this post is written by Seedbed author, Howard Snyder, PhD In the thick of theological controversies and church conflicts I often think: It’s all about hermeneutics! Battles most often boil down to this question: How…
Wesley, John
Misplacing Romans: John Wesley and Hermeneutics
Another great article from the Seedbed ministry at Asbury Seminary. This article is written by Dr Howard Snyder In the thick of theological controversies and church conflicts I often think: It’s all about hermeneutics! Battles…
John Wesley’s Thoughts On Natural Disasters
Sermon 129 (text from the 1872 edition) [First published in the year 1750.] “O come hither, and behold the works of the Lord; what destruction he hath brought upon the earth!” Psalm 46:8 Of all the…
John Wesley: Neither Pelagian nor Augustinian
written by by Henry Knight III A common criticism of Wesley’s theology, especially from those of a more Calvinist inclination, is that it grounds salvation not on grace but human decision. This is, to put…
Robert Rakestraw. “John Wesley as a Theologian of Grace”
Please click on the attachment to view Robert Rakestraw. “John Wesley as a Theologian of Grace,” published in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 27:2 (June 1984): 193-203.
John Wesley, “Serious Thoughts on the Perseverance of the Saints”
John Wesley (Perseverance)
John Wesley, “PREDESTINATION CALMLY CONSIDERED”
Please click on the attachment to view John Wesley, “PREDESTINATION CALMLY CONSIDERED”
William Brennan, “John Wesley’s Experimental Religion and Evangelism in a Postmodern Age”
John Wesley’s Experimental Religion and Evangelism in a Postmodern Age
written by William Brennan (PhD cand)
EVANGELISM AND THE POSTMODERN CONDITION
That postmodernity is a hazy concept, ill-defined and worse-employed, is by now a sad truism, only worsened by its many variants and broad influence over multiple areas of contemporary life and thought. It must be acknowledged, though, with however much reserve, that there is such a thing as postmodernity which is not only pervasive within the philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics of our day, but which also has deep roots at the popular, cultural level. And though the Church need never capitulate to predominant cultural models, she must ever ask: how will we preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this generation? When this question is asked with reference to this present generation, the phenomena of cultural postmodernity—however it is to be more precisely defined—cannot be ignored.
John Wesley, “The Question, ‘What Is an Arminian?’ Answered by a Lover of Free Grace”
(Taken from http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/arminian/) The Question, “What Is an Arminian?” Answered by a Lover of Free Grace by John Wesley 1. To say, “This man is an Arminian,” has the same effect on many hearers, as…
Election Advice from John Wesley
Election Advice from John Wesley I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them: 1) To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy.…
John Wesley’s Approach to Spiritual Formation
This post was written by Ben Espinoza on the Seedbed.com website Perhaps my greatest research interest as of late is studying how various theologians and church leaders throughout history sought to form and educate believers…
Wesley as a Happy Puritan
Wesley as a Happy Puritan written by Dr. Fred Sanders Although not a member of SEA, Dr. Fred Sanders draws some interesting parallels between Wesley and Jonathan Edwards and John Owen as well as J.I.…
John Wesley on Assurance: Can You Know You’re Saved
This post is written by Andrew Dragos of Seedbed. Although not a member of SEA, he expresses well Arminian-Wesleyan thought on assurance of one’s faith.
Fred Sanders, “Calvinists Who Love Wesley”
Click on the link to view Fred Sanders, “Calvinists Who Love Wesley”.
Wesley on Acts 13:48
At first, I wasn’t a big fan of Wesley’s interpretation of Acts 13:48, but lately I have come to admire it’s simplicity. Wesley doesn’t get into technical debates about passive vs. middle voice, disputes about translating tasso as ordain vs. dispose or discussions about reflexive meanings with and without the reflexive pronoun. He is just straight and to the point. Here’s the passage and Wesley’s comments:
J. Matthew Pinson, “Atonement, Justification, and Apostasy in the Thought of John Wesley”
Click on the file that contains Pinson’s article originally published by INTEGRITY (vol. 4, 2008, 73-92). The article is posted here by the author’s permission. Pinson, writing for a Free Will Baptist audience, explains how…
John Wesley, A Dialogue Between a Predestinarian and His Friend
A Dialogue Between a Predestinarian and His Friend
Out of thine own mouth!
The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., Volume 10, 1872, pp. 259-266
TO ALL PREDESTINARIANS
1. I AM informed, some of you have said, that the following quotations are false; that these words were not spoken by these authors; others, that they were not spoken in this sense; and others, that neither you yourself, nor any true Predestinarian, ever did, or ever would, speak so.
2. My friends, the authors here quoted are well known, in whom you may read the words with your own eyes. And you who have read them know in your own conscience, they were spoken in this sense, and no other; nay, that this sense of them is professedly defended throughout the whole treatises whence they are taken.
John Wesley, “The Doctrine of Original Sin”
John Wesley, The Doctrine of Original Sin according to Scripture, Reason, and Experience in Answer to Dr. Taylor (1817)
John Jefferson Davis, “The Perseverance of the Saints: A History of the Doctrine”
[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…
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.
