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I wasn't raised in any church. Certain things happened as I got in my teenage years that made me interested in Christianity, and I'm not even sure why, because we practiced no religion at home.
I got involved in an Apostolic Oneness Pentecostal church. At first I liked how the women all wore skirts and had long hair in buns. I thought they looked cute and distinctive.
But after a while the holiness standards to me got rather silly. IE, that wearing pants or jewelry or cutting your hair was wrong, or that men had to be clean shaven to be in ministry.
They had plenty of verses to show these things, but I felt like they were usually taken out of context.
While there are some great people in Oneness Pentecostal churches, UPCI, ALJC, etc, I have also seen a great many great people not in that movement. I have even seen great people who aren't even any sort of Christian.
I couldn't go to a church that looked down on other denominations because they didn't believe in tongues or because they believed in the trinity.
To me, the Oneness Pentecostal church is hard to leave because they believe they alone have all truth. The motto of the UPCI is "The whole gospel to the whole world" That's because they believe they alone, Oneness Pentecostals have the whole gospel, and everyone else is ignorant to that fact, or bitter that they don't have it.
To me that's the mark of a group of pharisees to say something like that. They think they can judge everyone else, or they say something like they're not judging but they know they're right. Hogwash.
I'm sure I'll get blasted for this, but I also don't even believe in any Pentecostalism anymore. I had my doubts when I was deep into it too. I think it's a sham, and a feel good religion full of promises, but makes up excuses when they don't come to fruition. There is some good in it and good teaching too with the bad, but I don't believe in the tongues. That made it interesting, since I was in a church that taught that tongue talking is not only still relevant, but is NOT optional for a Christian. They made it out to be a great thing that we all GET to talk in tongues, but I always felt it was forced and done by myself rather than anything supernatural.
I've been taking a break from all religion, I'm sad to say, and while I do miss church at times, I've felt happier without its demand.
I do feel there is much more to life than living for myself. And eventually I hope to find a place where I can do that. But right now I just need a break.
I wasn't raised in any church. Certain things happened as I got in my teenage years that made me interested in Christianity, and I'm not even sure why, because we practiced no religion at home.
I got involved in an Apostolic Oneness Pentecostal church. At first I liked how the women all wore skirts and had long hair in buns. I thought they looked cute and distinctive.
But after a while the holiness standards to me got rather silly. IE, that wearing pants or jewelry or cutting your hair was wrong, or that men had to be clean shaven to be in ministry.
They had plenty of verses to show these things, but I felt like they were usually taken out of context.
While there are some great people in Oneness Pentecostal churches, UPCI, ALJC, etc, I have also seen a great many great people not in that movement. I have even seen great people who aren't even any sort of Christian.
I couldn't go to a church that looked down on other denominations because they didn't believe in tongues or because they believed in the trinity.
To me, the Oneness Pentecostal church is hard to leave because they believe they alone have all truth. The motto of the UPCI is "The whole gospel to the whole world" That's because they believe they alone, Oneness Pentecostals have the whole gospel, and everyone else is ignorant to that fact, or bitter that they don't have it.
To me that's the mark of a group of pharisees to say something like that. They think they can judge everyone else, or they say something like they're not judging but they know they're right. Hogwash.
I'm sure I'll get blasted for this, but I also don't even believe in any Pentecostalism anymore. I had my doubts when I was deep into it too. I think it's a sham, and a feel good religion full of promises, but makes up excuses when they don't come to fruition. There is some good in it and good teaching too with the bad, but I don't believe in the tongues. That made it interesting, since I was in a church that taught that tongue talking is not only still relevant, but is NOT optional for a Christian. They made it out to be a great thing that we all GET to talk in tongues, but I always felt it was forced and done by myself rather than anything supernatural.
I've been taking a break from all religion, I'm sad to say, and while I do miss church at times, I've felt happier without its demand.
I do feel there is much more to life than living for myself. And eventually I hope to find a place where I can do that. But right now I just need a break.
I was brought up in an Assemblies of God church in the 70’s and left religion in my teens as I had the same concerns as you re tongues and gifts, and also saw a discrepancy between what I was told to believe to be “saved” and what we were “saved” from because it was at odds with what Jesus said was his purpose. About 10 years ago I had a need to understand What the scriptures were about, Why there is contradiction and why there is so much division in Christianity.
what I believe is that there are a lot of allegorical things in the scriptures which are taken as literal so that it’s easy to get a distorted view of what they mean, and over time It gets more distorted.
I've never been to a Pentecostal church, but a church at the other end of the spectrum would be a Presbyterian Church (USA) one. A directory is at Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). We do not think that we have the sole truth, the only incomprehensible speaking you might hear is someone with a thick Scottish accent, and come as you are--we're glad to have you!
This kind of thing is another issue that turned me off the Apostolic or Pentecostal church. I don't see the need for all of this, I see peer pressure and hype. This is the kind of thing that was seen as good in the church, and necessary to be "saved." This constant pressure and seeking to speak in tongues. I don't see this kind of behavior in the Bible.
Any church that claims to have all the answers is one that likely has none of them.
I would say that any Christian in any church who puts importance on "Bible doctrine" and places their own interpretation above all others, likely has no knowledge or understanding of Jesus.
Oneness means belief in one God and that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. Pentecostal means the terms and experience of salvation can be found in Acts 2. I am Oneness and Pentecostal. While most of the OP Churches are still at least somewhat lacking in truth, they nonetheless have more truth than Catholic or Evangelical.
You have learned a valuable lesson about dogmatic interpretation of the scriptures, and living plainly, with your life on track, for Jesus. I was raised Roman Catholic, became a member of the Church of the Nazarene, dabbled a bit with monasticism through the Eastern Orthodox Church and with the Anabaptist faith (Amish and Mennonite), and I have been (since 1983) a member of the United Methodist church. We work at proselytizing through community activities. Our biggest issue now is the anticipated split in the church due to welcoming the LGBTQ community in our doors. There is much you can be critical of, and we welcome that discussion, but we try to love as many persons as we can.
I wish you the best in finding a church family to call home.
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