide Camp Meeting held in [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]], CA, conducted by [[Maria Woodworth-Etter]], organizers promised that God would "deal with them, giving them a unity and power that we have not yet known."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Warner |first1=Wayne |date=Spring 1983 |title=World-Wide Apostolic Faith Camp Meeting |url=https://archives.ifphc.org/pdf/Heritage/1983_01.pdf |website=The Assemblies of God Archives |publisher=Asseblies of God Heritage}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Edith Waldvogel |last1=Blumhofer |year=1993 |chapter=Baptism and the Trinity |chapter-url={{Google books|tKuTIfCPeJwC|page=127|plainurl=yes}} |page=127 |title=Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American Culture |isbn=978-0-252-06281-0 }}</ref> Canadian [[R.E. McAlister|R. E. McAlister]] preached a "new revelation" that a baptismal formula in the name of Jesus only was to be preferred over the three-part formula "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" found in [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] [[Matthew 28:19|28:19]], pointing to [[Acts of the Apostles|Acts]] [[Acts 2:38|2:38]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weaver |first1=C. Douglas |author1-link=Doug Weaver |title=The healer-prophet, William Marrion Branham: a study of the prophetic in American Pentecostalism |date=2000 |publisher=[[Mercer University Press]] |location=Macon, GA |isbn=9780865547100 |page=16 |edition=2 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Healer_prophet/0mQUxz82-08C?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA16&printsec=frontcover |access-date=3 November 2023 |quote=In 1913, at a World Wide Pentecostal Camp Meeting in Los Angeles, a well-known Canadian Pentecostal, Robert T. McAlister, preached a sermon in which he declared that the baptismal formula of Acts 2:38 (in the name of Jesus Christ) was to be preferred over the trinitarian formula of Matthew 28:19 (in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost), because the former was the one used by the early Church.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Oneness Pentecostalism |url=https://religionfacts.com/oneness-pentecostalism |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109041333/https://religionfacts.com/oneness-pentecostalism |archive-date=9 January 2022 |access-date=9 January 2022 |website=ReligionFacts}}</ref> This revelation immediately caused controversy when Frank Denny—a Pentecostal missionary to China—jumped on the platform and tried to censor McAlister.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barba |first=Lloyd |last2=Johnson |first2=Andrea Shan |date=2018 |title=The new issue: A pproaches to oneness P entecostalism in the U nited S tates |url=https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec3.12288 |journal=Religion Compass |language=en |volume=12 |issue=11 |doi=10.1111/rec3.12288 |issn=1749-8171}}</ref> A young minister named John G. Schaepe was so moved by McAlister's new revelation, that after praying and reading the Bible all night, he ran through the camp the following morning shouting that he'd received a revelation against Trinitarian baptism.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Reckart|first1=Sr. Gary P.|title=Great Cloud Of Witnesses|publisher=Apostolic Theological Bible College|page=124}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=[[Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements]]|first1=C. M. Jr.|last1=Rabic|chapter=John G. Schaepe|last2=Burgess|last3=McGee|pages=768–769}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=J.|last1=Schaepe|title=A Remarkable Testimony|journal=Meat in Due Season|date=21 August 1917|page=4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=French |first=Talmadge L. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1cgf8cm |title=Early Inter-racial Oneness Pentecostalism: G.T. Haywood and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (1901-1931) |date=2014 |publisher=The Lutterworth Press |isbn=978-0-227-17477-7 |edition=1 |pages=63 |quote=John Schaepe, who received Spirit baptism at Azusa, February 23, 1907, received a "revelation" six years later of Jesus' Name baptism at Arroyo Seco. Many, including Harry Morse, heard him shouting the news throughout the camp in the early morning hours, persuading many of the new doctrine, and impacting Ewart himself, with whom Schaepe's Los Angeles ministry was associated.}}</ref> This conclusion was accepted by several others in the camp and given further theological development by a minister named [[Frank Ewart]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bernard|first1=David|title=A History of Christian Doctrine, Volume Three: The Twentieth Century A.D. 1900–2000|date=1999|publisher=Word Aflame Press|location=Hazelwood, MO|page=87|isbn=978-1567222210}}</ref> On April 15, 1914, Frank Ewart and Glenn Cook publicly baptized each other specifically in "the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" in a tank set up in Ewart's Crusade tent.<ref name="Ewart and Cook Rebaptized">{{cite book |last1=Tyson |first1=James L. |title=The Early Pentecostal Revival |date=1992 |publisher=Word Aflame Press |location=Hazelwood, Missouri |isbn=0-932581-92-7 |page=171}}</ref><ref name="Ewart and Cook Rebaptisms2">{{cite book |last1=Bernard |first1=David |title=A History of Christian Doctrine 1900-2000 Volume 3 |date=1999 |publisher=Word Aflame Press |location=Hazelwood, Missouri |isbn=0-932581-91-9}}</ref> This is considered to be the historical point when Oneness Pentecostalism emerged as a distinct movement.<ref name="fp123-4" /> A number of ministers claimed they were baptized in Jesus' name before 1914, including Frank Small and [[Andrew David Urshan|Andrew D. Urshan]]. Urshan claimed to have baptized others in Jesus Christ's name as early as 1910.<ref>Andrew D. Urshan, ''Pentecost As It Was in the Early 1900s'' (by the author, 1923; revised edition Portland, OR: ApostolicBook Publishers, 1981, 77)</ref><ref>''The Life Story of Andrew Bar David Urshan: An Autobiography of the Author's First Forty Years'' (Apostolic Book Publishers, 1967), 102</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=E. N. |last1=Bell |title=The Sad New Issue |journal=Weekly Evangel |year=1915 |issue=93 |pages=3 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Robert |title=Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism |date=July 1, 1980 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-1565630000}}</ref> In addition, [[Charles Parham]], the founder of the modern Pentecostal movement, was recorded baptizing using a [[Christology|Christological]] formula during the Azusa Street revival;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Robin |title=Howard A. Goss: A Pentecostal Life |date=24 September 2010 |publisher=Word Aflame Press |language=English|isbn=978-0757740299 }}</ref> and until 1914, both Parham and [[William J. Seymour]] baptized in this Christological formula but repudiated the new movement's nontrinitarian teachings amidst the controversy as they baptized as Christocentric Trinitarians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=French |first=Talmadge L. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1cgf8cm |title=Early Inter-racial Oneness Pentecostalism: G.T. Haywood and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (1901-1931) |date=2014 |publisher=The Lutterworth Press |isbn=978-0-227-17477-7 |edition=1 |pages=57–58}}</ref> In the Assemblies of God, the re-baptisms in Jesus' name caused a backlash from many Trinitarians. In October 1916, the issue finally came to a head at the Fourth General Council: the mostly Trinitarian leadership—fearing that the new issue of Oneness might overtake their organization—drew up a doctrinal statement affirming the truth of Trinitarian dogma, among other issues. When the resulting [[Assemblies of God Statement of Fundamental Truths]] was adopted, a third of the fellowship's ministers left to form Oneness fellowships.<ref name="Magist">{{cite journal |doi=10.1163/157007403776113224 |title=An Emerging Magisterium? The Case of the Assemblies of God |journal=[[Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies]]|volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=164–215 |year=2003 |last1=Robeck |first1=Cecil }}</ref> After this separation, most Oneness believers became relatively isolated from other Pentecostals and [[Nicene Christianity|mainstream Christendom]].<ref name="fp123-4" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page