A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

The Jesus Name Controversy
scholar, wrote in an official history of her church: 61
The doctrinal departure aside, if one admits the
strong restorationist component at the heart of the
definition of Pentecostalism, Oneness proponents
were more zealously restorationist, more doggedly
congregational, and more Christocentrically spiritual—in
short, in some important ways more essentially
Pentecostal than the mainstream.
Walter Hollenweger, secretary of evangelism for the
World Council of Churches, similarly commented that the
Oneness doctrine “is more in accordance with religious
feeling and practice of Pentecostalism than a doctrine of
the Trinity taken over without understanding from the traditional
churches.” 62
Another important factor was the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. When the early Pentecostals were baptized with the
Holy Ghost, they no longer had a theoretical concept of
God but a direct, personal experience. They did not
receive three divine spirits, but one Spirit. They did not
encounter various divine persons or have multiple relationships
with the Godhead, but they had an intensely
personal relationship with one God.
Moreover, the Holy Spirit came upon them as they
exalted Jesus Christ and the Atonement. For example, in
the Azusa Street revival, some of the most popular hymns
were “There Is Power in the Blood” and “Under the
Blood.” Participants were challenged not merely to
preach “the baptism with the Holy Spirit” but “Christ in
the power of the baptism.” 63 The baptism of the Holy
Spirit actually intensified their focus on Jesus Christ.
61