John Wesley 's Sermons And The Theologies That He Holds

In John Wesley’s early years at Oxford he wrote the sermon “The Almost Christian,” that distinguish differences between the “almost Christian,” which he refers as the “high-minded hypocrite” in comparison to the “altogether Christian,” stating that he doubts there are many (The Almost Christian, p. 61). He implies being almost a Christian: 1) one must display simple heathen honesty; 2) have a form of godliness which is prescribed in the gospel of Christ, the “outside of a real Christian;” and 3) procure sincerity, the real inward principle of religion in which one’s actions come” (The Almost Christian, p. 62-64). Dissimilarly, for Wesley the “altogether Christian,” is one that strives for a faith that glorifies God by loving Him and their

Paul of Tarsus (originally Saul of Tarsus) is widely considered to be central to the early development and adoption of Christianity. Many Christians view him as an important interpreter of the teachings of Jesus. Little is known of the birth and early childhood of Paul, then known as Saul. It is known in the scriptures that he was born in the city of Tarsus (Acts 22:3) located in the Roman province of Cilicia around the year 5 A.D. Saul left his home during his early adolescence and was taken to Jerusalem for his formal education in the most prominent rabbinical schools of that day. Young Saul had the privilege to be trained by Gamaliel, the most outstanding

The story of the “The Enduring Chill” through the life of Asbury seems to describe the Biblical worldview of fall and redemption, which Albert M Wolters explains widely argument in his book “Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview.” Albert M Wolters is professor of religion at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario and has a phD in the Free University of Amsterdam . He says that, the fall impacted the creation as a parasite, making the earth “wordly” and consequently the entire world cries for a redemption of the coming of the kingdom of God (Wolters 67-68). This way, O´Connor illustrate this concept in her work through the redeeming of Asbury´s life, showing God´s grace by the actions of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, “The Enduring Chill” relates the story of humanity´s fall due sin and redemption by God´s grace through Asbury´s character, but it goes beyond it; it shows how God offers the salvation through His grace even in human

The Crucible of Life, by Timothy Crutcher, is a book that explains: the interrelationship of theological method and religious epistemology, the function of experience as an authority, the specific epistemological grounds, and the usefulness today of John Wesley’s theological method (17). The book begins by explaining an important distinction in Wesley’s usage of the word experience in comparison to our contemporary common use of the word. That is, Wesley uses the word experience to describe an outward, active process rather than a subjective and passive interpretation (23). Furthermore, it is noted that Wesley should not be assumed to be a Lockean philosopher due to his variety of philosophical roots (25).

I believe that human beings, who have the image of God, are the best creature in the world. Therefore, they can instinctually recognize the existence of God and have capacities to choose somethings and to create somethings creatively. For John Wesley, human beings are created by God in the image of God, which means that they have similar characteristics to God. Scott J. Jones insists, “we share God’s nature in that we are immortal spirits who have various divine capacities: understanding, freedom of the will, and affections.” In this view, in the beginning, the human beings have capacities not only to understand God in the communication between God and them, but also to choose and do anything which they want. However, at the Fall, their characteristics given by God became malfunctioned by Adam’s exploiting their free will not obey God, but disobey God, which generates the original sin. John Wesley explains about this in his sermon ‘The New Birth,’ “The natural consequence of this is that everyone descended from him

With the prevalent thought engine of Calvinism during this time, Jonathan Edwards delivers an important sermon to his congregation. He presents to his followers the “extraordinary opportunity” that they have in front of them at the present moment. He maintains a close relationship with Christianity and the Bible’s words throughout the speech to strengthen his ties with the belief system of the Puritans. This gives him the opportunity to use persuasive tactics to urge his audience towards following God to heaven. Jonathan Edwards utilizes strong Christian references, and dramatic diction to grab his listeners attention and make them realize the significance of his sermon as he sternly explains to his congregation God’s power and why people of God should be compassionate in their life.

Wesley believed that sanctification was a process that could be received as an instantaneous experience after conversion, or later on in life. No matter when sanctification was achieved, the moment someone received sanctification was the “climax” of their Christian life. He believed that the “second blessing purified the believer from his inward sin and enabled him to secure perfect love of God and of his fellowmen.” Followers of Wesley had trouble balancing the “crisis and process views” of Wesley, and the crisis view began to take “precedence over the process view.” Soon, sanctification was no longer viewed as the goal of a Christian life, but the beginning of a Christian life.

God’s grace is a word frequently used to refer to “gift from God”. In many circles, it is theological defined as God’s unmerited favor (Hughes, 1998, Ryrie, 1963). Within this

When Wesley talked about development in holiness, and the fundamental goal of being entire sanctification, he was fixed that sanctification and justification is by faith. In his preaching, “The Scripture Way of Salvation”, Wesley expounded the faith by which Christians are perfected is because God is able, he promised in Scripture, he is willing, and he really does it 1) God has foretold this in Scripture. 2) What God promises, God is able to do. 3) God is capable and willing to manage it right away. 4) God actually answers this. Wesley concluded the sermon by exhorting his audience “expect it by faith, expect it as you are, and expect it now!”

John Wesley wrote in his Sermon 16 that the means of grace are understood as “outward signs, words, or actions ordained by God… to be the ordinary channels whereby (God) might convey to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.” Means are what happen outside of oneself and the grace is what does the work inside of ourselves or another way to say this is to say the ways we receive and experience grace. When we speak of the sacraments we refer to them as outward signs of an inward and spiritual grace. The means of grace in the sacraments, means are the bread and cup of communion and the water of the baptism and the liturgy spoken. These act in an outward and physical way, but the real work is that of the invisible grace we receive.

When one talks about Protestant Scholastics to people stand out among others, Martin Luther and John Wesley. Martin Luther was the father of Protestantism and during his time set the ground work for what is known as Protestantism. According to Noll Martin Luther believed that the “conscience was captive to the Word of God, to the living, active voice of Scripture. Moreover, what he felt Scripture taught clearly were truths about human nature, the way of salvation and the Christian life—truths that he was certain had been badly obscured, even obliterated, by the very church officials who should have been their most faithful defenders.” Now when looking further at Protestantism one has to add the beliefs of John Wesley.

Especially, after seeing how effective it worked for the Moravian Brethren from Herrnhut who displayed great spiritual strength and piety among themselves. From their influence, Wesley saw a method for spiritual growth. According to Shelley (2013), “He needed now to find a method . . . He owed much to them, especially their message of justification by faith and their system of small groups for spiritual growth (p.

Saint Augustine is undoubtedly one, if not, the most important theologian in church history. His writings have greatly influenced Christian theology and understanding of God. Saint Augustine laid out some theological doctrine that has helped shaped Christian’s perceptions of sin, grace and salvation. Ironically, some of his theological postulation emerges from his controversies with different opposing camps on the aforementioned subjects. However, in this paper, the primary focus will be on his controversy with the Pelegians. The Pelagians taught that God’s given grace before the fall, combined with the willingness of man to choose good over evil, is enough to earn man salvation. The Pelagius position places emphasis on man’s ability to work out his own salvation,

Grace peregrinates from auricular discerning, to reading, to lecture, and praying. Venturing into these channels opens us up to be crafted by the Spirit. Enrolling in the means of grace, opposed to passively waiting on God, is a kind of unique investment. Moreover, accepting grace is not about standing by waiting on God. This elucidates why Wesley was an advocate of “all who desire an increase of the grace of God are to wait for it in partaking of the Lord’s Supper.”

The purpose of this thesis is to provide an understanding of the meaning of Soteriology and the relation to the Doctrine of Salvation and Grace (Free Grace). Soteriology is “the study of the doctrine of salvation.” Basically, the teaching of Soteriology is part of Systematic Theology.