Methodist and Holiness

The Methodist and Holiness tradition originally developed as a renewal movement within the Anglican Church, emphasizing evangelism, conversion, practical religion, and holiness, with Arminian and “complete sanctification” distinctives. They prospered in the revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries, utilized methods like camp meetings, as well as lay preachers and circuit riders. They remained episcopal in government (with deacons, elder/minister, presiding elder/district superintendent, and bishop/superintendent).

(The Welsh Methodists remained Calvinist rather than Arminian, but they eventually became identified as a Presbyterians, and in America they merged with the PCUSA in 1920.)

History

John Wesley (1703-1791) and Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

• Both were Anglican ministers in England.
• Having begun a small club at Oxford, the “Holy Club,” and been challenged by German Pietists, they had heart-warming experiences in 1738 in which they became assured of their justification by faith.
• In 1739 they began following George Whitefield’s example of preaching outdoors to crowds and an itinerant ministry. Yet, they disagreed with Whitefield concerning Calvinism (he was for it and they were against it).
• While they formed societies that met for mutual encouragement and accountability, and approved lay preachers, they remained in the Church of England. The class meetings of their societies were additional to regular church services. Methodists in England only became distinct from the Church of England after John Wesley’s death.

Francis Asbury (1745-1816) and the Methodist Episcopal Church

• Asbury was sent to America in 1771.
• The Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in the USA in 1784, with its first ordained officers ordained by John Wesley. Its first two bishops were Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury.
• Asbury worked tirelessly to lead the MEC and to spread the gospel to the west, traveling an average of 6,000 miles a year in his itinerant ministry.

Peter Cartwright (1785-1872) and the Second Great Awakening

• Converted at a camp meeting in KY (1801), ordained by Asbury (1806), a presiding elder (1812).
• The Second Great Awakening covered a series of revivals from 1800 through the 1830s. During this time, the Methodists experienced incredible growth, becoming the largest denomination in the USA in 1840.
• Cartwright moved to Illinois and became the presiding elder of his district and remained an active circuit rider throughout his 400-mile long district.

Divisions

• In 1816, the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) was organized by Richard Allen.
• In 1830, the Methodist Protestant Church (MPC) was formed over the issue of lay representation.
• In 1845, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MPCS) was formed due to a dispute over a bishop who owned slaves.

Related Groups and the Holiness Movement

• The mid-1800s saw the rise of the holiness movement, a renewed emphasis and further development of the doctrine of complete sanctification in Methodism.
• The Salvation Army began with the Booths in England in the late 1800s with an emphasis on street evangelism, help to the poor, and a military-style organization (without sacraments).
• The Church of the Nazarene was formed in 1908 as the union of several holiness groups that had spun off the Methodist churches. It was strongly Wesleyan, allowed for women’s ordination, and dropped infant baptism.
• The United Brethren were German pietists, similar to the Methodist but from a German background. Of the first two prominent leaders, one was Mennonite and the other was Reformed. 

United Methodist Church: its founding, its struggles, its division

• In 1939, the MEC, MECS, and MPC reunited to form the Methodist Church.
• In 1968, the Methodist Church united with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church.
• From 2019 to the present, the United Methodist Church has slowly divided, especially over the issue of sexual morality. Many conservative Methodist churches have left the UMC to form and join the Global Methodist Church, while others have simply become independent. 

What We Have in Common

With non-liberal Methodists, we have in common, doctrines of God, Christ, Scripture, the moral law, original sin (at least theoretically), doctrine of justification (by faith alone, on account of Christ’s imputed righteousness alone, distinct but not separate from sanctification), infant baptism, and the sacraments as means of grace. While they are Arminian, their version of Arminianism is better on original sin and on justification than the early Arminians (the Remonstrants).

We can appreciate their zeal for evangelism and holiness, their doctrine of justification, and their lively hymns (although we often use them with a few minor edits).

Where We Differ

Our main differences with traditional Methodism are with its:

• Wesleyan Arminianism (their belief in general prevenient grace, their denial of unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints).
• Complete sanctification (their teaching to expect it by faith, as you are, and now).
• Church government (their government is generally episcopal).
• General tendency to downplay doctrine and overplay or misuse experience.
• Tendency to impose extra-biblical impositions for holiness (e.g. abstinence from alcohol).

Scripture speaks of total depravity as a practical reality, only overcome by God's effectual calling of his elect (John 6:44-45, 8:46-47, 10:26, Rom. 8:7-9), not something weakened by prevenient grace (the idea that God gives grace to everyone enabling them to believe if they so choose). 

While God does sanctify those whom he justifies, delivering us from the dominion of sin, we do not simply receive complete sanctification at once by faith. God works through us, renewing us more and more to holiness, in a process that begins at conversion and continues all this life (1 Cor. 7:1, 1 Peter 2:11, Rom. 7, Phil. 3:12).

Of course, with liberal Methodists, we have many more differences.