Vanessa's Oneness Experience

I am a member of a UPCI church. I started attending here when I married my husband almost 3 years ago as he had attended this denomination for about 5 years before we married.

I have always been Oneness Pentecostal. My dad is a Oneness minister but has never been ordained in the UPCI. He has ministered with a license but as an independent minister.

As I grew up my father spent a large part of his ministry as an evangelist so I have been to a lot of Oneness Pentecostal churches, including the UPCI. I have seen churches with a legalistic attitude & those without it. Those who held "tight standards" & those who were "loose". I've seen those in whom God's love dwelt in those in whom it did not.

When my dad started to pastor a church in my preteen years & throughout my teens, I made it a point to visit almost all of the Christian churches in my area of every denomination. I found that there are good & bad people in all Christian faiths. Christians are not perfect, just humans who have a revelation of who Christ is.

Also on my path to truth I looked into other religions outside of Christianity & found a lot of love & truth in most of those. But ultimately I had to find God for myself. So I studied the world & how things have come to play in history over the past several thousand years. I came to this conclusion that there are some principles that are a part of the very foundations of the world & they affect our lives even if we are not aware they exist. All of these things pointed toward there being a God. I found that Christ embodied the principles that "make the world go round". That in part helped me realize that "Christ was the way, the truth, & the life."

Now where to go from here as the views & beliefs in Christendom vary a million ways? To the very cornerstone of all major Christian religions; the Holy Bible. I found the K.J.V. to be the most reliable version as it is the oldest English translation. I found that I had to seek out God & know Him for myself.

I pray for you all as most of you have had very negative experiences in the UPCI movement. I have found people can be overzealous & judgmental in this denomination. As in all others. I have also found not all are that way.

We are very blessed to attend a church where there is great harmony & unity. Lots of love & no legalism. At the same time we are holiness & Oneness. You may say I am deceived, but no, I have experienced legalism & abuse in some of the churches my family attended over the years. But not all are like this. Please don't throw out the rose with the thorns. There are ways to prune off thorns and still have the pleasure of the flower. All I am asking is don't let a bad experience with a bad UPCI or holiness/oneness organization turn you from Biblical truth. Search to know God. Pray, read the Word & don't give up hope. There is peace & love in God.

I know my story is not the same as all of yours. I do hope that will not keep my story from taking print on this web site as not all have been "bound in fear & darkness" in the UPCI organization. Please do not find that you have been looking to long at only one side of the coin as the UPCI has been said to do. If anyone would like to contact me feel free to.

In Christian Love,

Vanessa

Posted April 13, 2002