Spottswood A.M.E. Zion Church

Methodists around the world owe their theology, structure, and enthusiasm to their founder, John Wesley. Wesley, a priest of the Church of England, was one of nineteen children born to Samuel and Susanna Wesley in the early 18th Century in the rural village of Epworth, England. Samuel Wesley was an Anglican priest and rector of the Epworth parish church. Susanna was a woman of uncommon zeal, intelligence, and character who was likely the most important human influence in John Wesley's life.

Throughout his boyhood, student years and early priesthood, John Wesley focused his life on rigorously trying to satisfy the demands of religion as he understood them. But, his efforts led ultimately to a sense of despair, failure, and anxiety about his relationship to God. Then, at a prayer meeting in Aldersgate Street in London on May 24, 1738, he discovered what Paul and Luther before him had learned, that a new relationship with God comes through faith in Christ rather than through our own efforts. In addition, he experienced the absolute assurance that God had taken away his sins and saved him from the law of sin and death.

After this event, John Wesley and his brother, Charles, began spreading their new found Gospel of God's love. They preached to the poor, to the miners and factory workers of industrial England, and to others who generally found themselves outside of the staid and respectable Church of England. Although, John and Charles remained Anglican priests and encouraged participation in the sacraments of the church of England, their preaching, teaching, writing, organizational skills and inspirational leadership founded a movement which was to have worldwide implications.
The primary themes of this movement - the unique emphases of Methodist doctrine and belief are listed below:

1) The Bible as our ultimate authority.
Even though Methodists have always held inspired Scripture to be their ultimate authority, our heritage has protected us from both narrow literalism and radical interpretation of the Bible. In addition to its emphasis on the supreme authority of scripture, early Methodism focused on the importance of human reason, Church tradition, and the experience of the Holy Spirit as additional revelations of truth.
(Reference Scripture: 2 Timothy 3: 15- 17)

2) God's universal love for all persons.
The affirmation that God loves all persons, even when they are totally undeserving of that love, is at the heart of Methodist belief. God not only loves every person but he is actively reaching out with this love and forgiving us for turning away from him. He is constantly inviting everyone into a renewed, right, and loving relationship with him. This activity of love and forgiveness which God extends to every human being is his "grace" and it is active to some degree in every person at every stage of his or her life. Even though God's grace is constantly inviting us into a right relationship with him, we are also completely free either to accept or reject the gift of his love and forgiveness.
(Scripture Reference: Romans 8: 31-39)

3) Justification by faith in Jesus Christ.
Methodists affirm that the way in which a person enters into a right relationship with God is by his or her faith and not by any good works that he or she might have done. The act of faith which brings about a justified relationship with God is an affirmation of the truth that God entered into the world as Jesus of Nazareth and that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus made it possible for every persons to be forgiven and put into a new relationship with God. Further, this act of faith is substantially more than mere belief or intellectual assent. It is the kind of total trust in God's love and forgiveness which results into the complete redirection of all human endeavor toward the love and glorification of both God and other persons. The resulting justification is the beginning point of a new life in Christ, the point at which we accept the freely offered gift of God's forgiveness of our turning away from him and the point at which we redirect our life toward him. Faith is the necessary condition of justification.
(Scripture Reference: Romans 3: 21-31)

4) Sanctification as the pursuit of scriptural holiness.
The point in time at which a person is justified by faith in Christ is the beginning of a new life in the believer. This believer, who has just entered into a new relationship with God, then begins a lifelong pursuit of holiness, a personal quest for the loving qualities of Christ, under the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is a continuous growth toward perfect love and Scriptural holiness. It is achieved through prayer, Bible study, worship, the sacraments, personal morality, social outreach and confrontation of evil and oppression. But most of all it is achieved through faith.
(Scripture Reference: I Thessalonians 5: 12-24)

5) The assurance of salvation which comes through the Holy Spirit.
One of the important emphases which has always been at the heart of the Methodist movement is the belief that we can have absolute assurance that we have entered into a new relationship with God though our faith in Jesus Christ. Through the activity of the Holy Spirit in us, we can know for certain that we are both justified and sanctified, that we have accepted God's forgiveness, have entered into a new life in Christ and that we are growing toward a perfect state of holiness.
(Scripture Reference: I John 3: 19-24)

6) Christian perfection achieved through personal holiness and social justice.
After persons have been justified and have begun the process of sanctification under the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, their goal is " You must be perfect - just as your Father in heaven is perfect."(Matthew 5:48). "Perfection's properties, or inseparable fruits, are, rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, and in everything giving thanks."

The goal of Christ-like love has led the Methodists of two centuries to take courageous actions against war and violence; political, economic, and social oppression; slavery, racism, sexism, and other violations of human rights; and the abuses of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and gambling. We have been driven by the cry of the sick, the hungry, the homeless, the poor, the imprisoned, the lonely, and the spiritually starved multitudes of the world and have responded in both personal and corporate ministry.

(Scripture Reference: Matthew 5:43 - 48)

"We affirm that true Christianity cannot exist without both the inward experience and the outward practice of justice, mercy, and truth; and this alone is genuine morality." --- John Wesley.

*Proclaiming Grace & Freedom- Two Centuries of American Methodism
(American Bible Society -1976)

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