Category: Oneness Pentecostal | Page 46

Calvary, Salvation and Us

I was taught that Jesus did his part on Calvary. Now it’s up to us. Up to us to do right, since baptism covers sin up to that point but we’ll still face judgment for any wrongs since baptism. Up to us to come to God, to ensure time with him, to be dedicated enough, to stay saved… that on the cross Jesus said ‘it is finished’ and so he had done all he could to save us. The rest was up to us. And yet we were told we couldn’t be good enough, couldn’t do it on our own.

I don’t know exactly what Jesus meant when he said it was finished, but I don’t believe he meant he was finished. Not with reaching out to us, drawing us, saving us. Not with helping us, walking with us, living through us.

We can’t live for him on our own. He knew that better than anyone. If everything past the cross is left to us, we won’t get very far. We were taught that salvation is a daily, hourly thing, but Christ was left out of the equation past Calvary. ‘It’s no longer I that live, but Christ living in me’ doesn’t sound like it’s ‘up to us’ or that all Jesus would do to save me was finished 2000 years ago. Perhaps the plan for salvation was finished, but not Jesus’ part in our salvation. That part is continual.

The Character of a Man

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” James D. Miles

I saw this on Facebook. It brought back memories. In my former church, the men were expected to be “manly”… to laugh and be tough if others or themselves were hurt. One of the first indications I had that something was dreadfully wrong with my former pastor was that he sat and laughed while his son poked the eyes out of a live frog, then impaled the still living frog on a stick and continued playing with it. Both were laughing. The thought of it still turns my stomach.

Blood doesn’t bother me. Cruelty does. If he’d killed the frog and disemboweled it, I wouldn’t have been surprised. It was that the frog was still alive while he continued to abuse it that disgusted me.

I think of that situation that night several years ago, see this picture and quote, and think of the men I now know. Men who seem gentle and kind, who don’t see those as weakness or effeminate characteristics, but as strength, and as the fruit of the spirit.

For so many years I listened while my former pastor told me there was something wrong with me. I prayed that “something” would change, that whatever was wrong wouldn’t be anymore. And for years it seemed like I lived in fear that I would end up leaving or being kicked out and do my best to stay. It’s weird to wake up and realize that all the time you prayed for something, you fought the answer to the prayer. It’s strange to realize that I asked God to fix whatever was “wrong with me,” not realizing that the thing that was most wrong was that I would stay in that environment to begin with.

I’m thankful that God answers prayers… even when we don’t know what we’re asking, and even when we don’t want or are scared of the answer we’re given. He does know what’s best for us, He does care for us, and He did answer my prayers.

Howard Goss- The Winds of God

Howard A. Goss was part of the Pentecostal movement since the very early 1900s. He helped to organize the Assemblies of God. He became the General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Church Incorporated, which later merged with another organization to form the United Pentecostal Church. Goss became the first General Superintendent of the UPC in 1945.

In the late 1950s, his wife, Ethel E. Goss, wrote a book with his input on the early years of the Pentecostal movement from 1901 to 1914. It is called The Winds of God.

There are many people involved in Oneness Pentecostal churches who are yet unaware of how things were different in the earlier days of their movement. There wasn’t the same emphasis on outward standards and there were differences in beliefs concerning when a person was saved. Goss himself believed that both Trinitarians and Oneness believers were saved and believed that water baptism was performed after a person was saved.

In regard to outward standards, below is what Mrs. Goss wrote on page 69 (of the revised version) and page 38 (of the original version):

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.

Galatians 2:4 came to mind as I posted this quote. While it may not fully fit, to me it does at least in part: “But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.” (NASB) Could it be that a reason why so many today are now overly concerned with the outward is because they may not be “so taken up with the Lord”?

********
Shop at our Amazon store! As an Amazon Influencer, this website earns from qualifying purchases.

Manipulation

I had someone recently inform me that someone in my new church had manipulated me. They didn’t ask whether I’d made a decision and followed through or if the other person had pressured me. They didn’t know the other person. They didn’t ask any of the particulars. They made a statement and I said that wasn’t always the case and gave that particular situation as example. Their immediate response was not a healthy “maybe things are different in different places” or “how did you feel about this statement,” but simply “they were manipulating you.”

The situation I had used as an example is one I’m particularly happy about. It was a good choice for me. I’ve not had one regret about the situation, and have actually become more pleased with it over time. But their statement still troubled me deeply. I was manipulated in my former church. I don’t want to be manipulated again. But more than that, what they said was manipulative, in that they didn’t take time to find out “the rest of the story” but simply shot that back at me out of the blue.

What is manipulation? Is it open discussion and dialogue, leading to a well informed opinion, or statements that are sly or twisted with an intent to deceive or meet their own end? It’s most definitely the latter.

There have been a whole lot of times in Pentecost that I’ve seen things twisted that way to silence, to wound, to block another way of thinking, to stop someone from doing a thing. I guess what took my breath away this time was that I wasn’t talking to a Pentecostal… and I’ve been in a healthy situation (the one the person attacked) long enough to realize just how unhealthy the person’s statement was.

Now, if I could just go ahead and get over ‘furious’ and get to ‘forgiveness’ maybe things could get back to normal for me.

Discussion on David Bernard’s Book: The Oneness of God

Just over an hour in length, in this video former Oneness Pentecostal & valedictorian of the United Pentecostal Church’s Texas Bible College, Mark McNeil discusses The Oneness of God, written by David K. Bernard, UPC General Superintendent.