In this third installation in my series on “What Do Methodists Believe?” I want to address the issue of who can be saved. Hopefully I can address this without causing too much confusion for anyone. Actually it isn’t really too difficult to explain. So allow me to give it an attempt that will fit onto this one page.
There have, since the 16th Century, been two distinct schools of theological thinking of who can be saved. The
first school of thought has been the fruit of John Calvin’s theological
work. Those who hold to a Calvinist theology believe that God in his
sovereign grace has chosen to rescue certain specific fallen sinners
from their helpless condition while leaving the rest of humanity to
perish eternally. It is important to emphasize here that God’s choice
of whom to save is entirely unconditional, thus it’s name, unconditional election. God’s election,
or choiceof whom to save, does not depend in any way on His
foreknowledge of a person’s faith or obedience. What this means in a
very practical sense is that in your immediate family the chances that
you and your spouse and all your children and all your grandchildren
are all going to heaven is very small. It doesn’t matter that all of
you attend church. God has predetermined that some of you are
going to heaven and some of you are going to hell. It is God’s creation
and by His sovereign power He has the right to choose what He does with
it. According to this line of thinking, the fact that God does all this
to His own glory should not detract in the least from our love and
devotion and worship of Him. Denominations that hold to this Calvinist
theology would be your Presbyterian, especially the Reformed branches,
and Baptist, especially primitive or “hard-shell.” Typically most
Baptist denominations are going to be a hybrid of Calvinist and
Arminian theology, which we will address now.
As Methodists, who adhere to
theological interpretations of John Wesley, we are Arminians. That
means our essential theological understandings of the nature of God
derive from the 16th
Century work of James Arminius. The debate between Calvinist and
Arminian theologies is essentially one about the nature and character
of God. Calvinist theology emphasizes that God’s character is sovereign power,
thus He can do what He wants with that which is His. Arminian theology
takes a different approach to understanding the character of God.
Arminius believed that holy love is God’s most important
characteristic. Arminius recognizes that God is indeed powerful enough
to have chosen various ways to reveal his nature to the world, but that
He chose to constrain that power because of His love expressed in
Jesus. The issue seems to be what is the point of God’s grace? Is
God gracious so that some of His creatures might be saved from eternal
destruction while others perish? Or is God’s gracious act in Jesus
Christ intended so that every person who hears the name of Jesus, and
responds in faith, might receive the gift of everlasting life?
Wesleyans believe that all people can be saved.
We do not believe that God has predestined some people to go to heaven
and others to go to hell. We take John 3:16 literally – that God loves
the whole world and is willing to save “whosoever” believes in Jesus.
God is not willing that any should perish; He has made no decision that
would exclude anyone from the possibility of being saved. Jesus died
for all.
The Arminian way of understanding God’s divine nature raises each
person to the same level. It says that no matter who you are, you have
equal standing in the eyes of God. Whether you are king or commoner, it
matters not. God loves you just the same. When Christ died on the
cross, he died for you. Redemption’s story is about the whole world –
about every man, every woman, every child. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” Titus 2:11
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