Baptist to Methodist?

[GraceSeeker]

Right now, I'm working on my other issues (more related to Advice than this forum) - defining my beliefs.

Hey, we're here for any and everything. Our advice can range from "Don't take any wooden nickels." to actually listening what you most need to do is unload. So, glad you're here, and hope to continue to hear more from you and about your journey over time -- but, of course, only at a rate at which you feel comfortable in the sharing. God bless.

 

[Zoness]

Think I have a good understanding of Methodists and have resources to explore. Right now, I'm working on my other issues (more related to Advice than this forum) - defining my beliefs.

If I have any other Methodist related questions, I'll come back to this forum again!

Hey, we're here for any and everything. Our advice can range from "Don't take any wooden nickels." to actually listening what you most need to do is unload. So, glad you're here, and hope to continue to hear more from you and about your journey over time -- but, of course, only at a rate at which you feel comfortable in the sharing. God bless.

This subforum is pretty welcome to everyone including "doubters" like myself. I know all about that defining beliefs conflict.

 

[GraceSeeker]

This subforum is pretty welcome to everyone including "doubters" like myself. I know all about that defining beliefs conflict.

Yeah, seekers, doubters, even those who disagree we like. About the only time you find us on the WP getting cranky are when trolls show up who simply want to tell us how wrong we are and how right they are, and how we would know the truth if we only listened to them and them alone.

 

[MystyRock]

This subforum is pretty welcome to everyone including "doubters" like myself. I know all about that defining beliefs conflict.

Thanks! I guess I've never really "evaluated" my beliefs before (I must be a late bloomer in that regard) - always linked my beliefs to my church. I've been in Baptist churches for years and thought I had everything figured out. Then a series of odd circumstances caused me to have some doubts.

I've been reading philosophical writings about Who is God. Found out a coworker was a part time Methodist pastor (hence my journey to a Methodist church). Also realized the church I attended as a teen could almost be considered a cult - very legalistic and controlling. We were not supposed to talk to people of other denominations. Didn't know those old ideas were still still part of me. Issues I buried and didn't confront at the time.

Been a rough few months, but I'm feeling more comfortable with Methodists and their beliefs/customs.

 

[GraceSeeker]

I'm feeling more comfortable with Methodists and their beliefs/customs.

You haven't uncovered some of our more unsavory aspects yet, then? It makes me hesitant to let you in on one of the hidden things about John Wesley, but here goes nothing. Wesley seriously believed and taught you could cure baldness by rubbing freshly sliced onion on your scalp. (No joke, that really is true.) Our custom of holding pot-luck dinners goes back to pastors trying to figure out what to do with the onion afterwards.

 

[MystyRock]

You haven't uncovered some of our more unsavory aspects yet, then? It makes me hesitant to let you in on one of the hidden things about John Wesley, but here goes nothing. Wesley seriously believed and taught you could cure baldness by rubbing freshly sliced onion on your scalp. (No joke, that really is true.) Our custom of holding pot-luck dinners goes back to pastors trying to figure out what to do with the onion afterwards.

Interesting.. Thanks for explaining another "layer" of the Methodists!

 

[Zoness]

Yeah, seekers, doubters, even those who disagree we like. About the only time you find us on the WP getting cranky are when trolls show up who simply want to tell us how wrong we are and how right they are, and how we would know the truth if we only listened to them and them alone.

Yeah, trolls are unwelcome. You should see the nightmarish ones who come to troll pagans on CWR, they are flat out vile and malicious.

Thanks! I guess I've never really "evaluated" my beliefs before (I must be a late bloomer in that regard) - always linked my beliefs to my church. I've been in Baptist churches for years and thought I had everything figured out. Then a series of odd circumstances caused me to have some doubts.

I've been reading philosophical writings about Who is God. Found out a coworker was a part time Methodist pastor (hence my journey to a Methodist church). Also realized the church I attended as a teen could almost be considered a cult - very legalistic and controlling. We were not supposed to talk to people of other denominations. Didn't know those old ideas were still still part of me. Issues I buried and didn't confront at the time.

Been a rough few months, but I'm feeling more comfortable with Methodists and their beliefs/customs.

I've doubted for years, personally. The Baptist churches of my teen years (and Catholicism before) hated criticism and hard questions and as a young adult I drifted hard away because I wasn't treated with respect.

Now I am trying to be more open-minded but its hard, I look at things much differently and am very skeptical but everyone here is pretty great.

 

[RisingSpirit]

​

Both churches are the same. Many or most churches are offsprings of John Wesley Theology. They all believe in the same thing: God looks down the road of a man's life and waits and waits and waits and waits and waits and waits and waits to see if that man would choose God with his own ability to do what he wants, when he wants and how he wants it. While God has no slightest idea if that man will choose He finally see the man chose or reject salvation. Based on that, then God saw and then He predestines the person to be the Elect.

So that would mean God doesn't really know the future of anyone's choices.

 

[RisingSpirit]

You haven't uncovered some of our more unsavory aspects yet, then? It makes me hesitant to let you in on one of the hidden things about John Wesley, but here goes nothing. Wesley seriously believed and taught you could cure baldness by rubbing freshly sliced onion on your scalp. (No joke, that really is true.) Our custom of holding pot-luck dinners goes back to pastors trying to figure out what to do with the onion afterwards.

Wesley used to be a Calvinist. He changed his mind, again and again and followed Jacobus Arminius. Wesley liked Jacobus so much that he tried to cure his baldness with onions. How smelly is that?

​

 

[BryanW92]

​

Both churches are the same. Many or most churches are offsprings of John Wesley Theology. They all believe in the same thing: God looks down the road of a man's life and waits and waits and waits and waits and waits and waits and waits to see if that man would choose God with his own ability to do what he wants, when he wants and how he wants it. While God has no slightest idea if that man will choose He finally see the man chose or reject salvation. Based on that, then God saw and then He predestines the person to be the Elect.

So that would mean God doesn't really know the future of anyone's choices.

God isn't waiting because He doesn't know. He's waiting because you don't know. He has all the time in the universe to wait. We are the ones with a finite time to choose. When you choose Him, He just says, "It's about time!"

 

[Gods4Life4Ever]

God isn't waiting because He doesn't know. He's waiting because you don't know. He has all the time in the universe to wait. We are the ones with a finite time to choose. When you choose Him, He just says, "It's about time!"

AMEN! Hallelujah, what a Savior!

 

[GraceSeeker]

As the issue of predestination has reared its head in this thread (as it does from time to time in this forum) I suggest that those who seek to consider it also consider a couple of other things PRIOR to engaging in such discussion:

1) Does it really belong inserted into the present conversation? Perhaps it would be better served to be discussed as a thread all on its own?

2) Do you have sufficient knowledge to teach on the subject? Even though one can find verses related to it in scripture, that is not the same as having genuine knowledge of it. God's ways are after all above our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.

3) Does your understanding of the subject take a human-centered, and therefore temporal approach to the matter? Or does it take a God-centered and therefore eternal approach to the matter? To what degree would understanding all time as part of God's eternal now change our perceptions of what it means to have foreknowledge? To what degree would a change in our understanding of foreknowledge change our understanding of the relationship between free-will and predestination?

 

[Gods4Life4Ever]

As the issue of predestination has reared its head in this thread (as it does from time to time in this forum) I suggest that those who seek to consider it also consider a couple of other things PRIOR to engaging in such discussion:

1) Does it really belong inserted into the present conversation? Perhaps it would be better served to be discussed as a thread all on its own?

2) Do you have sufficient knowledge to teach on the subject? Even though one can find verses related to it in scripture, that is not the same as having genuine knowledge of it. God's ways are after all above our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.

3) Does your understanding of the subject take a human-centered, and therefore temporal approach to the matter? Or does it take a God-centered and therefore eternal approach to the matter? To what degree would understanding all time as part of God's eternal now change our perceptions of what it means to have foreknowledge? To what degree would a change in our understanding of foreknowledge change our understanding of the relationship between free-will and predestination?

Thanks GS!

I think that RisingSpirit just popped, or pooped, in to cause trouble. I suspect that he really had no intention of actually discussing anything with anyone. The nice thing about Church attendance vs. online forums, is that when a person steps into a congregation physically, they do not take shots at the Pastor and congregation and their belief system. Online, due to the anonymity afforded, it is easy to do so.

 

[MystyRock]

I was wondering if I clicked on the wrong thread - so we're back on track again?

 

[Albion]

Methodism and the Baptist churches as they exist today are both the product of the Second Great Awakening, hence their similiarities. However:

1) If you're absolutely convinced that baptizing infants is wrong, you'll always be a Baptist.

2) Methodists are amillenial. Baptists tend toward varying degrees of premillenialism and dispensationalism, neither of which you will find in the UMC. You might have trouble with this if you're into rapture stuff and/or Christian Zionism.

3) Baptist churches, by and large, are socially conservative. Depending on your region, you may well find the UMC to be far too liberal for your liking.

Really good as a quick comparison!

 

[MystyRock]

Actually, I don't have a problem with this particular Methodist church. I've had a few discussions with the Methodist pastor this week - it's helping. Still questioning and uncertain; hopefully I'm headed in the right direction.

 

[RisingSpirit]

God isn't waiting because He doesn't know. He's waiting because you don't know. He has all the time in the universe to wait. We are the ones with a finite time to choose. When you choose Him, He just says, "It's about time!"

If and only if He does choose you, He will find a way through circumstances and put things before you till you chose. If He chooses you, it will be a guarantee that the circumstance that He creates around you will cause you to chose. He does without forcing you to choose. Rejection isn't an option since His promises to those He chooses will be kept. There are no other way His promises will be kept other than opening the hearts or softening the hearts through regeneration.
I'm not making potshots here nor does God make potshots on men while He knows they are not capable of saving themselves. He called and none answered so by grace He saves and nothing man does to earn it so the chosen were chosen before birth. Some here deny God being Past, Present and Future. I can see already some are against God's power.

A man that knows he can't save himself and is totally deprived as in Captive/Slaved willed never has the free will to call God's actions potshots

 

[RisingSpirit]

As the issue of predestination has reared its head in this thread (as it does from time to time in this forum) I suggest that those who seek to consider it also consider a couple of other things PRIOR to engaging in such discussion:

1) Does it really belong inserted into the present conversation? Perhaps it would be better served to be discussed as a thread all on its own?

2) Do you have sufficient knowledge to teach on the subject? Even though one can find verses related to it in scripture, that is not the same as having genuine knowledge of it. God's ways are after all above our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts.

3) Does your understanding of the subject take a human-centered, and therefore temporal approach to the matter? Or does it take a God-centered and therefore eternal approach to the matter? To what degree would understanding all time as part of God's eternal now change our perceptions of what it means to have foreknowledge? To what degree would a change in our understanding of foreknowledge change our understanding of the relationship between free-will and predestination?

I notice some here don't want me to talk about "predestination" so I'll take it as off topic in this topic.

 

[Albion]

Actually, I don't have a problem with this particular Methodist church. I've had a few discussions with the Methodist pastor this week - it's helping. Still questioning and uncertain; hopefully I'm headed in the right direction.

I'm sure that your interest is specifically focused on this particular Methodist congregation, but it may be worth mentioning that the "United Methodist" church is just one of a number of different Methodist denominations in this country.

IF you encounter some particular denominational problem you cannot overcome, but you generally are satisfied with Methodism, you might consider one of the other Methodist bodies like the Free Methodist or Methodist Protestant churches or the Nazarene or Wesleyan churches which are essentially Methodist churches, regardless of the names.

 

[Gods4Life4Ever]

I notice some here don't want me to talk about "predestination" so I'll take it as off topic in this topic.

RisingSpirit,

No, that is not it.

This is a Wesleyan forum. Your Calvinism is not welcome here and nobody will debate you here on it.

You are knowingly being disruptive and divisive and I am lovingly asking you to go elsewhere with your theology.

You are only welcome here if you come in peace and brotherly love, not seeking to disrupt and divide.

There are several other forums available on CF where you can do that.

This in not one of them.