At my local church I taught a 7 week Sunday School class about the story of early Christianity. As part of that, I made a video for each week for Youtube. If early church history…
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Micah Currado, “Determinism (Part 1) – Rejected by Early Church”
Is it possible for you to live a more holy life? Does God want you to sin? Does God grant grace to live in closer communion with Him? These questions are central to the Yield…
Mark K. Olson, “Clement of Alexandria: An Early Church Wesleyan?”
[To view the footnotes on this page, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Clicking on the hyperlinked footnotes will take you off site to the notes in the original article location.] Introduction When…
Christopher T. Bounds, “The Scope of The Atonement in the Early Church Fathers”
Please click on the link to view Christopher T. Bounds, “The Scope of The Atonement in the Early Church Fathers,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 47.2 (Fall 2012) 7-26. Here is the author’s conclusion: In conclusion, while Thomas Oden in…
Matt O’Reilly, Entire Sanctification in the Early Church
[Please note that SEA does not necessarily endorse Wesley’s doctrine of Entire Sanctification, but it is a position that SEA members can hold.] I’ve often heard that John Wesley’s emphasis on Entire Sanctification (or Christian Perfection)…
The Early Church on Corporate and Not Unconditional Election
From William W. Klein, “Election,” in the Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments, edited by Ralph P. Martin and Peter H. Davids, we learn that the New Testament authors, apostles, and their…
Micah Currado, “Early Church Fathers on the Freedom of the Will and Romans 9”
Please click on the link to view “Early Church Fathers on the Freedom of the Will and Romans 9.” The early church resoundingly affirmed the liberty of the will, in spite of the well-known philosophical option…
Early Church Father Jerome on Free Will
From the Letters of St. Jerome, CXXXIII: It is in vain that you misrepresent me and try to convince the ignorant that I condemn free-will. Let him who condemns it be himself condemned. We have been created endowed…
Calvinists Now Appealing to the Early Church as a Historical Witness?
This document looks through some common quotes from the Church fathers that some Calvinists have used to attempt to argue that an embryonic Calvinism existed in their thoughts. Unsurprisingly enough, a little context seems to…
On Man’s Free Will: What the Early Church Believed
“On Man’s Free Will: What The Early Church Fathers Believed” [Quotes are from The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; 1885-1887; repr. 10 vols. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1994. They are cited in A…
The Early Church and Calvinism
This is a detailed study of Calvinism in light of the earliest Christian writers (Ante-Nicene Church Fathers). It demonstrates that the primary features of Calvinism were not taught by the Ante-Nicene Fathers but were actually considered heretical by these early Christian writers (often connected to various forms of gnosticism). Numerous quotes from these Ante-Nicene writers are provided for the reader to carefully consider.
Mark K. Olson, “Early Methodists on the New Birth: George Whitefield, John Wesley, & John Fletcher”
The Evangelical Revival broke out in the 1730s with the central message, “You must be born again” (Jn 3:7). The two most famous evangelists of the new movement were George Whitefield (1714-1770) and John Wesley (1703-1791). They both…
Roy Ingle, “How Did the Early Methodists Triumph Over Calvinism?”
In our time it is common to hear about the resurgence of Calvinism. It seems with popular Calvinist speakers such as John Piper, Albert Mohler, and others, Calvinism has been enjoying a resurgence especially among…
Mark K. Olson, “Early Methodist Christology”
This article is an extract of my chapter “Early Methodist Christology After the Wesleys” in Methodist Christology: From the Wesleys to the Twenty-First Century, eds. Jason E. Vickers and Jerome Van Kuiken. Foundary Books, 2020. [To…
Mark K. Olson, “The New Birth in the Early Wesley”
[To view the footnotes on this page, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Clicking on the hyperlinked footnotes will take you off site to the notes in the original article location.] Introduction Studies…
Mark K. Olson, “The Doctrine of Justification in the Early Wesley”
Cowman Lecture, 2021 Seoul Theological University, South Korea Abstract: The doctrine of justification is usually associated with John Wesley after his evangelical conversion in 1738. Few people know what Wesley believed about justification before that…
Andrew Sullivan, “Harmony of the Arminian Faith: A Proposal to the Global Methodist Church” (Full Thesis)
Please click on the attachment to view Andrew Sullivan, “Harmony of the Arminian Faith: A Proposal to the Global Methodist Church.” John Wesley left the people called Methodist a trio of doctrinal…
Mark K. Olson, “Early Methodist Christology”
Christmas is a season we celebrate the incarnation. The 18th century saw the rise of anti-Trinitarian theologies that undermined belief in Christ’s deity. Some scholars argue that John Wesley held a deficient view of the…
Vic Reasoner, “Primitive Methodism and the Twenty-First Century Church”
An undisciplined Methodist is a contradiction in terms. Methodism is as much a spiritual discipline as it is a system of theology. Here are three priorities we can adapt from primitive Methodism in order to…
Richard Coords, “Church Splits”
Church Splits occur when a significant portion of a church leaves to form a separate church. Calvinism is a common cause of such splits. It usually occurs when a new pastor is hired and conceals…
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Mark K. Olson, “John Wesley’s Perspective on… Voting, Sunday Observance, Preaching Politics, Culture, Protestantism, Religious Profession”
The Arminian Magazine Spring 1980 Edition
William Burt Pope, “The Moral Attributes of God Part 6: Grace and Its Related Attributes”
Regarding Eternal Security, How Do You Briefly Respond to Calvinist Appeal to Ephesians 1:13-14 (Sealing)?
