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Giveaway: Speaking in Tongues: A Critical Historical Examination: Volume 1:

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 new copy of Speaking in Tongues: A Critical Historical Examination: Volume 1: The Modern Redefinition of Tongues by Philip E. Blosser & Charles A. Sullivan. It costs just under $35.

“In three carefully researched volumes, this ground-breaking study examines the gift of tongues through 2,000 years of church history. Starting in the present and working back in time, these volumes consider (1) the modern redefinition of ‘tongues’ as a private prayer language…

“In the first volume, the authors establish that modern glossolalia, far from being a supernatural gift enjoyed by certain believers since the time of Pentecost and undergoing a resurgence in modern times, has no precedent in church life prior to the nineteenth century. They discuss why German theologians, responding to the Irvingite revival, coined the term ‘glossolalia’ in the 1830s; why Pentecostals between 1906–8 quietly began redefining ‘tongues’ to mean a heavenly language unintelligible to human beings but pleasing to God, instead of foreign languages useful for evangelism; why Protestant cessationists believed miraculous tongues had ceased; and why interpolated idioms like ‘unknown tongues’ in Protestant Bibles were aimed originally at Rome’s use of Latin.”

One of the authors, Charles Sullivan, has a website where much information about speaking in tongues is posted. I am unsure how much is included in the book.

This giveaway is a drawing. To enter, just leave a comment to show you wish to be included. The drawing will close on July 17, 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.

Check back every month for a new giveaway:

August 13: Unveiling Paul’s Women: Making Sense of 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 by Lucy Peppiatt

September 16: The Uncomfortable Confessions of a Preacher’s Kid: A Memoir by Ronna Russell

October 16: Women and Worship at Corinth: Paul’s Rhetorical Arguments in 1 Corinthians by Lucy Peppiatt

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Giveaway: In Jesus Name – The History and Beliefs of Oneness Pentecostals

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.

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

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Giveaway: Christianity Without The Cross by Thomas Fudge

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 new copy of Christianity without the Cross: A History of Salvation in Oneness Pentecostalism by Thomas Fudge. It is the first book in his series on Oneness Pentecostalism. It covers aspects of the United Pentecostal Church and Oneness history that some would rather you not know and which is often downplayed by leadership. You may read more about this book here.

This giveaway is a drawing. To enter, just leave a comment to show you wish to be included. The drawing will close on May 15, 2024 at 6pm (eastern time), after which I will draw a winner.

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

Some might be interested in a series of lectures by Thomas Fudge on the history of Christianity from the Roman Empire until the Reformation. https://youtu.be/WgTDplQabRk

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Giveaway: Heretics & Politics: Theology, Power, and Perception in the Last Days of CBC

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 new copy of Heretics & Politics: Theology, Power, and Perception in the Last Days of CBC by Thomas Fudge. It is the second book in his series on Oneness Pentecostalism. It sells for $29.95. It covers the United Pentecostal Church sponsored Conquerors Bible College that was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1953 and abruptly closed in 1983.

Fudge attended this college. Former UPCI minister Don Fisher is addressed in this book as he used to be the president of the college. Some will also be interested in his daughter’s memoir, The Uncomfortable Confessions of a Preacher’s Kid, by Ronna Russell.

This giveaway is a drawing. To enter, just leave a comment to show you wish to be included. The drawing will close on April 19, 2024 at 6pm (eastern time), after which I will draw a winner. We also have entries being made in our Facebook support group.

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

Some might be interested in a series of lectures by Thomas Fudge on the history of Christianity from the Roman Empire until the Reformation. https://youtu.be/WgTDplQabRk

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What about Judas????

Last year during the week before Easter the question kept coming up, “What about Judas?” That, and the “immersive experiences” that include a mirror with “Behold the betrayer!” as though we should identify with Judas.

I’ll change the questions for myself this year. Instead of “What happened to Judas?” let’s ask what happened to the betrayed. Not just to Jesus, but to the disciples. Jesus knew what was coming, but the disciples didn’t. They felt lost, scared, confused, and angry. So much that had been wonderful in their lives was seemingly upended with a single kiss. Judas was their friend, someone they’d spent a lot of time with and cared about, maybe even respected.

Maybe some argued it couldn’t have been Judas. It was dark. It must have been someone else they saw. And maybe this upset others who knew who they saw, even in the dark. Maybe some blamed themselves. They recalled something Judas had said or done… they should have known. They should have warned Jesus. They should have done something. Anything. And then there was Peter. He did something. He drew his sword. But it was too late, and he was rebuked, and then he denied Jesus on top of everything else.

I’m sure the disciples felt to one degree or another that they were betrayers, but not because they identified with Judas. No, if they felt like betrayers, for the most part that was because they’d trusted Judas. Except Peter, who had even more to deal with. They couldn’t see through what was happening. They felt betrayed, and they may well have wrongly blamed themselves for a large part of the betrayal. They were scattered. Sunday didn’t bring them all back together, either. We like to think of resurrection as the final victory, but it would take a week or two or three for all the disciples to realize the story wasn’t finished.

I sat around a table tonight with strangers. There were prayer requests… and so many were for hope. Mine too. Last year this time was filled with so much joy and hope. This year is so different than I thought it would be, and I grieve what should have been and could have been. And yet Sunday’s coming, and even that’s not the end of the story. Just the beginning.

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