Question - Would you happen to know if the doctrine of the Wesleyan church is sound? Do they align themselves with teachings such as yours or John MacArthur's?

Question

Would you happen to know if the doctrine of the Wesleyan church is sound? Do they align themselves with teachings such as yours or John MacArthur's?

Answer

Their doctrine is not very sound on some critical issues. For example:

1. Women in Leadership

This is a quote form the Wesleyan 1966 General Conference: "In spite of some forces which seek to undo our long-standing position on the ordination of women, we refuse to budge on this issue — we will not tolerate the blocking of a person’s ordination due to their gender, for we believe that both men and women are called to the ministry and thus should be ordained. Furthermore, we condemn any practice of exclusive male-only leadership on boards and committees in the church, excluding women from these positions by either public policy or unofficial behind-the-scenes agreed-upon policy, for we believe that when it comes to God’s gifts, graces and callings, there is neither male nor female." (1966 General Conference)

This doctrine is in direct violation of the Scriptures, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent." [1 Timothy 2:12] And the context of this verse is in the Church.

2. The technical name for the Wesleyan church's theological heritage is Arminian-Wesleyan.

This refers to the teachings of James Arminius and John Wesley. Arminius (1560-1609), a Dutch theologian, stressed that, "God has predestined all who believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life and those who reject Him for eternal separation from God; that He has given human beings true freedom to accept or reject this salvation; that He offers grace to enable all persons to repent and believe. And that for man to appropriate what God's prevenient grace has made possible, he "must voluntarily" respond in repentance and faith."

This doctrine is in opposition to the clearly taught doctrine of election in the Bible. The difference is that the Bible tells us that God only elects "some" for salvation and ignores the rest, allowing them to continue in their sin. ONLY the "elect" can and will believe because God will, at some point, enable them by giving them the gift of faith. The Wesleyan's believe that God "offers grace to enable 'all' persons to repent and believe." This is subtle, but says in effect, that the decision on whether one is saved or not is up to each person and not a sovereign God. It is God's grace plus our freewill decision that brings salvation--according to the Wesleyans.

They are very much a liberal denomination and one could expect a weak gospel and not very strong teachings. They would not align with MacArthur nor myself, since their gospel requires man's "freewill" as an active part of the process, giving "man" the sovereign right to decide if he would be saved or not. However, the true gospel shows that it is a sovereign God who makes the choice, and God does not ask for our permission to save us. And again the issue of women ministers and women in other Church leadership roles are in direct violation of Scripture.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Tony Capoccia's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Our websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986