The focal point of this essay is this question: is Jesus the Father? Let me preface this a tad. The Bible reveals the following three truths: there is one God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each distinct persons. That is a rather confusing set of doctrines, because, after all, how can there be one God, if there are three persons? Well, to me, this is sort of like asking how there can be one triangle,…
Category: Against Oneness Pentecostalism
Are Tongues Necessary For Salvation?
The book of Acts records a number of occurrences of people being filled with the Holy Spirit and beginning to speak in tongues. Throughout church history, the debate has raged on about the nature of these tongues. Are they other human languages? Are they ecstatic gibberish, only comprehensible to the heavenly host? But the issue may be pressed further. If somebody speaks in these ecstatic tongues, do they have a deeper level of interaction with the divine than others? Are they more holy? Further even, are tongues necessary for salvation?…
Does Matthew 28:19 Contradict Acts 2:38?
There is a slight divide within Christendom about minor issues such as the baptismal formula. When I say the baptismal formula, I mean the words that one recites just before they baptize a person. The super-majority of Christians will argue that when a person is water baptized, the baptizer must recite the words of Matthew 28:19, that is, baptism “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Less than one percent of Christendom, namely the Oneness Pentecostal movement, will argue that according to Acts 2:38, we…