I think the right method of preaching is this. At our first beginning to preach at any place, after a general declaration of the love of God to sinners and his willingness that they should be saved, to preach the law in the strongest, the closest, and the most searching manner possible; only intermixing the gospel here and there, and shewing it, as it were, afar off.... I mean by preaching the gospel, preaching the love of God to sinners,
preaching the life, death, resurrection, and intercession of Christ, with all the blessings which in consequence thereof are freely given to true believers.1
preaching the life, death, resurrection, and intercession of Christ, with all the blessings which in consequence thereof are freely given to true believers.1
Who said these things? Who presented this as his view of preaching
and his definition of preaching the gospel? Who here begins his
statements of gospel preaching as a declaration of a universal love of
God for all men absolutely (common grace) and His will or desire to save
everybody (free offer)?
It was not free offer advocates like Louis Berkhof, Phil Johnson,
Iain Murray, or John Piper. It was that arch-Arminian John Wesley
(1703-1791)!
Even more than Jacob Arminius himself, Wesley has probably done more
to further Arminianism than any other man. Through the 40,000 plus
sermons he preached in Great Britain, Ireland, and America; his vast
writings (including his sermons, journal, and Notes on the New Testament), totaling 32 volumes in one edition; his Arminian hymns (along with those of his brother,
Charles) sung all over the world; the many ministers his movement
produced, including lay preachers and women preachers, on all
continents; the many societies and churches he established or spawned
across the world—Wesley has promoted global Arminianism more than any
other.
He provided the seeds not only for the Methodist movement and other
Arminian churches, but also for the Holiness movement (for his
Arminianism led him to embrace and promote perfectionism), as well as
for Pentecostalism and Charismaticism (which are typically Arminian and
which develop Wesley’s endorsement and promotion of charismatic
phenomena, such as dreams, visions, healings, “gifts,” etc.), with
their many respective churches and numerous denominations across the
world.
No wonder Wesley had to “gut” the Thirty-Nine Articles, the
confession to which he was sworn as an Anglican minister! His
unfaithfulness to his ordination vows and creed have also been widely
followed throughout the church world. Many are the ways in which he has
sought to undo the Reformation! The wise words of Solomon certainly
apply to John Wesley: “almost in all evil in the midst of the
congregation” (Prov. 5:14).
Centuries after his death, Wesley continues to be the darling of
millions of Arminians and even, sadly, professed Calvinists, the world
over. The latter would have especially pleased him for he hated the
gospel of particular grace, calling it a “blasphemy” that represents
“God as worse than the Devil, as both more false, more cruel, and more
unjust.”2
John Wesley sought to weaken and destroy the truth of the sovereignty
of God in any way he could, even resorting to condensing, distorting,
and falsifying Augustus Toplady’s 134-page book Absolute Predestination into
a 12-page tract, ending with these scurrilous words: “The sum of all is
this: One in twenty (suppose) of mankind are elected; nineteen in
twenty are reprobated. The elect shall be saved, do what they will; the
reprobate will be damned, do what they can. Reader believe this or be
damned. Witness my hand, A- T-.” Toplady neither wrote nor held any such
thing. Wesley biographer Stephen Tomkins is right: “Now this fraud had
proved [Wesley] a criminal worthy to be transported to America if not
hanged.”3 Toplady understandably declared of John Wesley: “I believe him
to be the most rancorous hater of the gospel system that ever appeared
in England.”4
Earlier in the letter from which the quotation at the very beginning
of this article was taken, Wesley rightly declares that the nature of
the gospel to be preached is a “very important” issue: “I have had many
serious thoughts concerning it, particularly for some months last past;
therefore I was not willing to speak hastily or slightly of it, but
rather delayed till I could consider it thoroughly.”5
And what was his conclusion? The Arminian Wesley does not here define
the gospel as universal atonement or the opportunity that man can be
saved if he uses his free will aright. Rather, Wesley, after “many
serious thoughts” and “some months” of thorough consideration, distils
and defines the Arminian gospel as “a general declaration of the love of
God to sinners and his willingness that they should be saved”—the very
gospel of common grace and the free offer so beloved of many professing
Calvinists!
*Rev. Angus Stewart
The Standard Bearer, Volume 90 No. 12, pp. 285-286
*Rev. Stewart is pastor of the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland. This article appeared first in the British Reformed Journal, issue no. 59
1 Quoted in Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in England, Book 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), I:152-153; italics mine.
2 Quoted in Stephen Tomkins, John Wesley, A Biography (Oxford: Lion Publishing, 2003), p. 78.
3 Tomkins, John Wesley, p. 170.
4 Quoted in Tomkins, John Wesley, p. 173.
5 John Wesley's letter to Ebenezer Blackwell, dated 20 December, 1751 (http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-letters-of-john-wesley/wesleys-letters-1751/).
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