Jesus-Name doctrine
Jesus-Name doctrine is a slang term used to describe the
Oneness doctrine, i.e., regarding the
oneness of God, which is taught by
Oneness Pentecostals such as the
United Pentecostal Church and other
Protestant denominations. They explicitly reject the doctrine of the
Holy Trinity as an inadequate and inaccurate description of God. After the deaths of the original apostles of
Jesus, the doctrine of the
Holy Trinity was slowly formulated over a period of more than three centuries.
[The Encyclopaedia Britannica's entry for "Trinity" states, "The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies.... The council of Nicaea in 325 stated the crucial formula for that doctrine in its confession that the ‘Son is of the same substance…as the Father,' even though it said very little about the Holy Spirit.... By the end of the 4th century...the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since."] Historically, it was opposed both during and after its development.
Both
Trinitarian and
Oneness adherents claim the
Bible as their basis for belief, but scholars, even
Trinitarian ones, show that the
Trinitarian doctrine of God (in its fully developed form) cannot be derived from the Scriptures alone
[The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Vol. 14, states, "The formulation ‘one God in three Persons' was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century.... Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective."]
The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature states, "Respecting the manner in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit make one God, the Scripture teaches nothing, since the subject is of such a nature as not to admit of its being explained to us" ("Trinity," p. 553).
Alvan Lamson, author of The Church of the First Three Centuries, offers the following summary regarding the legitimacy of considering the Holy Spirit as composing part of a Holy Trinity: "...We must look, not to Jewish Scriptures, nor to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, but to Philo and the Alexandrine Platonists. In consistency with this view, we maintain that the doctrine of the Trinity was of gradual and comparatively late formation; that it had its origin in a source entirely foreign from that of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures; that it grew up, and was ingrafted on Christianity, through the Platonizing Fathers...."
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedias article for "Trinity" states, "The term ‘Trinity' is not a biblical term.... In point of fact, the doctrine of the Trinity is a purely revealed doctrine... as the doctrine of the Trinity is indiscoverable by reason, so it is incapable of proof from reason" (vol. 5, p. 3012)., and the post-biblical stream of
orthodox teachings (decisions and creeds of historic
Christian Councils) must also be consulted (in addition to the
Bible) in order to obtain the full doctrine of the
Holy Trinity as revealed over time. In contrast,
Oneness adherents consider the creeds and writings of the historic
Christian Councils to be merely the opinions of men, not inspired or infallible as the Bible is held to be.
While historical records indicate friction and debates during and after the development of the
Trinity, the records of some of the debates are somewhat one-sided, because most of the preserved writings in focus were made by the proto-trinitarians or
Trinitarians involved in the debates. Since (in some cases) the writings of the
anti-trinitarians were (for the most part) either not made or not preserved.
Citing 1 Timothy 2:5, the
Oneness doctrine affirms that God is indivisibly one in number, and sees the biblical distinction between
God the Father and
Jesus (the
Son of God), as being a proper, observable father-son distinction, except between an incorporeal, transcendent, eternal God as Father, and a human, begotten man as Son, in whom God manifested Himself for the purpose of salvation. They affirm the full deity of
Jesus, by holding that God chose to make Himself known to humanity through the man
Jesus. In their view, the deity of
Jesus is God the Father. They deny the
Trinitarian proposal that the one, true God is comprised of three co-divine, co-equal, co-eternal, co-powerful persons. In the sense that the one God
and one man
of 1 Timothy 2:5 co-exist simultaneously, they teach that God exists simultaneously both as the human man Jesus (the Son of God), and as God the Father (invisible, transcendent, Spirit), inseparably united (see John 10:30). Citing John 4:24 (God is a Spirit), they see the terms God the Father and Holy Spirit as references to the same one God, who is Spirit. In affirming that the Holy Spirit is God the Father, they deny that God's own Spirit is another divine person separate from Him.
They believe that, according to Acts 4:12, the name by which man is to know God is Jesus. Other scriptures like Exodus 34:5-7, Isaiah 61:1-3, and Luke 4:18-19, show that Jesus Christ is the epitome of the Father, in which Father and Son are united and the same by name and deity. They believe that God the Father is incarnate in Christ. Oneness Pentecostals do not declare themselves to be Protestants, as they are not protesting but proclaiming the Gospel according the Scriptures themselves. Stepping aside mainline Protestants who use history to prove their reformation roots, Oneness Pentecostals have been proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ since the beginning of the early Church. Oneness faith believers claim to be an extension of the book of Acts of the New Testament with a history of Oneness believers in every century since the birth of the church.
Adherents of this doctrine are taught that a person cannot be saved unless baptized, and that the biblical, proper way to be baptized is "in the name of Jesus," according to an interpretation of several scriptures, most notably Acts 2:38. In contrast, the baptismal formula used by most Christians is found in , which commands baptism "in the name
of the Father, and
of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost", though there are no examples in the Bible of this being used as a formula in baptism. However, according to the Oneness Doctrine, Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead; therefore, the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is Jesus. The same disciples that heard Jesus speak the words of , understood and obeyed this by baptizing in the name of Jesus. There are examples of this form of baptism in the Bible. See: Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48, 19:5, 22:16. For the name of the Lord, see Acts 9:5.
Critics of the movement refer to it as Jesus-Only, but most Oneness Pentecostals take that term as derogatory and prefer the phrase Jesus-Name' when referring to their beliefs or themselves as believers. When considering this teaching (considered
heterodoxy by most major
Christian churches), it is important to note that the
Holy Trinity is not explicitly mentioned or defined in the Bible, but has been considered
dogmatic since the
first council of Nicaea in the 4th century, and from its earliest inception by Tertullian, the creator of the trinity belief system. It is also important to realize that a lack of explicit mention in the Bible does not necessarily make a teaching or practice unbiblical - the majority of Christian theology (to the exclusion of
Fundamentalist teaching) is based not on literal interpretation of the
language but rather the historically and culturally informed interpretation of biblical writings (i.e. seeking the
spirit of the writings).
*
Testimonies of Jesus Christ by Jesus Name Pentecostals*
The Oneness of God Series in Pentecostal Theology, Volume 1 by David K. Bernard, J.D.
*
Institute for Biblical Studies Oneness Pentecostal theological web site
*
United Pentecostal Church International UPCI belief summary
*
A rational explanation of Jesus being the One God*
Catholic Answers article on Trinitarian Baptism and other baptismal practices.
*
The Trinity, the Definition of Chalcedon, and Oneness Theology
