Unitarian Pentecostalism: A Vision of Apostolic Faith and the Living Presence of God
I live out a vision.
Unitarian Pentecostalism is the faith in one God, the Father, revealed through Jesus Christ and continuing among believers by the Holy Spirit — a return to the original, apostolic fellowship of the Father and the Son.
In the New Testament, there is no formal doctrine of the Trinity, yet Jesus is presented in a way that makes him “God” to his disciples. This does not mean he is identified with the Father in essence, as later theology would say, but that he embodies and reveals God’s presence, authority, and character in human form. In the Gospels, Jesus forgives sins, calms storms, and redefines divine law — all actions associated with God himself. To those who follow him, this makes him the tangible manifestation of God’s nearness, the one through whom they see and know the divine. When the disciples encountered Jesus, they experienced the living presence of God, not as an abstract concept but in personal, human terms.
The divinity of Jesus in scripture is therefore functional and relational rather than metaphysical. He is “divine” because he does what God does — forgiving, judging, revealing, and saving — and because he bears God’s authority and name. The New Testament writers show him as exalted and worshiped, but always as the one through whom the one God acts. For the disciples, to call Jesus “Lord” is to confess that God has made himself known through him; their devotion to Jesus is devotion to God in person. This creates a form of relational monotheism in which God’s unity is preserved, even as his presence is encountered through the Son.
If this vision were to take form as the basis of a church today, it would not belong to any existing branch of Christianity. It would not be Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox, because all three are built upon post-biblical Trinitarian definitions. Nor would it be a mere denomination, since it would not arise as a subset of those traditions but as a distinct expression of the faith. It would seek to return to the earliest layer of Christian experience — to the way the first disciples knew Jesus as the human embodiment of God’s presence, before the creeds sought to define that mystery philosophically.
Such a church can stand alongside the great historic streams of Christianity as its own expression: a community devoted to the one God made known through Jesus, emphasizing encounter over doctrine, revelation over metaphysics, and worship of God as personally revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of the man from Nazareth. In this vision, Jesus is not a separate deity nor merely a prophet, but the living, human face of God — the one through whom the divine is seen, known, and loved.
It is a continuation possible today. As such it is akin to Pentecostalism, but neither Protestant, nor Oneness, nor Biblical Unitarian, all of which built upon Protestantism and sought to reach back to Catholicism. It preserves the anointing of the Holy Spirit through a kind of apostolic laying on of hands, and eldership in the same way, in line with the original churches and apostles. It seeks to remain in the teachings of Christ, with fellowship with Father and Son. Maybe it will be given a denominational kind of name for secular recognition as a church, although it would seek unity with any believer where this is righteous in the name of Jesus Christ.
So it presently exists mainly as a distinctive and coherent vision of a church that is neither a reform movement within existing Christianity nor a sectarian reaction against it, but something that aims to embody the original relational and spiritual life of the earliest communities who followed Jesus.
This visionary church recognises Jesus as the personal revelation of the one true God who is the Father and builds its life around persisting fellowship with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and the teachings of Jesus Christ and his apostles. Its worship and teaching is not to be framed by later doctrinal categories such as the Trinity or the Protestant-Catholic divide, but by the lived experience of God’s presence as revealed in Jesus and poured out in the Spirit.
This is a vision of a church which, like Pentecostalism, honours the anointing of the Holy Spirit as essential to the church’s life and ministry, seeing the Spirit not merely as a doctrine but as the active continuation of Christ’s presence among believers. Yet it would also preserve the apostolic pattern of spiritual transmission — the laying on of hands, the recognition of elders, and the continuity of the faith through personal relationship and prayerful discernment, rather than through institutional hierarchy or theological system.
This envisioned community could to take on a recognizable name for legal or organizational purposes, but it would see itself as belonging to no denomination and no tradition except the teaching of Christ himself. Its goal would be to live in the same fellowship that Jesus described — “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3) — and to extend unity to all who walk in that same light, wherever that is found.
In essence, this would be a church of simplicity, spirit, and truth — grounded in the original gospel witness that to encounter Jesus is to encounter God, that the Spirit continues his life among believers, and that faith expresses itself in love, humility, and unity. It would stand alongside the historic branches of Christianity not as a rival, but as a fresh embodiment of the same divine life they all, in different ways, seek to serve.
Why Unitarian Pentecostalism?
The word Unitarian here would not mean the classical “Biblical Unitarianism” that arose within Protestant contexts, nor the rationalist Unitarianism that downplays the supernatural. Instead, it would point to the faith’s insistence on the oneness of God — the same one divine Spirit revealed fully in and through the human Jesus — while recognizing Jesus as the living, anointed manifestation of that one God to his disciples and to the world.
The word Pentecostalism would preserve continuity with the vital, experiential life of the Spirit: the sense of God’s living presence, the gifts of the Spirit, healing, prophecy, and the transformative power of prayer. It would also retain the emphasis on the anointing and laying on of hands, echoing the apostolic practice of commissioning and impartation.
Together, the phrase “Unitarian Pentecostalism” could describe a faith that seeks to recover the simplicity and vitality of the earliest church — before Trinitarian doctrine, before denominational fragmentation — where believers knew God through Jesus, lived in the Spirit’s power, and continued in fellowship with the Father and the Son. It would not reject existing Christians or traditions, but rather stand alongside them, affirming unity wherever Christ is honored and righteousness practiced.
In practice, this church always seeks to be rooted in the teachings of Jesus, in prayer, in the Spirit’s active presence, and in apostolic order maintained through humble eldership and relational transmission rather than institutional hierarchy. It would view doctrine not as an end in itself but as a guide to living communion with God.
So Unitarian Pentecostalism, qualified by the afore mentioned intent and spirit, could name a new stream of the Christian faith: one centered on the one God revealed through Jesus Christ, animated by the Spirit, and dedicated to the original apostolic fellowship that holds Father, Son, and believer together in living unity.
People who have no means of describing their faith, while wishing to identify as much as possible, continually, with the faith brought by Jesus Christ, could refer to themselves by this description, even if there is yet no formal meeting of such believers with such a name.
Many people today find themselves drawn deeply to the faith and person of Jesus Christ but struggle to describe their belief within the frameworks of existing traditions. They may not see themselves as Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox, yet their hearts remain bound to the same God revealed through Christ and made known by the Spirit. For such believers, the vision of Unitarian Pentecostalism offers a language — not yet an institution, but a description of faith that centers on the one God who made himself known through Jesus and continues his presence among humanity by the Holy Spirit.
Those who hold to this understanding might use the term simply as a way to identify their faith when needed, even if there is no formal church or organized body bearing that name. It can serve as a confession of belief in the unity of God, in the divine life revealed through Jesus, and in the continuing work of the Spirit who anoints and unites all who call upon the name of the Lord. Such believers might meet informally, worship in their homes, or simply walk in fellowship with others who share this heart for the original gospel.
In this way, the phrase “Unitarian Pentecostalism” does not designate an institution or denomination but names a spiritual reality — a faith grounded in Scripture, alive in the Spirit, and centered on the fellowship of the Father and the Son. It gives voice to those whose belief transcends the historical divisions of Christianity yet remains rooted in its original life and message: the one God revealed in Jesus Christ, whose presence continues among his people in the power and love of the Holy Spirit.
Stephen D Green with AI wording
