Unity & diversity (was Re: Women in the pulpit)

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Pastor Fitzgerel wrote:

>to have fellowship we have to believe it is essential for salvation for on to
>repent, be baptise in the Name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and to
>receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial evidence of speaking
>in other tongue....<snip>
>Any one that steps out side this Doctrinal format has stepped outside of
the >Church described in the book of Acts and outside the Apostolc Church
that is >resisdent upon the earth.

While I admire Pastor's Fitzgerel's strong stand for the crucial Acts 2:38
message, I must respectfully suggest some of his comments are an example of
what I called <a rather provincial view of the Apostolic faith>.

Many Oneness believers fully stress the importance of repentance, water
baptism and Spirit baptism, but do not believe baptism is <essential for
salvation>. One of the strongest proponents of Jesus Name baptism I have
ever known does not believe it is part of the new birth.

Honest differences of opinion on exactly what constitutes the new birth have
existed throughout the history of the Apostolic movement. Even the UPCI's
well-known Fundamental Doctrine -- which calls repentance, water baptism and
Spirit baptism "the Bible standard of full salvation" -- was a
carefully-worded "compromise" to which adherents of differing views could
subscribe, bringing the 1945 merger into effect. At the merging conference,
a motion to drop the word 'full' from the Fundamental Doctrine was defeated.
As Daniel Segraves has written, this "obviously suggests that the majority
present and voting viewed 'full salvation' as one thing and 'salvation' as
another."

The second portion of the Fundamental Doctrine -- "We shall endeavor to keep
the unity of the Spirit until we all come into the unity of the faith, at
the same time admonishing all brethren that they shall not contend for their
different views to the disunity of the body" -- is a direct reference to
differing views on the new birth.

Those who knew Howard Goss, beloved first general superintendent of the UPC,
can confirm that his love and stand for the Oneness of God and the Acts 2:38
message was unmatched, yet he never believed baptism was an absolute
requirement for heaven. Surely he was not <outside the Apostolc Church that
is resisdent upon the earth>.

I certainly do not minimize the importance of correct doctrine. Repentance,
water baptism and Spirit baptism must be proclaimed as the only full and
proper response to the gospel. But to deem another brother or sister who
embraces this beautiful message, but differs in their understanding of the
new birth, as <a enemy of truth, whether knowingly or unknowingly> is, to
me, heart-breaking.

Cary Robison