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| ISBN-13: | 9781501804229 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Abingdon Press |
| Publication date: | 02/02/2016 |
| Pages: | 176 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d) |
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Top 10 United Methodist Beliefs
By Don Adams
Abingdon Press
Copyright © 2016 Abingdon PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5018-0422-9
CHAPTER 1
Belief # 1
Scripture Is Our Primary Source
Who or what do you obey? What will guide the way you live today?
It's a huge question. For the Wesleys the answer, while not simple, was clear. The Bible was their guide. The Methodists were eventually called "Bible bigots." As a student at Oxford, Charles Wesley discovered, as had John three years earlier, that "a man stands a very fair chance of being laughed out of his religion at his first setting out." That did not deter their commitment to the authority of scripture. The question with which the Bible presented them as they understood it was not, "How can I believe this?" The question was, "What is God saying and how can I obey it?" As we shall see, their faith in the Bible was not wooden and rigid in a fundamentalist sense. Neither was it subject to their whims or the correctness of the day. They earnestly sought to trust and obey God's Word, and while that made them fruitful, it also brought derision and rejection as well as controversy.
Just saying, "I believe in the Bible" does not end the battle as to the nature of its authority. As always, we see in Wesley's example a willingness to move beyond a simplistic "God said it; I believe it; that's good enough for me" response to scripture. But to do that opens the door to broad possibilities of interpretation. Wesley accepted this as the price for honest faith. It is not a matter for the faint of heart.
Church of England theologians (Bishop Joseph Butler chief among them), in the face of intellectual challenges from persons such as John Locke and Sir Isaac Newton, defended biblical authority. So did John Wesley. The scriptures were, for Wesley, "the fountain of heavenly wisdom, which they who are able to taste prefer to all writings of men, however wise or learned or holy." His view of the supremacy of scripture would never waver throughout his long journey. While this was of utmost importance to Wesley, he instinctively understood that orthodoxy is no guarantee of spiritual vitality. His desire was to unleash what he firmly believed to be God's Word and allow it maximum freedom to move beyond the letter to the transformative spirit of truth. For Wesley this was not an academic exercise. It was, as it remains today, a battle for abundant life.
Wesley characteristically affirms the uniqueness and authority of scripture in the Preface to Sermons on Several Occasions: "I want to know one thing, the way to heaven — how to land safe on that happy shore. ... He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the book of God! I have it. Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri (a man of one book)."
In the same way that he embraced the derisive identification "Methodist" as a badge of honor, Wesley gladly endured the sneering epithets "Bible bigot" and "Bible moth." He wrote in A Short History of Methodism (1765) that in February 1738, the fledgling Methodists "resolved to be Bible-Christians at all events; and, what ever they were, to preach with all their might plain, old, Bible Christianity." A year later he wrote in a letter to Oxford friend James Hervey, "I allow no other rule, whether of faith or practice, than the holy Scriptures." Fifty years later he would write in other correspondence, "be not wise above what is written. Enjoin nothing that the Bible does not clearly enjoin. Forbid nothing that it clearly does not forbid." The normative authority of the Bible in Wesley's theological method is beyond debate.
The Bible: Its Best Defense Is to Turn It Loose
British Reformed Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon, in the century following Wesley, famously said that scripture is like a lion, it does not need defense. Rather it needs to be turned loose. Wesley, who did not apply his best powers of logic to defending the Bible, would have liked that image. Nonetheless, he dutifully penned a brief tract entitled "A Clear and Concise Demonstration of the Divine Inspiration of Holy Scripture." At best, his defense of scripture falls under the general principle that New Testament scholar Joel Green observed regarding such efforts: "Arguments in favor of the special status of the Scriptures tend to be convincing only to those who are already inclined to grant them this status." Wesley was far more burdened to turn scripture loose than to academically defend it, believing it would prove itself to others as it had to him.
In the preface to Wesley's Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, we find this expanded affirmation of faith in scripture:
Concerning the Scriptures in general, it may be observed, the word of the living God, which directed the first patriarchs also, was, in the time of Moses, committed to writing. To this were added, in several succeeding generations, the inspired writings of the other prophets. Afterwards, what the Son of God preached, and the Holy Ghost spake by the apostles, the apostles and evangelists wrote. This is what we now style the Holy Scripture: this is that "word of God which remaineth for ever"; of which, though "heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle shall not pass away." The Scripture, therefore, of the Old and New Testament is a most solid and precious system of divine truth. Every part thereof is worthy of God; and all together are one entire body, wherein is no defect, no excess.
Wesley's commentary in his Notes on 2 Timothy 3:16 declares:
All scripture is inspired by God – The Spirit of God not only inspired those who wrote it, but continually inspires, supernaturally assists, those that read it with earnest prayer. Hence it is so profitable for doctrine, for instruction of the ignorant, for the reproof or conviction of them that are in error or sin, for the correction or amendment of whatever is amiss, and for instructing or training up children of God in all righteousness.
Wesley's unrestrained dedication to the uniqueness and supremacy of the Bible was directly tied to his unshakable focus on leading others to justification (pardon), sanctification (growing love of God and neighbor/the mind of Christ), and glorification (ultimately the way to heaven). Apart from the Bible, is evangelism and making disciples possible? Wesley knew that it was not.
Wesley: A Man of One Totally Unique Book
Imagine a compulsively rational person, a lover of logic whose mother said he would not "attend to the necessities of nature" (go to the bathroom) without a reason; now picture this man crying out from the depths of his soul, "O Give me that book! At any price give me that book! I have it. Here is enough knowledge for me."
Wesley was a man of letters, an Oxford don, a translator and publisher of poetry, a man who wrote hundreds of books, a spiritual director of thousands who created a Christian library for their edification, who edited Pilgrim's Progress for the masses, whose literary production of letters, sermons, and responses to theological controversies now comprise multiplied numbers of volumes — this person repeatedly declares, "Let me be a man of one book." Wesley embraced the declaration that "all scripture is inspired by God" and thus reflects an unrivaled divine authority. The written word then plays a categorically unique role in the birthing and formation of Christian disciples. As the decades of the revival went by, he witnessed the power of the written word to facilitate living engagement with the living Word, the risen Jesus.
A startling example of the power of the Bible to provide such compelling, divine testimony can be witnessed in the life of Princeton Seminary professor of philosophy Emile Cailliet. Cailliet was born and intellectually bred to embrace a purely naturalistic view of life. In his theological autobiography, Journey Into Light, he remembers an upbringing lacking even "a hint that God may intervene to guide anyone or ordain anything to some providential end He had in view."
In the muddy and bloody trenches of World War I, not as an academic exercise but as a brutally urgent preoccupation, Cailliet questioned the meaning of life based on presuppositions that categorically rejected supernatural intrusion into human experience. The words of Scottish poet James Thomson framed the essential pessimism of his naturalistic outlook:
every struggle brings defeat
Because Fate holds no prize to crown success;
That all the oracles are dumb to cheat
Because they have no secret to express,
That none can pierce the vast black veil uncertain
Because there is no light beyond the curtain;
That all is vanity and nothingness. (Stanza xxi)
One night Cailliet was hit by a bullet and would spend the next nine months recovering in an American hospital. During his recovery, he married a Scotch-Irish girl he had met prior to the war. Her upbringing could hardly have differed more from his. As a child, her parents had seen to it that she attended both the low Church of England and Presbyterian Sunday Schools. However, Calliet made it clear to her that religion would be taboo in their home.
When he later resumed his academic studies, Cailliet experienced a new longing for substance. He wrote, "During long night watches in the foxholes I had in a strange way been longing — I must say it, however queer it may sound — for a book that would understand me. But I knew of no such book." So, fertile thinker that Cailliet was, he secretly began an effort to create such a book. Reading for various academic courses, he would file away passages that spoke "to his condition." A leather-bound book in which such carefully noted insights were filed was his constant companion.
The day finally arrived when it seemed "the book that would understand me" was complete. Sitting beneath a shade tree, he commenced contemplation of the anthology. To his great disappointment, no epiphany emerged. The various passages only reminded him of their origins and his efforts in collecting them. "Then I knew," he concluded, "that the whole undertaking would not work, simply because it was of my own making. It carried no strength of persuasion."
At that very moment his wife, who knew nothing of this project, appeared at the gate of their garden. Anticipating a negative, if not hostile reaction, she nonetheless related the events of her afternoon. In the sunny heat she had taken their baby for a stroll in the baby carriage. The main boulevard was very crowded, so she took a bumpy cobblestone side street, eventually stopping on a grassy spot to rest.
The patch of grass led to a stone staircase that she navigated with the baby carriage, almost without thinking. At the top was an open door through which could be seen a long room. Curious, she entered. At the far end of the room was a white-haired man. Seeing a carving of a cross it dawned on her that this was a Huguenot church. Built in the day when persecution was an ever-present threat, it was off the beaten path.
Tentatively approaching the venerable-looking man, she learned that he was a pastor. Without forethought she spontaneously asked, "Have you a Bible in French?" Smiling, he handed her a copy, which she eagerly took with a mixture of joy and guilt. Now, standing before her unbelieving husband, she hesitated to try and give an account of how it all seemed to happen without logical explanation. But Calliet was no longer listening to her story.
"A Bible, you say? Where is it? Show me. I have never seen one before!"
He literally grabbed the book out of her hand and rushed to his study. The Bible opened "by chance" to the Beatitudes. He read and read and read, feeling an indescribable warmth within. Awe and wonder filled his mind. "And suddenly the realization dawned upon me: This was the Book that would understand me!" He continued reading into the night, mostly from the Gospels. "And lo and behold, as I looked through them, the One of whom they spoke, the One who spoke and acted in them, became alive to me."
A decisive insight flashed through my whole being the following morning as I probed the opening chapters of the gospel according to John. The very clue to the secret of human life was disclosed right there, not stated in the foreboding language of philosophy, but in the common, everyday language of human circumstances. And far from moving on their own accord, these circumstances seemed to yield themselves without striving obedient unto One who inexorably stood out from the gospel narrative — indeed a Person of far more than human nature and stature.
Would it not be appropriate to imagine this person of letters declaring, "Let me be a man of one book!" One book is in a class of its own, "the oracles of God" Wesley would call it, harkening back to 1 Peter 4.
Scripture: Normative but Not Alone
If you are a person who values insights from cultures both present and past, you will appreciate that John Wesley was also a man of many other books, a man who "plundered the Egyptians." This term was first used by Origen, one of the most influential writers in the early centuries of the Christian movement. The idea comes from Exodus 12:18-36 where the Israelites, as they departed from Egypt, took along with them "gifts" from their former masters. Albert Outler in Theology in the Wesleyan Spirit explains the term: Plundering the Egyptians "is a metaphor pointing to the freedom that Christians have (by divine allowance) to explore, appraise, and appropriate all the insights and resources of any and all secular culture." St. Augustine would later borrow this metaphor to justify his own reappraisal of classical culture. Wesley likewise plundered the Egyptians.
To the great majority of those hearing Wesley preach, his liberal arts education was a kind of intellectual karate, bolstering but not dominating. He was serious about plain truth for plain people. Early Wesley historian John Telford records a story Wesley told concerning a fledgling attempt at preaching, which left the congregation open-mouthed. A second attempt left their mouths half open. He then read the sermon to an intelligent servant named Betty. Every time she said, "Stop," he would make a revision until it was understandable to her. While comfortable with a larger intellectual world, Wesley was not a slave to the pride of knowledge that so easily puffs up (1 Cor 8:1). His broad education was made to serve the kingdom of God rather than his ego.
Behind the preaching of this folk theologian was a staggering capacity to entertain a wide range of intellectual and cultural interests. His record of materials read includes more than fourteen hundred different authors. Though generally written for mass consumption, his sermons were sprinkled with quotations from men of letters such as Horace (who coined the term carpe diem), Virgil, Ovid, and Cicero. Five paragraphs after defining himself as a man of one book, Wesley quotes from Homer's Iliad in the Greek language. Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine were familiar sources. He quoted freely from Shakespeare and Milton. Dr. Samuel Johnson, a towering figure in British literary history, was a friend, though Wesley's refusal to sit and converse for extended periods of conversation was known to aggravate Johnson greatly.
In addition to literature, Wesley read all of the "modern science" at his disposal, being conversant, for example, in the work of Isaac Newton. And while he generally denounced the theater of his day, his writings reveal what Outler termed an "extensive acquaintance" with English drama. An avid student of languages, Wesley wrote grammars in seven of the eight languages he knew: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian. He compiled a Christian Library of fifty volumes of material he abridged for Wesleyan purposes. Other "compendia" included A Survey of the Wisdom of God in Creation, History of England, and Ecclesiastical History. The Arminian Magazine appeared in 1778 as a tool to combat similar publications that promoted Calvinism; it also served as a kind of religious Reader's Digest. Wesley's Journal reflected a life that British historian Henry Rack, not a Wesley apologist, affirmed as a "superior" mirror of the eighteenth century owing to the fact that "Wesley had the advantage of moving easily and without affectation between the very different worlds of the mob, the respectable artisan and tradesman, and the educated middling classes."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Top 10 United Methodist Beliefs by Don Adams. Copyright © 2016 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword ix
Introduction: Before You Begin: Put On the Wesley Lenses xi
Belief #1 Scripture Is Our Primary Source 1
Belief #2 Reason, Tradition, and Experience Help Us Understand Scripture 13
Belief #3 Grace Is the Necessary Glue of All Discipleship 27
Belief #4 Prevenient Grace: God Takes the Initiative 41
Belief #5 Repentance: Grace Awakens Us 55
Belief #6 Justification: Humble Faith Receives Pardon 69
Belief #7 Initial Sanctification: We Find Our Identity in Gods Family 81
Belief #8 Holy Love: Discipleship Combines Heart and Life 95
Belief #9 We Are Better Together: Christianity Is a Social Faith 109
Belief #10 Entire Sanctification: Harmonizing Holy Intentions with Real Life 121
Notes 137
Selected Bibliography 149
Index of Names 157
Index of Subjects 161