building on an apostolic foundation

At his blog Search for Truth Tre Brickley explains his christological journey, starting with Oneness Pentecostalism. Interestingly, he understands his new views to build on what is correct in their theology. He says in part,

In my upbringing as a Christian apostolicity was of the utmost importance. This is something about which I think the oneness pentecostals who instructed me were right. To be apostolic in theology and practice should be the goal of every person who names the name of Christ and who considers their self to be a Christian. Jesus appointed his apostles to be the ones through whom his gospel would enter the world (John 17:20) and to whom he gave the responsibility to be the founders of the New Testament Church (Ephesians 2:20). Given this foundational supposition of my theology, I am very interested in what the apostles and the apostolic church believed and did.

But this is not the only way he put into practice a core commitment that he was taught by Oneness Pentecostals:

Something else that was very important in the theology of the group in which I was raised was the primacy of the Book of Acts for understanding what the apostles thought and did. This is another thing about which I think they were right. The Book of Acts should be the first place a person looks to discover what apostolic theology and practice was. This book is the only Spirit-inspired history of the Church. . .Thus, it was very impactful for me when a friend brought my attention to the Book of Acts, invited me to consider what is found there with respect to what the apostles believed about Christ, and noted that you don’t find any kind of “Jesus is God” or “Jesus has human and divine natures” christology there. What you do find, on the other hand, is a proclamation about Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, who is explicitly said to be “a man” distinct from God (Acts 2:22-23).

Check out Tre Brickley’s whole post here.

This is how unitarian Christianity grows: when Protestants take their official ideology seriously, and prioritize Scripture over later traditions.

It is greatly to their advantage that Oneness Christians have not been conditioned to accept “the Trinity” as a holy mystery which it is pointless to question. Nor do they idolize “the Fathers” or Calvin. Like my friend J. Dan Gill or the famous gospel composer and performer Joel Hemphill have done, many Oneness believers are now studying their way to a more biblical view of God and his human Son. We need more of them, more insider whistleblowers, to help more Oneness believers – and other Christians – to be more apostolic in their theology and christology.

Here are some related trinities posts about Acts; Mr. Brickley is right – their message does sound unitarian, not trinitarian!