Having spent time in and still impacted by my time in a Oneness Pentecostal Church, I finally found some resolve this day of Easter.
For those who don't know Oneness Pentecostals believe that God's name is Jesus. There is no Father, Son and Spirit as separate 'persons' but only in different manifestations. There was no pre-existent Jesus as the Word there was only the Word in the mind or thought (i.e. logos) of God. What pre-existed was His plan, not His Son. The 'Son' only began to exist at His incarnation (and, yes, Oneness Pentecostals believe in the Incarnation).
Their doctrine is slippery enough that they avoid tags of Nestorianism, Arianism and Sabellianism, among others. They appear to follow the creeds or at least have a doctrine that allows them to reinterpret it to fit and they have the ability to utilize the words of the Church Fathers to support their doctrine.
While initially appearing to apply sound logic and reason there is a point at which it becomes more 'mystical' than the Trinitarian doctrine it seeks to undermine and upend.
I have been bathing in the Trinity for the past several years and it feels more home to me yet there are times where it bothers me that the Oneness doctrine seems to - and I emphasize seems to - make more sense, especially when it comes to the Name of Jesus. I say this because the Eastern Orthodox Church places great emphasis on this Name as well, to the point that it almost sounds Oneness.
While on a journey of discovery this morning, looking for the origins in the Psalms (through Athanasius' Letter to Marcellinus) of the Jesus Prayer, I found this:
The Name of Yahweh is the Name: “Lord Jesus Christ.” We ought to remember that “Kyrios” is the LXX rendering of the Divine Name YHWH. When we pray “Lord Jesus Christ…” we are invoking the Name of Yahweh, now most fully revealed in “Lord Jesus Christ.”
I read it several times and it slowly dawned on me what is meant by this. The statement at first glance seems to say the same thing as Oneness doctrine. But upon closer reading (and the understanding that Eastern Orthodoxy is not Oneness and is fully Trinitarian) I realized that the letter word 'of' carries all the weight of that statement.
The Name of Yahweh is the Name: "Lord Jesus Christ."
'Of' is not identity in the sense of Oneness Pentecostalism. 'Of' identity in the sense of the fullness of revelation of the Godhead.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. (John 17:6)
'Of' is the 'begotten' of the Son. It is the 'of' that comes into the world to show us who God is. Jesus is not the Father, he is, if you will, the 'of' of the Father.
Now of course we have the name of Jesus and the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit so the 'of' is not unique to the Name of Yaweh. This is simply a means of trying to grasp the difference between the Name of Jesus per Orthodoxy compared to Oneness doctrine.
Exodus 3 says that Yahweh is the Name of Remembrance. That is, when you call out the Name of Yahweh, He will remember His covenant and act accordingly. In John, it is revealed that the Name of Remembrance in the New Covenant is “Jesus Christ.”
When you call out the Name of Jesus, God remembers His covenant and acts accordingly. All of the biblical freight about God revealing His Name and you calling it back to Him falls on the Holy Name of Jesus Christ.
His not revealing that Jesus is the name of God; he is revealing that in this Name is the full revelation of the Godhead. It's a subtle shift and I'm not quite sure I can fully find the words to understand what it is I am grasping it. The challenge isn't so much to justify and defend Trinitarianism (though it is), the challenge is to correctly understand what is meant by the Name.
For Oneness believers, Jesus is God's name, period. That is the revelation. And it is the Spirit (Jesus is another 'manifestation' or 'form') then who unleashes power on earth for signs, wonders, miracles and gifts. We don't look to a 'church' we look to the Spirit.
For Orthodoxy, as best I understand it, the Name of Jesus is not the revelation of God's name as identity, i.e. 'God' is not called Jesus. It is in or through this name where we find God's revelation of Who He is. As much as we come to know Jesus - and this is the significance of the Eucharist - we come to know God. Whereas Orthodoxy emphasizes, and rightly so, the Eucharist, Oneness Pentecostals emphasize the Spirit with the Eucharist being secondary, if that. In fact, as I sit here, I can't recall whether or not we ever partook of the Eucharist.
In other words, as I see it, what Orthodoxy teaches has been lost over the eons and because of this it manifested as Oneness doctrine in the early 1900s in the United States. The loss of history has caused it to repeat itself.
Though this is a Catholic website, this video here goes into good depth on this from a former Oneness believer (starting primarily around the 18 minute mark):
