Category: United Pentecostal Church

This is only open to those with a USA mailing address. There is absolutely no cost to enter.

This is your chance to receive a used copy of In Jesus Name – The History and Beliefs of Oneness Pentecostals by David Reed. This is United Pentecostal and other Oneness Pentecostal related. It used to cost just under $35 but now runs from $42 and up.

This is a revision and expansion of Reed’s thesis from 1978 and it includes many footnotes. Reed used to be Oneness Pentecostal and this book is said to be sympathetic to the teachings.  Though Thomas Fudge’s Christianity Without The Cross came out before Reed’s, Reed touts his book as “the first comprehensive study of the origins, history and theology of Oneness Pentecostalism.”

Thomas Robinson wrote a lengthy review of Reed’s book: “There is much to criticize about Oneness Pentecostalism, at least from the perspective of contemporary evangelicalism and even of the somewhat more tolerant larger Christian communion. And much of what can be criticized in Oneness Pentecostalism comes in its starkest and best known form, in the UPCI. Oneness pastors are often autocratic. Fellow Christians—even fellow Pentecostals and sometimes even fellow Oneness Pentecostals, and, as Fudge bears witness, even fellow UPCIs—are routinely and often nastily dismissed. Members are isolated from the larger society and often from their own families. A stark legalism guides moral conduct and social behaviour.

“Reed could have written an equally long book on the practices and lifestyle of Oneness Pentecostals, and this, I think, would have made Oneness Pentecostals (or at least the UPCI extreme) a much less attractive group and a considerably harder sell to the wider Christian community. That is not to say, of course, that there are no groups within Christian orthodoxy that demonstrate an equally isolationist mentality and tightly controlled and closed fellowship.

“Reed sets aside the matters of behaviour and attitude. It is the theology of Oneness Pentecostals that is Reed’s concern, and in that regard Reed does as effective a job as is likely to be done for long years to come.  . . .

“Reed’s detailed work on Oneness Pentecostalism will stand as the definitive work on the subject for years to come. My review here hardly begins to mine the full nuances and insights of Reed’s meticulous and comprehensive presentation. As an apologist, Reed is as thorough and as effective an advocate as one can find. That is not to say that every point he makes is compelling, but he is trying to save his client from the chair, and, given that reality, he can hardly be faulted for holding nothing back. As a critic, Reed is considerably more restrained, but, then, why would he not be? He believes that he is dealing with a theological orphan whose language is still mere baby-talk and whose ideas are quite understandably yet immature and largely undeveloped—an orphan who has been cast out, but an orphan with sufficient ancestry and genetic makeup to have a valid claim for membership in the family.”

This giveaway is a drawing. To enter, just leave a comment to show you wish to be included. The drawing will close on June 19, 2024 at 6pm (eastern time), after which I will draw a winner.

Be sure to check back to see if you have won as in the past some people have not responded after winning and so a new winner had to be drawn. You will then need to email me your mailing address if I do not already have it, so be sure to watch your email and check the spam folder. If I know your Facebook profile, I will message you there.

Don’t be alarmed if your comment does not immediately show as it may require approval.

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