Category: Christian Denominations/Groups
A Few Reasons Why I Am a Catholic
To balance out my post on why I am not a Oneness Pentecostal (here), I will give some reasons as to why I am Catholic. First some background. I was born into the Catholic church, baptized as an infant only a few months old. I was never catechized in my youth, and sporadically practiced my faith. Yet, I was always intrigued by God. In my teen years, I fell into the world until I was 22 years old, when I decided I needed to get right with God. At that time, I was part of a charismatic Catholic group in the Philippines (Bukas Loob sa Diyos [Open in Spirit to God]). On June 30, 2002, I received what Pentecostals would call the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
When I returned to the Seattle area, the only people I knew were Oneness Pentecostals (teen friends with whose church I had experience). Because of the similarities in beliefs about the Holy Spirit, I easily made the transition. I will not recount my Oneness experience here since I have done so briefly in aforementioned post. Because of my studies in seminary, I decided to investigate and eventually return to the Catholic church. Below are a few reasons I am now Catholic. Once again, this is not an exhaustive list, but it highlights some of the more influential factors on my decision to come home to Rome.
Church Fathers. As I read some of the church fathers for church history, I began to realize that of which the church spoke sounded much like the Catholic church. For example, St. Ignatius’s reference to the Eucharist as the “medicine of immortality” accorded well with the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist as a sacrament. The recitation of the Nicene Creed (and the Apostles’ Creed during such devotions like the rosary) during Mass harkens back to that ecumenical council, which the Fathers defended.
Mystics Tradition. The Catholic church (as well as the Orthodox) have a strong line of mystics, those who are greatly in touch with and live out the love of God. At George Fox Evangelical Seminary, I learned about contemplative prayer, and found myself wired to this way of praying. In my exploration of contemplative prayer, I found that the most in-depth works on it were by St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. I also took a class called Spirituality and the Writings of the Mystics where I noticed that most of the writings on contemplative prayer came from Catholic mystics. Many of those whom I have read and who have experienced genuine contemplation today are Catholics (here). The Catholic church seems to be a good place for one who is inclined toward mysticism, such as myself.
The View of Some Jews. A woman with whom I attended the same Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults is Jewish. When she told her parents of her decision to become Catholic, they were quite happy for her, saying that the Catholic church is the closest in Christianity to Judaism. I have also heard from other Jews that if they were to become Christian, they would become Catholics.
The Charismatic Movement. As I mentioned above, I came back to God through a charismatic Catholic group. When I was thinking of returning to Catholicism again, I began to research the charismatic movement in the Catholic church. I came to find that, the Catholic church has embraced the charismatic work and acknowledged its validity. Pentecostal spirituality has many important aspects, and many of them can be found in the charismatic Catholic movement. The “fullness of the Spirit” that some (sectarian) Pentecostal groups want to claim is not exclusively theirs.
The Connection to Eastern Christianity. Before coming back to Catholicism, I was looking into the Orthodox church. I had attended Vespers for months until my work on my thesis prevented me from attending often. Through some Catholic forums, I found out about the Eastern Catholic churches and how Blessed John Paul II, when he was pope, encouraged the Eastern churches to de-Latinize and retain their culture. After some research, I found that some Eastern churches in the area and I attended a Byzantine Catholic church Vesper and Divine Liturgy this month (June 2011). It was virtually like the Orthodox: the entire Liturgy was chanted, it had the iconostasis, communion was administered in the same way, there was the antidoron bread (bread that is blessed but is not used as Eucharist), and so forth. What was awesome to me was that there were prayers for Pope Benedict during the Liturgy and that I could receive the Eucharist because I am Catholic. The Eastern and Western aspects to Catholicism make it a truly universal church.
Pentecost Sunday 2011
Pentecost Sunday is an important day for me. I came into Christianity through the Pentecostal paradigm. I know that many branches of Christianity celebrate this day, but there was something special about celebrating it as a Pentecostal. It was a day to remember when in 1906 a building located at 312 Azusa Street, Los Angeles, CA, became one with an upper room of a building in Jerusalem, Judea sometime in the early part of the fourth decade of the first century. It was a day when we all celebrated the arrival of the New Covenant Spirit upon humanity as foretold by the prophets that still comes into the heart of people today.
My own relationship with the Pentecostal movement has been love/hate. In part, I think this is because it began in the Oneness Pentecostal context and there is a lot of baggage from those days. Yet there is something about global Pentecostalism that I appreciate (maybe even need). In its purest form it is the Christianity for those whom Christianity has chosen to ignore. It welcomes those who work tough 9-5 jobs to be on equal footing with something who holds the professorship at a local university. Scripture is not the book of the elite, but rather it is the book of the oppressed (for a thousand doctoral degrees do not surpass the work of the Spirit). Worship is unrestricted allowing us to reach to the Spirit as it comes down to us. You don’t need to know the jargon, you just need to say what is on your heart. While people fight over whether or not Jesus has resurrected there is no doubt for those who feel his presence, by the Spirit, when they call out his name.
It is the type of Christianity that answers the powerful wisdom of the scholars with the confounding testimony of the cross. When Judaizers came at the church in Galatia with their reading of Torah all the Apostle Paul had to do was remind them of when they received the Spirit. There is something to this. While I do not adhere to the classic “initial evidence” doctrine I do agree with Pentecostals that the Spirit should be evident. One should know (at some points, maybe not all) that they are the temple of God because there was that moment, or that day, or that week, or that year when the presence of God was as thick and real as the Shekinah glory falling on Solomon’s newly christened temple.
Like Bono I can say “I have spoke with the tongue of angels” yet “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”, though without those times I am not sure I’d still be searching.
We humans are more than brains in vats. Yes, Pentecostalism often makes the equal and opposite mistake of treating us as emotional zombies, but it is a fitting critique of those who say, “Well, I researched this all day every day and I decided Christianity can’t be true because…”. Many with their intellectual arrogance are deeply frustrated by the Pentecostal style of faith that says, “You have your arguments, I have my experience.”
One of the great things that has happened to Christianity since 1906 is the Pentecostalization of our religion. I am not saying everyone looks and acts “Pentecostal” (I don’t even go to a Pentecostal church), but rather that this movement has forced us to remember that this is a Spirit-religion. The gospel goes forth and signs and wonders are real (in spite of the enlightenments misguided, one sided, attack). Even if you are not “charismatic” you who are Christ’s have the Spirit working through you and gifting you to do a work you could never do alone.
Pentecost Sunday is not about Pentecostalism, per se. It is about Pentecost. And Pentecost is about the Spirit of God birthing a new people with a new covenant. It is about the beginning of a tidal wave that took Israel’s God and made sure that everyone hears that he is God of the world. Whether you are Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, or some other brand of Christianity, let us never forget the importance of Pentecost. For the Spirit is shared by all of us who call Jesus “Lord”, who confess him to be God’s chosen one, who await his return. Let us remember that we still have a great mission before us. We must proclaim the gospel of our returning King in the face of all those who deny him and scoff at our hope.
The origins of call-and-response preaching.
T.D. Jakes preaching with emotion.
In Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism the author, Estrelda Alexander, catalogs how something from the African religious tradition known as “griot” shaped what we refer to as “call-and-response” preaching. She provides a very eye-opening explanation of how it originated and how it functions. Alexander writes,
“Characteristics of the black sermon such as antiphonal structure in which the preacher and the audience form a joint choir, with the preacher becoming the lead singer and the congregation the chorus are more pronounced within Pentecostal worship. The longer and louder the preacher goes on, the more the audience talks back, and the rhythm of the preaching forms a cadence of its own.” (p. 52)
For those not familiar with Pentecostal-Charismatic preaching this is a liturgy of sorts. As I discussed this with my wife this morning she recalled our experience with Roman Catholic and Anglican worship where there were times in which the congregation is asked to talk back to the speaker. When we first visited an Anglican congregation they would say, “Peace be with you.” I would stare back. Another person said it and I think I responded with “thank you” until I realized the appropriate response is to say “And also with you”.
Our current assembly is a non-denominational evangelical church with German Lutheran roots. On Easter Sunday someone in attendance was very verbal in his support of our pastor’s sermon. He disrupted the order of a service a bit and he received a few stares. While I am not much of a yeller during church it didn’t surprise me. I have always understood the sermon, if done well, to be something in which the congregation participates.
It is a Pentecostal liturgy of sorts. Elsewhere she discusses the expectations when the music is playing in a Pentecostal service. She says,
“Not to move (raising hands, clapping or swaying) in some visible way indicates that a person is not part of what the community is experiencing and signals a lack of spirituality; it gives evidence that he or she is an outsider and might be a candidate for conversion. The importance of rhythmic engagement in Pentecostal worship is inescapable.” (p. 50)
Before one chides Pentecostals let me say as I sat in Anglican worship gatherings I missed cues that showed that I am an outsider. The same can be said of my experience around Catholics and even Baptist or non-denominational, hipster evangelicals. All communities have an ethos that shows whether or not someone is a regular.
Now as regards the sermon there are expectations. During a homily from a Catholic priest most stay very, very silent. In my current church there is not much more interaction. In (specifically Black) Pentecostal circles homilies and testimony is understood as such:
“Though one person has the floor, the entire congregation is involved. Pentecostal testimony service parallels the African practice of storytelling by griot. Testimonies are not just my testimony of what God has done for me but also our testimony of what God has done for us–in our family, our church, our community and our history. They are the testimony of how God, through the centuries, has brought deliverance, as he did the children of Israel in Egypt and as he did in bringing a remnant through the middle passage, as he delivered us from slavery and from the Jim Crow experience in America.” (p. 53)
This is true of Anglo-Pentecostal and Latin0-Pentecostal groups as well. To preach or to give a testimony is not to lecture to an audience. It is a group action.
There can be much wrong with this approach. It can result in cheerleading. It can lead to group think or the worst kind. But in reading Alexander’s take on the subject I feel a bit rebuked for sometimes being critical of it over against the more “refined” homilies seem in Catholic, mainline, or evangelical pulpits. Everyone has their liturgy. This is just another version.
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See my previous comments on this book:
Segregation in Pentecostalism
While reading Estrelda Alexander’s Black Fire (see here) I was struck by two claims she makes about Pentecostalism:
(1) She says that “Within ten years of the movement’s beginning, there were virtually two Pentecostal movements–one heavily white, the other almost entirely black.” (p. 20) As an aside, I think this is very true except that it seems to ignore that there has been a large Latino brand of Pentecostalism as well. Nevertheless, this her main point is that it seems to have been a great struggle for whites to have black leaders and whites have often been much more comfortable with white leadership often leaving groups led by blacks or hindering blacks from having leadership in predominately white organizations.
What I found most outrageous was this claim regarding Pentecostal groups (which she did not support with a footnote, so I cannot fact check it): “…the Assemblies of God has remained the most racially segregated, with less than 2 percent of its constituency being African Americans.” (p. 21) Two percent?! Is there anyone in the AOG who can confirm or deny this?
(2) Alexander claims regarding the impact of Charles Parham and William Seymour that, “Though black involvement in all Pentecostal arenas rivaled and in some ways surpassed that of whites, most early Pentecostal history had been written by white scholars who have not only downplayed Seymour’s contribution in defense to Parham’s but have also ignored the contributions of many other African American Pentecostals.” (p. 21)
As I think about my own upbringing I always perceived Topeka, KS, to be a footnote to Azusa Street. Parham was seen as the match that ignited global Pentecostalism while Seymour was the gasoline that caused it to become a quick moving inferno. I don’t doubt Alexander’s claims. I am simply saying that even in the white circles with which I was most familiar Seymour is seen as something of a hero.
In the Mail: Black Fire by Estrelda Y. Alexander
Alexander, Estrelda. (2011) Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic. (Amazon.com; IVPress.com)
Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of Estrelda Alexander’s new book Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism sitting in my mailbox. Like myself, Alexander was raised in oneness Pentecostal circles though my own experience was likely very different in many ways. Nevertheless, there is bound to be many similarities between her story and my own.
I must confess that in some weird way my heart has always wanted the best for Pentecostalism in part because of the very type of story it seems that Alexander seeks to tell. It is an amazing narrative about Christianity for the outcast (well ain’t it odd that there must be such a thing). This is not Pentecostalism for Pentecostalism’s sake, but Pentecostalism for Christianity’s sake. By this I mean a healthy thorn in the flesh for the established institutionalized church where women, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, lower middle class and impoverished, uneducated and under appreciated can become pastors, theologians, prophets, and psalmist for the Kingdom of God.
Yet as Alexander shows within the first fifty pages or so (yes, I began reading it already and I could hardly stop in spite of other obligations) even Pentecostalism has fallen into the traps they sought to critique. She points out how many Pentecostal historians and leaders have sought to exalt the memory of Charles Parham and all that happened in Topeka, KS, over against William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival. How women have played such an important role in Pentecostalism’s global impact only to see splits and divisions over whether or not they should be leaders. How a movement based on unity in the Spirit has splintered into hundreds of large and small denominations causing complete disunity. It appears Alexander will hold nothing back and thank God she doesn’t!!!
I trust that I will say more about this book over time. We need to hear the story of how Black Pentecostalism has influenced the world. It is only right since it is true.
Walk On: A Guide to Exiting from Oneness Pentecostalism (Series Summary)
I wrote a series of posts on this blog beginning April 28th, 2011, and ending March 10th, 2011, that chronicle my own story while providing some advice for those who are considering a departure from Oneness Pentecostalism. I did not write this to engage in debate with apologists for this movement. I didn’t write this to “convince” anyone, per se. I assume that there are people that are already convinced that it is time to move on, yet who do not know what this entails.
This series will not tell you everything you need to know. Each person has their own journey ahead of them. All it tells you is where I have been in my own life. I guess that if others wrote a series like this it may say some drastically different things. I would invite others to do something like this. I think the more voices that can be heard the easier it is for others to see that there is life in God outside of Oneness Pentecostalism.
I hope that many people benefit from reading these posts. You may come across them several years from now or you may have been reading along as I posted each new one. I don’t know, but I am thankful that you took the time to read. I’d be more than happy to discuss your journey with you if you leave a comment.
Read the full series:
Pt. 1 here.
Pt. 2 here.
Pt. 3 here.
Pt. 4 here.
Pt. 5 here.
Pt. 6 here.
Pt. 7 here.
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It seems as if all my bridges have been burned,
You say that’s exactly how this grace thing works
It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart,
But the welcome I receive at the restart
From Roll Away Your Stone by Mumford and Sons
Walk On: A Guide to Exiting from Oneness Pentecostalism (Pt. 7)
[If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series you can find them here: Pt. 1 here; Pt. 2 here; Pt. 3 here; Pt. 4 here; Pt. 5 here; Pt. 6 here.]
When I walked away from my Oneness Pentecostal roots it was not pretty. I spent four years at a college that I wished I had never known to exist. I was around a church community for a decade and a half that was ready to quickly disown me once it saw my beliefs on certain matters were changing. There was a tension between myself and some friends and family that I could attribute to nothing more than these differences. I wasn’t sure what to think about Christianity in general.
I was blessed to have found a church and a pastor that patiently guided me through my transition. Many of the people I met had similar experiences. I think we mutually assisted each other in finding a place of sanity. We created a safe environment for recovery. I don’t know what I would have done without some of these people.
Yet even to this day when I hear certain names of some people I cringe. I confess that I have a hard time mustering up any kind words to say about them. When I hear what is preached in some of the pulpits of various churches associated with Oneness Pentecostalism it bothers me more than any asinine thing that Pat Robertson or John MacArthur could say because I have been directly impacted by people in the Oneness circles. I can relate because I have been there and it brings very bad memories to the forefront of my mind.
For a time I had to block out anything I heard. I had to avoid talking to those still in those circles because I couldn’t maintain composure in the face of some absurdities. Even now (ask my closest friends) some news of what happens in those circles can cause a profanity to fall from my lips. It is really, really hard to avoid becoming bitter.
Yet you must do your best.
One thing you cannot let happen once you have moved along is that you never let your mind become free from past experiences. As the old saying goes, “You can take someone out of Egypt, but can you take Egypt out of them?” You can leave the abusive church, or the misguided church, or the sectarian church, but can you get those experiences out of you?
Not completely. You’ll probably always carry some baggage. You’ll always have some hurts that don’t go away, some broken friendships that you miss, some days you wish you could relive.
Some of you may even wonder what it would have been like to remain. While there are some awkward moments being part of a sectarian community one thing that is hard to deny is that there sure is community. As long as you are a “company man” you’ll receive all the support one could ever need. This is why many shut up, quench their doubts, and stay put.
I don’t have a five step plan for overcoming the bitterness that may infiltrate your heart. I do know you should pray. I do know you should read Scripture for the sake of reading Scripture and not for the sake of being able to defend yourself against your old Oneness Pentecostal friends. I do know you should try to find a new church community to love and by whom to be loved.
I’d even recommend you try to think of some positives you gained. I realized that if nothing else I heard about Jesus, a lot, thanks to Oneness Pentecostals. I was taught to read Scripture (even if the hermeneutic was a bit twisted). I was taught to seek the leading of the Spirit and I am even a continuationist to this day! I was given a moral foundation upon which to build (and some legalism that needed to be torn down). Finally, I met people that have been life long friends that I would never had known had I not been in a Oneness Pentecostal church and in one of their colleges.
At the end of the day you are where you are. Your story is your story. You can speak to people in certain situations that others do not know how to address. You learned some things that were positive and some things to avoid.
At the end of the day God has been good. God has been with you. God has shown you his love revealed in his Son by his Spirit. Yes, you have baggage, but everyone does. Now you need to decide what that baggage teaches you and if there is anything redeemable. But don’t get bitter. Don’t let your bad experiences have the last word. You have too much future ahead of you for that.
Tomorrow I will say some final words on this matter and put the links to all the posts in one place so you can share them with others if you so desire.
Walk On: A Guide to Exiting Oneness Pentecostalism (Pt. 6)
[If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series you can find them here: Pt. 1 here; Pt. 2 here; Pt. 3 here; Pt. 4 here; Pt. 5 here]
This week will be the final one wherein I give advice for how to make a healthy transition away from the Oneness Pentecostal movement. In my next post I will say something about protecting one’s heart from bitterness (a very, very difficult task). After that I will wrap up the series with some final words on the matter. Today I want to address what I see as the most dangerous pendulum swing one can engage once they leave.
I have seen several female friends realize that Deut. 22.5 is tucked into a passage that if read in context doesn’t seem very applicable to women in the New Covenant (i.e. this was a specific commandment to Israel for reasons oft debated). Likewise, they notice that 1 Cor. 11.1-16 seems to be addressing an underlying subject related to healthy respect between males and females while the outward expression (head coverings) seems to be very culturally specific. They move from these ery correct observations to some very misguided one’s concerning other biblical imperatives. After years of reading Scripture as very two dimensional it becomes apparent that they have lost confidence in how to interpret the moral imperatives of Scripture.
If I can cut my hair, wear jeans, and drink a beer, why can’t I get drunk once in a while, sleep with a few people, and so forth and so on. For those who have never left such an environment this may seem absurd, but it is a reality for many. Scripture has been read as (A) a guide to good Christian living and (B) a guide to the associated morality. No one has ever taught them to read critically to ask what underlying motives do we find for particular biblical imperatives. What is the character of God? Why are some things only applicable for Israel under the Old Covenant but not for Christians under the New Covenant?
We cannot dive into a hermeneutics lesson here. All I can say is be careful not to throw away everything once you find that some things are wrong. You will learn that while your mother may not speak to you because you cut your hair or watched a movie in a theater that this is a totally different consequence to sleeping around with several sexual partners or trying new and exciting drugs.
You do have common sense and the Spirit is still with you. There are some things you have been taught that once abandoned will be freeing (like Paul when he realized under the New Covenant that Christ was his Sabbath or that the foods of the Gentiles could now be consumed); other things will be devastating (which is why Paul continues to speak against sexual immorality, abusing one’s body, cheating, stealing, lying, and a list of other sins against God).
One area to begin is this: Jesus said that the Law of God boils down to loving God first and my neighbor as myself. Does cutting your hair (if you are a girl) in our culture show that you do not love God or neighbor? No. Does wearing jeans do this? No. Does going to the movie theater do this? Probably not. Does having a beer with a friend? No.
What about sleeping around? Yes, check the emotional after effect on your “neighbor” as well as against God who created us to be monogamous. What about drunkenness? Have you ever seen how drunks impact their neighbor? What about drug use and abusing your body? Yes. What about lying, cheating, stealing, and those types of sins. Yes!
While this does not mean you will never find yourself in a moral quagmire. It does mean you will have a principle that Jesus taught us that will assist you in forming new, balanced, healthy moral convictions.
Being a Christian is about being a disciple of Christ. Being a disciple of Christ is not something you can learn in a “Being a Disciple for Dummies” book. It takes a life time.
You will make more mistakes. You will hold to some convictions that later you will realize were no big deal. You will abandon some you wish you had maintained. It’s a journey, a long one, so be ready.
But it is a journey you must take. Following Christ is never easy. Sometimes, like Abraham, to follow the voice of God, we must leave our comfort zone and just begin walking. It won’t always be easy, but it is better than staying put when you know you should have gone.
A Declaration of Amnesty and Peace (repost from Dr. Paul N. Anderson)
[This post has been reproduced with permission granted by Dr. Paul N. Anderson, the Professor of Biblical and Quaker Studies at George Fox University. Share your thoughts in the comments section below. He is aware of this post and he may be able to interact.]
Paul N. Anderson
A Declaration of Amnesty and Peace—
An Open Letter to President Obama and the US Congress
(Thanks for the responses; this is a revised letter as of 05/09/2011.)
Given that all wars must finally come to an end by means of a political solution, I encourage President Barack Obama and the United States Congress to issue a Declaration of Amnesty and Peace to all self-identified enemies of the United States willing to renounce violence and to agree to address grievances and concerns through conventional and political means. This would accomplish three things: it would acknowledge success in the declared war on terror; it would show graciousness to all who are willing to live at peace with others; and it would forge a division between extremists and persons of conscience, given the final failure of terrorism and violence to achieve their goals. As the final resolution of ten years of conflict is likely to involve a call for peaceable means to peaceable ends and the constructive addressing of legitimate concerns, why not begin that process now?
America is not at war with those who are not at war with America, so a unilateral declaration of amnesty and peace invites a realignment of concerns and loyalties. It also should be accompanied by an American pledge to work for justice, grace, and liberty for all—lending support for the oppressed and the downtrodden in the name of democracy and freedom. This declaration also should invite all organizations and nations to join with the United States of America in renouncing violent means to political ends, instead advocating diplomacy and democracy, so that communication between states and between the governed and their leaders can be open and full. Such has always been the stance of the United States, and all who stand for freedom, justice, grace, truth, and compassion are welcomed to join us in this sacred vocation.
The following points suggest how such an offer might be extended and accepted:
- The invitation could be ushered within a 30-day window, inviting all who would like to do so to visit sites designated by American Embassies around the world and to sign a statement of non-aggression and the willingness to address noted concerns in non-violent ways.
- In exchange, neither the United States nor its allies would target such persons as long as they uphold their agreements, and the United States would thereby commit to taking seriously noted concerns as a reliable partner in working for justice, grace, transparency, and freedom in the world.
- If such an offer is not made, however, my fear is that many lives will be lost unnecessarily. Therefore, whatever number the positive responses to such an offer might be, each will constitute a real success for those individuals and our endeavors. More significantly, posing an honorable alternative to violence is itself an advance over the escalation of misery and the bankruptcy of force.
This offer is made in good faith, as America has no interest in prolonging conflict or in exacting revenge. My hope is that we would thus walk away from the present conflict, inviting all combatants to lay down their arms in exchange for our doing the same. As the vast information recovered from the headquarters of Osama Bin Laden in recent days means that the identities and whereabouts of many of America’s self-declared enemies will be known, America should invite a renunciation of violence before taking action against its enemies, professed or perceived. This would be an honorable and merciful way forward, envisioning an end to our present conflict. We invite all persons everywhere to join us in a renewed and sustained commitment to nonviolent and peaceable means to addressing legitimate concerns. As is the case for all peoples and nations of the earth, we exist not for ourselves but for the world’s healing.
Paul N. Anderson
Professor of Biblical and Quaker Studies
George Fox University, Newberg, OR 97132
(505) 554-2651
Walk On: A Guide to Exiting from Oneness Pentecostalism (Pt. 5)
[If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series you can find them here: Pt. 1 here; Pt. 2 here; Pt. 3 here; Pt. 4 here.]
The other day someone commented on one of the posts in this series saying that my arguments against Oneness Pentecostalism were not very good. He said that I was creating a “straw man” while negatively painting the movement with a “broad brush”. He has misunderstood what I am trying to do.
I said this in the introductory post:
Let me provide a disclaimer from the very beginning. I am not writing this post and the next few in order to try to apologetically disprove Oneness Pentecostal dogma. In fact, I will be ignoring comments that try to bait me into such debates. I have written plenty elsewhere saying openly why I disagree with their teachings.
Likewise, I have no illusions that these posts will “convert” anyone. I have met some people who have told me that my story gave them the strength to leave, but I know that there are many others whom I have failed to convince, including some family. If you are happy where you are as a Oneness Pentecostal, or if you are needing to be “convinced”, then this is a dead end.
So if you are an apologist for Oneness Pentecostalism you will find these writings frustrating because I am not trying to show that Oneness Pentecostalism is misguided. I’ve written elsewhere in an attempt to do that very thing. What I am writing here presupposes a level of agreement between me and my readers. No, you don’t have to be fully convinced that it is time for you to exit Oneness Pentecostalism, but I assume that you, the reader, already have thought about it for a while and that you are seriously weighing your options. Whether or not you leave is between you and God. I am writing for those who either have made the choice to reintegrate into the broader Christian family or who will in the near future.
That being said, let me get to the main subject of this post. One thing that Oneness Pentecostalism does share with most every other “type” of Christianity is a underlying tribalism. We all want to be “in” and not “out”. We want to belong. Sadly, this means that we are often forced to choose another group so that we do not have to feel like Lone Rangers.
There is nothing wrong with finding a place to belong. There is nothing wrong with affirming a creed or confession. Two bloggers that write here have recently aligned themselves with large groups holding very historic confessions. JohnDave Medina has returned to Roman Catholicism and Josh Smith has entered into the Anglican fellowship. They are both former Oneness Pentecostals.
I have remained unaffiliated though I have had times where I was drawn to Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, and I even thought ever so briefly about the Reformed. I once considered becoming part of the Assemblies of God so I could retain a Pentecostal identity. I have been going to a seminary that has Baptist roots, so I thought I may become a Baptist (probably wouldn’t be too hard to make this transition now). I discovered that for the time being I was happy committing as deep as a local independent church would ask of me. Unlike my fellow bloggers I am not part of a larger group.
What I do fear is that while some people can be removed from the sectarianism of Oneness Pentecostalism, some cannot have the sectarianism removed from within them. So they are suddenly as militantly for this group or that group as they were for Oneness Pentecostals a few months earlier. While this may be my committed ecumenism speaking, I ask you to be careful not to chose a group merely to belong.
I say this because your identity must be grounded in Christ. You must see yourself first and foremost as a Christian before you say you are a Roman Catholic, a Presbyterian, or a Methodist. You need to learn to love the people of God broadly before aligning with a group for pragmatic or polemical reasons.
There is a purging that must occur. While not all Oneness Pentecostal congregations are suspicious of other Christians a great many are. There is a good chance that if you fellowshipped with the church down the street it was through minimal interaction. Whatever you do, don’t leave where you are only to go somewhere similar.
Also, there are many Oneness Pentecostals who had to accept what their pastor taught lest they be isolated. You had to affirm particular views on particular passages. You didn’t study these things to see if they were true because in part you feared your conclusions. If you did study it was only to learn how to “defend” yourself against Trinitarians.
If you pray and study and one day realize you belong amongst the Southern Baptist then so be it. But don’t choose to be Southern Baptist because you need a “team”. Don’t choose to be Southern Baptist because you need an “us” to oppose “them”. Do not choose to be Southern Baptist simply to belong. Why? Because one day you will wake up and realize you are in a place that is vaguely familiar. You have doubts, you need answers, and you aren’t sure what to do. Too much could be at stake to ask the questions floating through your mind, so you will shut up and live with the tension. Tension it will be.
This is all I have to say on this subject. In my next post I will address something a bit more concerning. I will be writing on the pendulum swing that I have experienced and seen experienced by other former Oneness Pentecostals in the area of morals and convictions.
Walk On: A Guide to Exiting Oneness Pentecostalism (Pt. 4)
If you have been following along with this series you know that I have been writing for the following person:
“You are a Oneness Pentecostal who either doubts this whole Christian religion or you are beginning to wonder why your group has become so isolated from everyone else. I have been there. I have been this person. You are fairly sure you do not believe what comes from the pulpit on Sunday, but it has been your whole life for some time now. If you leave it is more than just changing churches. You will lose friends. You will fracture relationships with some family. You will be told by some that you are no longer a Christian. And after all of that you now have to try to fit back into broader Christian circles feeling a bit out of place.”
In the first post I outlined the subjects I intend to address (see here). In part two I wrote a bit on how being prayerful is essential for these types of transitions (see here). In part three I challenged readers to embrace the insight of Protestantism; namely, you have a right to read and interpret Scripture (see here). Today I want to encourage you to pray and read Scripture in the community of the saints, past and present.
As a young Oneness Pentecostal I was taught the essential proof-texts for defending our position. I became pretty good at it. Yet I did not want to read Scripture in order to defend my position. I think this is why I am no longer in those circles.
Scripture was broader and it was the canon as a whole that began to inform me. I realized that various texts are found in larger contexts. Those contexts are found in whole books. Therefore, Acts 2.38 doesn’t stand alone. It is informed by the whole narrative of the book. Deut. 6.4 didn’t disqualify Trinitarian interpretation anymore than it disqualified the doctrine of an incarnation.
I began to read Baptists, Catholics, and even some good ol’ Protest liberals while in college. It became evident that they often better understood various texts than those who had taught me. I read historical backgrounds on the texts and scholars of various stripes provided insights into the message of Scripture that slowly eroded my Oneness Pentecostal presuppositions.
Over the years I have met some like Athanasius, Basil the Great, Richard Bauckham, John Calvin, James D.G. Dunn, Morna Hooker, Ireneaus of Lyon, Martin Luther, and many, many, many others. It turns out that while they don’t get everything right, they aren’t scary heretics either. In fact, I have come to grow closer to Christ through these people.
It is one thing to read someone and then disagree with them. It is something totally different to denounce them without ever giving them a chance.
It is too common in Oneness Pentecostal circles to demonize other Christians. Some say other Christians are not saved, some give them second-class status, but for the most part the general ethos is that they are not legitimate.
If you are thinking of leaving you must overcome this lie. Trinitarians do not worship a pagan Egyptian-Babylonian deity. We do not think less of Christ. We do not deny the work of the Spirit.
It is essential that you test these claims. I firmly believe that when you do you will find that other Christians are often much more cordial, loving, and Christ-like then some in your current circles. You will notice that their dedication to rightly interpreting Scripture is often as sincere if not more so. You will find they pray like you, give like you, make mistakes like you, and they follow Christ like you.
One of the hardest things for a former Oneness Pentecostal to do is to find a new church community. I know many who leave Oneness Pentecostalism for a time. They are burnt out and defeated. They cannot maintain the “standards”. Yet they will not darken the door of another church because “those people have ‘a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof’”.
This is a lie.
When people believe this lie it results in what I call “The Yo-Yo Effect”: into the world and ungodly living, back into a Oneness church and the legalistic rules, into the world and ungodly living, back into a Oneness church….
Oneness Pentecostalism is not the only true Christianity. In fact, I argue that it is an abrogation of authentic Christianity. You may not agree with this statement but let me challenge you to open your heart and mind to the possibility. Before entering the Yo-Yo go visit some churches, meet other Christians, read broader literature, and don’t just accept someone else’s mischaracterization of the rest of us.
In my next post I will talk a little more about being patient as you find a new church and as you establish new doctrinal beliefs. You don’t have to leave Oneness Pentecostalism and then claim a new denominational “team” within days. You can take your time. But for today I want to crack the door open a bit. I want to let you see that outside there are smiling faces, gracious saints, biblical preaching, sound doctrine, and the same Christ who met you were you are now.
Walk On: A Guide to Exiting from Oneness Pentecostalism (Pt. 3)
Last week I said that I would be writing several post where I share how I exited from the Oneness Pentecostal movement in order to assist those who are thinking of doing the same (see Pt. 1 here). I have not written this series until now because (1) I don’t think I was ready to write calmly and (2) I have recently realized from conversations with others that some of my brief blog posts on related subjects have helped others transition. I decided to write these not to draw apologist, but rather to show that there is life once you leave to those who want to do so.
I began by discussing the need to be prayerful as you begin planning what to do next (see Pt. 2 here). Today I want to discuss engaging Scripture. Oddly, I have known many Oneness Pentecostals who fear thinking about Scripture other than through the grid provided (i.e. proof-texts that affirm certain preset interpretations). Although I went to a college sponsored by a Oneness Pentecostal organization (the UPCI) the one thing for which I am thankful to my fortmer professors is that they did challenge me to read Scripture and they did let me read other Christians who did not hold to their profession.
In Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution–A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty First (p. 3) author Alister McGrath says this of Protestantism, “Protestantism took its stand on the right of individuals to interpret the Bible for themselves rather than be forced to submit to ‘official’ interpretations handed down by popes and other centralized religious authorities.” Oddly enough in many Oneness Pentecostal churches there is a form of Catholicism that doesn’t have the historical structures to support it. Rather than a Pope in Rome there is often a Pope in every pulpit. What this Pope preaches is almost always ex cathedra. If you disagree you are blacklisted. For being part of Protestantism this sure is dogmatic!
Similarly, this is not like reciting the Westminster Confession. I don’t know any Presbyterians who think that denying that confession is a salvific issue. Yet I do know Oneness Pentecostal preachers who act as if you differ with the canon of David K. Bernard you have committed apostasy that could lead to eternal damnation.
My challenge to a Oneness Pentecostal who ponders staying or leaving is simple: read Scripture. I will say more about this tomorrow, but let me add that you shouldn’t fear the interpretations of other Christians, past and present. If they are wrong, and Oneness Pentecostal dogma is right, then truth will prevail, right? If a pastor tries to prevent the congregation from reading “unapproved” literature then it is my conviction that they have something to hide, if nothing else their own internal doubts and insecurities.
Scripture is the constituting documents of our religion. The canonization of Scripture is something oft debated, but we can agree for the most part that the Spirit has lead the church to maintain a smaller lists of books than what was available because those books most closely mirror the teachings of the early church. In fact, all were written within decades of Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. So even if you read as a historian you probably confess that these materials are the closest literature to the thought-world of the first Christians. Either approach leads me to see Scripture as trustworthy.
Read Scripture and read it prayerfully, for yourself, with an open mind, in dialog with others. Again, I am not saying that this will result in your abandoning of your current beliefs. I know many people who I can say are fairly honest about reading Scripture yet who remain some form of Oneness Pentecostal. If that happens, que sera sera. But it could be that you read Luke-Acts and think “Wait, why do all the narratives where people speak in tongues occur only when there are groups?” Maybe you will read the Apostle Paul who asks rhetorically, “Do all speak with tongues?” Maybe you will scratch your head and says, “Why does the first gospel say to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?” Maybe you will come across dozens of passages that ground salvation in faith in Christ and you will meditate upon the “salvation plan” that you have been taught.
I have wrongly been accused of leaving because of academics. Like Paul, “much studying has made me insane”! This is not true. I began to walk away when with an open Bible in a college dorm sponsored by a Oneness Pentecostal organization it became evident to me that I am responsible to read Scripture honestly and I do not find what they teach in Scripture.
Maybe you are experiencing the same thing? Tomorrow I will say a little bit about those “other” Christians who go to Baptist, Four Square, and Methodist churches down the street. They read Scripture too and they profess faith in Christ. Maybe they aren’t as bad as they’ve been made out to be?
Walk On: A Guide to Exiting from Oneness Pentecostalism (Pt. 2)
I have never been able to understand prayer. It seems awkward that if God knows everything, and God wants what is best for us, that we should ask for it. Yet this is how God has chosen to interact with us. We are told to engage him. It is a bit difficult having a conversation with the Unseen One.
As I mentioned yesterday (read Pt. 1 here) my journey away from Oneness Pentecostalism began with this prayer, “If I am going to wrong direction, please, please interrupt me.” Several years later I am a Christian who loves the Triune God whom Christ has revealed. I sense that Spirit has worked in my life. I have come to greater appreciate the Scriptures and also a respect for those siblings in Christ who came before me. While a critic will have an answer to what seems to me to be answered prayer, it is my conviction that God did not stop my journey because I was being led by his Spirit.
When you have been told that life and death hinges on whether or not one stakes all in the slogan, “Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” it is scary to rethink what this means. What if “in the name of Jesus” doesn’t mean that you must say the actual words ”in the name of Jesus” for baptism to be legitimate? What is receiving the Holy Spirit is not one and the same as speaking in tongues? This opens the door to many possibilities.
But what if it means exactly what you are being taught that it means? If you leave and you teach otherwise won’t there be a lot of blood on your hands for misleading people? This is what caused a shiver to go down my back.
So I prayed. I asked God to be with me. I confessed that I know as a human that I cannot understand all his ways, and that I am prone to move away from truth and not toward it, but that I really, really thought that where I was at that moment was wrong. I didn’t believe that other Christians were going to hell because they did not interpret Acts 2.38 like we did. I didn’t think that the only “true church” was in the first century plus a handful of “latter rain” Christians who began to emerge around 1906. I did not think that Irenaeus, Athanasius, Augustine, Luther, or Billy Graham were either in hell or going there because they preached “cheap grace”. I could not affirm these things.
I was sure that when Jesus said that the “gates of hell” would not defeat the church that this also meant that even if the church had rough times it surely wouldn’t go into an eighteen century long apostasy! I was convinced that when Jesus said the Spirit would lead and guide the church “into all truth” that this wasn’t for a short time, but rather “until the end of the age” because Christ would be with us by the Spirit. While I didn’t understand the doctrine of the Trinity it seemed a bit odd to me that someone would be separated from Christ forever because he misunderstood what it meant when it says, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”.
So I prayed. I prayed because I already didn’t know how these things could be true. I prayed because I was beginning to think they were not true. I prayed, I think, because the Spirit was already taking me in a certain direction.
When you pray you may not know why you are praying, how you should pray, or for what you should pray, but pray.
When you pray you signal that to you trust that the God hearing your prayer must be trustworthy to some extent. If God cannot be trusted with my prayers then why should I pray? If you have gone this far it seems to me that there is at least a seedling of belief that the One to whom you pray must be good. If God is good then God can be trusted when you throw yourself helplessly on his mercy.
If you forget everything else you read here please know God is good. This must be your premise. If you think he is out to trick you, or test you, or allow you to fall into apostasy for doubting your pastor, then you have already paralyzed yourself. You have already placed a god of fear before you and that god has control. You will never let the God who is Love lead you.
So with that I invite you to pray to God. If you are thinking that you may no longer fit as a Oneness Pentecostal, but you are scared to find out, pray. Maybe you will stay a Oneness Pentecostal. I don’t know, but don’t do nothing because of fear.
I will resume next week with an invitation to engage other Christians in the global church. We aren’t apostates or pagans. We don’t worship a three-headed Egyptian or Babylonian deity. We love Jesus Christ and we call him Lord. We’d welcome you and your questions (I hope).
Walk On: A Guide to Exiting from Oneness Pentecostalism (Pt. 1)
Walk on, walk on
What you’ve got they can’t deny it
Can’t sell it, or buy it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight
- from Walk On by U2
Sometimes you come to a point in life where you must make a decision. It is a hard choice because it demands that you break from your past in hopes of embracing your future. Often, the future is unknown, but you do know that if you stay where you are now you won’t get where you need to be.
Several years ago as a college student it became evident that the Christian sect with which I was associated had some misguided teachings. These were the Oneness Pentecostals (learn more here). While not everyone in this group thinks that their’s is the only true Christianity, most people that I knew would say this. I began to ask myself how this could be true. Why did so many Christians deny the very basics that were so essential to be authentic followers of Christ. After a couple of years of study it slowly became evident that it was not all “those Christians” that were wrong. We were the ones who had reinvented the whole religion in our own image.
Let me provide a disclaimer from the very beginning. I am not writing this post and the next few in order to try to apologetically disprove Oneness Pentecostal dogma. In fact, I will be ignoring comments that try to bait me into such debates. I have written plenty elsewhere saying openly why I disagree with their teachings.
Likewise, I have no illusions that these posts will “convert” anyone. I have met some people who have told me that my story gave them the strength to leave, but I know that there are many others whom I have failed to convince, including some family. If you are happy where you are as a Oneness Pentecostal, or if you are needing to be “convinced”, then this is a dead end.
Finally, I don’t think that you must leave Oneness Pentecostalism to know Christ. I admit that I do think this movement, in general, impacts people’s view of the Christian God negatively. At times it can be heretical, almost always sectarian, and sometimes cultic. Others have morphed their local churches here and there to the point that if I said that the whole group was corrupt it would be an over-generalization. I’ve met good Christians who are part of Oneness Pentecostal congregations.
Nevertheless, sometimes people must leave their tribe to better understand Christ. This is true of some Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Southern Baptist, Methodist, other Pentecostals, and even evangelical churches. It is not as if I think one of these groups has such a monopoly on Christian doctrine that to leave their circles would be to apostate (though I do know some within these groups would claim that very thing). So if you are a Oneness Pentecostal reading this, while I think your movement as a whole has much more wrong with it than these aforementioned groups (e.g. you deny cardinal doctrines like the Trinity, you often openly seek to disrupt the unity of the global church, et al.), it is not true that I think your group is the only one with serious systemic problems that sometimes isolate, abuse, and mislead Christians. All our tribes have these types in our midst, even small, local independent assemblies.
There is a type of person to whom I am writing. You are a Oneness Pentecostal who either doubts this whole Christian religion or you are beginning to wonder why your group has become so isolated from everyone else. I have been there. I have been this person. You are fairly sure you do not believe what comes from the pulpit on Sunday, but it has been your whole life for some time now. If you leave it is more than just changing churches. You will lose friends. You will fracture relationships with some family. You will be told by some that you are no longer a Christian. And after all of that you now have to try to fit back into broader Christian circles feeling a bit out of place. If this is you then these post will be for you.
I don’t expect you to comment. In fact, I assume that most of the people who will be helped by this will read silently, because you are not able to tell people around you about your doubts. That is fine, I don’t need to know you are reading. I am glad your there though.
So as you read from the shadows let me preview what I have to say to you as a former Oneness Pentecostal who exited the movement only to find that the Christian God is very gracious and that surprisingly other Christians can be very kind, loving, and welcoming (though be warned, there are some real jerks out there). I will cover the following:
- Prayerfully begin your journey: After being told for many years that only those who baptized in “Jesus name” and who has spoken in tongues could be saved it was scary to realize I did not believe this. I didn’t see it in Scripture. I didn’t see it in the traditions of the church as far back as they go. Yet I knew that I had been fed a very black-and-white, in-and-out worldview. What if I was wrong and the Oneness Pentecostals were right? Would I lead people away from God by denying their teachings? While it is silly to think now it was serious at that moment. I made up my mind to engage my quest with one unprovable premise: God is graciously good. I prayed that the Spirit would guide me and that I would receive strength to go where my discoveries led even if it resulted in backlash. It did, but it was worth it, and God has proven to be beautiful in mercy.
- Study for yourself: You are allowed to read the Scriptures. You are allowed to read the writings of other Christians. Even if your pastor claims that your group has it all figured out this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek to confirm it. If you study and you come to the conclusion that Oneness Pentecostalism is still the closest thing to authentic Christianity I will strongly disagree, but I will respect you. If you fear saying anything that differs from the canon of David K. Bernard then I challenge you to use your one life to seek Christ for yourself.
- Engage the church: I have seen something that I call the Yo-Yo Effect that happens to many Oneness Pentecostals seeking to leave. First, they have been told that their Christianity is the only Christianity. Second, they realize they (A) cannot live up to the rules and regulations and/or (B) that it is so odd that every other Christian group has strayed so far. I have seen friends throw in the towel, go into a world of sex, drugs, and every other immorality, and then, when the guilt comes, they go to the only church they have known. Sadly, it is the same cycle. They can’t get past the nagging doubts so they return once again to a destructive lifestyle. Some don’t go this far but they linger agnostically without any church family or conviction about truth of any kind. There is one way to avoid this: see if other Christians are as bad as you have been told!
- Reform cautiously: Some jump out of the pan and into the fire. Some leave one form of dogmatism that they had not fully believed for another group’s dogma. Our impulse is to “belong” so we decide that if we are no longer Oneness Pentecostals we will be “Reformed” or “Baptist” or “Catholic”. If you join one of these tribes that is fine as long as you don’t blindly and impatiently run from one “us-against-them” group into another. It is OK to take days, weeks, months, and years to learn what you believe and why you believe it.
- Anti-nomianism is not the answer: It is too easy to say, “Wait, so as a woman it is OK for me to wear pants?” only to begin asking oneself if all the other moral imperatives were misguided as well. While legalism can be deadly the response is not one huge pendulum swing to moral lawlessness (i.e. anti-nomianism). There are some Christian values that are biblical and worth living. Don’t do something you regret with your new found freedom.
- Protect your heart: Let me tell you what the easiest response to your former Oneness Pentecostalism could become: bitterness. It is so hard not to be bitter when you feel like you have been controlled, duped, mislead, or even abused. If you do leave you will hear stories that will cause old emotions to rise within you. It will make you angry. If you’re like me you will probably cuss a bit about it. When all is said and done ask the Spirit to help you pray for others. This is the beginning of experiencing some freedom in Christ. I am still in the process.
Tomorrow I will begin unpacking these points and I hope to be done in a week or two. Thank you for reading. I pray that somehow my own journey will be encouraging as you embark on your own.
Easter Sunday from the Perspective of a Catholic
[Disclaimer: See my post on Holy Thursday here.] [For my post on Good Friday, see here.]
You might ask why I am posting about Easter Sunday on a Saturday. The reason is that the Catholic liturgical day follows the Jewish idea of day, which begins at sundown. I attended our Easter Vigil Mass, the queen of all Masses, tonight. Despite the simplicity of the Mass, it was probably one of the most profound experiences for me.
I could tell there was a contrast between this Mass and that of Good Friday. The altars were decorated with linens and lilies. The purple shrouds on the statues were removed. There was life again, and life anew.
The Mass began with the lighting of the Easter candle, which was the only light at 8:00 p.m. The candle was prepared and the procession begun with the intonation of “Christ Our Light” three times (the response was “Thanks be to God” after each intonation). At the second intonation, all lit their candles whose source was from the Easter candle. As the darkness in the room began to become engulfed and overtaken by the light from the candles, I caught a glimpse of how Christ is the Light of the World.
Perhaps the most moving part of the whole Mass was the Easter Proclamation (the Sunday Quote here), which focused on joyous Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. As the Proclamation was sung, a sense of awe, gratitude, joy, and understanding came over me, and I could not help but shed a few tears. In the announcement of His Resurrection signified by the blessing of the Easter candle, it was as though we got a taste of what it will be like to participate in the Resurrection of Christ, who is the Light that overcomes the darkness.
Sin is broken, we have been freed. We are no longer slaves to sin. That is a reality, not a fantasy. Christ lives and He reigns, and no historical critical method will ever convince me that He does not.
Peace be with you. May you experience the joy and power of the Resurrection this Easter Sunday!
