Wesleyan Theology

1
Wesleyan Theology

• Part One Authority, Sin and Salvation

2
Wesleys Concern for Theology

• While often quoted as stating, We think and let
  think, Wesley held intense convictions
  concerning theology and doctrine
• Believed that the spirit of unity to be the
  essence of the Church
• Disunity destructive to the very mission of the
  Church

3
Wesleys Concern for Theology

• Whatever is compatible with love to Christ and
  a work of grace I term an opinion,. . . (but)
  right opinions are a slender part of religion,
  if any part of it at all.
• John Wesley, as quote in Hildebrandts
  Christianity according to the Wesleys, pp. 11-12

4
Wesleys Concern for Theology

• Essential Doctrines to John Wesley
• Original Sin
• The Divinity of Christ
• Atonement
• Justification by Faith Alone
• Work of the Holy Spirit
• New Birth (Regeneration)
• Trinity

5
Wesleys Concern for Theology

• Other doctrines may be considered essential at
  some times, and less essential at others
• While Wesley would seek for common witness with
  members of those traditions with whom he
  disagreed, he was never prepared to surrender his
  perceived truths for a theological relativism.

6
Wesleys Concern for Theology

• Wesley never contended that a clear knowledge of
  doctrine necessary for salvation.
• All persons who would teach and preach, however,
  must possess such knowledge
• All persons who sought the life of holiness must
  possess such knowledge

7
Authority and Experience

• As a classical Protestant, Wesley contended that
  Church Tradition and Experience be subjected to
  the Written Word of God
• Written Word of God thought to be the only
  sufficient rule of both Christian faith and
  Christian practice
• Homo unius libri

8
Authority and Experience

• Wesley demanded that his preachers either
  contract a taste for extensive reading and
  study or else return to your original trade
• All other writings, however, should be judged in
  light of Holy Scripture
• Wesley assumed that God wrote the Bible

9
Wesleys Approach to Biblical Interpretation

• The literal sense is emphasized unless it
  implies an absurdity and if it be contrary to
  some other texts but in that case that obscure
  text is to be interpreted by those that speak
  more plainly.
• All texts should be interpreted in its total
  context.

10
Wesleys Approach to Biblical Interpretation

• Scripture must be compared with Scripture.
  Therefore a thorough knowledge of the whole is
  necessary
• When possible, Scripture should be confirmed by
  the Experiences and Traditions of the Church
• Reason should be employed to understand what
  Scripture declares and how Truth should be
  declared to humanity.

11
Wesleys Approach to Biblical Interpretation

• Plain Truth for Plain People
• Free from all nice and philosophical
  speculations from all perplexed and intricate
  reasonings although such rational and
  philosophical investigations may have served the
  interpretative process well.

12
Wesleys Approach to Biblical Interpretation

• Knowledge of the Ante-Nicene Fathers
• Knowledge of the Prayer Book
• Knowledge of historic Creeds
• Declarations of the Ecumenical Councils
• Tradition used as a legitimate form of historical
  exegesis of text

13
Wesleys Approach to Biblical Interpretation

• Reason also used to check private exegesis It
  is a fundamental principle with us (the
  Methodists) that to renounce reason is to
  renounce religion, and that religion and reason
  go hand in hand, and that all irrational religion
  is false religiongt
• Letters, V 364.

14
Wesleys Approach to Biblical Interpretation

• Yet Reason had nothing to say concerning the
  existence of God, since reason possesses no
  pre-established principles of Natural Theology.
• On such matters, Revelation stood as sole
  authority.
• Reason can never reveal the Unknown God only
  Revelation can accomplish this task, according to
  Wesley.

15
Wesleys Approach to Biblical Interpretation

• For Wesley, reason assists humans in giving order
  to the evidence of Revelation. In turn,
  tradition provides the necessary historical
  boundaries for Biblical interpretation so as to
  avoid heresy.

16
Wesleys Approach to Biblical Interpretation

• The individuals experience of the Holy Spirit
  also a means of interpreting Scripture, but must
  be held within Tradition (since the Holy Spirit
  has dwelt with the Church throughout the ages)
• The individual's experience of the Holy Spirit
  must also be related to the Churchs historical
  witness to Christ

17
Wesleys Approach to Biblical Interpretation

• The appeal to individual experience is ever
  checked and balanced by the appeal to collective
  experience.
• Workman, H. B. (1921) from The Place of
  Methodism in the Catholic Church, p. 306.

18
The Order of Salvation

• Repentance (the porch of Religion)
• Faith (the door of Religion)
• Holiness (Religion itself)
• Salvationis not what is frequently understood
  by that word, the going to heaven, eternal
  happiness. It is not the souls going to
  paradise

19
The Order of Salvation

• Salvation. . . might be extended to the entire
  work of God within the universe.
• Sermon, I, p. 41
• Hence, the individual can be in only most
  infinitesimal possession of salvation

20
Prevenient Grace On the Porch of Religion

• Prevenient Grace was considered by Wesley the
  first dawning of God within the live of the
  human.
• Humankind cannot move themselves toward God
• Humankind still responsible before God for their
  own salvation
• Humankind cannot manufacture its own salvation
  (Pelagianism)

21
Prevenient Grace On the Porch of Religion

• Because of Original Sin, humankind is dead to
  God
• Prevenient Grace provides humankind the minimal
  power necessary to turn toward God while still
  within Original Sin.
• This power only allows humankind to accept or
  refuse an initial relationship with God.

22
Prevenient Grace On the Porch of Religion

• While other gifts of grace necessary to move the
  individual toward Justification, this initial
  gift provides the minimal power for the initial
  turning
• Prevenient Grace often misidentified as
  conscience, or so claimed Wesley.

23
Prevenient Grace On the Porch of Religion

• Prevenient Grace does not remove Original Sin
  from humankind. This sin Wesley consider
  absolute in naturethere is no cure for
  Original Sin while one remains human.
• Prevenient Grace does, however, assist in the
  alleviation of relative sin (ones own distance
  from a relationship with God).

24
Original Sin

• Humankind stands totally depraved before God
• While humans may be capable of great deeds and
  acts of courage, in the presence of God they
  stand utterly helpless.
• Adam designed with Original Righteousness that
  is, Adam was made for personal relationship with
  God

25
Original Sin

• In the act of the Fall, Adam loses Original
  Righteousness and thus distorts the nature of
  human existence.
• In other words, Adam loses moral image
• In its place, humankind places self-government
  and other human limitations on power

26
Original Sin

• Yet, no matter how worthy such human endeavors
  appear, they can be no substitution for a
  relationship with the Divine One
• For this reason, even moral acts performed by a
  sinner (human) is to be considered sinful.
• Humankind confuses moral action with salvation,
  thus moving further away from God.

27
Original Sin

• All human suffer from this basic condition
• Yet humans natural ability to seek God not lost,
  only twisted and misdirected.
• Ultimately, humanity can do nothing to change
  this situation and become worthy of standingonce
  againbefore God.
• Humankind stands condemned before God.

28
Original Sin

• It should be stated that Wesley understood that
  those persons who did not accept the gift of
  Gods grace would not understand themselves as
  totally corrupted and damned.
• On these basis points, Wesley was of the same
  mind as the other Protestant Reformers.

29
Original Sin

• Yet Wesley differed greatly with the Calvinists
  on the notion of Predestination.
• From a Calvinist standpoint, if humankindbecause
  of free willcould willingly choose salvation,
  then human kind could not, by definition, be
  totally depraved (as demanded by Original Sin)

30
Predestination

• For Jesus Christs sake Mr. Wesley, consider
  how you dishonour God by denying election. You
  plainly make mans sic salvation depend not on
  Gods free grace but on mans free will.
• Letter from George Whitefield to John Wesley

31
Predestination

• Calvin understood that God knew from the onset
  of creation all persons who would be born into
  the world (hence a predestination to life).
• Further, because of the sovereignty of God,
  Calvin assumed Absolute Divine Will as an
  essential attribute.

32
Predestination

• Therefore, God knew from the beginning of time
  those persons who would accept the gift of grace
  (because they could not resist it, given the
  preordained order of the world)
• Due to the depravity of human kind, humans (like
  Wesley) confuse Free Will with Divine Will (so
  say the Calvinists)

33
Predestination

• Yet Wesley rejected Predestination because of his
  understanding of Prevenient Grace.
• From Wesleys perspective, all humans can either
  submit to Gods initial gift of grace or deny it.
• Wesley contended that it was Gods desire to
  bestow grace on the wretched.

34
Back to Original Sin

• So what is unique about Wesley?
• Rejection of Predestination
• Link of Prevenient Grace to Original Sin
• Notion of God as source of unlimited love and
  unlimited justice
• Humans live as First Adam until the Second
  Adam (Christ) delivers us from our fallen state.

35
Three Situations of Humanity

• Natural Man
• Man Under the Law
• Man Under Grace
• As recorded in Wesleys The Spirit of Bondage
  and Adoption (1739)

36
Situation of Natural Man

• Natural man exists in a state of sleep, totally
  ignorant of God
• Natural man stands on the edge of the pit that
  is, damnation
• Natural man may find comfort in his own wisdom
  and goodness but is deceived by pride
• Goodness and wisdom never replaces a relationship
  with the Divine

37
Situation of Natural Man

• Through Prevenient Grace (conscience) Natural Man
  can be brought under the Law of God as reveal by
  Scripture and the Holy Spirit
• For this reason, Wesley believed in preaching
  only the Law to the sinners and saving the Gospel
  for those who have experienced grace.

38
Situation of Natural Man

• Repentance becomes the porch of the House of
  Religion
• Repentance occurs when the sinner accepts the
  gift of Prevenient grace and remains receptive to
  addition grace from God through the mediating
  presence of the Holy Spirit (that divine nature
  of Christ that remains active in the world)

39
Situation of Natural Man

• To repent, one must accept themselves as a sinner
  who possesses no ability to save themselves from
  damnation.
• Such acceptance may bring the fruits of
  repentance (changed behaviors and perception)
• For Wesley, the fruits of repentance must emerge
  before faith.

40
Situation of Natural Man

• Again, please note that Wesley places total
  emphasis on Prevenient Grace (and not the
  preaching of the Gospel) to bring the sinner into
  the state of repentance.
• Believed that Natural Man at the point of
  repentance must be judged on the basis of his
  inward response to Gods gift of grace and not by
  any good works.

41
Moving Toward Justification

• Justification can be defined as being relieved of
  the guilt (but not the condition) of Original Sin
  through allowing Christ to work within ones life.
• Justification cannot be earned it stands as
  Divine Forgiveness of the guilt of Original Sin
  and the personal awareness of how far short one
  stands from the righteousness of Christ.

42
Moving Toward Justification

• For Wesley, repentance considered a species of
  faith that emerges before faith itself
• One who is repents
• Consciously accepts Christ
• Possesses a sense of forgiveness
• Actions of leaving off from evil, doing good,
  and forgiving one another

43
Moving Toward Justification

• But a theological problem emerges It appears
  that Wesley advocates a mix of Justification by
  Faith (by accepting unearned, unmerited Grace of
  God) and Justification by works (changed
  behaviors after repentance but prior to
  Justification)
• At this point Wesley differs greatly from the
  other Protestant reforms

44
Moving Toward Justification

• In an attempt to reconcile this tension, Wesley
  often described two types of faith that emerge in
  the life of the early Christian
• Repentance Faith
• Justifying Faith

45
Repentance Faith

• The faith of a servant
• Occurs before Justification
• Prevenient Grace provides motivation to begin to
  amend ones ways and to look for God
• Naturally some good works may result from such
  motivation
• These works differ from the good works of the
  sinner

46
Repentance Faith

• These works are only remotely necessary for
  justification since they serve as fruits of
  repentance
• Repentance faith (inward response plus fruits)
  stands as a humans free response to Gods
  initial gift of Prevenient Grace and a desire to
  receive additional grace.

47
Justifying Faith

• Faith of a child in a parent
• Repentance works does not gauge the readiness of
  a person to receive this type of faith
• Instead, God gauges ones readiness to enter a
  new level of intimacy and relationship by
  allowing Christ to work through them

48
Justifying Faith

• Wesley also maintained that one would need to be
  conscious of the fact that it was through faith
  (that is, the gift of grace from God) aloneand
  not the good works that occurs while engaged in
  repentance faiththat one was now ready to enter
  a deeper relationship with God through Christ.