methodist gospel?

[redblue22]

what is the methodist version of the gospel? what is the good news? or maybe just how do I get to heaven?

I'm also curious how the methodist answer is different from the evangelical version.

 

[GraceSeeker]

The methodist version of the gospel is a bit too long to write in this space. I encourage you to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to get a fuller sense of the methodist gospel than any synopsis of it that I might give.

As for how we get to heaven, that isn't the goal of the gospel. Rather, Jesus taught that heaven is the realm where God reigns, and the goal of the gospel is to see his will done on earth as it is in heaven. We are called to be part of that even now as forerunners of the God's ultimate inbreaking which is described in the closing chapters of Revelation of heaven coming down to earth. So, in the end, we don't go to heaven, heaven comes to us as a recreation/restoration of what God started to do in the beginning when he created the heavens and the earth. Those who by faith are in Christ are, according to Paul, through that faith graced to be participants in God's new creation.

 

[food4thought]

Historically, the Methodist Church stresses the ongoing work of salvation, not just the beginning work of God called justification. When we come to saving faith, we are justified before God by our faith in Christ apart from any works... it is completely by grace through faith.

BUT

Salvation is an ongoing process. What evangelicals would call "sanctification" is considered a part of the salvation process. This is actually quite Biblical, since salvation is mentioned in the context of referring to sanctification (one example would be "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"). Sanctification is distinct from justification, yet one is a part of our salvation as surely as the other. Sanctification does not affect our justification any more than exhaust affects the gas in the tank of your car... one just naturally results in the other. True saving faith is always accompanied with good works (see James). Is the believer eternaly secure? IDK the official UMC doctrine on that, so I'll leave it for another to fill in.

Finally, there is glorification, the ultimate end of our salvation. Glorification is what will be when we are called home to Christ and are givn our eternal resurrection bodies (see 1st Corinthians 15), and we are forever in the presence of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. This is also a part of our salvation according to the Bible.

This is my understanding of how the Methodists view salvation. I am a bit of an outsider as an evanglical currently attending a UMC, but I think I got the basics of the Weslyan gospel here... If I am wrong anywhere, someone PLEASE correct me!

 

[GraceSeeker]

"Our Wesleyan Heritage" from the United Methodist Website

and

John Wesley's sermons are another good source of information to your questions. I encourage you to start with Sermon #1 "Salvation by Faith".

As to your question about how the methodist answer is different from the evangelical answer, I reject it as assuming things evidence that I do not believe to be true. There is no difference between the Methodist answer and an evangelical answer for the Methodist answer is an evangelical answer.

 

[Jeffersonian]

The only thing i really don't like about the ''methodist'' version of the gospel is the deep relationship between their views and the Arminian system of theology, which comes from a semi-pelagian nature of thought.

 

[GraceSeeker]

If the "methodist" version of the gospel is not itself semi-pelagauan, what difference does it make?