“A group of pastors launched a new evangelical network [International Communion of Evangelical Churches ] Tuesday in the hopes of reaching American churches that have fallen into liberal ideology and encouraging a full return back to conservative values and principles.”
Did you catch the caption in the picture that goes with this article? A man holds a Bible at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, Michigan December 7, 2008. Well, Greater Grace is one of the more prominent “oneness pentecostal” churches in the country. They are in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, a oneness denomination.
Bishop Harry Jackson, who is leading this effort? Pentecostal. As is Bishop J. Alan Neal. As is Bishop Joseph Mattera.
Now while I do not reject all Pentecostals out of hand, a real problem in that movement is their increasing unwillingness to denounce and separate themselves from modalists. Trinitarian Pentecostals did split from the modalist Pentecostals early on, but in recent decades as more and more oneness pentecostal preachers built large megachurches and became powerful, successful figures in Christian broadcasting and in gospel music, the opposition to them in Pentecostalism is now nonexistent, they are accepted as mainstream, and people who talk about it are accused of being divisive. Trinity Broadcasting Network was the first to start accepting these folks in the early 1990s, as they wanted to financially benefit from putting prominent oneness pentecostals on the air. Later, Charisma Magazine endorsed the movement. Now, it is increasingly difficult to tell (among prominent Pentecostals that you may see on TV or hear on certain Christian radio stations) who is oneness and who isn’t.
For that reason, this group must be asked whether modalist heretics who deny the Holy Trinity will be included in their “back to the Bible” evangelical network.
Discussion
NewThe Irony: Greater Grace Is Modalistic
Bishop Harry Jackson, who is leading this effort? Pentecostal. As is Bishop J. Alan Neal. As is Bishop Joseph Mattera.
Now while I do not reject all Pentecostals out of hand, a real problem in that movement is their increasing unwillingness to denounce and separate themselves from modalists. Trinitarian Pentecostals did split from the modalist Pentecostals early on, but in recent decades as more and more oneness pentecostal preachers built large megachurches and became powerful, successful figures in Christian broadcasting and in gospel music, the opposition to them in Pentecostalism is now nonexistent, they are accepted as mainstream, and people who talk about it are accused of being divisive. Trinity Broadcasting Network was the first to start accepting these folks in the early 1990s, as they wanted to financially benefit from putting prominent oneness pentecostals on the air. Later, Charisma Magazine endorsed the movement. Now, it is increasingly difficult to tell (among prominent Pentecostals that you may see on TV or hear on certain Christian radio stations) who is oneness and who isn’t.
For that reason, this group must be asked whether modalist heretics who deny the Holy Trinity will be included in their “back to the Bible” evangelical network.
Solo Christo, Soli Deo Gloria, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Sola Scriptura http://healtheland.wordpress.com