Methodist and women pastors

I hope we give credibility to the Trinity, believer's baptism, etc.
Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater!

 

I wholeheartedly agree. Well stated.

 

I didn't think this was about individuals in the AOG. I don't think that anybody here is equating them with "extreme Word of Faithers or the snake handlers". The topic is women in leadership positions and you brought in the AOG as a denomination. I think it has been shown that the AOG has arrived at their position poorly.

There are no doubt good children of God in the AOG just as there are in baptist churches despite them being wrong on some issues. However, the AOG is wrong as a group on this issue.

 

I am not mistaken regardless of what the website says. I have had several AOG preachers and many members including members of my own family that have told me that if I was "really" saved that I would speak in tongues. They say that everyone that receives salvation speaks in tongues as a sign of their salvation.

I was raised about 50 miles from the birthplace of the AOG, so I am very familiar with them.

AJ

 

I spent about two years in the Assemblies of God: fall 2002-spring 2004.

Basically, they are like mainstream Baptists but believe strongly in the Pentecostal `gifts.' Unlike in other Pentecostal groups, the Pentecostal stuff is done with a more refined sense of moderation.

I was accepted into membership despite not speaking in tongues nor desiring to.

There may be some exceptions, but from what I saw, the Assemblies of God certainly do NOT believe that non-Pentecostals are not Christians. The two Assemblies of God congregations I knew best participated in ministrations with congregations of other denominations.

 

drfuss: Having been active in AOG churches for 35 years, I just had to correct this wrong information. I suggest you go to the AOG website and check it out.

ajg1959, Where do you get such wrong information about the AOG?

 

Confusion come from the fact that denominations have an official statement of faith but many of the local churches have a practice that is different from that stance. Throw in the fact that many members believe something quite different than what is preached in the pulpit and you get all kinds of stuff.

Whenever someone hears that I am FWB they say "You guys think you can sin all you want and go to heaven". Not what baptist believe or teach, but it's what many think.

 

drfuss: I know that is not what most Baptist believe; however, it is what Charles Stanley believes based on his book on eternal security and many people think all Baptists believe as Stanley does.

My other points above are that people should not say what a whole denomination believes based on what a few misguided people say. It is easy to check things out using websites on the internet.

 

Yes, I have read the official statement on the AOG website, but, I can tell you for a fact, that what I have heard from AOG members and preachers is far from what the website says.

I was raised 50 miles from Hot Springs, AR, the birthplace of AOG back in 1914, and the site of their first national conference. My grandmother and many of my aunts and uncles were AOG. And they all told me that EVERY born again beleiver speaks in tongues as a sign of their salvation. They say that if I dont speak in tongues that I cant be saved.

Even pastors and church officials have told me this. By saying that tongues is a sign of salvation, they are essentially saying that whole congregations of non-tongue speaking folks are lost and going to hell.

In Arkansas, the AOG has many churches and members. I grew up around them my whole life, and a website is not going to change what I have heard from them myself.

The Oneness Pentecostals that split away from the AOG in 1916 are also prevelent in Arkansas, and they pretty much hold to the same doctrine that every born again beleiver speaks in tongues as a sign of salvation.

Lets be honest about church websites. I have never seen a Baptist website say that people that are divorced and remarried are living in sin and are not welcome, yet I have been to several that blatantly give divorcees the cold shoulder and judge them by this one aspect of their life. Websites dont tell the whole story.

AJ

 

drfuss: For 35 years, I was active in AOG churches in Maryland, Penna. and Virginia. I never once heard the things you were told and listed in your posts. What I heard in all these churches agreed with the AOG Website. Apparently you were exposed to a local situation in Arkansas that certainly did not reflect the AOG as a whole.

My objection is that you indicated what the AOG beliefs are based on your very limited experience in Arkansas when the AOG denomination does not believe what you indicated they do.

 

I believe what drfuss is saying. :thumbs:

I have known many AOG individuals and Pastors and have never in my many years of knowing them heard them say that speaking in tongues is necessary for salvation or that one has to speak in tongues if they are saved. I have heard such comments on a local radio broadcast by a minister, but he was not part of the AOG denomination.

 

I concede that I have "very limited experience".....you could even just be more blunt and say that I am stupid, but if you go to an AOG church in the Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri area, you will find exactly what I have described.

Now, I will take my "limited" self out of this conversation and refrain from any more comments on this thread. Time to move on.

AJ

 

HP: Sorry, but I have first hand experience in the areas you speak of that would clearly contradict your assessment. Such is simply not the case in any AOG I have attended or with any of those members I know personally and have very close contact with. I have no idea where you received your information or limited experience, but I would say it is simply not the case by and large as you present it to be, if it is at all.