Jon Gary Williams
Articles / Resources
0225
Thornton Crews vs Welch ("Oneness" Pentecostal)
August 2, 1934
Pensacola, Florida
(By A. H. Maner, Mobile, Alabama)
At Pensacola, Florida, June 26 - July 3 (eight days).
Five thousand attended some nights. Debated General Church Proposition. Truth triumphed. Bro. Crews was prepared, and openly unarmed his opponent. Welch tried to keep his practice out, but Crews would not let him. Welch argued healing, baptism of Holy Spirit and the one-person Godhead. Crews called again and again for the first two and showed the absurdity of the third. Welch's strongest point was the Godhead proposition, and this was the easiest work of the debate for Crews. I John 5:7 was the proof text to show that the three were one person. Then to the Old Testament he went to show that there was "none other besides Jehovah" and this Jehovah was the Lord Jesus Christ of the New Testament. In other words, God was in Jesus, the Spirit was in Jesus, and Jesus was the Son. Therefore, Jesus was the all, the one and only God. Crews showed that I John 5 would not allow his conclusion, but that it meant that the three testified to, or of, one fact and agreed as one.
Welch's interpretation of the seventh verse would make the eighth verse absurd - water, blood, and Spirit would be one substance. The Father begat the Son but not so according to the theory - Christ begat himself; Christ was not in the Father's bosom but in his own bosom; he did not pray to the Father, but to himself; God did not send the Son, he sent himself - in other words, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit meant nothing. Christ prayed that all believers be one as he was one with the Father. If Father and Son are one person, all believers must lose their identity and become one person. Christ prayed for it. Bro. Crews marked the absurdity of it. Welch weakened as the debate progressed. This was noticeable to his followers. Bro. Crews established his affirmation in a grand way.
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