What’s So Special About Methodism

Session 3: Theology and Books

Theology

• Theology = talking about God• Theology and practice are dependant on each

other• Theology matters

The Methodist Quadrilateral

• Scripture• Tradition• Reason• Experience

Scripture

Tradition

Tradition... You’re doing it wrong

Tradition

Reason

Experience

Scripture

Tradition Reason Experience

The Methodist Quadrilateral

Scripture

Tradition

ReasonExperience

The Methodist Quadbike

The Methodist Quadbike

Arminianism vs Calvinism

Calvinism• Total depravity• Unconditional

election• Limited atonement• Irresistible grace• Perseverance of the

saints

Arminianism• Universal prevenient

grace• Conditional election • Universal atonement• Resistible grace• Uncertainty of

perseverance

Arminianism vs Calvinism

• Libertarian free will• Equal, impartial, and undifferentiated love• The universal call of salvation

The four alls

• All need to be saved • All can be saved • All can know they are saved • All can be saved to the uttermost

Holiness

John 4:19 “We love (him), because he first loved us.”

"This is the sum of all religion, the genuine model of Christianity. None can say more: why

should anyone say less, or less intelligibly?“- John Wesley

Break

Books

• The Bible• CPD• Wesley’s 44 Sermons• The Plan

CPD

Hymn Book(s)

“What shall I do, My God to love?"

Hymns & Psalms 46 v2Thy sovereign grace to all extendsImmense and unconfinedFrom age to age it never endsIt reaches all mankind

Charles Wesley

Testimony – “When I Survey”

When I survey the wondrous crossOn which the Prince of glory died,My richest gain I count but loss,And pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,Save in the death of Christ my God!All the vain things that charm me most,I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head, His hands, His feet,Sorrow and love flow mingled down!Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,Spreads o’er His body on the tree;Then I am dead to all the globe,And all the globe is dead to me. Were the whole realm of nature mine,That were a present far too small;Love so amazing, so divine,Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Isaac Watts

Prayer – “Be thou my vision”Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;be thou my best thought in the day and the night,both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,be thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;be thou my great Father, and I thy true son;be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;be thou my whole armour, be thou my true might;be thou my soul's shelter, be thou my strong tower:O raise thou me heavenward, great Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:be thou mine inheritance now and always;be thou and thou only the first in my heart;O Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, thou heaven's bright sun,O grant me its joys after victory is won;great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,still be thou my vision, O Ruler of all.

Ancient Irish Prayertrans. Mary Byrne, 1905,versified by Eleanor Hull, 1912

Preaching – “The Church of Christ”The church of Christ in every age,beset by change but Spirit-led,must claim and test its heritageand keep on rising from the dead.

Across the world, across the street,the victims of injustice cryfor shelter and for bread to eat,and never live until they die.

The let the servant church arise,a caring church that longs to bea partner in Christ's sacrifice,and clothed in Christ's humanity.

For he alone, whose blood was shed,can cure the fever in our blood,and teach us how to share our breadand feed the starving multitude.

We have no mission but to servein full obedience to our Lord:to care for all, without reserve,and spread his liberating word.

F Pratt Green

Pitfalls – Great is the Lord

Great is the Lord and Most worthy of praise,The city of our God the holy place,The Joy of the whole earthGreat is the Lord in whom we have the victoryHe aids us against the enemyWe bow down on our kneesAnd Lord we want to lift your name on highAnd Lord we want to thank you for the works you've done in our

livesAnd lord we trust in your unfailing love for you alone are God eternalThroughout earth and heaven above

Where it comes from - Psalm 48• A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.• 1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise,

in the city of our God, his holy mountain.• 2 Beautiful in its loftiness,

the joy of the whole earth,like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.

• 4 When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together,5 they saw her and were astounded; they fled in terror.6 Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labour.7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind...

“Great is our Redeeming Lord”1 GREAT is our redeeming Lord,In power, and truth, and graceHim, by highest heaven adored,His church on earth doth praise:In the city of our God,In his holy mount below,Publish, spread his name abroad,And all his greatness show.

2 For thy loving-kindness, Lord,We in thy temple stay;Here thy faithful love record,Thy saving power display:With thy name thy praise is known,Glorious thy perfections shine;Earth's remotest bounds shall ownThy works are all divine.

3 See the gospel church secure,And founded on a rock;All her promises are sure;Her bulwarks who can shock?Count her every precious shrine;Tell, to after-ages tell,Fortified by power divine,The church can never fail.

4 Zion's God is all our own,Who on his love rely;We his pardoning love have known,And live to Christ, and die:To the new JerusalemHe our faithful guide shall be:Him we claim, and rest in him,Through all eternity.

- Charles Wesley

Next session:Session 4:

Methodism;past, present and future