On the seventeenth of June 1703, John Wesley was born in Epworth rectory, England, the fifteenth of nineteen children of Charles and Suzanna Wesley. The father of Wesley was a preacher, and Wesley’s mother was a remarkable woman in wisdom and intelligence. She was a woman of deep piety and brought her little ones into close contact with the Bible stories, telling them from the tiles about the nursery fireplace. She also used to dress the children in their best on the days when they were to have the privilege of learning their alphabet as an introduction to the reading of the Holy Scriptures.

Young Wesley was a happy and manly youth, fond of games and particularly of dancing. At Oxford, he was a leader, and during the latter part of his course there, was one of the founders of the “Holy Club,” an organization of serious-minded students. His religious nature deepened through study and experience, but it was not until several years after he left the university and came under the influence of Luther’s writings that he felt that he had entered into the full riches of the Gospel.

He and his brother Charles were sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to Georgia, where they developed their powers as preachers.

Upon their passage, they fell into the company of several Moravian brethren, members of the association recently renewed by the labors of Count Zinzendorf. It was noted by John Wesley in his diary that, in a great tempest, when the English people on board lost all self-possession, these Germans impressed him by their composure and entire resignation to God. He also marked their humility under shameful treatment.

On his return to England, he entered into those deeper experiences and developed those marvelous powers as a popular preacher, which made him a national leader. He was associated at this time also with George Whitefield, the tradition of whose majestic eloquence has never died.

What he accomplished borders upon the incredible. Upon entering his eighty-fifth year, he thanked God that he was still almost as vigorous as ever. He ascribed it, under God, to the fact that he had always slept soundly, had risen for sixty years at four o’clock in the morning, and for fifty years had preached every morning at five. Seldom in all his life did he feel any pain, care, or anxiety. He preached twice each day, and often thrice or four times. It has been estimated that he traveled every year forty-five hundred English miles, mostly upon horseback.

The successes won by Methodist preaching had to be gained through a long series of years and amid the most bitter persecutions. In nearly every part of England, it was met at first by the mob with stonings and peltings, with attempts at wounding and slaying. Only at times was there any interference on the part of the civil power. The two Wesleys faced all these dangers with extraordinary courage and with a calmness equally astonishing. What was more irritating was the heaping up of slander and abuse by the writers of the day. These books are now all forgotten.

Wesley had been in his youth a high churchman and was always deeply devoted to the Established Communion. When he found it necessary to ordain preachers, the separation of his followers from the established body became inevitable. The name “Methodist” soon attached to them, because of the particular organizing power of their leader and the ingenious methods that he applied.

After his death, the Wesley fellowship grew into the great Methodist Church was characterized by an almost military perfection of organization.

John Wesley apportioned his days to his work in leading the Church, studying (for he was an incessant reader), traveling, and preaching. The entire management of his ever-growing denomination rested upon Wesley himself. The annual conference, established in 1744, acquired a governing power only after the death of Wesley. Charles Wesley rendered the society a service incalculably great by his hymns. They introduced a new era in the hymnology of the English Church.

Wesley was untiring in his efforts to disseminate useful knowledge throughout his denomination. He planned for the mental culture of his traveling preachers and local exhorters and for schools of instruction for the future teachers of the Church. He himself prepared books for popular use upon universal history, church history, and natural history. In this, Wesley was an apostle of the modern union of mental culture with Christian living. He also published the best matured of his sermons and various theological works. These, both by their depth and penetration of thought and their purity and precision of style, excite our admiration.

John Wesley was of but ordinary stature, and yet of noble presence. His features were very handsome even in old age. He had an open brow, an eagle nose, a clear eye, and a fresh complexion. His manners were fine, and in choice company with Christian people, he enjoyed the relaxation. Persistent, laborious love for men’s souls, steadfastness, and tranquility of spirit were his most prominent character traits. Even in doctrinal controversies, he exhibited the most remarkable calmness. He was kind and very liberal. His industry has been named already. In the last fifty-two years of his life, it is estimated that he preached more than forty thousand sermons.

Wesley brought sinners to repentance throughout three kingdoms and over two hemispheres. He was the bishop of such a diocese as neither the Eastern nor the Western Church ever witnessed before. What is there in the circle of Christian effort–foreign missions, home missions, Christian tracts and literature, field preaching, circuit preaching, Bible readings, or aught else–which was not attempted by John Wesley, which was not grasped by his mighty mind through the aid of his Divine Leader?

Not only the germs of almost all the existing zeal in England on behalf of Christian truth and life are due to Methodism, but the activity stirred up in other portions of Protestant Europe we must trace indirectly, at least, to Wesley. To him, it was granted to arouse the English Church when it had lost sight of Christ the Redeemer to a renewed Christian life. By preaching the justifying and renewing of the soul through belief upon Christ, he lifted many thousands of the humbler classes of the English people from their exceeding ignorance and evil habits and made them earnest, faithful Christians. His untiring effort made itself felt not in England alone but in America and in continental Europe.

He died in 1791 after a long life of tireless labor and unselfish service. His fervent spirit and hearty brotherhood still survive in the body that cherishes his name.

From Preacher to False Christianity

In Essence, in 1738, John Wesley founded Methodism and Wesleyanism. The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. The church as long been promoting unbiblical doctrines. On January 3, 2020, the denomination’s leadership released a proposal to split the Church over what it described as “fundamental differences” over homosexuality, particularly same-sex marriage.

One aspect that has brought about their downfall into false Christianity is their rejection of Absolute inerrancy of Scripture. The Bible. The Bible is the inspired word of God. F. Belton Joyner argues that there is a deep division within Methodism today about what exactly this means. Questions include whether the Bible was inspired when written (and the text today is always true and without error), or if it is inspired when actually read by a Christian (and therefore dependent on the interaction with the reader.) In the first case, says Joyner, the Christian is concerned only with the precise wording of the original manuscript, without regard to historical setting. In the other case, the reader tries to read the biblical text in terms of all of the influences of modern thought, with little regard for the meaning offered in the ancient texts. In that Wesleyan tradition, United Methodists balance these two extremes, aware that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures is alive and well to bring the written Word alive for the present. United Methodists take seriously both the original inspiration and today’s contemporary inspiration. “…In this way, the Bible itself becomes the balancing, clarifying, even correcting tool for understanding the Scripture. God’s gifts in the written Word are so rich that they can continue to give light and life as one digs again and again into the same Scriptures.”[1]

The United Methodist Church holds that “while we understand the need for women to have access to safe, legal abortions, we also ‘mourn and are committed to promoting the diminishment of high abortion rates.’”[2]

 The United Methodist Church, along with some other Methodist churches, condemns capital punishment, saying that it cannot accept retribution or social vengeance as a reason for taking human life.[3]

The United Methodist Church, like many mainline Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church, has determined that there is no conflict between faith and the theory of evolution. Some clergy have stated that “it’s time for people of faith to accept evolution.”[4] Additionally, the UMC officially affirms the theory of evolution and “opposes introducing theories such as Creationism or Intelligent Design into public school curriculum.”[5] In 2016, the denomination denied approval for a creationist group to be officially represented at the church’s General Conference.[6]

The United Methodist Church supports federal legislative efforts for strict gun control measures in the United States, and outright bans of most weapons in other nations.[7] The Church also declares all of its churches to be “a weapon-free zone.”[8]

Female Pastors, Assistant Pastors, and Deacons are Unbiblical

Wesley accepted this idea, and formally began to allow women to preach in Methodism. Later, Wesley also licensed other women as preachers, including Grace Murray, Sarah Taft, Hannah Ball and Elizabeth Ritchie. The United Methodist Church (UMC), which is the largest denomination in the Methodist tradition, has ordained women to be pastors since its establishment in 1968. The Wesleyan Methodist Church (which is now the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection and Wesleyan Church) has ordained women as ministers since near its inception and claims to be one of the first to ordain women in the modern era. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, née Antoinette Louisa Brown, (born May 20, 1825, Henrietta, N.Y., U.S.—died Nov. 5, 1921, Elizabeth, N.J.), first woman to be ordained a minister of a recognized denomination in the United States.

SCROLL THROUGH DIFFERENT CATEGORIES BELOW

BIBLE TRANSLATION AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM

BIBLICAL STUDIES / INTERPRETATION

EARLY CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM

TECHNOLOGY

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

CHRISTIAN FICTION

[1] F. Belton Joyner (2008). Being United Methodist in the Bible Belt: A Theological Survival Guide for Youth, Parents, and Other Confused United Methodists. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 28.

The British Methodist Church in 2001 adopted a more complex seven-way choice of what the Bible means. See Methodist Church of Great Britain#The Bible and Peter Forsaith (2016). The Ashgate Research Companion to World Methodism. Routledge. pp. 345–46.

[2] Communications, United Methodist. “The United Methodist Church and the complex topic of abortion – The United Methodist Church”. The United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved Monday, November 1, 2021.

[3] “Capital Punishment”. The United Methodist Church. Retrieved Monday, November 1, 2021.

[4] “It’s time for people of faith to accept evolution.” UM News. The United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on April 16, 2016. Monday, November 1, 2021.

[5] Communications, United Methodist. “What is The United Methodist Church’s position on evolution? – The United Methodist Church”. The United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on May 13, 2016. Monday, November 1, 2021.

[6] “United Methodist Church Bans Intelligent Design Group From General Conference”. Christian Post. Retrieved Monday, November 1, 2021.

[7] Archived copy”. Archived from the original on August 21, 2015. Retrieved Monday, November 1, 2021.

[8] “Archived copy”. Archived from the original on August 31, 2015. Retrieved Monday, November 1, 2021.

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