Original Sin in Methodism

by Steve | Dec 8, 2023 | Nov-Dec 2023

Original Sin in Methodism –

By Paul Stallsworth – 

Since congregations and clergy began disaffiliating from The United Methodist Church, those remaining United Methodist have been defensively repeating this mantra: “Our doctrinal standards have not changed and will not change. So there is no need to depart.”

But what if most United Methodists do not give a darn about our church’s doctrinal standards? Or they do not even realize such standards exist? What if that is our status quo?

This article attempts to swim against the stream. What follows attends to one doctrinal standard of The United Methodist Church: the doctrine of original sin.

In Romans 5:12, St. Paul plants the truth of original sin in the Church’s apostolic faith: “sin came into the world through one man…” (NRSV). Original sin is the sin of Adam, which is born in all human beings who follow Adam. This doctrine asserts not only the contagion of Adam’s corrupting sin to all of humanity but also the Fall’s catastrophic impact on all of creation. This world is broken, as is every person in it.

Original Sin Goes Away. When was the last time you heard a sermon on original sin? Better yet, when was the last time you heard original sin even mentioned in a sermon? A long time ago. Right? This phrase, original sin, seems to have been banished from United Methodist sanctuaries, if not from the everyday United Methodist vocabulary.

There is a reason – an historical reason – why original sin is among Today’s Least Popular Sermon Topics. Here is one way to tell that story.

In the early 1900s, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) was a young pastor in Detroit. Later he became an influential professor and public theologian at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. His sermons were so eagerly followed that they were sometimes covered by The New York Times on page one. Niebuhr was gifted at taking biblical categories and truths, and applying them to the social and political realities of his time and place.

Unlike many American theologians of that time, Niebuhr took sin seriously. Dr. Sidney Ahlstrom (1919-1984), in his Religious History of the American People (Yale University Press, 1972), wrote this about Dr. Niebuhr: “Above all, [Niebuhr] sought to make [people] fully aware of the depths of human sinfulness” (p. 942).

In 1939, Reinhold Niebuhr delivered the Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh University in Scotland. The lectures were later published in two volumes under the title The Nature and Destiny of Man (Niebuhr’s book titles are rather grandiose). In his Preface to The Nature and Destiny of Man, Niebuhr reflected: “I believed and still believe that human evil, primarily expressed in undue self-concern, is a corruption of its essential freedom and grows with its freedom. Therefore, every effort to equate evil purely with the ignorance of the mind and with the passions of the body is confusing and erroneous. I used the traditional religious symbols of the ‘Fall’ and of ‘original sin’ to counter these conceptions. My only regret is that I did not realize that the legendary character of the one [‘Fall’] and the dubious connotations of the other [‘original sin’] would prove so offensive to the modern mind…” (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1943/1964, Vol. I, p. viii, emphasis added).

Reinhold Niebuhr’s brother, H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962), described the liberal theology, which his brother often challenged, as “vacuous.” Furthermore, H. Richard provided that memorable summary of liberal theology: a “God without wrath brings men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross” (The Kingdom of God in America, 1937). (Thanks to Dr. James V. Heidinger II for his reference to H. Richard Niebuhr in his excellent book The Rise of Theological Liberalism and the Decline of American Methodism [Seedbed, 2017].)

According to Dr. Joshua Mitchell of Georgetown University, as early as the middle of the Second World War, Reinhold Niebuhr realized that he had failed to return original sin to the faith and message of the Protestant churches in the United States.

Original Sin Goes Woke. Evicted from then-mainline Protestant churches, the doctrine of original sin did not die. Dr. Mitchell reports: “People have abandoned the churches because the churches wanted the God of Love but not the God of Judgment. So the churches have gone their merry way speaking [only] about … God as love. But if the Bible is right, the first human experience is the experience of transgression [or sin; think Adam and Eve or original sin], [and if] the churches’ turn away from it, the people will look for a way of thinking through transgression that the churches are not offering.”

Leaving the Church of the God of Love, sniffing around for an account of transgression, some of the seekers wandered into the realm of politics. In identity politics, people learn that the world should be divided into the innocent and the guilty, the pure and the impure, the sin-free and the sin-full. The innocent are not corrupted by original sin. Only the guilty are stained and twisted and corrupted by the sin of Adam. Needing a way to be forgiven, the guilty are forever dealing with, and striving to overcome, their guilt.

So the identity groups willingly take out their rage, that stems from their experience of injustice, on those they deem guilty of original sin. These identity groups scapegoat a particular group, and they take out their suffering, betrayal, and anger on that scapegoated group. This scapegoating never leads to reconciliation or resolution or even conclusion. This scapegoating goes on and on and on.

Original Sin Returns to the Gospel. The Church’s historic faith is dramatically, totally different from identity-group ideology that divides the innocent from the guilty, the pure from the impure. The Church’s holy scripture declares the words of St. Paul: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, NRSV). The Church’s apostolic faith declares: the sin of Adam is the sin of every person (except Jesus Christ).

The truth of original sin is buried in The United Methodist Church’s doctrinal standards. These standards are seldom studied, read, or consulted. Even so, Article VII in The Articles of Religion addresses original sin. It boldly declares: “Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually” (Book of Discipline [2016], Paragraph 104. Section 3, p. 67).

Therefore, for Methodists, original sin is not about making a few bad choices, here and there, throughout life – especially before age 30. Original sin is not about living like Adam. That downplays the cataclysmic impact of Adam’s Fall on all of humanity and on all of creation.

Original sin is about the corruption – corruption! – of every human being.

• That corruption originates with Adam and Eve, and it is passed to all.

• That corruption pushes every person far from original righteousness, from God.

• That corruption bends our nature – our heart, mind, and body – toward evil.

• That corruption directs us toward evil in a continuing way.

Article VIII – Of Free Will follows Article VII. This article on free will actually asserts that natural humanity, apart from God, does not have free will! The article warns that each and every human being is so corrupt that, on our own, we cannot choose to leave evil behind. On our own, we cannot resolve morally and spiritually to improve ourselves. On our own, we cannot decide to repent. Without God’s help, we cannot have faith in God. Without God’s grace, we cannot love God or our neighbor.

Because of original sin, lacking free will, humanity is stuck in sin and corruption, evil and death. According to the doctrinal standards of The United Methodist Church, each and every person has no escape from original sin. That is misery.

Into this misery comes the Word: “‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’” (John 3:16, NRSV).

God the Father sends God the Son, Jesus Christ, into this world, into history, into Israel. At the end of his public ministry, dying on a cross outside Jerusalem, Jesus accepts onto himself the sins of the world. Jesus becomes the scapegoat for all – not just those deemed guilty by identity groups.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted: “While we are distinguishing the pious from the ungodly, the good from the wicked, the noble from the mean, God makes no distinction at all in his love for the [fallen] man. He does not permit us to classify men and the world according to our own standards and to set ourselves up as judges over them” (Ethics, p. 71).

As the love of God, Jesus pays the price for the sins of all – not just for the sins of one group.

“He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free; his blood can make the foulest clean; his blood availed for me” (“O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”).

Paul Stallsworth is a United Methodist elder in the North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church. Retired from pastoral ministry, he leads the Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality and edits its newsletter Lifewatch (which concerns Christ and His Church, life and abortion, and marriage and sexuality). With his wife Marsha, he lives in Wilson, North Carolina. This article first appeared in Lifewatch (www.lifewatch.org). To contact the ministry, email Lifewatch@charter.net. Reprinted here by permission. Photo of Rev. Stallsworth by Krystal Baker. Photo: Shutterstock.

Thank You From A Christmas Charity Kid

by Steve | Dec 8, 2023 | Nov-Dec 2023

Thank You From A Christmas Charity Kid –

By Elizabeth Glass Turner – 

Have you ever bought and donated Christmas presents for kids through an Angel Tree project or local congregational initiative?

If so, let me say Thank You for all the kids opening Lego sets, Frozen books, baby dolls, new Minecraft pajamas, Doc McStuffins blankets, Hot Wheels haulers, brand-new sneakers, and unicorn mittens on Christmas morning.

If you’ve only experienced the grace of giving at Christmas, but you’ve never had to accept the grace of receiving basic needs from anonymous donors, maybe you’ve wondered whether any of it makes a difference. It’s easy to grow cynical or weary; to feel overwhelmed by the scope of need; to feel stung by a child’s defensive guardian.

But kids don’t choose whether their family should pay the utility bill or the grocery bill; kids aren’t responsible for the economy; kids don’t get a say on their parent’s choices.

I was that kid.

So for all The Kids, Thank You. We felt your kindness, your generosity, your community.

Do Christmas Toy Drives Promote Materialism? Most of us in the U.S. know someone who grew up in the Great Depression. Most of them knew hunger and lack; some were malnourished.

My Grandpa hated rice. As a child in the 1930s, his large family depended on rice for meals and he’d long since had his fill. One gentleman I know who grew up in the Depression told me of foraging for edible greens in yards and ditches; decades later, he still recalled his intense dislike of the taste and unpleasant side effects.

If you’ve always had “enough” or more than “enough,” part of your household discipleship and stewardship practices will involve simplicity and self-denial. That’s right, good, and appropriate. It’s the way of Jesus.

At the same time, every Christmas, there are those suggesting ways to fight materialism: give your kids only two presents each, give an experience rather than goods, give only books this year. Those can be great practices that enhance intentionality about values, consumption, expenditures, and community – for those with “enough.”

But imagine preaching a sermon on materialism in the 1930’s to the kid foraging for greens so the family had something to eat. It assumes a lot to address materialism to a broad audience. I didn’t grow up in the Depression, but I know the strangeness of being a kid whose basic needs are a stretch for the household budget and hearing sermons that assume everyone in a congregation is middle or upper-middle class. (Even in a reflection like this, I write primarily to North American readers accustomed to established infrastructure, some safety nets, and community programs like Angel Trees; at the same time, some of our sisters and brothers leading churches in other parts of the world are praying for urgent provision without established infrastructure, safety nets, or multiple community programs.)

In our cultural context and setting, my family had very little (I didn’t visit a dentist until I was nearly twelve). One wintry Christmas an older couple from church stopped by with toys for me and my little brother – a gorgeous doll and heavy green toy tractors. That same kind woman later gave me free piano lessons; she invited us over for roast beef; she knew I loved to read and brought me books; she brought us souvenir toys from her trip to Greece, igniting my imagination about faraway places. We didn’t have many toys, or a budget for music lessons, or grocery money for pricy protein, or more than one household vehicle for unplanned trips to the library.

So when you choose some numbered paper angels labeled things like Boys’ winter boots, size 6 or Girl age 4: Sesame Street toys, what are snapshots of life beyond the paper angel?

Sometimes Christmas clothes were the only brand-new clothes we owned in a long line of ill-fitting hand-me-down’s. (There were times I entered “take your shoes off” households and felt extremely self-conscious of the holes in my socks, covering one foot with the other.)

Sometimes we had few toys that were new or reflected our interests. (If a toy drive allows, consider including extra batteries; a parent working three jobs may not have money or time to add batteries to the shopping list.)

Sometimes we didn’t have construction paper or craft supplies or a shelf stacked with board games. (Have you ever bought a puzzle from a garage sale only to get home and discover pieces are missing?)

It’s not materialism to hope for shoes that don’t pinch your growing feet; it’s not greed to eat when your growing body’s stomach rumbles.

One of the beautiful, uncomfortable dynamics in the Book of Acts lies at the heart of Pentecost, at the birth of the church: believers from all classes and backgrounds jumbled together. All of them proclaimed faith in Jesus Christ; all equally received the mysterious power of the Holy Spirit; all needed the spiritual gifts of others to function as the body. When the church broadly speaking is healthy today, we see a similar “kingdom” jumble of incomes and backgrounds.

So what might be materialistic excess for one household is a means of grace for another. If you have enough, give more, and be thankful; if you lack, receive, and be thankful. In both, the name of Jesus Christ will be glorified.

The Preserving Grace of Insulation against Lack, Trauma. Whether or not a child ever knows a gift came from a person of faith, that gift is a stabilizing, preserving grace.

Bringing good things to the children of a community is a work of mercy. For Christians at Christmas, we can remember how the Roman Emperor Julian described early Christians in the 300’s. Julian complained Christians were making pagans look bad, because Christians were caring not only for their own poor people but pagan poor people as well.

Sometimes kids never know someone donated the presents under their tree. That’s fine; it doesn’t matter. Their feet have new winter boots, their minds have new books even if a broken-down vehicle won’t get them to the library every week. This is the grace that preserves. This grace is for a parent or guardians who love deeply but have little. Honoring the dignity of others is a gift.

Sometimes kids know people in the community donated presents, but they don’t know who gave them. That’s fine; it doesn’t matter. Their feet have boots, their minds have books. This grace preserves. In the face of uncertainty, grace strengthens trust and goodwill: the community beyond the front door shows children they’re valued by people they’ve never met.

Sometimes kids are part of a congregation and see their own wish list items on a bulletin board. And their feet have boots, their minds have books to read. This grace preserves – and it preserves in multiple directions and dimensions, one part of the long story of good news Mary prophesied: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant…he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy…” (Luke 1:46-48a; 52-54).

Jesus’ birth is good news for poor kids. Jesus was raised by people who made the low-income bracket offering at the temple. Jesus grew up knowing the adverse childhood experience of suddenly needing to leave home to flee political violence, as Joseph and Mary took the toddler Jesus away from familiar surroundings and fled as refugees to Egypt.

Later, the Son of God sat on a hill looking at people whose stomachs rumbled and made sure everyone – senior citizens, teenagers with roaring metabolisms, pregnant mothers, toddlers like he’d been once – everyone ate their fill. When everyone had their fill, Jesus made sure there were leftovers to tide them over on the way home.

At church and at home, I learned that the Word became flesh, born to a low-income household. If you’ve ever been self-conscious about the loud muffler on the family car, if you’ve ever gotten smirks at your budget haircut, there’s something profoundly moving about knowing God chose to grow up with poor people. It wasn’t the nanny of the well-to-do who taught Jesus to walk. Raised in a low-income household, Jesus made himself at home with the kids who look forward to church potlucks because they can eat as much as they want.

One year, I saw my Christmas wish items pinned to a church bulletin board; I felt relief when those papers were gone from the cork surface; someone had “adopted” those pieces of paper – my pieces of paper.

When my mother was gravely ill and nearly died, she faced a long recovery. A procession of casseroles and covered dishes appeared at our front door. The foil-covered spaghetti sent a quiet message to my terrified mind: “it’s okay, whatever happens, we’ve got you.”

Part of what I learned from filled wish lists and casseroles was that the good news I heard about in church was good news here and now in tangible ways I could taste, physical ways I could unwrap: “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).

This was powerful, preserving grace that mattered, because the woman who brought the toys one year always treated my family with dignity and respect.

But not everyone did. It was years before I told my mother what a former neighbor kid said one day while playing outside. I’d been in their house once and knew the girl had some cool toys.

“Can we go inside and play?”

“No. Last time my Mom said, ‘they’re poor and they’re dirty, don’t bring her inside again.’”

Maybe my shoes had been muddy, I don’t know; I was a young child. I felt like I’d been smacked. I knew I was a good student; I knew I was polite. I stopped playing with the girl.

But kids can be remarkably perceptive to adults’ attitudes, even without other kids quoting their parents (… and they do). Kids can have a keen radar for adults who have opinions about their household, about their parent or guardians, about their circumstances. And kids can’t eat your opinions about the housing market or play with your opinions about their families – whoever they are, whatever their background.

Thankfully, when I heard the neighbor’s stinging comment, I’d already been wrapped up and insulated in layers of preserving grace that had been at work quietly whispering that the good news of Jesus was for poor kids like me – and it was here and now, tastable and unwrappable.

A doll or a book may not seem like much. But play is essential for childhood well-being – especially in households with trauma. Literacy is essential for future growth, development, and dreams.

Holiday food drives and toy drives make a difference (though they aren’t wide-reaching solutions). If a nation has so much edible food that a significant percentage of what’s produced is destroyed, wasted, or lost at the farm or distribution level annually, does that nation not have enough food to send home with every school kid each weekend, enough to deliver weekly to every senior citizen living on $1,100 a month? If a nation can afford to neglect pursuing proportionate tax revenue from residents so wealthy their assets defy average citizen comprehension, can that nation not afford pro-family policies like a child tax credit? (See John Wesley’s Thoughts on the Present Scarcity of Provisions.)

But while we work out the avenues and means of neighborly flourishing, be assured your Christmas generosity makes a difference.

When you help a child experience preserving grace, you help stabilize their world in the midst of instability that’s beyond their control (and sometimes beyond their parents’ control). That preserving grace helps insulate children from unkindness, bullying, and adversity. The early Wesleyan Methodists were known for valuing low-income kids, teaching them to read and fighting against child labor. The heart of Christ beams with joy when we take his words seriously: “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

So for all the kids on the other side of the paper angels, this Christmas I want to say Thank You. Don’t give up or grow weary in doing good; there will be people in heaven because of generous, preserving grace that delivered hope in the shape of canned cranberry sauce, unicorn blankets, and winter boots that fit.

Elizabeth Glass Turner is a frequent and treasured contributor to Good News. She is a freelance writer and editor. Elizabeth has a degree in Theological Studies from Asbury Theological Seminary. Art: Photo by Jonathan Borba via Pexels.com.

On Contemporary Wesleyan Essentials

by Steve | Dec 8, 2023 | Nov-Dec 2023

On Contemporary Wesleyan Essentials –

By David F, Watson – 

“In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity.”

Christians have recited this maxim at least since the seventeenth century. There is real wisdom here. It does, however, compel us to ask the question, “Which of our faith claims are essentials?” As Methodists, we can divide this question into two parts.

First, we can ask which claims are essential for Christians broadly speaking – essential for the Church universal. Second, we can ask which claims define us particularly as Methodists. These are matters we Methodists have wrestled with publicly for at least the last century, and it will help us to gain clarity on them as we proclaim the Good News in the post-Christian West.

Getting at the “Essentials.” Like most other Western Christians, Methodists experienced the pressures of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy in the early years of the twentieth century. Fundamentalism, with its insistence upon both biblical inerrancy and premillennialism, wasn’t always a good fit for Methodists, even conservative ones (see Matthew’ Sichel’s article, “Methodist Fundamentalists and Modernists: A New Look at an Unfinished Controversy,” in Firebrand, Nov. 22, 2022).

In 1922, Harold Paul Sloan (1881-1961), a leading member of the New Jersey Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, published a work called Historic Christianity and the New Theology (The Pentecostal Publishing Company, 1922). In this work, Sloan proposed six affirmations he deemed essential for Christian faith:

• The Bible: A divine supernatural revelation brought to its climax in Christ through his apostles, which abides as the only and sufficient rule of faith and practice.

• Depravity: That at the beginning of history man sinned and fell, and that as a result he is universally abnormal in his moral and spiritual life, capable of being restored only by a supernatural work of God.

• The Incarnation: That the Eternal Son of God took on himself human nature in the womb of the Virgin.

• The Atonement: That by his death on the cross Jesus achieved forgiveness of sin for all who will believe.

• Justification by faith alone: That by a personal and ethical trust in the grace of God at the point of Christ’s redeeming work man receives complete salvation; and that salvation is conditioned by such a faith and by nothing else. Good works thus become the fruit, and not the condition of salvation.

• Regeneration: a supernatural work of God whereby we are spiritually renewed and made to feel the reality and glory of the moral and spiritual universe, and of God and of our Savior.

• The Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection and the final judgment.

Rather than identifying with the fundamentalist movement, Sloan called his position “essentialism.” His affirmations regarding biblical inspiration and atonement allowed for more latitude than those of the fundamentalists. In good Methodist form he added belief in the depravity of humankind, justification by faith, and regeneration.

The six essentials Sloan listed constituted a proper rendering of Methodist doctrine. Yet while he did have some success in his lifetime leading the essentialist movement, even publishing a journal called The Essentialist, Methodist essentialism does not seem to have outlasted him. Hence we see the Rev. Charles Keysor (1925-1985) making a similar proposal forty-four years later.

The Good News renewal ministry was born out of Keysor’s 1966 article, “Methodism’s Silent Minority” (Christian Advocate 10.14 [1966], 9-10; for more on this history, see  James V. Heidinger II, The Rise of Theological Liberalism and the Decline of American Methodism, Seedbed, 2017). In this article, Keysor writes that this minority is “not represented in the higher councils of the church…. Its concepts are often abhorrent to Methodist officialdom at annual conference and national levels.” It consists of “those Methodists who are variously called ‘evangelicals’ or ‘conservatives’ or ‘fundamentalists.’ A more accurate description is ‘orthodox,’ for these brethren hold a traditional understanding of the Christian faith.” He describes “a deep intolerance toward the silent minority who are orthodox” and notes the great irony of such intolerance within a denomination so focused on ecumenism.

To define the most basic claims of orthodoxy, Keysor referred to the “five fundamentals,” a term coined at the Niagara Bible Conference of 1895 and utilized by fundamentalist groups over the next century. The five fundamentals Keysor lists are: (1) inspiration of Scripture, (2) the virgin birth of Christ, (3) the substitutionary atonement of Christ, (4) the physical resurrection of Christ, and (5) the return of Christ. He thus draws upon common evangelical affirmations, though unlike most renderings of the “five fundamentals” he affirms the inspiration of Scripture, but not its inerrancy. Keysor was not truly a fundamentalist, but, like Sloan, an essentialist.

Do We Need Essentialism? Some might suggest that Methodist essentialism was unnecessary. After all, we already have the Articles of Religion and, beginning in 1968, the Confession of Faith. Since we have these statements of doctrine, why would we need to identify a list of “essentials”? Others will insist that essentialism was too rigid. Methodism, they will say, is a faith in which we “think and let think.”

As for the first of these objections, we do indeed have doctrinal standards. Why, then, would we need a list of “essentials”? One reason is that the Articles and Confession sometimes use rather technical theological language and offer more detailed descriptions of our beliefs than can be easily memorized. Put differently, they aren’t the most user-friendly documents in the world. It can thus be helpful to supplement them with a short, accessible account of our basic truth claims. As for the second objection, the idea that Methodism is non-creedal is simply a convenient fiction. It is not true, nor has it ever been. The Articles of Religion, the Confession of Faith, Wesley’s sermons, and his Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament presuppose the creedal faith of the Great Tradition.

Methodism has long been in an identity crisis, and both Sloan and Keysor recognized this. While the fundamentalist-modernist controversy doesn’t map neatly onto Methodism, we Methodists have been divided between those who wish to revise the long-held teachings of the faith and those who wish to preserve them.

The crisis has not been one of simply defining Methodist belief, but Christian belief. Who is the God we worship? What is this God like? Who is Jesus? What is his significance? In what kind of actions does God engage? Is God capable of, and willing to, act directly and powerfully in our lives? These kinds of questions characterize the debate between theological liberalism and theological orthodoxy that began in the eighteenth century. Sloan and Keysor stood up for the apostolic faith handed on to us across the centuries, and we owe them a debt of gratitude.

Christian Essentials and Methodist Essentials. While I appreciate the efforts of Sloan, Keysor, and other like-minded Christians, I don’t think there is a need to create a new list of Christian essentials. It is nothing new to create short statements summarizing the essential truth claims of Christian faith. The early church did this with the Rule of Faith, and later with creeds. The Apostles’ Creed, a baptismal creed, is the best example of this. It affirms God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and then affirms belief in the church, the communion of saints, forgiveness, the resurrection of the body (Jesus’ and ours), and eternal life. This creed has served the church across the centuries, and it suffices as a statement of basic Christian truth claims. If we want to identify the basic contours of Christian orthodoxy, the Apostles’ Creed is a time-honored guide.

But what about Methodism? Methodism is more than mere orthodoxy. It involves (or should involve) assent to the Great Tradition of Christian faith embodied in her creedal tradition, but it also has its own particular emphases. In other words, Methodists, Calvinists, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics can all recite the Apostles’ Creed, but we also hold certain beliefs that mark us out as distinct communities of faith. Sometimes we hold beliefs clearly different from one another.

Calvinists hold that individuals are predestined for heaven or hell. Methodists do not believe this. Roman Catholics believe that the bread and wine of the Eucharist become the actual body and blood of Christ. Methodists do not believe this, though we do affirm the real presence of Christ in communion. Often, however, we simply differ in what beliefs we emphasize. For example, most Christian traditions affirm some form of sanctification, but for Methodists this belief is particularly important.

What, then, are those beliefs and emphases that mark us off as a community of faith? In the spirit of Sloan and Keysor, I suggest the following list of Methodist essentials. Please note, though, that I’m only dealing with doctrinal issues here. There are other issues of organization and church governance, such as connectionalism and bishops, that are also important, but not strictly matters of doctrine. (On bishops, for example, I addressed the issue in, “‘A Spirit of Governance’: On Bishops in the Global Methodist Church,” for Firebrand, January 10, 2023.)

1. Depravity – All human beings labor inescapably under the power of sin, and only by the grace of God can we repent and turn to Christ.

2. The Freed Will – Through preventing (or prevenient) grace, God makes it possible for us to turn from sin and accept Jesus Christ.

3. Justification by faith – We are made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

4. Sanctification – By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can experience the new birth. God will begin to restore the divine image within us that has been tarnished by sin. We should expect even to experience the gift of perfect love (Christian perfection, or entire sanctification).

5. Sacramentalism – Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are means of grace, whereby the Holy Spirit empowers us and leads us into salvation.

6. Scripture – Scripture is inspired by God to lead us into salvation. It is the true rule of Christian faith and practice, infallible in all matters related to salvation and the attendant life.

Moving Forward. No group, and particularly no faith community, can thrive without a clear sense of its identity and purpose. For a time, Methodists in America could count on the momentum generated by the rapid growth of the movement during the Second Great Awakening. We could rely as well on a culture that was friendly to Christian belief and where being a Christian was broadly seen as a good thing. Times have changed. The church of yesterday isn’t coming back. We’re going to have to be as clear about who we are, what we believe, and what our goals are as those first Methodists who gathered around John Wesley in the mid-eighteenth century.

The fields are white and ready to harvest, but are we ready to harvest them? If we’re going to preach the good news, we’re going to have to know and understand the good news ourselves. . 

David F. Watson is Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He is the lead editor of Firebrandmag.com and an elder in the Global Methodist Church. Art: Stipple engraving of John Wesley by Francesco Bartolozzi after Johann Zoffany, 1760.

With Faith, Pondering Death

by Steve | Dec 8, 2023 | Nov-Dec 2023

With Faith, Pondering Death –

By Terry Mattingly – 

There was nothing unusual, in the early 1970s, about a student hearing one of his professors preach during chapel.

But one sermon – “How Would You Like to Die?” – impressed the seminarian who would later become United Methodist Bishop Timothy Whitaker of Florida. Theologian Claude H. Thompson had terminal cancer and, a few months later, his funeral was held in the same sanctuary at the Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.

“What hit me was that he calmly preached on that subject – even while facing his own death,” said Whitaker, reached by telephone. “It hit me that if death is one of the great mysteries of life, then that needs to be something that the church openly discusses. …

“Yes, we live in a culture that is reluctant to talk about death. But I decided that it’s important for us to hear from our elders who are facing this issue, head on.”

Thus, soon after doctors informed him that his own cancer is terminal, Whitaker wrote a lengthy online meditation, “Learning to Die.” The 74-year-old bishop is retired and receiving hospice care, while living in Keller, a small town near the Virginia coast.

“Being a pastor, I considered it a privilege and also an education to linger beside many deathbeds. I have tried to never forget that, unless I die abruptly in an accident or with a heart attack or stroke, sooner or later the subject of death will feel very personal to me,” he wrote. Now, “in the time that remains for me I have one more thing to learn in life, which is to die. … I had always hoped that I would be aware of the imminence of my death so that I could face it consciously, and I am grateful that I have the knowledge that I am going to die soon.”

Certainly, Whitaker noted, the Orthodox theologian Father Thomas Hopko was correct when he quipped, while facing a terminal disease: “This dying is interesting.”

Dying is also complicated – raising myriad theological questions about eternity, salvation, and the mysteries of the life to come, he noted. The Bible, from cover to cover, is packed with relevant stories, passages, and images. The same is true of the writings of early church leaders who preached eternal hope, even when suffering persecution and martyrdom. Over and over, the saints proclaimed their belief in the resurrection of Jesus.

Whitaker noted that Methodists can ponder this quote from their pioneer John Wesley: “But what is the essential part of heaven? Undoubtedly it is to see God, to know God, to love God. We shall then know both His nature, and His works of creation and providence, and of redemption. Even in paradise, in the intermediate state between death and resurrection, we shall learn more concerning these in an hour, than we could in an age, during our stay in the body.”

But what about the big questions that modern believers may struggle to ask? What about their fears of living with a terminal disease and the complicated questions surrounding death itself?

Early Methodists believed that preparing for death was simply part of life, and outsiders noted that “Methodists die well,” said Whitaker, in the telephone interview. The problem in churches today is that dying is often viewed as “a counseling issue,” or merely a “therapeutic challenge” for busy clergy.

For centuries, Christians developed rites linked to what they called the “good death,” or even the “happy death,” he noted. While millions now shudder at the thought of dying alone in a hospital, clergy should teach – especially in the age of hospice – how believers can plan to die surrounded by family and their fellow believers.

Yet many clergy are reluctant to discuss these subjects from the pulpit or in educational events addressing modern realities, as well as centuries of rituals and prayers.

“I can understand this reluctance – because they’re going to have many parishioners who will be alarmed or upset by any open discussions of these topics that our culture wants to ignore,” said Whitaker.

“But the church is supposed to help us prepare for death. And this isn’t just about someone receiving a terrible diagnosis. Death is something that can strike at any moment. … The church can’t be silent in the face of death.”

Terry Mattingly (tmatt.net) leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi. A 2012 UMNS photo Mike DuBose.