Frank Ewart was born in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, in 1876. After graduating from school, Ewart performed various jobs at the sawmills and lumber woods. Ewart enjoyed running and had visions of one day being a famous athlete. However, one night he had a vision of Christ on the cross. In Christ’s broken and bloodied state, he told Ewart, “I died for you.” From that day forward, Ewart saw a need for a different kind of race. He began his ministry and a bush missionary in Victoria with a Baptist organization. He experienced much success during his revivals. He spent hours of study reading and studying the Bible. He writes, “I would often go to sleep while at study and wake up with the smell of my hair singed in the candle on the table. In 1903 Ewart discovered he had a blood condition, and it was suggested that he move to a different climate. He moved to Canada where he met and married his wife. He became a pastor there. But through all of this, Ewart desired yet a deeper relationship with his Savior. His brother-in-law wrote and invited he and his wife to come and see this new religious practice that was going on in British Columbia where people were receiving the Baptism of the Holy Ghost by the evidence of speaking in tongues. It was at a Pentecostal camp meeting that Ewart found what he had been searching for. He was condemned by the Baptist church and was no longer allowed to minister. Becoming a leader in the Pentecostal faith, Frank Ewart was unshakeable in his faith. He published a periodical entitled Meat in Due Season that helped spread the Oneness message across North America and foreign nations.

The founding date of the Oneness Pentecostal movement can be traced to a specific event: a revival meeting in Los Angeles on April 15, 1913. The culmination of the meeting occurred when Canadian revivalist R.E. McAlister baptized converts not according to the Trinitarian formula of the historic Christian Church, but in the name of Jesus only.  While many at the meeting were shocked by this action, the burgeoning evangelist Frank Ewart spent many hours with McAlister following the service and was converted to the practice. According to many Oneness Pentecostals, McAlister taught Ewart that baptizing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as stated in Acts 2:38,  was the fulfillment of the Trinitarian creed in Matthew 28:19.  The passage from Matthew is fulfilled because Jesus, the Son, is simply the ultimate expression of the monotheistic God (rather than the Son being a distinct Person within the Trinitarian Godhead).

The next significant date in the development of the movement occurred exactly two years later, on April 15, 1915, when Ewart gave his first sermon on Acts 2:38. David Reed believes that, despite the claims of Oneness Pentecostals that Ewart preached the message given to him by McAlister, Ewart did not actually develop his modalistic theology until after this sermon.  Nonetheless, the approximate date for the development of Ewart's teaching regarding the necessity of baptism in the name of Jesus only can be traced to this period.

Also on this date, Ewart rebaptized supporter Glenn A. Cook according to the Jesus only formula; Cook then rebaptized Ewart.  Cook made a Midwestern tour advocating the new formula for baptism and converted at Indianapolis pastors L. V. Roberts and G. T. Haywood, and their congregations. Haywood's conversion was instrumental in bringing many black preachers and congregations into the Oneness movement. Haywood was articulate, popular, and well respected within the Pentecostal ranks.

Jesus baptism was soon called the New Issue and the Assemblies of God was loosing ministers to the Oneness Movement in large numbers. Not all members of the AG were in agreement with their Oneness brethren and pressure from both sides brought the matter to a head. J. Roswell Flowers, acting as the interim overseer of the AG (in Bell's absence) obtained authority to call for a General Council to be held from October 1 through the 10th, 1915 at St. Louis specifically to address, discuss, and debate the issue of baptism. and pressure was placed upon the fledgling group to accept a Jesus-only approach to baptism. The end result was that the Assemblies overwhelmingly chose to remain strictly Trinitarian in both theology and baptismal formula. This left Haywood, Ewart, Goss and many other brethren outside of the Assemblies of God. Several separate church bodies, including the Pentecostal Church Incorporated (which will merge with the PAJC to form the United Pentecostal Church) and Haywood's Pentecostal Assemblies Of the World drew into their camp most of the "Apostolic" congregations that stemmed from the Azusa revival. This was the beginning of the rebaptism of thousands of Pentecostals. The Oneness movement quickly spread through Pentecostal churches, particularly the Assemblies of God. The AG debated the issue of baptism in Jesus' name at their 1915 general assembly, and in 1916 defeated the movement in their denomination by requiring adherence to Trinitarian theology in the Statement of Fundamental Truths. 156 ministers subsequently left the AG to form an independent Oneness denomination. In January, 1918, the General Assembly of the Apostolic Assemblies merged with the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, a denomination affiliated with the original Pentecostal revival on Azusa Street in Los Angeles.

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