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Section 2: Theological Development

To address the theological development of Methodism, it is necessary to give a brief survey of significant theological points of John Wesley, the United Methodist Church, the Documents that Compose the Doctrine of Methodism, and to conclude with the impact this theological development has made on the church.

John Wesley

Wesley was ordained as a priest in 1728 of the Anglican Church. The Anglican church theology was a combination of reformed theology and catholicism (GotQuestions). Wesley sought spiritual peace, which he acquired after hearing the reading of Luther’s Preface to Romans.

Wesley had an experience while hearing Luther’s Preface to Romans in 1738. He says that his heart felt “strangely warm” and that he felt that he did trust Christ as his Savior. His brother, Charles Wesley, also had an experience similar to this one. This “second experience-esque” concept will be carried along into Keswick Theology (also known as “Higher Life Theology”).

Wesley had more of an Arminian theology. Wesley worked with George Whitefield, but then separated from him because of Whitefield’s belief in Calvinism (Britannica & ChristianHistoryInstitute). Because of his Arminian leanings, it’s no surprise that he rejected the doctrine of unconditional election, adopted the Arminian view of man’s freedom of the will, and held to prevenient grace. In fact, today Wesleyan theology is known for its Arminian stance. This isn’t necessarily due to his Arminian leanings, but he held to Christian Perfectionism which is the belief that one can cease to sin on this side of Heaven.

United Methodist Church

I’m only going to highlight a couple of things in the United Methodist Theology because the United Methodist theology proper (according to their website) holds pretty closely to what Wesley held to. First, They believe that one can “depart from grace” and fall into sin (Arminian). I thought that this was interesting because in their Confession of Faith, they don’t articulate what this is. On the surface reading, it seems to imply (which would bring it inline with Arminian theology) that can lose their salvation.

Second, They believe that a believer can have “perfect love” and “true holiness” (Wesleyan theology of Christian Perfectionism). This isn’t different from the Wesleyan theology of Christian Perfectionism. I put this here to show that their official confession of faith holds the same beliefs of Wesley, which sets them apart from other belief systems. Next, I’m going to highlight the main documents that compose the teaching of Methodist theology. The reason for it being a separate section is that they too have “official” documents that they use to interpret Scripture through a certain lens.

The Main Documents that Compose the Teaching of the Methodist

The first of these documents that I would like to mention is the Book of Discipline 2016. According to their website, this is the document that they use to articulate their confession of faith.

Next, there are the General Rules of 1743 by John Wesley. According to one article, this document, the Twenty-Five Articles of Religion in 1784, and the Evangelical United Brethren Confession of Faith in 1962 (more on these later) make up the teaching in the Book of Discipline. The General Rules is a document that is what it sounds like: general rules.

Next, the Twenty-Five Articles of Religion, which were established in what is known as the Christmas Conference of 1784. Originally, Wesley wrote these articles as an adaptation and abridgement to the Anglican Articles of Religion.

Then, there is the Evangelical United Brethren Confession of Faith (1963). This is the “Confession of Faith” that you would see on their website. These articles are taken from their Book of Discipline, but these articles existed before they composed their Book of Discipline.

Finally, there are John Wesley’s Sermons and Notes. This isn’t so much as an official document, as much as it’s a collection of Welsey’s sermons and notes, that influenced the thinking of those who collaborated and established some of these other documents.

As you can see, John Wesley had a huge impact on the Methodist movement, and then eventually the methodist church when it came to their religious position. I want us to look at the impact that these theological positions have made on the church as a whole today.

First, I want to highlight Wesleyan Prevenient Grace. There is division in the baptist circle over calvinism and arminianism, and I don’t want to steal Eli’s thunder because he will discuss this in a bit, but the Methodists are primarily Arminian in their theology proper, and this is due to John Wesley’s position on the matter.

Second, the theology of Wesley has led to Keswick Theology, or “Higher Life” theology and many of us studied this in ST2.

Third, they are unclear in their position of homosexuality. This is probably the most controversial issue plaguing the methodist church today. This has led to homosexuals being accepted as members in their churches and homosexuals being ordained as ministers. The “official” position of the UMC doesn’t “approve” of homoesexual behavior, but they don’t outright say it is sinful. This allowance of homosexuality and the ordination of those who practice it has caused this recent split of the Global Methodist Church from the UMC. If the churches aren’t joining the GMC, they are going nondenominational. One report has 1800 churches that were once part of the UMC just leaving the affiliation. Another report says that one-fifth of U.S. churches have left. This is the hot button issue on the UMC right now.

Fourth, they ordain women for ministry. According to the UMC website, women were given full clerical rights in 1956. This is a big deal in churches today, especially of what we are seeing in the SBC.

Fifth, they baptize infants. When a family comes to faith and gets baptized, they baptize the baby as well. They do believe that this is a “receiving them into God’s mighty acts of salvation.”

Sixth, they have a three-fold Church Polity. I don’t have a lot of time to explain how this works, but if you go to the UMC website and look up their polity, it takes you to a YouTube video that explains it all. In short, here are the three branches:

General Conference (establishes rules)

Judicial Council (enforces rules)

Council of Bishops (provides spiritual guidance, support, and counsel to members)

Finally, the use Liturgy in Association with a Hymnal for Corporate Worship. I saw the theme of the use of hymns all throughout. Again, Eli will touch on this more, but the using of liturgy is a positive that I think more churches could benefit from utilizing in their congregations.