Wesleyan theology
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles Wesley. More broadly it refers to the theological system inferred from the various sermons, theological treatises, letters, journals, diaries, hymns, and other spiritual writings of the Wesleys and their contemporary coadjutors such as John William Fletcher, Methodism's systematic theologian.
In 1736, the Wesley brothers traveled to the Georgia colony in America as Christian missionaries, but they returned rather disheartened by what they encountered. Both of them subsequently had religious experiences afterward, particularly John in 1738, who was profoundly influenced by the Moravian Christians. They began to organize a renewal movement within the Church of England to focus on personal faith and holiness, putting emphasis on the importance of growth in grace after the New Birth. Unique to Wesleyan Methodism is its definition of sin: a "voluntary transgression of a known law of God." Methodist doctrine teaches that the life of a Christian subsequent to the New Birth should be characterized by holiness, living victoriously over sin. Calling it "the grand depositum" of the Methodist faith, John Wesley taught that the propagation of the doctrine of entire sanctification—the work of grace that enables Christians to be made perfect in love and be made free from the carnal nature—was the reason that God raised up the Methodists in the world.
Wesleyan–Arminian theology, manifest today in Methodism, is named after its founders, John Wesley in particular, as well as for Jacobus Arminius, since it is a subset of Arminian theology. The Wesleys were clergymen in the Church of England, though the Wesleyan tradition places stronger emphasis on extemporaneous preaching, evangelism, as well as personal faith and personal experience, especially on the new birth, assurance, growth in grace, entire sanctification and outward holiness. In his Sunday Service John Wesley included the Articles of Religion, which were based on the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, though stripped of their more peculiarly Calvinistic theological leanings. Wesleyan theology asserts the primary authority of Scripture and affirms the Christological orthodoxy of the first five centuries of church history.
Background
Wesleyan–Arminianism developed as an attempt to explain Christianity in a manner unlike the teachings of Calvinism. Arminianism is a theological study conducted by Jacobus Arminius, from the Netherlands, in opposition to Calvinist orthodoxy on the basis of free will. In 1610, after the death of Arminius his followers, the Remonstrants led by Simon Episcopius, presented a document to the Netherlands. This document is known today as the Five Articles of Remonstrance. Wesleyan theology, on the other hand, was founded upon the teachings of John Wesley, an English evangelist, and the beliefs of this dogma are derived from his many publications, including his collected sermons, journal, abridgements of theological, devotional, and historical Christian works, and a variety of tracts and treatises on theological subjects. Subsequently, the two theories have joined into one set of values for the contemporary church; yet, when examined separately, their unique details can be discovered, as well as their similarities in ideals.In the early 1770s, John Wesley, aided by the theological writings of John William Fletcher, emphasized Arminian doctrines in his controversy with the Calvinistic wing of the evangelicals in England. Then, in 1778, he founded a theological journal which he titled the Arminian Magazine. This period, during the Calvinist–Arminian debate, was influential in forming a lasting link between Arminian and Wesleyan theology.
Wesley's opposition to Calvinism was more successful than Arminius's, especially in the United States where Arminianism would become the dominant school of soteriology of Evangelical Protestantism, largely because it was spread through popular preaching in a series of Great Awakenings. Arminius's work was not a direct influence on Wesley. Yet, he chose the term "Arminianism" to distinguish the kind of Evangelicalism his followers were to espouse from that of their Calvinist theological opponents. Many have considered the most accurate term for Wesleyan theology to be "Evangelical Arminianism".
Wesley is remembered for visiting the Moravians of both Georgia and Germany and examining their beliefs, then founding the Methodist movement, which gave rise to a variety of Methodist denominations. Wesley's desire was not to form a new sect, but rather to reform the nation and "spread scriptural holiness" as truth. However, the creation of Wesleyan–Arminianism has today developed into a popular standard for many contemporary churches.
Methodism also navigated its own theological intricacies concerning salvation and human agency. In the 1830s, during the Second Great Awakening, critics accused the Holiness Movement of Pelagian teaching. Consequently, detractors of Wesleyan theology have occasionally unfairly perceived or labeled its broader thought. However, its core is recognized to be Arminianism.
Its primary legacy remains within the various Methodist denominations and the Holiness movement spearheaded by Phoebe Palmer of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and involved leaders such as Benjamin Titus Roberts and Phineas F. Bresee, among others. A modified form of Wesleyan theology became the basis for other distinct denominations as well, e.g. the Holiness Pentecostal movement launched by William J. Seymour and Charles Parham, represented by denominations such as the Apostolic Faith Church and International Pentecostal Holiness Church.
Wesleyan distinctives
Definition of sin
Methodist theology teaches:Firstly, it categorizes sin as being original sin and actual sin:
Methodists have a distinct understanding of the nature of actual sin, which is divided into the categories of "sin, properly so called" and "Sin, improperly so called"; the former category includes voluntary transgression against God, while the second category includes infirmities. As explained by John Wesley, "Nothing is sin, strictly speaking, but a voluntary transgression of a known law of God. Therefore, every voluntary breach of the law of love is sin; and nothing else, if we speak properly. To strain the matter farther is only to make way for Calvinism." With this narrower understanding of sin, John Wesley believed that it was not only possible but necessary to live without committing sin. Wesley explains this in his comments on "Whosoever abideth in communion with him—By loving faith, sinneth not—While he so abideth. Whosoever sinneth certainly seeth him not—The loving eye of his soul is not then fixed upon God; neither doth he then experimentally know him—Whatever he did in time past." Methodist doctrine holds that the Christian life, subsequent to the New Birth, should be characterized by holy living, free from sin; through the second work of grace—entire sanctification, Christians are able to be made perfect in love and are freed from the sin nature of humanity, i.e. original sin.
Salvation
Atonement
Wesleyan–Arminian theology falls squarely in the tradition of substitutionary atonement, though it is linked with Christus Victor and moral influence theories. John Wesley, reflecting on, connects penal substitution with victory over Satan in his Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament: "the voluntary passion of our Lord appeased the Father's wrath, obtained pardon and acceptance for us, and consequently, dissolved the dominion and power which Satan had over us through our sins." In elucidating, John Wesley says that Christ manifesting himself in the hearts of humans destroys the work of Satan, thus making Christus Victor imagery "one part of the framework of substitutionary atonement." The Methodist divine Charles Wesley's hymns "Sinners, Turn, Why Will You Die" and "And Can It be That I Should Gain" concurrently demonstrate that Christ's sacrifice is the example of supreme love, while also convicting the Christian believer of his/her sins, thus using the moral influence theory within the structure of penal substitution in accordance with the Augustinian theology of illumination. Wesleyan theology also emphasizes a participatory nature in atonement, in which the Methodist believer spiritually dies with Christ and Christ dies for humanity; this is reflected in the words of the following Methodist hymn :The Christian believer mystically draws themselves into the scene of the crucifixion in order to experience the power of salvation that it possesses. In the Lord's Supper, the Methodist especially experiences the participatory nature of substitutionary atonement as "the sacrament sets before our eyes Christ's death and suffering whereby we are transported into an experience of the crucifixion."
With regard to the fate of the unlearned, Willard Francis Mallalieu, a Methodist bishop, wrote in Some Things That Methodism Stands For:
Justification and sanctification
In Methodism, the way of salvation includes conviction, repentance, restitution, faith, justification, regeneration and adoption, which is followed by sanctification and witness of the Spirit. Being convicted of sin and the need for a saviour, as well as repenting of sin and making restitution, is "essential preparation for saving faith". Wesleyan theology teaches that the new birth contains two phases that occur together, justification and regeneration:At the moment a person experiences the New Birth, he/she is "adopted into the family of God". The Wesleyan tradition seeks to establish justification by faith as the gateway to sanctification or "scriptural holiness". Wesleyans teach that God provides grace that enables any person to freely choose to place faith in Christ or reject his salvation. If the person accepts it, then God justifies them and continues to give further grace to spiritually heal and sanctify them. In Wesleyan theology, justification specifically refers to "pardon, the forgiveness of sins", rather than "being made actually just and righteous", which Wesleyans believe is accomplished through sanctification, that is, the pursuit of holiness in salvation. John Wesley taught that the keeping of the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, as well as engaging in the works of piety and the works of mercy, were "indispensable for our sanctification". As such, Wesleyan Methodist views on salvation have been characterized as upholding Lordship salvation.
Wesley insisted that not only is righteousness imputed, but on imparted righteousness, that "we ourselves are actually made righteous by God's grace." He taught that a believer could progress in love until love became devoid of self-interest at the moment of entire sanctification. Wesleyan theology teaches that there are two distinct phases in the Christian experience. In the first work of grace a person repents of his/her sin that he/she confesses to God, places his/her faith in Jesus, receives forgiveness and becomes a Christian; during the second work of grace, entire sanctification, the believer is purified and made holy.
Wesleyan Methodism, inclusive of the holiness movement, thus teaches that restitution occurs subsequent to repentance. Additionally, "justification conditional on obedience and progress in sanctification" emphasizing "a deep reliance upon Christ not only in coming to faith, but in remaining in the faith." Bishop Scott J. Jones states that "United Methodist doctrine thus understands true, saving faith to be the kind that, give time and opportunity, will result in good works. Any supposed faith that does not in fact lead to such behaviors is not genuine, saving faith." For Methodists, "true faith...cannot subsist without works". Methodist evangelist Phoebe Palmer stated that "justification would have ended with me had I refused to be holy." While "faith is essential for a meaningful relationship with God, our relationship with God also takes shape through our care for people, the community, and creation itself."