Assemblies of God vers Baptist

:thumbs: God bless!

 

What you described here is Word of Faith teachings, which have sadly infiltrated some AOG churches.

 

Some? Thats name it and claim it! Thats what they believe.

 

rbell writes concerning AOG:

• "The "baptism of the Holy Spirit/Second Blessing" issue. They're just off on this one. That's a thread unto itself.
• Church polity. Credentials of ministers and other issues are controlled by the "district." I'm not into church hierarchy.
• Too many AOG churches judge the "success" of their worship by the amount of emotion expressed. Not all, but a bunch. It lends itself to judging how God is moving by emotion--and that often causes churches to strive to produce emotion as a product of worship. That's not a good precedent.
• Not all AOG are eaten up with the "name it and claim it" sewage that is Word of Faith movement...but quite a few are cozy with it. That makes me very nervous.
• Interestingly...AOG tends to be conservative theologically and fairly literal in Biblical interpretation (with a few exceptions)...if I'm gonna go pentecostal, I'm going AOG. But, quite a few have women co-pastors (they often co-pastor with their husbands). I've just always thought that was kind of quirky for a denom such as this. I'm not ready to be in a church with a woman senior pastor.
• The tongues issue (see "second blessing" above).
• Not believing in eternal security."

Good post.

I have not heard of any women pastors in the Md. Va. and Penna. Districts of the AOG. My relatives were in those districts. They may have them in the west. However, my information is about 15 years old, so things may have changed. The Foursquare Gospel is another pentecostal denomination and they have many women pastors.

The AOG is organized very much like the Baptist except the District holds the pastor's credentials which gives the district more control over the churches than for Baptist churches. If I were to go to a pentecostal church, the AOG would be my choice also.

 

Actually, the Freewill Baptists do not hold to OSAS. And since it is not one of the Baptist distinctives, though I disagree with them on it, I have to say they are still Baptist! :type:

 

All in all the above information is correct without being mean spirited. Very Good!:thumbs:

 

On occasion, with my workplace children, we will visit a few AOG churches in the area of my workplace. One is what I would call a "typical" AOG where the preacher preaches tongues and people are speaking in tongues, and it appears to be more pentecostal. Lord help them.

Another one I visited today appears to be more Baptistic, if you will. Today, a tongues series happened, and there was an interpreter, and then the preacher got up and explained the "situation". It was interesting that he had to explain it.

 

I grew up S. Baptist, but after my family moved the only church we had an opportunity to go to was the AOG. I spent 6 years there and traveled with the pastor many times to Leadership meetings and the like. (He wanted to train me to be a AOG Pastor) And for the most part much of the Info is correct. However understand that many Non-Denominational Churches are off-shoots of the AOG in their version of seeker sensitive movement. (NOT ALL ARE though) But you can find this out by their doctrinal statements but How you can best tell is if there is a lack of one. All of the following are to a larger or smaller degree prevelent in the AOG.

1. Tongues (to a stronger or lesser degree per church) But ALWAYS there.
2. Prophesy (prophets) play a big role.
3. Dreams and visions (which kinda fall under the prophetic) Illumination
4. New revelations and Charasmatic giftings (ex.Word of Knowledge and wisdom)
5. Losing your salvation - reasons differ per church
6. Stress manifested miraculous signs due to the faithful in union with God
7. Healing is due to unwavering faith - not healed - lacking faith
8. Women are a large part of the Pastorate in the AOG. Some area more promonent than others.
9. Second grace is something beleived by all but differ per church.

Here on many but not all hold to these veiws.

1. Most hold to Church is now Spiritual Israel. Israel lost their position to us
2. Bible not suffiecent - we have the holy spirit. - Letter kills, Spirit gives life
3. We (individuals) are the church, and therefore don't HAVE to attend or be members of any particualar body for we ARE HIs body.

This is not an exhaustive list but are some very real differences that will help you know what you are going into. As I said I was around many of the AOG pastors and even went to their (jokingly called) Mecca in Tulsa, OK. where they hold many of their version of pastor confrenses. Although, unlike baptists not just anyone can come. And as stated on here much of their heirarchal dealings are done (toward pastor, churches, licencing) differently than ours. EACH church is different but you have to sit down with the PASTOR and ask what HE BELEIVES and what is taught therein.

NOTE: Unless you know and understand your spiritual gifting that God has given you. It will be useless to keep church hoping (from place to place) until you understand that God has created you and gifted you to be a part of a (single) body of believers that you may use your spiritual gift to edify others and they edify you, which is the Will of God. You will never learn enough or feel content enough in one place until you start being what God intended you to be within the body of Christ. I Cor 12. You are a member individually and a body corporately. but they are not seperate things (like a prosthetic limb) Only when you begin to do what God has created you for within the unity of those beleivers will then start to really learn as you pour yourself out for the body. Like Christ did for the church.

This will just help you identify what Type of AOG you want to be apart of.

 

AOG churches are false "churches" and should be avoided. The Bible says- (Joh 4:24) God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
One cannot worship in truth in an AOG church because the truth is not taught there.
As your list says they teach:
1. The false teaching of "tongues." Tongues was an earthly language, not jibberish.
2. The false teaching of prophets. Our one and only Prophet is Jesus Christ.
3. The false teaching of dreams and visions.
4. The false teaching of new revelations and charasmatic gifting. ! Corinthians 13:8-13
5.The false teaching of losing ones salvation. Jesus' death on cross wasn't sufficient?
6. Stress manifested miraculous signs? What?
7. The false teaching of healing due to unwavering faith. We are to be faithful, but healing is according to God's will. What, Paul wasn't faithful?
8. The false practice of women pastors. 1 Timothy 2:12
9. Second grace? Must be another false AOG teaching.

 

Is there error in their teachings? Yes.

False church? I don't take it that far. This insinuates that God has forsaken anyone in the AoG. I'm not going there.

Point of correction: not all AoG teach #7. Many do...but not all.

 

I not saying that God has forsaken any one. I am also not saying that AOG members are lost. But, they are not a part of the institution that Christ set up, the church, to do the work He has given us to do.

 

pasdave writes:
"AOG churches are false "churches" and should be avoided. The Bible says- (Joh 4:24) God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
One cannot worship in truth in an AOG church because the truth is not taught there."

The above is the end for Plain Old Bill's provious post. Too bad.

Plain Old Bill provious post:
All in all the above information is correct without being mean spirited. Very Good!:thumbs:

 

There are some groups of the AoG that do not believe in the Trinity. They are Modalists (or similar to Sabellianists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabellius )

I'd avoid any AoG church at any cost. The AoG, charasmatics, etc. are all caught up in false spirits, false teachings, and false conversions.

Here's a good article from the late Jonathan Edwards on the matter of the Trinity,
http://www.ccel.org/e/edwards/trinity/trinity.html

 

I find Baptists are all over the board on thier beliefs too. Should they be avoided? Which ones should be avoided?

AoG are generally Wesleyan Pentecostal in thier theology. Those that are WoF or Charismatic be they Baptist or AoG should be avoided, I would think.Now although I am not a Wesleyan, I also am not a Calvinist.

But I see the part about the mean spirited stuff creeping in on the thread.

 

Spoudazo writes:
There are some groups of the AoG that do not believe in the Trinity. They are Modalists (or similar to Sabellianists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabellius )

The above is just plain false. The AOG denomination controls the credentials of all its ministers. They would be kicked out of the AOG denimination. You must be referring to the another denomination.

 

It started in the AoG! :type:

http://www.watchman.org/profile/onenesspro.htm

They may have "split" officially quite a while back, but it started in the AoG, and continues to haunt the AoG.

If you won't go to a Baptist church, at least go to a Bible church (i.e.-Baptist under another name). :saint:

 

I'm sorry if I come off as mean spirited. I didn't intend it that way. I was just speaking the truth. To say nothing is to agree.
True, some Baptists are all over the board with their beliefs. Being "Baptist" doesn't make you right. That is why it is up to each one of us to study to show thyself approved unto God, not just following a denominational title.

 

Very true.When it comes down to it we need to check the local New Testament Church along with it's statement of faith and then see what it practices.

 

Bible churches are like AoG - they are not Baptist.

So why not say, If you won't go to a Baptist church, at least go to an AoG church? (Not baptist under any other name). :saint: