BY DAVID K. BERNARD

I appreciate the opportunity to respond to this paper and especially Keith Tolbert's personal efforts to include representatives of the United Pentecostal Church. Without taking the time to reiterate them, I concur with J.L. Hall's observations regarding this paper. With him, I must categorically deny that Frank Ewart or UPCI literature has ever endorsed or defended the use of extrabiblical revelation. In fact, the UPCI's strongest criticism of Trinitarianism is that it is nonbiblical.

At a Harvard Divinity School symposium in 1984, when Tolbert offered the same argument, UPCI officials publicly repudiated any extrabiblical revelation, affirming the work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the bible but not to add to or contradict the Bible. Indeed New Birth, published by the UPCI in 1984, I stated, "All doctrine must be based on Scripture alone and not on man's traditions, creeds, or philosophies.... The Bible is the sole authority for doctrine and instruction in
salvation.... We must limit ourselves to the clear teaching of Scripture" (pp. 257, 306). In view of these clear statements, why does Tolbert now repeat his erroneous charge? 

The paper suffers from faulty research on numerous other points as well. For example, it says Ewart believed that trinitarianism originated in the fourth century, a statement Ewart simply did not make. To the contrary, in The Name and the Book, published in 1936 and reprinted in 1987, he stated that Christendom has used the trine baptismal formula for eighteen hundred years (p. 88).

The paper attributes a conspiracy view of church history to Fred Foster because he noted that the Roman Catholic Church suppressed teachings and writings it considered heretical. But historians commonly accept this fact, as Foster indicated by quoting J.L. Hurlbut.

The paper asserts that Marvin Arnold was the first UPCI writer to be demonstrably familiar with the Didache. but John Paterson discussed it in a widely sold booklet published by the UPCI in 1966 entitled God in Christ Jesus. Paterson said he read the Didache in 1918; then he discussed nine reasons why it must be dated A.D. 120-190 (pages 67-68).

The following statement of Tolbert about the Didache is replete with errors: "When it was discovered that the first century evidences supporting Trinitarian theology could be cited, the UPCI could no longer insist that Trinitarian theology originated after the death of the apostles, and was therefore "unbiblical"' (p. 6). First, modern scholars generally agree that the Didache is not a first-century document. As Cyril Richardson stated in his translation, Early Christian Fathers.

"Recent study...has conclusively shown that, in the form we have it, it belongs to the second century" (p. 161).

Tolbert himself effectively refutes a first-century date for the Didache by saying that it quotes the Book of Revelation (fn. 173), which was written at the end of the first century. Second, Tolbert wrongly imputes to the UPCI Arnold's view that the Didache is a first-century document, even though J. L. Hall told Tolbert in 1984 that the UPCI had refused to accept Arnold's scholarship or publish his work, and even though Paterson had already argued for a second-century date.

Third, the UPCI still maintains that trinitarian theology originated after the death of the apostles.

Fourth, Tolberts seems to think that trinitarian language in a first-century Didache would make trinitarianism biblical. But this assumption effectively imputes scriptural authority to an extrabiblical source.

Finally, Tolbert assumes that the Didache is trinitarian. But it nowhere describes the Godhead in trinitarian terms; it quotes a trine baptismal formula, but it also refers to a Christological baptismal formula.

Page 30 erroneously states that in The Oneness of God I called into question the dating of the Didache. I did not. I acknowledged it to be an ancient document but suggested that it probably had interpolations, an opinion shared by many scholars, including translator Cyril Richardson and Professor M.B. Riddle, who wrote an explanatory note in The Ante-Nicene Fathers. In The New Birth I argued for a second-century date (pp. 259, 266).

The paper severely criticizes S.C. McClain's characterization of Constantine and the Council of Nicea. While McClain may have made several minor errors, his key point that Constantine guided the Council of Nicea is generally accepted. Constantine did convene the council, and he did enforce its decision. Walter Nigg observed, "Constantine, who treated religious questions solely from a political point of view, assured unanimity by banishing all the bishops who would not sign the new professions of faith. In this way unity was  achieved. It was altogether unheard of that a universal creed should be instituted solely on the authority of the emperor" (The Heretics, pp. 126-27). While Tolbert tries to construe Eusebius to mean that Constantine did not preside over the council, he later defeats his own argument: "Jones rightly points out that Eusebius makes it clear that Constantine allowed all sides to express their views...commending those who spoke well, reinforcing the arguments of some and reproving others"' (pp. 15-16).

There are certainly grounds for McClain to question the genuineness of Constantine's repentance from sin and conversion as of 325: he killed his son, nephew, and wife in 326, and he deferred baptism until his deathbed so that he could continue to sin in the meantime and obtain remission later. And McClain correctly perceived that the Edict of Milan started a process which soon made Christianity the "standard religion." 

The paper criticizes William Chalfant and me for relying on Alexander Hislop in discussing Babylonian roots of Trinitarianism. However, it does not address Chalfant's much more extensive work on the origin of the Trinity, published in Symposium on Oneness Pentecostalism 1986, which cites numerous other scholars.

The paper accuses me of distorting the views of Harnack, Noss, and Hislop, calling into question not only the "trustworthiness" of my work but also my "notion of justice" (P. 33) But the evidence does not support this personal attack. I cited Harnack only three times, each time to substantiate historical facts about modalists. I did not depend upon, endorse, or misrepresent his theological views. I quoted Noss accurately, simply to establish that trinitarian ideas exist in Taoism, and did not challenge or distort his dating.

Nor did I distort Hislop's position. I identified him as a trinitarian, thereby letting readers know that he believed that true Trinitarianism originated in the Bible. Nevertheless, Hislop stated that Roman Catholic ideas about the Trinity were false and that these distortions originated in Babylon (pp. 12-19). Since my book establishes that the Old Testament does not set forth the Trinity and that the Old Testament saints did not embrace the doctrine, I simply used Hislop for the following purposes: Hislop was correct in finding trinitarian ideas in ancient history, even though he did not realize that these ideas predated all trinitarian concepts in Judeo-Christian culture.

I am not guilty of the genetic fallacy by discussing Greek philosophical roots of Trinitarianism. The first nine chapters of The Oneness of God argue from the Scripture, and that is the sole basis upon which I concluded that the doctrine of the Trinity is incorrect (pp. 293-94). I discussed the origin of Trinitarianism simply to answer the following question: If trinitarianism did not originate in the Bible, how and why was it endorsed by Christendom?

I inadvertently contributed to some confusion by using the subheading "Pagan Origins" for a two-page section of The Oneness of God. That section not only cited pagan origins of Trinitarianism in Babylonian and Greek thought but also identified resemblances to pagan views today, and a different heading would have made this fact clearer. By citing trinities in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, I did not mean that Christian Trinitarianism is their lineal descendant. Rather, I sought to indicate that these similar ideas may have roots in a common, ancient, pagan source and that Trinitarianism resembles a pagan approach more than a Biblical one. My discussion may need clarification on this point, but I did explain my meaning to Tolbert in 1984. Moreover the next eighteen pages trace the development of Trinitarianism from Greek thought and theological speculation, nowhere trying to find contributing influences from the other religions.

The paper's concluding paragraph is seriously flawed. First, why is it "incumbent" upon the UPCI to cite historical evidence for the continuity of the full salvation experience? We derive our teaching from the Scripture, not from church history, and its validity is not dependent upon historical inquiry.
Moreover, we do not teach that "modal monarchianism" is a necessary component of the salvation experience, although belief in the true humanity and true deity of Jesus Christ is. As I wrote in Symposium on Oneness Pentecostalism 1986. "John 8:24 does not demand a thorough comprehension of the Godhead as a prerequisite for salvation. It is possible and indeed likely for someone to obey John 3:5 and Acts 2:38 without a theologically accurate understanding of the Oneness doctrine" (p. 122). Second, the paper concludes that the UPCI has not cited anyone before A.D. 180 or between the fifth and twentieth centuries who held its doctrine of "full salvation". But the Book of Acts unequivocally demonstrates that the first-century church held the doctrines that the UPCI Articles of Faith calls "the Bible standard of full salvation", namely, repentance, baptism in Jesus' name, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, chapters 10-11 of The New Birth present evidence for these experiences in subsequent history, concluding, "We find both (baptism in Jesus' name and receiving the Holy Spirit with tongues) among the early post-apostolic fathers (1st and 2nd centuries), the early Sabellians (3rd century), and modern Pentecostals (20th century). The historical evidence also indicates that both doctrines existed among Montanists (2nd and 3rd centuries), later Sabellians (4th, 5th, 6th centuries), various "heretics" (3rd and 4th centuries middle ages), Anabaptists (16th century), Antitrinitarians (16th and 17th centuries), early Quakers (17th century), and Plymouth Brethren (19th century)" (pp. 298-99).

Third, the paper concludes that the UPCI has not shown how a second-century origin of Logos theology is compatible with an early date for John's prologue. We affirm that John's Gospel presents a biblical, first-century Logos doctrine. We maintain that the Logos doctrine of the second-century apologists is a distortion of biblical thought. This conclusion is supported by respected Protestant theologians such as Louis Berkhof, Otto Heick, and E.H. Klotsche. Even Tolbert would presumably reject the apologists' characterization of the Logos as a subordinate being who had a beginning.

Fourth, the UPCI has allegedly "not worked out the relation between the compilers of the Christian canon and the 'whore of Babylon,' who are, in their view, one in [sic] the same" (p. 37). The UPCI has never stated that the compilers of the canon are the "whore of Babylon"; this is a phrase the trinitarian Alexander Hislop used to describe the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, we believe that the fourth and fifth-century councils merely affirmed what had already been generally recognized and accepted by Christians from the earliest times. Norman Geisler and William Nix show that almost all of the New Testament books were cited or alluded to in the first generation after the apostles and were named as authentic in the second century. Moreover, between the Muratorian Fragment (c. 170) (which mentions all but four books) and the Codex Barococcio (c. 206) (which mentions all but one book), every New Testament book was named as authentic. (See A General Introduction to the Bible, p. 193.) Interestingly, Geisler and Nix contradict Tolbert's claim that Athanasius was the first to declare the authenticity of II and III John.

We do not have to trust the doctrine of fourth- and fifth-century leaders in order to accept the Bible; at most we only need to believe that they preserved the witness of earlier generations as to the authenticity and apostolic authority of the recognized books. In fact, Protestants today do not accept some of the doctrines and practices of the fourth- and fifth-century theologians. And ultimately our faith rests in the providence of God.

In conclusion, Keith Tolbert has consistently misread and distorted UPCI sources, attributed to the UPCI views from sources it has not sanctioned, and failed to consider numerous sources that contradict his assertions about the UPCI. His paper fails to prove its concluding statement that the UPCI has "created a complex mythology to give the illusion of an 'apostolic' succession" (p. 37). Actually the UPCI does not feel compelled to establish a so-called apostolic succession. As stated in The New Birth, "Church history alone can never prove the validity of doctrine.... The clear teaching of Scripture is enough to tear away the shrouds of nonbiblical tradition" (p. 299).

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