Pentecostals

6. I have noticed that some Pentecostals work together with the ‘Jesus only’ people: what do you think of that?

We think that their behaviour is extremely worrying because it shows that to these Pentecostals a part of the counsel of God is of no importance. I refer to the doctrine of trinity, which is so much attacked and denigrated by the ‘Jesus only’, and to the doctrine about salvation in that the ‘Jesus only’ people (not all of them but most of them) teach that salvation is obtained through faith, water baptism (ministered in the name of Jesus), and the baptism with the Holy Spirit with the outward sign of tongues.

These Pentecostals say to us, ‘But they also speak about Jesus.’ Yes, it is true, they also speak about Jesus, but – I would like to ask these Pentecostals – what do they say about Jesus? Do you know that they say that Jesus is at once the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? Do you know that they say that the term Father refers to the deity of Christ while the term Son to the humanity of Christ? Do you know that they say that the Son of God is not co-eternal with the Father because the Son, before His conception in the womb of Mary, did not exist as a person but as a thought for He was the unexpressed thought in the mind of the Father, so the Son of God came into being in the womb of Mary? And do you know that they teach that water baptism remits sins? But – pay attention to this – not the baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, because this baptism is not valid according to them (therefore you should be baptized again according to them), but the baptism ministered in the name of Jesus only, who is the only God. Therefore, according to these people, their baptism is the only means to receive the remission of sins.

What they teach on the Godhead, water baptism, the baptism with the Holy Spirit and salvation, is inconsistent with the Scripture for these reasons.

The Scripture teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, who is the second Person of the Godhead, and not the Father nor the Holy Spirit because the Father and the Holy Spirit are respectively the first and the third Person of the Godhead. The Son of God was sent by the Father into this world, He thanked, praised and prayed the Father while on earth, He came to do the will of His Father not His own will, etc. How could He be the Father? After Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, a voice came from heaven saying: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Who spoke those words? Certainly it was God the Father who spoke those words, so it is evident that Jesus was not the Father! Moreover, the Son of God existed as a person even before He was conceived in the womb of Mary, for it is written: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. …. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-2, 14), and Jesus Himself said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), and also: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me … What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” (John 6:38,62). Before His conception in the womb of Mary, the Son of God was not the unexpressed thought or plan in the mind of God, but a Person who was with God the Father from all eternity. Jesus was not the Holy Spirit either, for on the night He was betrayed He said to His disciples: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16). How could Jesus be also the Holy Spirit if He stated that the Father would give His disciples ANOTHER Comforter?!! In the light of the above mentioned Bible passages, therefore, the trinity, that is, the concept of a triune God, is biblical.

The Scripture teaches that water baptism must be ministered in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), and it does not remit sins because the remission of sins is obtained by faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 10:43). Water baptism is “an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1 Peter 3:21 – NASB).

The Scripture teaches that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is an enduement of power from on high because Jesus said to His disciples: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Therefore, through this baptism a believer receives power, not the remission of sins. Neither water baptism nor the baptism with the Holy Spirit is able to regenerate a person or to save a person from his sins. Regeneration (or the new birth) and salvation from sins are experienced by a man when he repents of his sins and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore they are experienced by faith. Those who have repented and believed in the Lord are children of God and the Holy Spirit who is in them bears witness with their spirit that they are children of God (Romans 8:16). Therefore they have the Holy Spirit, but just a measure of Spirit, not yet the fullness of the Spirit, which is experienced through the baptism with the Holy Spirit in that it was on the day of Pentecost that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4).

Therefore, I exhort those Pentecostals who work together with the ‘Jesus only’ people, to withdraw from them immediately, because the ‘Jesus only’ people teach many lies.

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