EMC Catechism 2012 | Appendices

The Evangelical Methodist Church

catechism the journey of faith __________

“We should so work as if we were to be saved by our works; And so rely on Jesus Christ, as if we did no works.”

—Francis Asbury: God’s Circuit Rider (1745-1816)

The Evangelical Methodist Church

CATECHISM Published by the authority of the 30th General Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church, held in Indianapolis, Indiana March 12-15, 2010 General Editor: Dr. Edward W. Williamson, General Superintendent Department of Publications Editor: Mrs. Peggy Trim, Deaconess

Copyright Š 2012 by the General Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church Department of Publications PRINTING 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the Department of Publications.

All Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible unless otherwise noted.

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Evangelical Methodist Church International Headquarters P. O. Box 17070 Indianapolis, IN 46217 Location: 6838 South Gray Road Indianapolis, IN 46237

Additional copies of this publication may be ordered by contacting the Department of Publications at:

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Table of Contents Foreword .................................................................................. 6 Lesson 1: Our History and Commitment ............................... 7 Lesson 2: The Articles of Religion ....................................... 15 Lesson 3: A Biblical View of the Scriptures ........................ 39 Lesson 4: A Biblical View of God and Humanity ................. 41 Lesson 5: A Biblical View of Sin and Redemption .............. 47 Lesson 6: A Biblical View of God’s Plan for Salvation ........ 51 Lesson 7: Sanctification ..................................................... 55 Lesson 8: A Biblical View of the Church and the Sacraments ......................................................... 59 Lesson 9: A Biblical View of Eternity .................................. 65 Lesson 10: Missions ............................................................ 69 Lesson 11: Our Government: Congregational and Connectional ............................................... 79 Lesson 12: Membership Responsibility ………. .................... 83 Lesson 13: Membership ...................................................... 89 Membership Covenant ...................................... 90 Appendix A: John Wesley’s The Scripture Way of Salvation A Break-Through Sermon .................................... 91 Appendix B: The Scripture Way of Salvation, John Wesley’s Sermon in Modern English … ............... 99 Appendix C: Explanatory Notes, Evangelical Methodist Articles of Faith ……………………… ................. 113 Appendix D: Basic Denominational Principles .................. …..127 Answers to Lesson Questions ................................................ 129

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Forward The General Board of Christian Education congratulates you for taking this step in expanding your knowledge of the basic doctrinal teachings to which the Evangelical Methodist Church adheres.

The EMC is Wesleyan in doctrine which promotes purity of heart and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the desire of this Board that as you embark upon your journey through this study you will come to know the EMC better and appreciate its stand for holiness. While this study perhaps will not answer all your questions, it will serve as a foundation upon which you, as a student, may build your understanding of the Wesleyan tradition.

As you work your way through this study, you will not only develop a better understanding of what the EMC is, but also establish personal disciplines of study which will serve you well as you grow in your personal relationship with the Lord.

While this study gives you a basic understanding of the EMC, it also gives you information for becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Another study, Discipleship Training, A Venture in Learning and Accountability offered by the General Board of Christian Education, will help you become more disciplined in your daily walk with the Lord. It will also give you tools to disciple others, thus fulfilling the Great Commission that Jesus gave the Church while it waits for His return.

The pastor and lay leaders will enlarge and supplement this material to accommodate their local church mission statement and unique missional ministries.

2010-2014 General Board of Christian Education Members: Rev. Debbie Miller, Chair Rev. Dan Cottrell Dr. William Dean Rev. John Gentry Mr. Benoit Kitenge Rev. Robert Perkins Rev. Daniel Stiles

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APPENDIXES The Appendixes are inserted for further reflection upon our historical commitment to biblical holiness in the Wesleyan understanding of Scripture. These will serve to prepare the teachers of the Catechism for their presentations.

Appendix A John Wesley’s The Scripture Way of Salvation: A Break-Through Sermon (Used by permission from Francis Asbury Society)

Forward by Dr. Dennis Kinlaw Dennis Franklin Kinlaw was born June 26, 1922, in Lumberton, N.C. He is a past President (1968-1981, 1986-1991) and Chancellor (1992) of Asbury College. Prior to that, he was a professor of Old Testament Languages and Literature at Asbury Theological Seminary (1963-1968) and a visiting professor at Seoul Theological College, Seoul, Korea in 1959. He holds a B.A from Asbury College (1943), an M. Div from Asbury Theological Seminary (1946), and M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University.

He is the founder of the Francis Asbury Society and is the author of several books. The Kinlaw Library on Asbury College's campus is named in honor of Kinlaw and his late wife, Elsie.

There is a sense in which one can say that the story of Christianity is the story of its sermons. Other kingdoms have sent forth their warriors with swords and spears or with rifles and guns. The Kingdom of our God and of his Son Jesus has sent forth its representatives with a different kind of armament. They have gone around the world with the Gospel, a message of Good News from the creation’s Maker and Lord of creation to be proclaimed in story form, a story whose concepts are communicated in words both spoken and written. So its warriors have been missionaries, prophets, evangelists, and preachers. Their prime instrument has been the sermon.

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In the early church no one illustrates this methodology for us more than Paul. The story of his life is the story of his preaching. It began quickly after his conversion on the road to Damascus and did not cease until his life was taken from him because of the very Word which he preached. Paul understood his vocation, his divine call, in terms of this activity. So he could write to the Corinthians: “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Good News.” (I Cor. 1:17) Religious ceremony was not his vocation.

Preaching was. So from Damascus, where Christ found him, to Jerusalem to Antioch to Asia Minor and to Europe he went preaching. His ambition, in regard to preaching, reached beyond his years. He was on his way to Spain when he was killed in Rome. The purpose of that trip was twofold: to visit the church in Rome, and to preach the Gospel in Spain. Spain was the rim of the known world in that day. Paul, like the other great leaders of the Christian mission in the world, was a preacher; and the sermon was his instrument of battle. The spread of Christianity in the centuries that followed his century is the story of persons with a divine call and with a divine message that was best expressed in the sermon.

For those who stand in the Methodist tradition, this procedure is singularly true. The story of John Wesley is the story of his preaching. And it is the story for his followers, such as Francis Asbury, as well. They went everywhere preaching the Gospel – in the fields, in the homes, in the inns where they slept, in churches when they were permitted, in public buildings. They preached from horseback or from platform. Wherever they encountered fellowhuman beings, they preached. And their preaching had its effect.

It transformed the character of English life and then shaped as did no other religious movement, American culture, and subsequently, through the missionary impetus inherent within it, that of much of the entire world.

The importance of the sermon in Methodism became readily apparent in a singular fashion when Wesley, having been forced to choose a theological basis for his movement, did not choose a creed. He chose, instead, the Anglican homilies and a selection of his own sermons that contained within them the heart of what he understood the Gospel to be. So, Methodism was rooted not just in an intellectual acceptance of the dogmas of Christian

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orthodoxy but also in a life response to the story of Jesus as proclaimed in sermonic form in preaching.

Wesley, in the tradition of the Old Testament prophet, believed that the Christian message could best be presented in the sermon. So he gave great attention to his sermons both in their preparation and in their proclamation. He kept an amazing record of what he preached and when and where. A study of those sermons reveals the growth and development of the theology that we identify with his name. One would have difficulty in the course of Christian history finding another who preached more sermons than he did. His disciple in America, Francis Asbury, did the same.

Wesley and Asbury lived to preach. Wesley also insisted that his sermons be published. He wrote letters, hymns, and treatises of various natures which he also published. But his prime concern in publishing was the sermons and the hymns. Both contained the message that God had given him and Charles, but it was the sermons in particular that he knew best expressed the faith. It was here that the Methodist distinctives were most clearly expressed.

There are many significant sermons in what are called, The Standard Sermons of John Wesley. They cover subjects as basic as “The Almost Christian”, “Salvation by Faith”, “Scriptural Christianity”, “Justification by Faith”, “The New Birth”, and “Christ Our Righteousness”. He preached thirteen different sermons on Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. In all of these he proclaimed his understanding of Christian doctrine and life. These sermons contain Wesley’s particular contribution to Christian doctrine. And that contribution was unique. In the same way that Luther said some things more clearly than anyone who had gone before him, so Wesley did the same. Many in the larger Church have not yet seen with clarity all that Wesley saw, but those who have understood have found his insights liberating, transforming and richly determinative for their insights into what the fullness of the Gospel really is.

There is a similarity between the life of Luther and the life of Wesley at this point. It was Luther who saw and who spelled out for the Church the singular roles of faith and grace in the Christian life, insights that we identify by terms such as sola fide and sola gratia. He realized that it is by God’s grace alone through faith alone that we are saved. There is not nor can there be anything saving in anything that originates in us. Only God can save.

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Luther made clear the nature of the doorway into the Christian life with his doctrine of justification by faith. Wesley accepted this basic insight but saw that it had to be extended. Faith in the grace of God is not only the way into the Christ life, it is also the way to continue in the Christian life, to grow in that life, and to draw from Christ’s atonement the full benefits that he purchased for us there.

Redemption is more than forgiveness, peace with God, or assurance of eternal life. Wesley believed that Christ died to save us from sin, from its inner depths as well as from its guilt and its control, and that he died to save us from that sin now. He understood the Scripture to say that Christ sacrificed himself on the Cross to cleanse the human heart to its depths and to replace the contaminating self-interest that is the supreme characteristic of sin and that it remains in the believer after conversion even with the pure love of God which the Spirit waits to pour into our hearts.

As Paul said, Christ died to make possible the fulfillment of the Old Testament command that God’s people should be holy as God is holy so that they can know the kind of intimacy with God for which Jesus prayed: I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:20-23 (NRS) Implicit in that prayer is a cry for his own disciples to be one in union with him and with the Father with a oneness like that which he himself has with the Father. He obviously is not speaking about an ontological oneness that would make us divine. We will never become God. We are creatures and will always be creatures. We cannot share in his deity, but we can share in his nature, his holiness. So the unity of which he speaks is evidently a oneness of pure holy love in which there is not dissent, a oneness in which his will becomes our will and that will becomes, not a dread but our joy. As the psalmist said, “I delight to do thy will, O God.” Wesley believed that through the atoning blood of Christ and through the inner cleansing of the Holy Spirit that kind of oneness of heart is available for the Christian believer. It is not surprising 94

that he spoke of it as being perfected in love. Perfected, not in a static sense that it could not be enlarged, but perfect in that now God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit had become the determining, the controlling force, without rival or constraint within the human heart. Or as the theologians would say, full salvation includes entire sanctification as well as justification and new birth.

And Wesley saw that this sanctification is by faith just the same as is justification. It is God’s work all the way, by grace, and it is faith that brings that saving grace to its fullness in the human heart.

The Christian life does not just begin by faith. It is a life of faith until we see Him face to face. This is the particular insight that has been the mark of distinction for Methodism across the years – Wesley’s prime contribution to us all.

This legacy gives a unique importance to a single simple sermon

by Wesley called “The Scripture Way of Salvation”. For here, more succinctly than anywhere else in his writings, he spells out in great simplicity what is called the Wesleyan Order of Salvation. In nine pages he takes the basic biblical insight which Luther saw with such clarity in relation to justification that we are saved by grace through faith alone, and extends it to cover the totality of the human experience of grace in this life. It is in a very real sense the completing of the Reformation, the movement that brought so much light and freedom through Luther and Calvin and the early Protestants to the Body of Christ. And it was this fuller Gospel of Wesley and his friends that had such a cleansing impact on British life that it became a formative influence in the shaping of America.

This sermon was written and preached in 1765 when Wesley was in his prime. It is obvious that it came out of a period of conflict over the theology that he was preaching. So he sought to define his position. Kenneth Collins indicates this purpose in his biography John Wesley: a Theological Journey when he speaks of it as “the summary sermon.” (It is to be noted also that in the index to his volume, Collins lists more references to this sermon than to any other that Wesley is recorded as having preached.)

Dr. Joseph Agar Beet, prominent nineteenth century Methodist theologian, confirms Collins’ judgment. He says of this sermon that “it is a compact statement of Wesley’s mature thought about the great doctrines which inspired the Methodist Revival; it is of more practical value than all the other sermons put together.”

Then he adds:

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He (Wesley) asserts again and again that, as we are justified by faith, so are we sanctified by faith; and very forcibly describes this saving faith. He also urges his readers to accept here and now this great salvation.

Edward H. Sugden in his publication of the Standard Sermons of Wesley speaks in similar fashion. He notes: (1) the definite place and importance assigned to ‘preventing grace’ [sic] in the work of salvation; (2) the clear distinction drawn between justification and sanctification; (3) the recognition that after justification, sin still remains in believers; (4) hence the necessity for entire sanctification, for which repentance and good works are necessary, though not in the same degree or in the same sense as faith.

Of course, the element here that made Wesley’s preaching so distinct was the thought that God can, through Christ and the Holy Spirit, cleanse the heart of the believer from what Wesley calls “the sin remaining in our hearts” after conversion, “the sin remaining in our lives; still cleaving to all our words and actions.”

Here Wesley is not speaking of human performance, of human acts of sin. He is rather speaking of the presence of that disposition of heart that makes even the born-again Christian reluctant to make a total and unconditional surrender of the self to the total will of God. We find an inner reservation and an inner fear and distrust even after conversion that makes us want to bargain with God about accepting his full will. We want to keep a finger in our own lives. It is not easy for the believer to say without reservation, “Not my will, Father but thine be done.” Most of us who know Christ have sensed the contaminating and often debilitating force of that self-interest present within us long after conversion. This is the problem that Wesley was addressing in his message of full salvation. He recognized that inner reservation as sin, and he felt that the Scriptures were clear that Christ died to save us from that deep sinfulness as well as from our sinful practices. He accepted the Scriptural references to the possibility of a clean heart, a pure heart, a heart filled with divine love. For him these passages were promises; and promises that can be fulfilled now because they are by grace alone.

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Most of Wesley’s colleagues in Christian ministry freely acknowledged the presence of that distrust after conversion but were not sure that deliverance from such could come in this life.

They believed that the heart could not really be pure until after the resurrection. Wesley’s conviction put him in deep tension with persons as close even as his friend George Whitefield.

Undoubtedly, Wesley was not happy about the hostility that his preaching of this theme brought. His conviction, though, that it was biblical, that Christ died to save us from sin, not just in heaven, but in the here and now where it is so deeply needed, forced him to continue to preach this word. When he found some of his converts entering into such a grace, he knew he could not withhold this promise from his public. And his follower Francis Asbury carried this theme into the New World and preached it across the American frontier.

Many of Wesley’s sons and daughters have found themselves uncomfortable with this emphasis of Wesley. Who wants to be charged by his brothers and sisters with the title of “perfectionist”?

So some Methodists have tried to present a Wesley without this “idiosyncrasy” or else have simply forgotten or ignored this element in Wesley’s thought. A Wesleyan without this message, though, is not the Wesleyanism of Wesley or of Francis Asbury.

Mark Noll, in his magisterial work on American religious history entitled American’s God: from Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln, makes this quite clear. In his treatment of Asbury’s Methodists and their relationship to their Reformed brethren in American, Noll makes clear the tension that Wesley teaching produced, but he also points out the refusal of the Methodists to drop this biblical theme. Note his discussion of what Asbury and his preachers preached.

On other issues, however, the Methodists advanced positions that Calvinists looked upon as dangerous innovations. First, they affirmed that Christ’s atonement was universal and so opened the way to salvation to all people. Second, they held that because of the universal character of that atonement, God’s prevenient grace—a grace that ‘came before’ actual salvation—was communicated to all and so enabled all to turn in faith to God. A particular point of dispute arising from this conviction was, third, the belief that when God communicated prevenient grace to all humanity, it restored 97

a self-determining capacity (or a ‘free will’) and made all people, however burdened by sin, able to choose for God and for a holy life. A fourth Methodist distinctive concerned persevering in faith: although God justified guilty sinners freely, the redeemed retained free will and so needed to work out their salvation in good works; if they chose, they could fall from grace and lose their salvation. Finally, in an affirmation that was as faithfully championed by Methodists as it was derided by their foes, they held that it was possible by God’s grace for Christian believers to become perfectly sanctified or, in John Wesley’ phrase, to enjoy ‘a deliverance from inward as well as from outward sin.’ By traditional Calvinist (and even sometimes Anglican) standards, these five positions were all heterodox. (p. 335) This theology may have seemed heterodox to other Christian leaders in the new Republic, but for Wesley and Asbury and their preachers it was biblical. The promise seemed clear. They accepted the biblical affirmation that before the foundation of the world, God purposed to give Christ so that we could be presented to God “holy and blameless before him in love.” (Eph. 1:4) And they believed that the power of the Cross is in effect now. So, it was clear. God has promised a pure heart in which the love of God reigns without challenge. What he has promised, he can perform. If it is all by grace, a work of God, God can perform it now. It is to be received by faith. It would simply be wrong then for these witnesses to God’s grace not to proclaim the fullness of God’s promise to his children. They did proclaim it, and the world benefited. This sermon is the unique crystallization of that Word.

This message has a particular relevance today. There are those in Wesleyan circles who believe that the message of the Holiness Movement that produced Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary and that influenced American Christianity so greatly in the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century is now outdated and can safely be forgotten.

The reality though is that there is probably a better soil in the larger Christian church for this seed than at any time since the Reformation. The remarkable rediscovery in the larger church of this determinative importance of the doctrine of the Trinity has cleared the way for a much richer understanding of the Christian faith. It enables us to move from an understanding that sees the heart of that faith, not just in the juridical truth of justification by 98

faith, but in the purposive character of the faith which finds its fulfillment in a life of agapeic love, not human love but a love that is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit. The thought that the very agapeic love that is the essence of the inner life of the Triune God can become, through the Sprit’s working, the controlling passion of a human life in the here and now, is a thought that Wesley would have found very compatible and appealing. I think he would have said, “This is what it’s all about. If God can put faith in the human heart, he can also put divine love,” and, I think he might add, “Just look at my sermon on ‘The Scripture Way of Salvation.’”

Appendix B The Scripture Way of Salvation John Wesley’s Sermon in Modern English

By Kenneth Kinghorn Kenneth Cain Kinghorn is Professor of Church History and Historical Theology and Vice President at Large, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky.

You have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8) 1. Nothing can be more intricate, complex, and difficult to understand than “religion,” as many comprehend it.

Vagueness of understanding is true of heathen religions, even many of the most rational of them. It is also true of the religion of those who are in some sense Christians, even among persons who are “acknowledged pillars” of the church.

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Yet, the genuine religion of Jesus Christ is a clear and simple thing that is easy to understand! That is, we can comprehend it if we look at it in its original form, just as the Bible describes it. The wise Creator and Governor of the world revealed Christianity in a form that can be comprehended by the small capacity of human understanding in its present state.

We can readily observe Christianity’s purpose and its means to accomplish its purpose. In a single word, the purpose of Christianity is salvation. And the means by which to attain salvation is faith.

2. It is easy to see that the substance of the entire Bible is summed up in two plain words – faith and salvation. These terms, as it were, constitute the essence of all Scripture.

Therefore, we should take every possible caution to avoid all mistakes concerning faith and salvation. We need to form a true and accurate understanding of them both. Therefore, let us seriously examine: (1) What is salvation? (2) What is the faith by which we are saved? (3) How are we saved by faith?

I. The Nature of Salvation 1. First, we will examine the question, What is salvation? The salvation spoken of in our text is often misunderstood to mean just going to heaven and possessing eternal happiness. In this text, salvation does not refer to going to paradise, which our Lord called going to “Abraham’s bosom.” Salvation is not a blessing that lies only on the other side of death—or, as we usually say, in the other world. The very words of the text verify what I am saying: “You have been saved.” Salvation is not limited to the distant future. It is a present reality, a blessing which (through God’s free mercy) we can presently possess. The words of the text are clear: “You have been saved.” The salvation spoken of in our text can be extended to include the entire work of God—from the first dawning of grace in the soul until it is consummated in glory.

2. If we take this understanding of salvation to its fullest extent, it will include all that is formed in the soul by what is frequently termed “natural conscience.” This work is more properly called “preventing grace,” or “prevenient grace.” Prevenient grace includes all the “drawings” of God the Father to bring us to 100

Christ. Prevenient grace creates within us the desire for God, and if we respond to God’s bringing us to himself, our desire increases more and more.

Prevenient grace includes the “true light, which enlightens everyone” that comes in to the world. This grace teaches us to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.” Prevenient grace imparts all the convictions that, from time to time, the Holy Spirit works in every human being. It is true, however, that the majority of people suppress the impressions of the Holy Spirit as soon as possible. In time, they forget, or at least deny, that they ever had them at all.

3. In this sermon, however, we are concerned only with the salvation about which the apostle is directly speaking. And this salvation consists of two inherent components—justification and sanctification.

Justification is a synonym for pardon. It is the forgiveness of all our sins and (what is necessarily implied) our acceptance

by God. The price paid for our forgiveness is the blood and righteousness of Christ. To state it a little more clearly, the price of our forgiveness consists of everything that Christ has done and suffered for us until “he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors.” The price that Jesus Christ paid for us is commonly called the “meritorious cause” or our justification. The immediate effects of justification are the peace of God (a peace that “surpasses all understanding”} and a rejoicing in the “hope of sharing the glory of God” “with an indescribable and glorious joy.”

4. In the very moment we are justified there begins the process of sanctification. In that instant we are “born again.” That is, we are “born from above” or “born of the Spirit.” We experience a real change as well as a relative change. We are inwardly renewed by the power of God. We sense that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” This experience produces love for all humankind, and especially for the children of God. It expels love for the world, pleasure, comfort, fame, money, pride, anger, self-will, and every other evil attitude. In a word, God changes our minds that were “earthly, unspiritual, and devilish,” into the “same mind that was in Christ Jesus.”

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5. It is natural and understandable that those who experience such a change imagine that all sin is gone. They assume that sin is completely rooted out of their hearts and has no place in them anymore. How easy is it for them to think, “I feel no sin; therefore I have no sin.” They assume that because sin does not agitate within them (at the moment), it does not exist. They think that because it has no stirring, it has no being.

6. It is seldom long, however, before their experience sets them straight. They find that sin was suspended but was not destroyed. Temptations return and sin revives, revealing that sin was only stunned, not annihilated. Now, they feel two principles in themselves, manifestly contrary to each other.

“What the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit.” Their human nature opposes the grace of God. They cannot deny that they still feel the power to believe in Christ and to love God, and his “Spirit bears witness with their spirits that they are children of God.” Nevertheless, they sometimes feel in themselves pride, self-will, anger, or unbelief. They find one or more of these tendencies frequently stirring in their hearts, although these sinful impulses do not overpower them. Perhaps these inclinations “push hard at them to cause them to fall, but the Lord helps them.”

7. Fourteen hundred years ago, Macarius (300-390) described the present experience of the children of God. When grace operates in inexperienced people, they immediately imagine that they have no more sin. While on the contrary, those that have discernment cannot deny that even we who have the grace of God may be assailed again…We have often had examples among the sisters and brothers of those who have experienced such grace as to declare that they had no sin in them. Yet, despite their claim, when they imagined themselves entirely free from sin, the evil that lurked within was stirred up anew, and they were almost consumed by sin.

8. From the time we are born again, the gradual work of sanctification begins to take place within us. “By the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh”—that is, of our evil nature.

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And as we become increasingly dead to sin, we become more and more alive to God. We continue from grace to grace, careful to “Abstain from every form of evil” and “zealous for good deeds.” “Whenever we have an opportunity, we work for the good of all.” We “live blamelessly according to all the commandments,” and through them we “worship the Father in spirit and truth.” We take up the cross and deny ourselves every pleasure that does not lead us to God. 9. Being justified, we anticipate entire sanctification, which is a full salvation from all our sins. It is freedom from pride, selfwill, anger, and unbelief. As the apostle expresses, “Let us go on toward perfection.” Now, what is perfection? The word has various meanings, and here it means perfect love. It is love that excludes sin, fills the heart, and occupies the whole capacity of the soul. It is love that “rejoices always, prays without ceasing, and gives thanks in all circumstances.”

II. The Faith by Which We Are Saved The second question that we will consider is: “What is the faith by which we are saved?”

1. In general, the apostle defined faith as “the assurance of things hope for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith perceives those things that are not visible by sight or by any of the other external senses. Saving faith involves a supernatural conviction regarding God and the things of God. It is kind of spiritual light apparent to the soul.

Saving faith is a supernatural seeing or perceiving God. Accordingly, Scripture sometimes speaks to God giving us light, and sometimes Scripture speaks of faith as our ability to discern this light.

Saint Paul declared, “God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Elsewhere, St. Paul spoke about “the eyes of our hearts being enlightened.” By this twofold operation of the Holy Spirit, we have the eyes of our hearts opened and enlightened.

Consequently, we can see the things that in our natural selves “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived.” We can see the invisible things of God. We comprehend the spiritual world that surrounds us, which our 103

natural faculties can no more discern than if it did not exist.

We see the eternal world piercing through the veil that hangs between time and eternity. Clouds and darkness no more hide it, and we now see “the glory about to be revealed to us.”

2. To define faith more specifically, it is a divine conviction and manifestation that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” It is also the assurance that “the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me.” By faith (whether we call it the nature of faith or the property of faith), we “receive Christ.” We receive him in all his offices—as our prophet, priest, and king.

It is by faith that Christ “became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

3. Someone may ask, “Is this the ‘faith of assurance’ or the ‘faith of affiliation’?” I answer that Scripture makes no distinction of this kind. Saint Paul said, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” It is certain that faith necessarily involves assurance. (Here, assurance is only another word for conviction; it is difficult to see the difference between them.) Faith is the assurance that Christ “loved me and gave himself for me.” “Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts.” The Holy Spirit “bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God.” And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” He gives us an assurance that he is our Father, and we have a childlike confidence in him.

It needs to be noticed that in the very order of things, assurance goes before confidence. We cannot have a childlike confidence in God until we know we are God’s children. Therefore, as some have supposed, assurance (or confidence, trust, reliance, affiliation, or whatever else it may be called) is not the first aspect of faith. Assurance is the result of saving faith.

4. It is by this kind of faith that “we have been saved.” That is, by faith we are justified and sanctified (taking faith in its highest sense). Now, the third division of our inquiry is the question of how we are justified and sanctified by faith. Because this issue 104

is the main concern of this sermon (and a matter of great importance), it is appropriate to give the matter a special and focused consideration.

III. How We Are Justified by Faith 1. First, let us consider the question, “How are we justified by faith?” In what sense should we understand justification? I answer that faith is the condition, and the only condition, for justification. None are justified other than those who believe; apart from faith no one is justified. Faith is the only condition; faith alone is sufficient for justification. All who believe are justified, whatever else they have or do not have. In other words, no one is justified until he or she believes, and everyone who does believe is justified.

2. You may raise the question, “Does God not also command us to repent? And does he not expect us to ‘Bear fruit worthy of repentance’? Are we not expected to ‘cease to do evil, and learn to do good’? Are not repentance and good works of the utmost necessity, and if we willingly neglect either one can we reasonably expect to be justified at all? If these requirements are necessary, how can you say that faith is the only condition for justification?”

I answer that God does undoubtedly command us to repent and to bear fruit worthy of repentance. And if we deliberately neglect repentance and appropriate works, we cannot reasonably expect to be justified at all. Therefore, both repentance and fruit worthy of repentance are in some sense necessary for justification. Yet they are not necessary in the same sense as faith, nor are they of the same importance.

They are not necessary in the same proportion because they are only conditionally necessary, if there is time and opportunity for them. If these conditions are not present, one can be justified without them.

As an example, I mention the thief on the cross beside Jesus.

(We call this man a thief, but a recent writer has detected that he was not a thief, but a very honest and respectable person.)

Even so, it was not possible that he could have been justified without faith. Similarly, allow that we have ever so much repentance, or ever so many of the fruits worthy of 105

repentance. Without faith, these things will not benefit us at all. One is not justified until one believes. With or without this fruit, however, the instant we believe we are (even with more or less repentance). Repentance and its fruits are only secondarily necessary for faith, whereas faith is immediately and directly necessary for justification. The truth remains that faith is the only condition that is immediately and strictly required for justification.

3. Someone may ask, “Do you believe that we are sanctified by faith? We know that you believe we are justified by faith, but do you not believe and teach that we are sanctified by our good works?”

I answer that for twenty-five years people have openly and fervently charged that I believe and teach that our works sanctify us. However, I have steadfastly declared just the contrary, and in all kinds of ways I have clarified my views. I have continuously testified in private and in public that we are both justified and sanctified by faith. Indeed, one of these great truths clearly illustrates the other. Just as we are justified by faith, so are we sanctified by faith.

Faith is the only condition for sanctification, just as it is for justification. Faith is the condition, and no one is sanctified except the one who believes. Apart from faith, no one is sanctified. Faith alone is the only condition sufficient for sanctification. Everyone who believes is sanctified; whatever else he or she has or does not have. In other words, no one is sanctified until he or she believes, and everyone who believes is sanctified.

4. Perhaps you are thinking, “Is there not a repentance that results from, as well as a repentance prior to, justification?

And is it not compulsory for all who are justified to be ‘zealous for good deeds’? Indeed, are not good deeds so necessary that if we deliberately neglect them we cannot reasonably expect ever to be fully sanctified—this is, ‘made perfect in love’? In fact, without good works, can we ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’? Can we even keep the grace that God has already given us? Can we continue in the faith or in the favor of God that we have received? Do you yourself not acknowledge all this to be true, 106

and do you not constantly assert it? Now, if this is true, how can you say that faith is the only condition for sanctification?”

5. I respond by acknowledging that I do say all these things and I constantly maintain them as God’s truth. I maintain that there is a repentance that both precedes and follows justification. It is obligatory for all who are justified to be zealous for good deeds. Good works are so necessary that if we willingly neglect them, we cannot reasonable expect ever to be sanctified. Without them, we cannot “grow in grace,” advance in the image of God, and have “the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.” No, we cannot retain the grace that we received or continue in faith or in God’s favor.

What conclusion must we draw from what we have said? We deduce that both repentance (rightly understood) and the practice of all good works (works of inward piety and outward mercy), because they come from faith, are in some sense necessary for sanctification.

6. I say “repentance rightly understood” because the repentance needed for sanctification is not the same as that needed for justification. The repentance that follows justification is widely different from the repentance that precedes it. Repentance after justification presupposes no guilt, sense of condemnation or consciousness of God’s wrath. It does not have any doubt of God’s favor or any fear of punishment.

Precisely this kind of repentance is a conviction, formed by the Holy Spirit; that sin remains in our hearts. It is the awareness of “the mind that is set on the flesh” that still remains “even in them that are regenerate.” Sin remains in justified Christians, although it no longer reigns in them or holds dominion over them.

The repentance we are discussing is a conviction that we are prone to evil and that we have hearts “bent on turning away from God.” It is awareness that “what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit.” Unless we continually stay alert and pray, the flesh will reveal pride, anger, love of the world, love of comfort, love of praise, or “the love of pleasure more than the love of God.” Repentance is a conviction of our hearts’ tendencies toward self-will, skepticism, idolatry, and above all, 107

unbelief. In a thousand ways and under a thousand deceptions, we are more or less continuously “turning away from the living God.” 7. With the conviction of sin remaining in our hearts is linked a clear conviction of sin remain in our lives, still clinging to all our words and deeds. In the best of justified Christians, we notice a mixture of sin, in either their spirits, their actions or their attitudes. We observe something that is not able to withstand the righteous judgment of God. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

(Ps. 130:3) Where we least suspect it, we find a pollution of pride and selfwill, or unbelief and idolatry. Justified Christians are more ashamed of their best services than their former worst sins.

Consequently, they cannot help feeling that their best works are far from having anything meritorious in them or from being able to stand the scrutiny of divine justice. If it were not for the blood of the covenant, we would be guilty before God for even our good works.

8. Experience shows that one more thing must be added to the conviction that sin remains in our hearts—clings to all our words and actions, and that we would be guilty if we were not constantly cleaned by Christ’s atoning blood. This additional thing is that our repentance must include a conviction of our helplessness and complete inability in ourselves. We must have God’s free, almighty grace preceding us and accompanying us every moment. In our powerlessness, without God’s help, we cannot think one good thought, form one good desire, speak one correct word, or perform one good deed.

9. You may ask, “But what are the good works that you claim are necessary for sanctification?” I answer, first, that our works of piety should include public, private and family prayer; receiving the Lord’s Supper; searching the Scripture by hearing, reading and meditating; and fasting or abstinence as our health permits.

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10. Second, our works of mercy should include ministering to people’s bodies and souls. These good deeds entail such things as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, showing hospitality to the stranger, and visiting imprisoned, sick and suffering people.

Our good deeds should also include instructing the ignorant, awakening foolish sinners, stirring up the lukewarm, confirming the timid, comforting the fainthearted, supporting those who are being tested, and in every way helping save souls from death. The repentance and the fruits worthy of repentance that are necessary to full sanctification consist of these things. God has ordained that his children do these works while they wait for full salvation.

11. Therefore, we can see the dangerous harm of the seemingly innocent opinion of some people. They say, “There is no sin in a believer. The moment one is justified, all sin is destroyed, root and branch.” This view completely undermines the repentance of believers and totally blocks the way to sanctification. There is no place for repentance in those who believe that they have no sin in their hearts or lives.

Consequently, there is no need to be “perfected in love.” To this end, the repentance of believers is fundamentally necessary.

12. In like manner, it is clear that there is no possible danger in expecting full salvation. Suppose we were mistaken, and suppose no such blessing ever has been or can be attained.

We lose nothing by hoping. The very anticipation of sanctification arouses us to use and develop all the gifts that God has given us. In doing so, when our Lord returns he will “receive what is his own with interest.”

13. Let us now return to our subject. Although we acknowledge that both repentance and its fruits are necessary for full salvation, they are not essential in the same sense or to the same degree as faith. They are not necessary in the same degree because the fruits of repentance are only conditionally required—there must be time and opportunity for them.

Otherwise, one can be sanctified without them. However, we can never be sanctified without faith.

Let someone have ever so much repentance or ever so many good works; these virtues will never benefit as means of 109

sanctification.

Faith is sanctification’s indispensable requirement. The instant one believes—with or without the fruits of repentance, and even with a greater or lesser degree of repentance—that one is sanctified. Repentance and its fruits are not necessary for the continuation and increase of faith. By contrast, faith is immediately and directly essential for sanctification. Faith is the only condition that is closely and necessarily tied to sanctification.

14. The following question may arise: “By what kind of faith are we sanctified—that is, saved from sin and perfected in love?”

First, I answer that this faith is a divine assurance and conviction that God has promised our sanctification in Holy Scripture. Until we are thoroughly satisfied that God did pledge this gift to us, we cannot move one step further. One would think that a reasonable person needs no further word to confirm this promise that the ancient word in Deuteronomy: “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” How clearly this promise expresses being perfected in love! How powerfully it indicates that we can be saved from all sin! As long as love fills the entire heart, what room does it have for sin?

Second, faith is a divine assurance and conviction that God is able to perform what he has promised. We concede that for mortals, it is impossible to bring something that is clean out of something that is unclean and to purify the heart from all sin and fill it with all holiness. Yet, human helplessness creates no obstacle in this matter, because “for God all things are possible.” Certainly, no one ever imagined that this work was possible to any power other than that of God Almighty! If the Lord speaks, it will be done. “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”

Third, sanctifying faith is a divine assurance and conviction that God is able and willing to do it now. And why not? With God, is not a moment the same as a thousand years? God does not need more time to accomplish whatever is his will.

And he does not need to wait for any more worthiness or fitness in the persons who he is pleased to bless. Therefore, at any point in time we can boldly say, “Now is the day of 110

salvation.” “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” “Look, everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.”

15. We need to add one more thing to the confidence that God is both able and willing to sanctify us now. We must have the divine assurance and conviction that he does it. In the very hour that you believe, God completes the work. He speaks to the inmost soul: “According to your faith let it be done to you.”

Then, the soul is pure from every spot of sin, and it is “cleansed from all unrighteousness.” At that point, the believer experiences the deep meaning of these solemn words: “If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

16. This question may arise: “But does God accomplish this great work in the soul gradually or instantaneously?”

I respond by saying that perhaps it can be gradually worked in some people. By this statement, I mean that they do not refer to the particular moment when sin ceased. But it is certainly desirable (if it is God’s will) that we should be sanctified instantaneously and that the Lord would destroy sin “by the breath of his mouth”—“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” Ordinarily, God does so. And for any unprejudiced person there is quite enough evidence to confirm this fact.

Therefore, in every moment, look for your sanctification. Look for it in the way we have described – namely, while doing all those “good works” for which you have been created anew in Christ Jesus.

There is no danger in your expecting God’s work. If you are no better for expecting it, you can be no worse. Even if you were to be disappointed in your hope, you still lose nothing.

But you will not be disappointed in your hope: “It will come and will not delay.” Look for your sanctification every day, every hour, every moment. Why not this hour, in this moment?

Certainly, if you believe that sanctification comes by faith, you can look for it now. In this way, you can know with certainty whether you are seeking it by faith or by works.

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If you are seeking sanctification through your good deeds, you are looking to prior conditions before God sanctifies you. You may think, “I must first be this or do that.” If so, you are seeking sanctification by your works. If you seek it by faith, you may expect it as you are. If so, you can expect it now. It is important to observe that there is an inseparable connection between these three points: Expect it by faith.

Expect it as you are.

Expect it now!

To deny one of these points is to deny them all, and to acknowledge one of these is to allow them all.

Do you believe that we are sanctified by faith? Then be true to your belief and look for this blessing just as you are, neither better nor worse than you are. As a poor sinner, you have nothing to pay or plead except “Christ died for me.” And if you look for sanctification as you are, then expect it now. Wait for nothing. Why should you? Christ is ready. And he is all you want. He is waiting for you. He stands at the door! Let your inmost soul cry out.

Come quickly in, Thou heavenly Guest; Nor ever hence remove, But sup with us, and let the feast Be everlasting love.

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Appendix C EXPLANATORY NOTES Evangelical Methodist Articles of Faith 1. THE WORD OF GOD The Bible is the fully and uniquely inspired Word of God written (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20-21). It is in its entirety the Word of God, given by men inspired by God. The divine initiative, activity, and superintendence in the process of inspiration impart inerrancy to the original documents (Mt. 5:18). By God's supernatural providence the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament canon were preserved with such integrity that for all intents and purposes our translations today are based upon an adequate equivalent to the autographs of Scripture. It constitutes for us today the revealed will of God in written form (Ps.119:11; Mt. 4:4) and the words of Scripture are for us the Word of God (Heb.3:7).

The Bible is our sufficient and final authority for faith and practice (Is. 8:20; Mt. 24:35; Jn. 12:48). Through it the Holy Spirit, Who inspired its writing, continues to illumine (Ps. 119:18; 105; 130), instruct (2 Tim. 3:16-17), convict (Heb. 4:12-13), regenerate (Jam.1:18; I Pet. 1:23), and sanctify (Jn. 17:17 Eph. 5:26).

Whatever is not revealed in or established by the Scriptures cannot be made an article of faith essential to salvation (2 Tim. 3:15-17).

2. THE TRIUNE GOD The one true and living God (1 Ki. 8:60; Is. 43:10-11; Mk. 12:29, 32; 1 Th. 1:9) is the eternal, personal Spirit. He is infinite and unchangeable in power, wisdom, holiness, and love (Is. 6:3; Jam. 1:17). He is the Creator, Sovereign Ruler, and Preserver of all things whether visible or invisible (1 Pet. 4:19; Ps. 103:19; Heb. 1:3). In the divine unity of His Godhead there eternally exists three Persons of one essence, perfection, and power: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mt. 3:16-17; 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).

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3. JESUS CHRIST Jesus Christ is the eternally begotten Son, the second person of the Triune Godhead. He was eternally one with the Father (Jn. 1:1; 10:30) and by the conception of the Holy Spirit was born of the Virgin Mary (Lu. 1:27, 35; Mt. 1:20). Thus, two whole and perfect natures were forever united in one perfect personality in Jesus Christ. He is the eternal Word made flesh, the only begotten Son of the Father, and the Son of Man (Jn. 1:14; Jn. 3:16; Mt. 16:13). He is the God-man, truly and fully God and truly and fully man. He was sinless in life (1 Jn. 3:5). He and He alone was qualified to be our substitute, our Savior (1 Tim. 2:5; Jude 25).

He arose bodily from the dead (1 Cor. 15:17, 20, 23; Ph. 3:21).

He ascended into heaven to the right hand of the Father, the Majesty on high (Acts1:9, 11; Heb. 1:3; 8:1), where He is now enthroned. He will return from heaven in a second personal advent prior to His millennial kingdom (Acts1:11; Heb. 9:28; Re. 20:6). He will be the judge of all men (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1). He will reign in righteousness and will consummate His redemptive mission (Rev.11:15; 22:12-13). This blessed hope of the Christian inspires us to holy living, to missionary witness, and to sacrificial service (Tit.2:13; Lu. 19:13; Mt. 16:27).

4. THE HOLY SPIRIT The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Triune Godhead. He is of one substance with the Father and the Son, from Whom He has proceeded (Jn. 15:26) and is co-equal with them in eternity, grace, and power. It is His ministry to glorify Jesus Christ (Jn. 16:14), and He is ever present and active in the Church of Christ (Jn. 14:16-17). He convicts the world of sin (Jn. 16:7-8), regenerates those who repent and believe (Jn. 3:7-8), and sanctifies and empowers the believers for godly living and service (Rom. 15:16; Acts 1:8).

The Holy Spirit sovereignly bestows and distributes His gifts within His Church (1 Cor. 12:11, 18). No one gift of the Spirit is distributed to all believers (1 Cor. 12:29-30). Individual members of the Church receive a gift of the Spirit for the purpose of ministry and the building of the Church (Eph. 4:12). Sample lists of some of the gifts are listed in Rom. 12:6-8 and 1 Cor. 12:8-10. The Holy 114

Spirit places priority on grace and the fruit of the Spirit above the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1, 12), and among the gifts He places priority on the gifts of prophecy and teaching (1 Cor. 12:28; 14:1-5). Men of God thus gifted by the Spirit (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are named) become God's gift to His Church (Eph. 4:11). The Holy Spirit gives detailed restrictions for the use of only one gift--speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 12-14).

5. MAN, FREE WILL, AND SIN Man was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27) and was innocent and pure (Rom. 5:12). God-likeness included his ability to choose between right and wrong, and he was thus morally responsible (Gen. 3:3; Det. 30:19; Rom. 2:15). By his sinful free choice Adam rebelled against God, fell from his original innocence and purity, and received a fallen and sinful nature (Rom. 5:12).

Each human being today is born with this sinful nature (Ps. 51:5; Gal. 3:22), and by his own sinful deeds has become guilty before God (Rom. 3:11-23). Apart from the regenerating work of God, man today is lost in sin, is dead in his trespasses and sins, and is without God and without hope (2 Cor. 4:3; Eph. 2:1-3, 12).

The grace of God through Jesus Christ is freely bestowed upon all men, enabling all who will to turn from sin to righteousness and through believing on Christ receive pardon and cleansing from sin (Jn. 1:4, 9; Rom. 5:17-18; 1 Jn. 1:9). We therefore have a gospel for all the world so that whoever will, may come (Rev. 22:17), whoever is thirsty may come (Jn. 7:37), and whoever will, can believe and have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16).

The believer is securely kept by the power of God as he abides in vital fellowship with Christ. However, since he continues to be morally responsible to God after his conversion and continues to have free will, it is possible for a Christian to fall away and rebel against God. If he does not return or seek restoration through repentance but persists in his sin and dies in this rebellious state, he will be eternally lost (Eze. 33:12, 13, 18; 18:24; 3:20; Rom. 11:22; Heb. 3:6, 14).

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6. ATONEMENT Jesus Christ made a full atonement for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn. 2:2) by shedding His own blood upon the cross as a perfect and sufficient sacrifice (Heb. 9:13, 14, 26). His sacrifice need never be repeated or anything added to it, for He accomplished salvation once and for all (Heb. 10:10, 14, 15; Jn. 19:30). His vicarious death is the only ground for our salvation (Acts 4:12; 1 Cor. 3:11; 15:3). It is a sufficient atonement for the sins of the whole world (1 Tim. 2:6; 4:10). This atonement is efficacious for the salvation of little children in their innocence and for those irresponsible (Rom. 2:15; 5:13; Mt. 19:13-15). It is efficacious for those who have reached the age of accountability only when they repent and believe the gospel (Acts 3:19).

7. THE NEW BIRTH Repentance is that godly sorrow for sin which results from the convicting work of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 16:7-11; 2 Cor. 7:9). It involves a sensing of personal guilt before God (Ps. 51:4), a voluntary turning away from sin (Acts 26:20; Is. 55:7), and the confessing of sin and making restitution where possible (Pr. 28:13; 1 Jn. 1:9; Eze. 33:15; Lu. 19:8). It is the essential preparation (Mk. 1:15; Mt. 3:8; Acts 3:19; 20:21; 26:20) for saving faith--the simple trust in Christ for salvation (Jn. 20:31; Rom. 1:16; Eph. 2:8).

In the moment of the new birth the person is justified (Rom. 5:1), regenerated (Tit. 3:5), adopted into the family of God (Eph. 1:5; Gal. 4:6-7), and baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). From that moment the believer has the Holy Spirit as his helper and witness (Jn. 14:26; Rom. 8:9, 15, 16).

Justification is the gracious judicial act of God fully acquitting the repenting and believing sinner (Rom. 3:24-26; 5:1). God grants full pardon of all guilt, release from the penalty of sins committed, and acceptance as righteous, not on the basis of the merits or efforts of the sinner, but upon the basis of the atonement by Jesus Christ and the faith of the sinner (Rom. 3:28; Gal. 2:16; Tit. 3:7).

Regeneration or the new birth is the gracious work of God changing the moral nature of the repentant believer from darkness to light, from nature to grace, from death to life, from bondage of 116

sin to liberty in Christ (Acts 26:18; Rom. 6:22; Eph. 2:1; Tit. 3:5).

The believer becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus, is born of the Spirit, and enters into a life of peace with God, obedience to the will of God, and love for all (2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 5:1; 6:13, 18, 19).

Adoption is the gracious act of God by which the justified and regenerated believer is constituted a son of God with the privilege of access to the Father, membership in the family of God, and inheritance with Christ (Jn. 1:12; Rom. 8:15, 17). Justification, regeneration and adoption are simultaneous in the heart of the repentant believer.

The Holy Spirit is the witness to salvation by the inner assurance He imparts to the child of God (Rom. 8:16; 1 Jn. 3:24, 4:13; 5:6, 10; Rom. 8:9), and by the fruit of His life within the soul: peace with God (Rom. 5:1; 8:1), love for the children of God (1 Jn. 3:14, 4:12), joy in Christ (Rom. 15:13; Gal. 5:22; 1 Th. 1:6), the guidance of the Spirit (Ro. 8:14), and righteous conduct (1Jn. 2:35; 3:9-10). Good works are the visible fruit of a life lived in Christ; they are not the condition of salvation but the result of salvation (Eph. 2:8; Jn. 15:8, 16).

8. THE FULLNESS OF THE SPIRIT The fullness of the Spirit is one of several terms used in the Bible to describe that work of grace in the heart of the believer subsequent to the new birth by which he is cleansed from sin and empowered for holy life and service (Acts 2:4; 15:9; 1:8). It has been termed entire sanctification because there is an initial cleansing of the defilement of committed sins in the new birth (Tit. 3:5), because of the wholeness of the commitment necessary for one who would be Spirit-filled (Rom. 12:1-2; 6:13), and because of the wholeness of the cleansing from the defilement of the inner nature which results (1 Th. 5:23-24). The Spirit-filled person is enabled by the indwelling Holy Spirit to love God with his whole being (Mt. 22:37-38; Rom. 5:5), and his neighbor as himself (Mt. 22:37-38; Rom. 5:5), and is enabled to live in true holiness of life (Lu. 1:75; Eph. 5:25-27; Mt. 5:8; Tit. 2:12).

The infilling of the Spirit (entire sanctification, heart purity, the provision of the Spirit, and other terms have also been used) is a definite experience of cleansing and empowering subsequent to 117

the new birth. In responding to God's grace the believer experiences thirst for God's fullness (Jn. 7:37-39), humbles himself (Is. 6:3-7; Rom. 7:24-25), and makes a total consecration (Rom. 6:13, 16, 19). In this moment of total commitment (Rom. 12:1-2) and faith (Acts 26:18), the Holy Spirit cleanses the inner nature of the believer (Acts 15:9), and clothes him with His power (Lu. 24:49; Acts 1:8). Christ thus baptizes with the Holy Spirit (Jn. 1:33; Acts 1:4-5), fulfilling the great "promise of the Father" which is available to every Christian (Lu. 24:49; Acts 1:4; 2:39).

The progressive aspect of sanctification is that process of growth in Christian maturity, Christ likeness, and practical godliness which results from walking obediently in the light (1 Jn. 1:7), from spiritual nurture and discipline (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:17-18), and from repeated infillings of the Holy Spirit and His continuing ministry in the cleansed and yielded believer (Acts 4:31; Eph. 3:19; 5:18; Rom. 8:26).

The Holy Spirit is His own witness in the soul (Rom. 8:16; Heb. 10:14-15). He evidences His holy presence primarily by imparting His holiness to the life of the believer (Eze. 36:26-27; Gal. 5:16; Eph. 1:4 with Rom. 5:5) and producing within the believer the abundant fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-25). The evidence of the Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered life is not the presence of any one gift or manifestation (1 Cor. 12:4, 5, 11).

9. DIVINE HEALING It is the privilege of the believer to ask God to heal those who are sick (Jam. 5:15), for the Lord is interested in our body (1 Cor. 6:13). God’s healing is at times instantaneous, gradual over a period of time, through medical procedures, or the witness of His grace through a life that is not relieved from suffering in this earthly life.

10. RESURRECTION, HEAVEN, AND HELL There will be a resurrection of the body for both the saved and unsaved dead (1 Cor. 15:16-17, 42-44; Jn. 5:29). There will be eternal life and blessedness in heaven for the saved (Jn. 14:2-3; Jn. 3:16) where they will be in the immediate presence of God (Rev. 22:3-4) and will share His eternal reign (Rev. 22:5). There will be eternal death and punishment for the unsaved in hell, the 118

lake of fire (Rev. 20:15), where they shall consciously share the company of the damned (Rev. 21:8) in eternal separation from God (2 Th. 1:9), under the punishing wrath of God (Jn. 3:36) which will be as eternal for the unsaved as life will be for the saved (Mt. 25:46).

11. THE CHURCH AND ITS UNITY The Church is the universal body of Christ composed of all true believers in Christ, with Christ as its head (Col. 1:18). All who are born again are baptized into this one Church by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:12-13). Christ builds His own Church (Mt. 16:18). This Church does not become fractured by the fact that there is more than one denomination, nor does it become one through church union, for there never can be more than one true body of Christ (Eph. 4:4) and its membership record is in heaven, not on earth (Heb. 12:23). All true Christians are members of one another (1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 4:25). It is the responsibility of His Church and of each of its members to obey Christ's Great Commission to it and reach the whole world with the gospel of Christ (Mt. 28:1820; Mk. 16:15; Lu. 24:47-49; Jn. 20:21-22; Acts 1:8).

12. DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE The Bible is the Word of God written (2 Cor. 4:2; Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12). God is truth (Ps. 31:5; Jn. 14:6; 2 Cor. 1:18). He cannot lie (Num. 23:19; Tit. 1:2; Heb. 6:18). The Scripture is breathed by God (2 Tim. 3:16). It is therefore true in its entirety (Dan. 10:21; Jn. 17:17; 2 Tim. 2:15). Christ said it could not be broken (Jn. 10:35). No part of it can fail (Mt. 5:18).

But Scripture is also the word of the writers of Scripture (Jer. 1:1; Amos 1:1; Ph. 1:1). These writers were moved by God in their writing (2 Pet. 1:20-21). Therefore, their word as supervised and inspired by God becomes the Word of God (2 Sam. 23:2; Acts 28:25). Peter classifies all of Paul's epistles with Old Testament Scripture (2 Pet. 3:16), yet Paul, who at one time says, "the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord� (1 Cor. 14:37), writes in the same epistle: "Now this I say" (15:50); "These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred" (4:6); "For I think" (4:9); "Now I have written unto you" (5:11); "But I speak this (6:5); "Now this I say" (1:12); "I speak for your own profit" (7:35).

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Such dual authorship of Scripture is logically necessary. Man needs an authoritative and inerrant guide. No word of man can ever be the Word of God unless the initiative, motivation, providential preparation, and superintending guidance are all by the Holy Spirit (though the man may never realize how fully God's providence has been involved in it all). Yet if it is to benefit man, it must be expressed in the language of man, using through forms and illustrations common to man, and must be related to man's need and experience. If the Bible is to be divine only, God must dictate every word initially and every word of every translation subsequently.

There are divine characteristics of Scripture. There are truths which only God could reveal. There is an amazing unity of Scripture. And there is a moral quality and authority which points to God, its source. Yet there are human characteristics in the Scriptures. Each writer has his own vocabulary, style of writing, expresses his own personality, and illustrates with incidents from his own experience. The variety in education, culture, psychological temperament, and spiritual experience of the several writers is clearly evident. Events reported by several eyewitnesses are reported in different words and with different, though harmonizing, details, just as would be expected from independent reports of honest men.

The mystery of divine inspiration consists in the union of the two in one. Each of the two authorships must be fully recognized, yet they participate in one united act. Each is present without impairment to the other. Each is present throughout the Bible.

The entire Bible is God's Word written by man. No part is less inspired than another, regardless of the various activities that may have been involved in the inspiration. All is regarded by Scripture itself as one united whole-the Word of God. Christ and the apostles made no distinctions between parts of Scripture, but treated all as authoritative. Christ and the New Testament writers accepted all classes of facts as true. Even the most minor or incidental circumstances were often seized upon and validated by the acceptance by Christ and/or His apostles.

A valid though limited analogy is drawn at times by theologians between the divine-human Christ and the divine-human authorship of Scripture. In each case the initiative is with God, in each case both qualities are clearly evident, but in each case the 120

ultimate responsibility and credit go to God. In each case the result is not a conglomerate mixture but a unity. In Christ, the Son is given; the Child is born (Is. 9:6). In the Bible the Word is given; the words are written. The result is not a book containing both the Word plus words, but a book which is all the Word even though it all consists of words. As our Lord was truly human yet free from sin, so Scripture is truly human, yet in its autographs is truly free from error. The two natures in Christ are united in one person, the incarnate Word; the two characteristics in the Scripture are united in one inspired oracle of God, the written Word. To seek to separate the two natures of Christ is to deny the biblical doctrine of Christ; to seek to separate the word of man and the Word of God in the Bible is to deny the biblical doctrine of inspiration which the Bible claims for itself and which Christ fully accepted and endorsed.

There are real mysteries in the biblical doctrines of Revelation and Inspiration. There are also mysteries in the doctrine of the Trinity and in the doctrine of Christ, but there are far fewer difficulties in accepting the truth of a divine revelation and divine inspiration than there are in the contrary view. Difficulties are no proof of untruth but rather the proof of God's mystery or the need of further light and research. The few places involving difficulty are insignificant compared with the total volume of Scripture.

Furthermore, superficial readers, who are weak in the knowledge of the content and unity of Scripture and who have a low view of the principles of biblical hermeneutics, are the ones who are most conscious of these difficulties.

There is no more basic and crucial difference in theology than in the view which accepts the divine authorship of Scripture and the view that denies this. The devotional difference that results from the logical outcome of these views is no less. The evangelistic difference is even more striking. It is contrary to the nature of Christianity for doubt to convert, and doubt cannot transform defeated sinners into radiant and victorious saints of God. The only consistent approach to Scripture, whether in scholarship, devotion, or evangelism, is to approach it as the inspired Word of God received in an attitude of reverent humble faith.

Inspiration may be defined as the process by which the Holy Spirit supernaturally influences and supervises the writing of Scripture.

It is the supernatural ministry of the Spirit by which the inspired 121

person is enabled to communicate the things which God desires to become a part of His written Word without error so that the man's written word becomes the inspired Word of God. The Scripture which is the result of inspiration is clothed with the authority of God and the infallibility of God, and thus becomes the Word of God, so that taken together in its entirety and interpreted by the aid of the same Holy Spirit who inspired it, it becomes adequate to lead man to God so that he may experience God's salvation and fellowship.

Inspiration involves God's superintendence in one or more of a complex of activities. Among the divine activities involved at one time or another in the inspiration of some part of the Word of God are included: 1.

The preparation of human instruments, the authors, before they were inspired.

2.

Guidance in the choice of forms of literary composition-history, poetry, prophecy, parable, drama, proverb, allegory, personification, dogmatic instruction.

3.

Inspiration was often but not always proceeded by divine revelation.

4.

Inspiration often but not always involved illumination.

5.

Inspiration at times involved God's quickening of the memory.

This was specifically promised by Christ where necessary (Jn. 14:26).

6.

Inspiration at times involved God's guidance in the selection of historical incidents to be recorded.

7.

Inspiration at times involved God's guidance in the selection of quotations from conversations and messages.

8.

Inspiration at times undoubtedly involved God's supervisory guidance in the condensation or summarizing of conversations and messages.

9.

Inspiration at times involved guidance in the sequence and logical arrangement of the matters being written.

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10. Inspiration occasionally involved God's giving exact words to be used. For example: "The writing was the writing of God" (Ex. 32:16); "And the Lord said unto Moses, write down these words" (Ex. 34:27); "Thou shalt speak unto them their word (Jer. 13:12); and “Unto the angel of the Church of Ephesus write" (Rev. 2:1).

11. Inspiration occasionally involved God's superintendence of research (Lu. 1:1-3).

12. Inspiration occasionally involved God's discipline of poetic expression.

13. Inspiration often involved God's superintendence of choice of symbolism, figures of speech, and metaphorical expression.

14. Inspiration occasionally involved God's guidance interpretation of historic events, and symbols as types.

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15. Inspiration always involved God's responsibility that the communication be accurate, serve His purpose, and express adequately His thoughts to man, until man's divinely superintended but freely written word becomes in fact the Word of God—God speaking through man to man.

These do not constitute various degrees of inspiration. All truth does not serve the same purpose or have the same value and importance, but all Bible truth is inspired truth. Historical truth is a statement of fact; the thing said may be true or false, but inspiration guarantees that the report is correct. Poetical truth when inspired remains poetry. It must be interpreted by rules of poetry. A high view of biblical inspiration requires a correspondingly high view of biblical hermeneutics. A low view of biblical inspiration tends to divert scholarship away from hermeneutics and exegesis to criticism.

Proverbial truth cannot be judged by the hermeneutical canons for historical narration. Inspired symbolical truth and metaphorical truth is still truth, but it must be judged by the canons of figurative speech. One can but pity the ludicrous mistakes of those who object to the Bible's use of phenomenal truth, which is used in every human language but is no less true, and which is accepted 123

in any court of law. He who objects to the Bible reference to the four-corners of the earth should not object to charges of perjury if in court he refers to an event as having happened an hour after the sun arose. Both idioms are scientifically false, but they are nevertheless phenomenal truth. And then there is cultural truth which must be seen as having literal significance for its cultural milieu. The Bible contains historical truth and symbolical truth; theological truth and poetic truth; phenomenal truth and prophetic truth; cultural truth and spiritual truth—but it is all inspired truth and each must be interpreted according to its own hermeneutical principles. Inspiration does not dictate the literary form; it only preserves the truth of the thought content expressed in the words of that form.

Evangelical, biblical hermeneutics is sometimes termed the "grammatico-historical sense of Scripture, i.e., each verse of Scripture should be interpreted according to the normal grammatical meaning of the words in its particular historical context and according to the literary form used. Figures of speech have their significance only on the basis of an initial literal meaning for each word. It is the combination which requires special interpretation. It has also been called the "literal-culturalcritical" method; i.e., it is based on the science of language, in the context of history and culture, and interpreted by careful exegesis.

Although it is true from one standpoint that the work of exegesis will never end, it is equally true that the plain truth of God's Word is available for the ordinary serious student of Scripture.

The assertion of the infallibility of Scripture is the assertion of two things: 1) the authorship of the Holy Spirit through divine inspiration, and 2) the truthfulness and trustworthiness of God. The infallibility of Scripture does not involve the approbation of all recorded in Scripture, nor the universal applicability of all recorded in Scripture. It applies to the original autographs of Scripture and does not itself touch upon the question of whether our manuscripts today have been preserved in satisfactory trustworthiness. The question is simply this: Does the Holy Spirit inspire in a true and trustworthy manner or not? Does He inspire truth or error? We believe that the God of the Bible, the sovereign ruler of the universe, is able to inspire in such a way that His Word does not include error. Truth is based on unity, rather than on uniformity. Verbal truth does not demand verbal uniformity in multiple accounts, does not demand that each statement be a 124

complete and final statement of truth, but permits the biblical doctrine of progressive revelation; does not demand verbal exactness in quotation; and does not demand scientific preciseness in statements of natural phenomena, but accepts the use of phenomenal language, even as all scientists use in their everyday language. Finally, it must be remembered that difficulties must not be prejudged to be errors. Archeology has cleared up hundreds of questions which critical scholars had raised.

The claim of inspiration and infallibility is made only for the Scripture as inspired by God. Thanks to the science of textual criticism, we have a valid basis for our present translations. We have more manuscripts of the New Testament than of any other volume of antiquity. When the handwritten manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments are compared letter by letter, there are thousands of variations, but most of these are so trivial that only a few hundred make any difference in the sense and most of these do not make any significant difference. None affect any article of faith or any precept of duty which is not made clear by other undisputable passages of the teaching of Scripture as a whole.

Thus for all intents and purposes, we apparently have an adequate equivalent to the autographs of Scripture. We thank God for the painstaking work of textual criticism and the tedious excavations of biblical archeology, and are happy for these to continue. We are, however, able to arrive at a position of great assurance that our present best versions from the original languages are in general substance fully trustworthy as expressive of the original autographs of the original authors.

Since present modern translations are based upon such adequate manuscripts, they possess in general the same essential authority as the original autographs and are the means by which the sovereign God asserts His authority, expresses His will, and gives the church His rule for faith and order. The Holy Spirit blesses the ministry of these to the convictions and conversion of the unsaved and to the edification and sanctification of the church.

The canon of Scripture is the term applied to those sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments which are included in our Bible today. The Old Testament was divided by the Jews into three divisions: 1) the law (the Pentateuch); 2) the prophets, which included the early prophets (the historical books, Joshua-Kings), and the latter prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets); and 3) the writings (Psalms, Proverbs, Job, 125

Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, and the five "Rolls"--Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther). "The writings" were called the Psalms since the Psalms was the first book in this division (Lu. 24:44).

The process of validating the books of the Old Testament for inclusion in the canon was a long one involving primarily the questions of authorship by Moses, the divinely validated prophets, and by certain recognized leaders of Israel; and, secondarily, on the basis of the nature and the contents of the book--thus including its quality and credibility. God's guidance in the selection of the canon was apparently complete and the Old Testament canon closed about a century before Christ. This was the Scripture used by our Lord and accepted and endorsed by Him and His apostles.

The selection by the Early Church of the New Testament books for inclusion within the sacred canon involved their apostolic origin or authorization and their harmony with other Scripture, plus the witness of the Holy Spirit to their inspiration. The Early Church was in the best position to judge the validity of claims to authorship on the basis of eyewitnesses or those who heard the testimonies of an eyewitness. The canonicity is settled on the basis of the testimony of the Early Church as to the authorship of these books. Thus in both Old and New Testaments in the establishment of the canon we have human historical research guided by the Spirit working through the leadership of the Old and New Testament Church.

The canon of Scripture is for the church its rule of faith and is its sufficient and final authority for faith and practice (Is. 8:20; Mt. 24:35; Jn. 12:48). Through it the Holy Spirit, Who inspired its writing, continues to illumine (Ps. 119:18; 105; 130), instruct (2 Tim. 3:16-17), convict (Heb. 4:12-13), regenerate (Jam. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23), and sanctify (Jn. 17:17; Eph. 5:26). Apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Bible has no quickening power for the natural man (1 Cor. 2:14). The law of itself can have a deadening effect (2 Cor. 3:6). The Holy Spirit is always ready to impart His life-giving power in the application of Scripture to man, for Scripture is both the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17) and lifegiving (Jn. 6:63). Whatever is not revealed in or established by the Scriptures cannot be made an article of faith essential to salvation.

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Appendix D BASIC DENOMINATIONAL PRINCIPLES There are certain basic principles that underlie and compel the existence of the Evangelical Methodist Church. They can be summed up in six brief statements: The church is fundamental in belief, pre-millennial regarding the second coming, missionary in outlook, evangelistic in endeavor, cooperative in spirit, and Wesleyan in doctrine.

We are pre-millennial in belief that the second coming of Christ will precede a literal thousand year reign of Christ on earth, and then the end of earthly history will come to a final climax. There will follow a literal new heaven and earth where those who have been washed by the blood of Christ for their sins will live eternally with the Triune God. We mean by fundamental in belief that we take our stand on the Bible as the Word of God—its plenary, unique inspiration and its supreme authority in our lives.

We mean by missionary in outlook that there is a burning desire to keep before the world the size of the plan of redemption, that “He by the grace of God should taste death for every man,� and to hasten under all possible Christian means the salvation of men, and to keep before the church the magnitude of her unfinished task.

By the statement that we are evangelistic in endeavor we mean that we seek the salvation of men through concentrated effort to win them to Christ. That concentrated effort largely is the awakening that comes in revival spirit when the Holy Spirit convicts of sin in either mass evangelism or personal evangelism.

We seek to promote true revivals of religion in our churches as the supreme aim of the church, and relate men to Christ in saving and sanctifying grace.

We are Wesleyan in doctrine means we affirm that salvation is received by faith alone, not human performance, through the grace of God. This grace enables a person to make a choice to receive the message of salvation and be converted to Christ.

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God’s will is for every person to be saved, and Christ’s death was a universal atonement for the sins of all generations. The work of the Holy Spirit through sanctification is progressive throughout life, growing into a mature reflection of Christ to the world. Believers experience a Pentecost that empowers them to be a witness for Christ and cleanses their hearts from self interest in a defining experience of total surrender to God. We are in this life to fully experience the mind of Christ and the perfect love of God that is single focused to serve God and humanity We are cooperative in spirit. We urge and believe that we should cooperate with other like bodies of the evangelical Christian faith and not withdraw ourselves into a closed religious corporation.

The largeness of the undertaking, the brevity of opportunity, the constraining love of Christ, all show that we should cooperate to the fullest with Bible-believing Christians everywhere, and still maintain a deep and abiding loyalty to our own church as a Goddirected and Christ-centered movement for such a time as this.

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