[In the next several posts, I will present several chapters from my
dissertation, The People of the Name:
Oneness Pentecostalism in the United States (Florida State University,
1985). Each subsequent post will focus
on the emergence of apostolic Pentecostalism as a distinct voice within
American classical Pentecostalism.
NOTE: This presentation dates from the early 1980s and is
limited to resources archived at this time. Since this time, many primary sources
of early Pentecostal history have become available. Newer works on the rise and
message of oneness Pentecostalism are strongly suggested, including David Reed’s
In Jesus’ Name: The History and Beliefs
of Oneness Pentecostals and Talmadge French’s Early Interracial Oneness Pentecostalism: G. T. Haywood and the
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (1901-1931).
This work also focuses on the Frank Ewart - G. T. Haywood - W. T.
Witherspoon school of oneness thought which holds all “3 steps” of Acts 2:38 –
repentance, water baptism administered by immersion with the invocation of the
name “Jesus,” and Spirit baptism evidenced by glossolalia – as necessary for
the “new birth” or “full salvation.” This view was rivaled by a “2 step” view
which holds the more traditional classical Pentecostal view that “new birth”
occurs at repentance and Spirit baptism is “subsequent to and distinct from”
the new birth. See Thomas Fudge’s Christianity
Without the Cross: A History of Salvation in Oneness Pentecostalism for a
full discussion of these competing doctrines of salvation.]
Introduction
Oneness, or Apostolic, Pentecostalism grew from factional
controversy and restorationist zeal during the final years of the classical
Pentecostal revivals into a "third force" in present American
Pentecostalism. Current estimates mark Oneness Pentecostal growth at over
three- quarters of a million, roughly one-fifth of the entire Pentecostal
movement. These Pentecostals, with their unique doctrine of God's person and
name, their continued emphasis on "holiness" codes of behavior and
associations, and their theological and cooperative isolation, retain many of
the qualities of classical Pentecostalism has lost in the more established
Pentecostal denominations.
Oneness Pentecostalism, in both its contemporary and historic forms,
represents a highly successful, albeit radical expression of American
Pentecostalism which recaptures the intensity and millennarian zeal of the
earliest Pentecostal revivals and transforms this enthusiasm into a fully developed
ritual worship and belief system centered in the unique understanding and
experience of the "oneness" of God in the person of Christ. This
dissertation will investigate the life and development of Oneness
Pentecostalism as a religious and social movement in both its historical and
present forms by focusing on the internal dynamics of the movement. This work
will examine the movement's institutional development from an early period of
undifferentiated growth into a period of mature, diversified ministries and its
religious "life expression" with the act of Pentecostal worship
serving as the key to the religious "worldview" of contemporary
Oneness believers.
Oneness Pentecostalism arose from the "New Issue" controversy
in the Assemblies of God with a “rediscovery” of the centrality of the name and
person of Jesus Christ in the life and practice of the church. But when this
early academic debate concerning the baptismal formula led to a revolutionary
application of Old Testament monotheism to the person of Jesus, a rigid,
exclusive revision of the Pentecostal understanding of Christian salvation
emerged. Such exclusiveness threatened the status quo unity of the young
Assemblies of God, both doctrinally and numerically, and necessarily bred
schism.
The Oneness doctrine of God and the Acts 2:38 "plan of
salvation"—formulated by Frank J. Ewart and G. T. Haywood and later defended
most prominently by Andrew Urshan—pitted sectarian claims against the
non-sectarian liberality of the Assemblies of God. Perhaps more important than
any theoretical leadership, the New Issue evangelists—such as Glenn Cook, L. V.
Roberts, Howard Goss, and Oliver F. Fauss—captivated the grassroots of the
movement with their sincerity and powers of persuasion. The New Issue was,
nevertheless, destined for separation rather than success. The idealized
anti-creedalism of the Assemblies withstood three years of threat before the
New Issue forced the body to redefine itself in more realistic terms and
exclude the Oneness adherents.
Emerging from the Assemblies of God, the Oneness Pentecostals
embarked on a series of organizational struggles with the two largest white
bodies, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ and the Pentecostal Church,
Incorporated, merging to form the United Pentecostal Church in 1945. The
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World organized most black Apostolics, although
much of black Oneness Pentecostalism remains diffusely organized. Smaller
bodies, with diverse doctrinal emphases and extremes, also proliferated.
Despite this development, Oneness Pentecostalism stands in
theological isolation from the remainder of Pentecostalism and Protestantism.
Buttressed by exclusive thinking and theological defensiveness, these
Pentecostals remain largely anti-intellectual and anti-educational. This stance,
along with entrenched sectarianism and the belief in sure eschatological vindication,
has left Oneness Pentecostals to stand alone, without sound theological reflection
or dialogue with other Christian groups.
Beyond this historical presentation, Oneness Pentecostal origins
must be understood as a repudiation of moves toward institutional and
theological stability in classical Pentecostalism. Accordingly, Oneness
development should be viewed as a "counter-reformation of the Azusa revival,"
an attempt to recapture the early revival's vitality, to thwart the
theologizing of the Pentecostal experience, to reaffirm the eschatological zeal
of the early Pentecostals, and to revive interracial fellowship withinthe movement. In denying any religious experience subsequent to
conversion—the standard explanation of Spirit baptism in both "Second
Work" and "Finished Work" Pentecostal traditions—Oneness
Pentecostals identified Spirit baptism, along with water baptism administered
in the name of Jesus, with conversion. This freed the experience of Spirit
baptism from Pentecostal theologizing and reaffirmed the immediacy of the
experience itself—the most prominent feature of the Azusa revival. In this, and
in their commitment to the "revelation" of the divine name "Jesus"
as God's token of the great revival immediately prior to the end time, Oneness
Pentecostals retrieved the lost fervor and millenarian hopes of the early
Pentecostal revivals. In the Oneness mind, the Azusa "Age of the Spirit"
was replaced by the Apostolic "Age of the Name."
The terms "Oneness" and "Apostolic
Pentecostalism" describe a unique religious expression within American Pentecostalism
which emphasizes a "oneness" doctrine of God and an "Acts 2:38
plan of salvation." "Pentecostalism" refers to the religious
movement which arose from revivals in the first decade of the twentieth century
in which glossolalia, speaking in tongues, came to be regarded as the evidence
of the experience of Spirit baptism for the individual and a sure sign of the
imminent return of Christ. All "classical Pentecostal" churches have
roots in these revivals. The term "classical" differentiates this branch
of Pentecostalism from the "neo-Pentecostal" or "Charismatic"
movement which emerged in the 1960's with the appearance of the charismatic
gifts (listed in I Corinthians 12-14), especially glossolalia, among Protestant
and Catholic church members.
The term "oneness" refers, most specifically, to the
innovative application of Old Testament monotheism to the person of Jesus and the
resultant denial of the traditional notion of the Trinity. Similarly, the term "apostolic"
here refers to the rite of water baptism administered in the name of Jesus as
practiced by the apostles in the Acts of the Apostles (herein referred to as "Jesus
name" [in quotations] baptism as commonly designated within the movement).
Both of these terms are used as appellations for those Pentecostals who
proclaim a three-step "plan of salvation" as recorded in Acts 2:38
which involves the requirements of repentance, water baptism in "Jesus
name," and Spirit baptism evidenced by glossolalia. In a more general
sense, "Oneness" applies to all such Pentecostals, while
"Apostolic" usually refers to African American believers and
practices. (The term "apostolic" [not capitalized] will be used in
reference to the practices of the New Testament apostles, whereas
"Apostolic" will refer to Oneness Pentecostals.)
Although Oneness Pentecostalism has been discussed in previous
works, most of these are descriptive rather than analytical and have yielded
rather limited results. The major general studies of Pentecostalism—represented
best by Robert Anderson's Vision of the Disinherited,
Walter Hollenweger's The Pentecostals,
John Nichol's Pentecostalism, and
Vinson Synan's The Holiness-Pentecostal
Movement in the United States—all survey the rise of Oneness organizations
in outline form, but contribute little beyond this. Several denominational histories,
including Arthur Clanton's United We
Stand, Fred Foster's Their Story:
Twentieth Century Pentecostals, and Morris Golder's History of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, offer a more
detailed, although biased, presentation of Oneness growth and thought. But
these works fail to exhaust available primary materials and often demonstrate a
lack of objectivity. The same might be said of the histories of the Assemblies
of God—Carl Brumback's Suddenly From
Heaven, Klaude Kendrick's The Promise
Fulfilled, and William Menzies' Anointed
To Serve—each of which offers a chapter on the New Issue controversy. Only James
Richardson's thesis "Historical and Doctrinal Development of the Black
Pentecostal-Apostolic Churches, 1900 to the Present" (Howard University,
1974) adequately analyzes the emergence and diffusion of black Apostolicism. No
work has fully investigated the internal dynamics of the growth and thought of
the movement as a whole.
Two dissertations have surveyed the theology of Oneness
Pentecostalism. James David Kider's "Theology of the 'Jesus Only'
Movement" (Dallas Theological Seminary, 1956), a work limited to secondary
sources and lacking in necessary historical perspective, fails to understand
and adequately present the Oneness mindset. A superior work by David Arthur
Reed, "Origins and Developments of the Theology of Oneness Pentecostalism
in the United States" (Boston University, 1978) examines Oneness thought
against the background of European and American pietism—especially the
"Jesus-centrism," or Christ-centered literature and worship, of
nineteenth-century American revivalism. This work offers a systematic
presentation of Oneness thought based on what Reed identifies as a "Jewish
Christian theology of the Name." Presently, Reed's work stands as the
single most important contribution to the study of Oneness Pentecostal
theology. Nevertheless, a thorough historical and sociological evaluation of
the movement has yet to appear.
Much of this study will necessarily deal with Pentecostalism in
general, or perhaps better, Oneness Pentecostalism as an expression of the
larger Pentecostal phenomenon. This is necessitated by the shared social
composition and growth patterns of Oneness and other classical Pentecostal
groups, the static quality of Oneness doctrine and practice which embraces more
of the early Pentecostal ethos than the better established "mainline"
Pentecostal groups, and the self-perception of Oneness believers who see
themselves as the true heirs of the Azusa millennarian fervor, immediacy of
Spirit baptism, and interracial union. The uniqueness of Oneness Pentecostalism
must be investigated only after surveying its place in the larger Pentecostal
community.
While no social phenomenon is self-explanatory, explanations for
the growth and survival of a social movement—in this case, Oneness
Pentecostalism—must be sought in the structure and dynamics of the movement
itself as well as in external conditions leading to the movement's existence. More
traditional approaches explain the appearance of the Pentecostal phenomenon in
terms of economic deprivation, social disorganization, and even psychological
maladjustment. Although these may have "facilitated" or
"enabled" the emergence of Pentecostalism, such external factors are
inadequate analytical tools if used without reference to the internal structure
and processes of the movement. This study will embark upon such an internal
analysis by employing the tools of social history and the methodology of
"phenomenological" sociology. Gleaning from Peter Berger's notions of
religion as "world construction" and "world maintenance"
and Arthur Paris’ study of the religious "worldview" of black
Pentecostals as well as more traditional primary source materials, this work
will investigate not only the movement's institutions and leaders, but also its
mind and values.
This dissertation will be developed in three sections. Section
one will survey the rise of Oneness Pentecostal organizations and thought
during the waning years of the classical Pentecostal revivals. Section two will
trace Oneness institutional development through a period of undifferentiated
growth in its earliest organizational efforts and revivalism to a period of
more specialized and diverse ministries in the movement's maturity. Section
three will discuss the unique ethos of Oneness life and practice as observed in
contemporary worship forms.
Section one offers a historical overview of the emergence and
maturing of Oneness thought from 1913 to 1916 which reveals a strong,
self-conscious link between the extremes of the Oneness believers and the faded
intensity of the Azusa revival of a decade past. Recapturing this early
millennarian zeal in the restored "revelation" of the person and name
of Jesus, the Oneness Pentecostals created a primitive alternative to the increasingly
complex and stable Trinitarian Pentecostal bodies. Forced by their own exclusive
claims and the diminishing tolerance of the Assemblies of God, the Oneness
Pentecostals separated themselves from the mainstream of Pentecostalism and, in
this isolation, developed and preserved the extremes of their early practices. The
Oneness thought—always expressed in apologetic or polemic tones—which crystallized
with the Oneness founders (Haywood, Ewart, and Urshan) continues to guide the
contemporary movement.
Section two will employ the "undifferentiated growth"/"analytical
proliferation" model of Pentecostal development—first applied in William
Menzies' Anointed To Serve: The Story of
the Assemblies of God—to investigate the dynamics of changing policies and
structures in the history of the Oneness movement. The early years of Oneness
expansion were lived in institutional isolation apart from the struggles of the
mainline American churches. In this time of revival efforts, Oneness Pentecostalism
grew in a rather undifferentiated pattern, showing only a limited ministry
strategy or organization. But with the emergence and development of the major Oneness,
or Apostolic, organizations, the movement witnessed the appearance of a clear-cut
missions strategy, the specialization of organizational and administrative structures,
the appearance of diversified service agencies, and the blooming of educational
concerns. The formation of the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated in 1932 and the
Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ in 1931 (and their later merger into the
United Pentecostal Church in 1945) and the return of most black Apostolics to
the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World in 1937 marked the beginning of this
maturation process as the Oneness bodies sought to harness the energies of the
movement in concerted efforts to meet the changing needs of their
constituencies.
Section three discusses the contemporary Oneness Pentecostal
movement as a social phenomenon by investigating the role of the Oneness
"worldview" and worship forms in giving meaningful order to the life
experiences of Oneness believers and, in turn, legitimating the larger Oneness
social experience and order as the "correct" way of living in the
world. The ethos of Oneness Pentecostal life and practice will be examined in
four areas: the centrality of the divine "epiphany" in ritual
worship, the theoretical framework which rises from the act of worship and in
turn reshapes the content and interpretation of this act, the role of the
Oneness community (congregation) as an inclusive, independent social world, and
the crisis of the Oneness community in the larger context of American society.
