UPCI Cult
All Christian Churches and/or Denominations share certain characteristics in common. For example:
1. They accept the Holy Bible as the inspired Word of God.
2. They accept the creeds as statements of faith (i.e., Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, and/or Athanasian Creed).
3. They baptize believers with the Trinitarian formula (i.e., "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." This was the form given by Jesus Christ to His Disciples in Matthew 28:19.)
Any church or denomination which does not conform to the above three characteristics is NOT a Christian church or denomination, although they may claim to be so.
UPCI Cult
1. They accept the Holy Bible as the inspired Word of God.
2. They accept the creeds as statements of faith (i.e., Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, and/or Athanasian Creed).
3. They baptize believers with the Trinitarian formula (i.e., "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." This was the form given by Jesus Christ to His Disciples in Matthew 28:19.)
Any church or denomination which does not conform to the above three characteristics is NOT a Christian church or denomination, although they may claim to be so.
UPCI Cult
posted by UPCI Cult Moderator at 9:10 AM
14 Comments:
Can someone use the formula "In the name of Jesus" or some other version of the same and still be performing a valid baptism? How about if the person baptizing and the person being baptized both affirm the doctrine of the Trinity?
I had been a member of the United Pentecostal Church in Fort Wayne, Abundant Life Tabernacle.
I always saw them as conservative and edgy but never really saw them as a cult before.
I had some concerns when a new member of Abundant Life was encouraged to divorce his wife who would not attend with him.
About a year later I stopped going myself. I stopped going when it became obvious that Abundant Life was much more of a family business than a church.
When I stopped going, my wife was encouraged to divorce me and she began seeing single men in the church up to a year before she finally filed for divorce.
The "church" continues to play an active role in my pending divorce. They helped my wife get into a battered women's shelter and council her on what to say in order to get sympathy from the court and a bigger settlement. She is now claiming that I spent the last 12 years terrorizing her and she spent the whole time living in fear, never knowing when she was going to be murdered.
Abundant Life is quite a large cult in Fort Wayne. I see people all over town in shopping malls and grocery stores. When they see me they point and say things like "there's the wife beater". And none of that ever happened. It is just part of the cult activities as they seek to take down a former member.
If you are thinking going to Abundant Life, stay clear. It may take you a while to see the really ugly side of it, but it is there.
At this point it has become a family business. You have several generations of 2 families getting paid from multipled sources. They are pastor, assistant pastor, youth pastor, secretary, outreach, etc. When ever a family member needs a job, they go on the payroll.
At time when Fort Wayne families are really hurting, these people are rolling in more money than ever before. They rank in millions.
Another thing that I noticed about Abundant Life and UPC in general is that the whole UPC is generally a family business. And here's what happens:
The family runs Abundant Life has family members all over the country.
They all operate churches. One at a time, they come here as an "evangelist" and a collection is taken up to pay them for the weekend revival. Yet, they are still getting paid by thier own church. Then one of the leaders from here goes there to preach and gets paid by them - while they still draw a salary from here.
So you end up with z whole family: grandpa, father, brothers, cousins, uncles, in-laws, etc. all getting paid large sums of money from 4 or 5 different local churches around the country on a regular basis. Some how this just does not seem to be a Christian ideal.
But I digress. My main point is to tell people to avoid the Abundant Life Fort Wayne cult. They will, little by little, take you in, take your money, use you up and turn against you when the money runs out. That is a big part of what happened here. They got tens of thousands of dollars from my wife, left me poor and turned her against me and split our family up. These people are just pure evil in my eyes.
jamjtx, if I could ask - are you still a Christian yourself?
"the name of Jesus" is the only name you need to be baptized in. It's the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved! :)
To baptize in Jesus' Name has little to do with the words that the person baptizing a new believer speaks. To baptize in the Jesus' Name is to baptize with his approval and authority. The Jesus of the Bible is the Eternal Son of God, who has existed in relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity. If you do not believe in the Eternal Son of God, you cannot have His approval, and certainly cannot be authorized by Him to baptize--though you repeat the words "in the name of Jesus" over a thousand baptized persons.
Furthermore, to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, has little to do with speaking these words over a candidate, but having the approval and authority of the Triune God to perform the baptism.
Woah woah woah woah! @jamjtx one somebody from the upci, I a soon to be liscensed minister owes you apology on behalf of our pharisees there in Fort Wayne.
It's hearing stories like that that makes me want to get out of the upci and join another oneness organization.
However, there is no problem doctrinally with the upci.
There is a huge problem with alot of the practices at our American churches, that I really wish the super superintendent will address, and he probably has.
When stuff like that happens it just breaks the Lords heart, and I am so sorry for what happened to you.
However all that we believe doctrinally is scripture based on no privat interpretation. Acts 4:12 :)
Nothing is wrong with the doctrine of the UPCI??? If the scriptures are of no private interpretation, why is the doctrine of the UPCI's doctrine not found in ANY other Bible believing church through the centuries? Show me one example of a body of believers that has held to the UPCI's position on the New Birth & the Oneness of God & Baptism using the Jesus name formula... Not even the aopostles would have explained their basic doctrines the way David Bernard does. It's just laughable and ridiculous.
The Jews never believed in a Triune God. They have always believed in ONE God. They think your nuts if you bring up the trinity. They didn't believe Jesus was God manifested in the flesh, So they are still waiting and God has now set His attention on the Gentiles (us) until the rapture takes place. Then His attention goes back to the Jews for one last time. Jesus instructed in the book of Matthew to baptize in the name (singular) of the father, son and holy ghost (plural). Which if you read the scripture tells you there is more to it. Father, son and holy ghost are titles not a name! Peter had no problem understanding and baptized the people in Jesus name. Because He IS the father, son and holy ghost! Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other for there is no other name (singular) under heaven given among men whereby we MUST be saved. You can't sign a will, sell your car or house, without your NAME. It seals the deal. The UPCI has it right when it comes to the plan of Salvation. Acts 2:38. Where they are misguided is pretty much all the rest. They concentrate on the outward. The outside of their cup is clean but the inside is still filthy. Not all, but alot of them. You won't make it if the inside of your cup is filthy. And you can't clean it without the power of the Holy Ghost which you can't get if you don't believe in how the church started in the book of Acts, and you receive it that way. Matthew 7:22-23 Jesus told these people that even though they cast out devils in His name and did many wonderful works,,,because they were in iniquity (lawlessness) He did not know them. Relationship! We need to stop casting our eyes on each other and who is right and who is wrong and cast our eyes on Jesus. Concentrate on what's in our hearts. Remove, rebuke, be delivered from every filthy perverted sin, from all hate, anger and bitterness and jealousy. Clean the inside of the cup! Then the outside will show for itself.
NOT TO DIVORCE...IF THEY ARE PLEASED TO DWELL WITH YOU...NO CHRISTIAN CHURCH PROMOTES DIVORCE...LESS THE BELIEVER BLESSES THE UNBELIEVER...
SEE SCRIPTURE CONCERNING THIS SUBJECT...LET LOVE CONTINUE, FORGIVENESS...PAUL SPOKE ABOUT MARRAIGE.
DANIEL WEST ...YOU CAN FIND IN THE BOOK OF ACTS THOUSANDS BAPTIZED AFTER REPENTANCE IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST...SEE ACTS 2:38 JEWISH BELIEVERS, THEN ACTS CHAPTER 8,ACTS;10 AND FINALLY ACTS19:1-5 WHERE REBAPTISM WAS ADMINISTERED AND LAYING ON OF HANDS...IT WAS 30 YEARS LATER FROM ACTS CHAPTER 2. GOD BLESS ALL OF US CHRISTIANS AS WE WALK AND GROW IN FAITH AND LOVE. PEACE THRU JESUS...OUR SAVIOUR.
JAMJTX...YOUR WIFE NEEDS TO READ PAULS TEACHINGS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT...SHE IS NOT FREE TO REMARRY AS LONG AS YOU LIVE AND SHOULD GET ADVICE ON RECONCILIATION. YOU BOTH CAN FORGIVE AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER...
PRAYING FOR HEALING IN YOUR MARRAIGE THRU JESUS OUR HELP.
BRIAN: you are supposing that the people baptizing in Acts used a Jesus name formula when they baptized. Yet there is not one passage that quotes the words used by the baptizers in the Bible, only the authority with which they baptized. I'm not saying we shouldn't use a formula, just that the book of Acts doesn't prescribe one.
BRIAN: When I was a oneness adherent, I didn't know what to think of the powerful witness of Trinitarian Christians. Their music and worship carried me to God and their testimonies of the love and grace of God impacted my mind and heart. But I could not honestly call them brothers and sisters because I did not consider them saved.
Now that God has shown mercy to me and called me to repentance over rejecting the Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ, I cannot accept the idea that the Jesus of oneness theology is the Biblical and historical and real Jesus.
Your Jesus is not the Eternal Son of John 1:1-18 and Colossians and Hebrews 1. The Son you say you worship did not speak the worlds into existence. The Son you worship did not have glory WITH the Father before the worlds were.
Your Jesus is a different Jesus. Faith in your made-up Jesus cannot save because it rejects the Jesus of Scripture and substitutes him with a Jesus that was made to your own specifications.
Please forsake the caricatures of the Trinity that are so prevalent in oneness circles and love the God that is One Being and Three Persons.
What happened at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD?
Why did Martin Luther post the Protestant Reformation in 1517 AD?
Why are we called Protestants?
Why did so many denominations become established versus one protestant church?
How were baptisms conducted prior to the Council of Nicaea?
Why did God wait 1200 years to begin returning the church away from Catholic teachings to the original teachings of the church founded by the Apostles based on the teachings of Jesus Christ?
Why are there numerous studies that say Matthew 28:19 was not in the original manuscripts?
What is the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?
Why does Jesus say in "John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath SEEN THE FATHER; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?
Why is the argument that 'baptism in "Jesus Name" is only mentioned FOUR PLACES in the Bible and the instructions from Jesus are what must be done' taken as valid proof while there are NO PLACES in the Bible where baptism in "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?"
The Apostles watched Jesus ascending into heaven and less than two months later began preaching and preforming baptism in Jesus Name.
It's right there in the Bible and I cannot see it any other way.
Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, THE MIGHTY GOD, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
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