[Please note that that author is a Calvinist theologian, but this is a historical review of the doctrine that does not involve the author in arguing for his view. The web version of this article…
Wesley, John
John Wesley Charges that Calvinism Makes God Out to Be Worse than the Devil
To follow up on Roger Olson’s essay recently posted here, perhaps it would be appropriate to post an excerpt from John Wesley’s famous sermon, “Free Grace”, in which he made a very similar charge about Calvinism as Olson, but more passionately and more forcefully. Whereas Olson states that Calvinism’s consistent divine determinism makes it difficult for him to tell the difference between God and the devil in the system, Wesley says that the system makes God worse than the devil and so is blasphemous (and he explains why). Now Wesley accepted Calvinists as brothers in Christ, so he surely did not mean that Calvinists are blasphemers or that they worship a false god or anything of the sort. I take him to mean that the logical implications of Calvinism are blasphemous, which Calvinists themselves might not really see, and which Wesley labored to help them see to bring them to the more bibilical position of Arminianism.
Friday Files: Wesley’s Predestination Calmly Considered
John Wesley had the rare gift of bringing the Calvinist/Arminian debate from the head to the heart. In Predestination Calmly Considered, Wesley first examines the idea of upholding unconditional election while rejecting reprobation and then…
Wesley Defends Arminius
Searching through the web, I recently (in fact, 5 minutes before writing this entry) found this delightful piece written by John Wesley as to the definition and dignity of the name “Arminian”. Not at first…
Taking Up My Cross
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mt 16:24 AV) On one of the discussion boards I…
The Nature of Wesleyan Theology
The Nature of Wesleyan Theology
From the Wesleyan Theological Journal
J. Kenneth Grider
Theology, when it is entered into by us Wesleyans, takes on a certain nature, in relation to other theologies: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Calvinist. It is of the very nature of Wesleyan theology that it has (1) an experiential interest, (2) an existential element, (3) a large-scoped biblical character, (4) a dynamic quality, (5) a catholicity, and 6) a homing instinct for the moral.
Its Experiential Interest
Molina, Arminius, Plaifere, Goad, and Wesley On Human Free-will, Divine Omniscience, and Middle Knowledge
Molina, Arminus, Plaifere, Goad, and Wesley On Human Free-will, Divine Omniscience, and Middle Knowledge
From the Wesleyan Theological Journal
Barry E. Bryant
Upon first glance the title of this paper contains a strange mix of individuals, one or two of whom are perhaps more obscure than the others. What each has in common with the others is a vested interest in the issue of free-will. What they also have in common is the realization that arising from the doctrine of free-will is the paradox of omniscience.
John Wesley’s View of Man: A Study in Free Grace Versus Free Will
JOHN WESLEY’S VIEW OF MAN: VERSUS FREE WILL
From the Wesleyan Theological Journal
Irwin W. Reist, Th. M., S. T. D. (candidate)
Associate Professor, Bible and Theology, Houghton College
I. INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF MAN FOR THEOLOGY
John Wesley On the Origins of Evil
John Wesley On the Origins of Evil
From the Wesleyan Theological Journal
Barry E. Bryant
One of the more important questions ever confronted by Christian theologians has been how to reconcile the idea that God is loving, good, and just with the presence of evil in the world. The Greek Epicurus summarized the issue well when he asked, “What is the cause of evil?” In answering this question he concluded:
God. . . either wished to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils? or why does He not remove them?2
JOHN WESLEY AND JONATHAN EDWARDS ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
JOHN WESLEY AND JONATHAN EDWARDS ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE:
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
From the Wesleyan Theological Journal
Robert Doyle Smith
Introduction
The tone of the eighteenth-century debate between Arminians and Calvinists finds apt description in John Wesley’s observation that to say, “This man is an Arminian,” was, to some, much the same thing as saying, “This man is a mad dog.”1
JOHN WESLEY: PRACTICAL THEOLOGIAN?
JOHN WESLEY: PRACTICAL THEOLOGIAN? From the Wesleyan Theological Journal Randy L. Maddox FOR: Dr. J. Kenneth Grider 1 When one reads secondary treatments of Wesley one repeatedly comes across disclaimers of his being a “systematic”…
John Fletcher’s Methodology in the Antinomian Controversy of 1770-76
JOHN FLETCHER’S METHODOLOGY IN THE ANTINOMIAN CONTROVERSY OF 1770-76 From the Wesleyan Theological Journal ROBERT A. MATTKE, B.D., M.A. (Head of Religion Department, Miltonvale College) For over two centuries, the name of John Wesley has…
CHARACTERISTICS OF WESLEY’S ARMINIANISM
CHARACTERISTICS OF WESLEY’S ARMINIANISM
From the Wesleyan Theological Journal
Luke L. Keefer, Jr.
John Wesley, “On Predestination”
A sermon by John Wesley taken from http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/58/ On Predestination By John Wesley Sermon 58 (text from the 1872 edition – Thomas Jackson, editor) ——————————————————————————– Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be…
Eric Landstrom, Adam’s Fall from Grace in the Eastern-Wesleyan Tradition
It is not within our capacity to say anything about God beyond what he has revealed to us. Sometimes it is best to step away from our presuppositions that we proof-text with the Bible and…