Was Elvis Presley Baptized Twice? You Decide.

It is reported that Elvis Presley was baptized in the Assemblies of God at age nine, but was later re-baptized (at age around 14) according to the Jesus' Name formula, by Bishop Joseph Rex Dyson. Elvis was baptized twice, once in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and once in the name of Jesus only. Could it be true? Elvis Presley's Pentecostal roots were deep. His parents met in a Pentecostal church. His great-uncles co-pastored one. Elvis was baptized in one when he was about 9. He was rebaptized in another one a few years later, according to Rev. Rex Dyson, still preaching Pentecostal revivals at age 100. Dyson said he rebaptized Elvis and his parents, Vernon and Gladys, in Memphis sometime around 1950. "I don't remember what year it was, but Elvis must have been about 14," said Dyson, who lives with his wife in a tidy trailer in Raleigh. "I don't like to talk about it. It's controversial." Controversial not because it was Elvis, but because of a vicious doctrinal dispute that has divided the church world for a very long time. Dyson is a Oneness Pentecostal, which according to Assemblies of God and other Trinitarians is the same thing as a heretic. Oneness Pentecostals reject the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity - the belief that in one God there are three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Why? Well, for one thing, the word Trinity isn't in the Bible. It is Confusing. And the doctrine of the Trinity is difficult even for theologians to explain and can be misunderstood to suggest a belief in three gods. Also, it was not taught by any of the early church, as it's a later addition. As a result, Oneness Pentecostals reject baptisms that use the triune formula only found in Matthew 28:19: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Instead, Oneness believers use Peter's instructions in Acts 2:38: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Also saying that all three have the same name according to these scriptures: John 5:43, Matthew 1:21 and John 14:26. The Acts of the Apostles (2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5) and Paul (1 Cor. 1:13; 6:11; Gal. 3:27; Rom 6:3) speak only of "Baptism in the name of Jesus." For Oneness Pentecostals, there's only one name that works: "We baptize in the name of Jesus," Dyson explained. "You don't got the blood until you got the name. And Jesus is the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." That's the sort of talk that got 156 Oneness preachers branded heretics and expelled from the Assemblies of God denomination in 1916. The Oneness preachers returned by saying the Assemblies of God subscribed to "three-Godism." Many went on to form separate Pentecostal churches and denominations.

There are about 17 million Oneness Pentecostals in the world. Was Elvis one of them? Elvis's parents met in 1933 in the First Assembly of God in East Tupelo, Miss. Gladys's uncles, Sims and Gains Mansell, were co-pastors. Young Elvis was water baptized in that church in 1943 or 1944, according to biographers. That's where he first learned to rock and roll. "Ministers played guitars, gyrated, and danced wildly while parishioners rolled in aisles, feverishly jumping about, and spoke in tongues," Patricia Jobe Pierce wrote in The Ultimate Elvis. The Presleys moved to Memphis in 1948, when Elvis was 13. Dyson said it wasn't long after that when Elvis and his parents began worshiping at his Church of Jesus Christ on Seventh Street at Saffarans. The Presleys lived in several places around that time, all within a few blocks of Dyson's church. "Vernon and Gladys heard me preach about baptism a few times, then they came to me and said they wanted to be baptized in the name of Jesus," Dyson said. "Next Sunday morning, I baptized Vernon and then Gladys. Elvis was watching from the side. He walked over to the baptistry, while his mama and daddy were still in the water, and he said, 'I want to be baptized like that.' "So, I baptized Elvis in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Dyson's church was sold to another congregation many years ago, and the concrete baptistry has long since been taken out and carted off to the dump. Dyson doesn't remember if he gave the Presleys a certificate of baptism. LaVonne Gaw, a researcher for Graceland, has no records of Elvis being baptized anywhere, but she plans to investigate. "It's an interesting question," she said. Patsy Presley Geranen said she knows her cousin Elvis was baptized at least once. "I'm pretty sure he was baptized in Tupelo, but I don't know if he was ever baptized in Memphis," she said. George Klein, a charter member of Elvis's Memphis Mafia, met Elvis at Humes High in the early 1950s. "I hadn't heard that one, but I guess it's possible," Klein said. Dixie Locke Emmons, Elvis's first girlfriend, met him in 1954 at the First Assembly of God in Memphis. They had Easter dinner together that year, and also attended an Oral Roberts crusade. "I don't remember him ever talking about being baptized in Memphis. I know he was never baptized at our church," said Emmons, First Assembly's secretary.

Dyson said he's not making it up. "I may be old but I'm not dead," he said. "I can't say whether Elvis is in heaven. I don't want to be judgmental. But I believe Elvis was real Christ-minded and I believe he knew what he was doing." Moscheo, who joined gospel music group the Imperials in 1964 and appeared with the quartet in Elvis' Las Vegas show as one of his backup groups, says that the first dream young Elvis had was to be a gospel singer.