The influence of the John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield on Church life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: Predestination


The dispute that split John Wesley and George Whitfield was more acute and became more damaging than the one of the revivalists with the Moravians over “stillness”. The argument centred on the extent to which an individual was chosen by God for eternal salvation or eternal damnation. Did God choose people for salvation or damnation from the start of their lives or did they have the free will to respond to God? Whitfield held the first view, Wesley upheld the second. This leads to a further question that is key to the matter: if God chooses the people He wishes to save (the elect) than did Christ die only for them or for all humanity? If Christ died only for the elect then they may not need to lead a holy life, some might contend, leading others to make the allegation of antinomianism (becoming lawless). These considerations were not novel having originated at the time of the European Reformation among followers of John Calvin (1509-1564) and Jacob Arminius (1560-1609).

Wesley viewed himself as preaching against the extreme Calvinism that maintained those who were not part of the elect were damned whilst Whitfield believed those who were the elect were the only ones who could be saved. At one point Whitfield believed that his view was reflecting Christ’s teaching as well as the doctrines of John Calvin as he understood them. Whitfield went to North America to preach there, he was in demand as a preacher and given that he was not bound by the promises made at episcopal ordination in the Church of England, his position became even more at variance with John Wesley’s view. Even though this was the case the two men remained friends. In many ways Wesley’s view was opposite to article 17 of the thirty nine articles of the Church of England.

Article 17 upheld the predestination of God’s elect but did not necessarily infer that those not part of the elect were damned. Wesley believed that the salvation of souls relied on the free will of each person to turn to Christ, a view influenced by High Church Anglicans such as William Law. The friendship between Wesley and Whitfield did not prevent their split and was to lead Wesley to begin the develop the pattern of church order with which is consistent with Methodism today.

Would the Church today become so divided about predestination? Does the Covid-19 pandemic raise these questions for us again? Are some predestined to have the virus? Does God already know the outcome for people and what happens if that involves great suffering?



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oxford Movement and The Gorham Judgment of 1850

  The Privy Council, a secular Court, announced a decision on the case of the Reverend George Gorham in 1850. The Anglican B ishop of Exeter Henry Phillpotts had refused to allow him to become vicar of St. Peter's in Bramford Speke, Devon because of Gorham's theology of Baptism, which Philpotts regarded as not conform ing to the doctrine of the Church of England. Reverend Gorham held that Baptism was not sacramentally effective and that an adult decision to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour was necessary. Bishop Phillpotts, however, was a High Church Anglican who could not accept what he regarded as a denial of Article XXVII of the Thirty-Nine Articles: Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christians are discerned from other that be not christened, but is also a sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the Church; the promises of the forgiveness of sin, and o...
Read more

The Gothic Revival in the nineteenth century: Early work by A.W.N. Pugin

  As a young man Augustus Pugin converted to Roman Catholicism and in 1836 published “Contrasts” in which he compares architecture and interior furnishings in Protestant and Roman Catholic settings. One of his drawings illustrates “a faithful picture of Protestant desecration and neglect” and features a defaced altar screen, below which stands an altar table that Pugin describes as a “cheap and ugly table”. In contrast a sketch of an altar and associated furnishings in a Roman Catholic setting is described as “more suited to a fashionable boudoir that to an altar for sacrifice.” Pugin’s aim was to recapture the Gothic style in the buildings and furnishings he designed. An early commission was Scarisbrick Hall, close to Ormskirk in Lancashire. Charles Scarisbrick initially wanted a garden seat and chimney piece, but the young and enthusiastic Pugin set about trying to rebuild the entire property. Pugin produced for Scarisbrick a number of rooms central to the house: the Great...
Read more

A.W.N. Pugin “Improving the taste of young England”

Image
  On September 1 st 1846 the opening of St. Giles’ Church Cheadle took place after five years of building and interior design work by Pugin. The Earl of Shrewsbury whose money had largely funded the project was delighted. He thought it would “improve the taste of young England” and could often be found showing people around. George Gilbert Scott was impressed and the Earl of Shrewsbury commented about his reaction “ the stencilling absolutely made the water run down both sides of his mouth”. St. Giles Church was designed by Pugin to be entirely English in style and was symmetrical. This style no longer reflected his thinking at the time but it was an example of what became known as “Puginism”. The Church cost over thirty thousand pounds and was a full blown work of high romantic art. In it Pugin’s own religious and aesthetic ideals were equally fulfilled. Many notable guests attended the consecration including John Henry Newman, a recent convert from the Anglican to the Rom...
Read more