A SUMMARY OF WESLEYAN BELIEFS
Wesleyans believe in one God, who is Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, the Savior of all persons who put their faith in Him alone for
eternal life. We believe those who receive new life in Christ are called to be
holy in character and conduct, and can only live this way by being filled with
the Lord’s Spirit. We believe in the Bible and seek to establish our faith and
actions on its teachings. We believe God wants people everywhere to know Him
and that the purpose of the church is to tell the world about Christ through
its worship, witness, and loving deeds.
THE 24 ARTICLES OF RELIGION:
Faith in the Holy Trinity: We believe in the one living and true God who
is both holy and loving. He created and preserves everything, lives eternally
and His power, wisdom, and goodness are without limits. We believe in the
Trinity; within the divine unity are three co-equal persons: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. Though three persons, they are one in nature, power and eternity.
ii The Father: We
believe that God the Father is the Source of everything that exists, whether
matter or spirit. With the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Father made humanity,
male and female, in His image. He relates to people as Father, showing how much
He loves them. Because of this love, God both seeks and receives people who
repent of their sins.
iii The Son of God:
We believe in Jesus Christ, the one and
only Son of God. The Holy Spirit conceived Him and the Virgin Mary gave Him
birth, thus, He is both fully God and fully human. He died on the cross and was
buried to be a sacrifice both for original sin and for all human
transgressions, making those who trust in his atoning death right with God.
Christ rose from the dead in His physical body and ascended into heaven where
He occupies a place of honor and intercedes for us. One day He will return to
earth to judge every person, living and dead.
iv The Holy Spirit: We believe in the Holy Spirit who has been
sent to us by the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit has the same nature,
majesty, and glory as the Father and the Son. He is and always will be truly
God. It is through the Spirit that we come to experience God’s grace. He points
out sin and brings new birth to believers. He sets us apart to belong
completely to God and actually changes our nature to be like God’s. When we
die, our glorification will be the Spirit’s doing as well. He is always
everywhere, assuring, preserving, guiding, and enabling the believer.
v The Sufficiency and Full Authority of the Holy
Scriptures for Salvation : We believe
that the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments form the entirety of Holy
Scripture. They are the inspired and infallibly written Word of God. In their
original 2 form, they are completely without any errors and constitute our
highest authority. In the process by which these books have come to us no
important teaching has been corrupted. Absolutely everything we need to know to
become a Christian is found in these pages. If a teaching isn’t found in the
Bible or can’t be proven from the Bible, nobody should have to accept it as a
doctrine necessary for salvation. Both the Old and New Testaments point to
Christ as the source of eternal life and the only Mediator between God and
human beings. What the Scriptures require of us, the Holy Spirit makes
possible.
vi God’s Purpose for Humanity: We believe that God’s whole law is summarized
in the two great commandments: to love God with all our heart, and to love our
neighbors as much as we love ourselves. These two laws describe how we ought to
live in every aspect of life, reminding us that God is our King and all people
are equal before Him. If we live according to these laws, we will fully obey
God and treat people as we ought.
vii Marriage and the Family: We believe that every person is created in the
image of God and that human sexuality reflects that image in terms of intimate
love, communication, fellowship, subordination of the self to the larger whole,
and fulfillment. The Bible uses the marriage relationship as the supreme
metaphor for His relationship with His covenant people, one God with one
people. God’s intends for human sexuality to be expressed only in a monogamous
lifelong relationship between one man and one woman within the framework of
marriage. This is the only relationship which is divinely designed for the
birth and rearing of children and is a covenant union made in the sight of God,
taking priority over every other human relationship.
viii Personal Choice: We believe that humanity’s creation in the
image of God included the ability to choose between right and wrong. This means
humans are morally responsible for our choices. But ever since the fall of
Adam, people in their own strength have been unable to do the right because of
original sin. Original sin is not just following Adam’s example, but reflects the
corruption of the human nature. Found in every person, this corruption is
passed on from parent to child. Original sin leaves us all far from being what
God intended us to be. We are, by nature, always inclined to evil. We cannot
even call on God or exercise faith to be saved. But through Jesus Christ, God’s
grace makes possible what we never could or would do on our own. This
prevenient grace (i.e. grace which precedes human response) is freely given to
every person, enabling all who choose to turn and be saved.
ix The Atonement: We believe that when Jesus offered himself,
once and for all, through His sufferings and death on the cross, He provided
the perfect redemption and atonement for the sins of the whole world, both for
original sin and actual sin. Salvation from sin comes only through His death
and resurrection but this salvation is big enough to save anyone who asks.
People who are mentally incompetent from birth, or who became mentally
incompetent after conversion, or children under the age of accountability are
automatically covered by 3 Jesus’ death and resurrection. When children reach
the age of accountability, they must personally repent and exercise faith in
Christ in order to be saved.
x Repentance and Faith: We believe that for men and women to
appropriate what God’s prevenient grace has made possible, they must
voluntarily respond in repentance and faith. God gives the ability , but the
act is our responsibility. Because the Holy Spirit has pointed out sin in our
lives, we repent, willingly changing our mind. Repentance means we turn our
back on that sin and long to be made righteous. We are truly sorry for our
failures and confess them, paying others back and resolving never to let it
happen again. Without this repentance, saving faith is impossible. Faith is the
only condition of salvation, the kind of faith that agrees with God about our
sinful condition and agrees that the only solution for that condition is found
in the gospel. When we exercise faith, we completely and wholeheartedly rely on
the saving ability of Jesus Christ and completely trust ourselves to Him as
Savior and Lord. We express our experience of saving faith by public
acknowledging His Lordship and by identifying with His Church.
xi Justification, Regeneration and Adoption: We believe that at the same moment someone
repents of personal sin and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he or she is
justified, regenerated, adopted into the family of God, and assured of personal
salvation through the witness of the Holy Spirit. We believe that justification
is the judicial act of God in which He counts a person as righteous, grants
that person full pardon of all sin, delivers him or her from guilt, and
completely releases that person from the penalty of sins committed.
Justification comes by the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by faith
alone, not on the basis of works.
xii We believe that regeneration, or the new birth,
occurs when the Holy Spirit gives life to our moral nature, making it possible
for us to love and obey God. To be regenerated, we must genuinely repent and
believe in Jesus Christ. The regenerated are able to serve God with their whole
heart and to be delivered from the power of sin which reigns over all the
unsaved.
xiii We believe that adoption is when God makes the
justified and regenerated believer a full participant in all the rights,
privileges and responsibilities of a child of God.
xiv Good Works: We
believe that although good works cannot save us from our sins or from God’s
judgment, they are the fruit of faith and follow regeneration. Therefore God is
pleased with them and accepts them. They reveal a living faith as surely as
fruit reveals the type of tree.
xv Sin After Regeneration: We
believe that after we have experienced regeneration, it is possible for us to fall
into sin, for in this life there is no level of holiness from which it is
impossible to fall. But God’s grace is sufficient to keep those who persevere
in the faith from falling. By God’s 4 grace anyone who has fallen into sin can
find forgiveness and restoration from God, if truly repentant and possessing
faith.
xvi Sanctification: Initial, Progressive, Entire: We
believe that in sanctification the Holy Spirit sets the child of God apart to
belong completely to God, , making it possible for the believer to love God
wholeheartedly and to blamelessly obey all God’s commandments. Sanctification
begins the moment we are justified and regenerated. From that moment we are
gradually or progressively sanctified as we walk with God and daily grow in
grace and in a more perfect obedience to God. This prepares for the crisis of
entire sanctification, brought about in an instant when we present ourselves as
living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, through faith in Jesus Christ.
In this baptism of Holy Spirit, the human heart is cleansed from all inbred
sin. The crisis of entire sanctification allows us to love God and others and
empowers us for effective service. It is followed by lifelong growth in grace
and the knowledge of Jesus. We continue this life of holiness through faith in
the sanctifying blood of Christ and demonstrate it by loving obedience to God’s
revealed will.
xvii The Gifts of the Spirit: We believe that the Gift of the Spirit is the
Holy Spirit himself; He is more to be desired than any gifts He gives. These He
wisely distributes to individual members of the Church to help them fulfill
their role in the body of Christ. The gifts of the Spirit, although not always
identifiable with natural abilities, function through them to build up the
whole Church. We don’t just use these gifts as we want. They are to be
exercised lovingly under the administration of the Lord of the Church. The real
value of the gifts of the Spirit is measured by how useful they make us to the
Church, not by any ecstasy produced in us.
xviii The Church: We believe that the Christian Church is made
up of all who believe in Jesus Christ, its founder and only Head. Its members
have renounced the world, the flesh and the devil, and have dedicated
themselves to continue the work Christ assigned to His church until He returns.
It must preach the pure Word of God, properly administer the sacraments
according to Christ’s instructions, and live in obedience to all that Christ
commands. A local church is a body of believers formally organized on biblical
principles, and meeting regularly for evangelism, nurture, fellowship and
worship.
xix The Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper: We
believe that water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the sacraments of the
church. Christ commanded and ordained these as a means of grace when received
through faith. They are symbols of our profession of Christian faith and signs
of God’s gracious ministry toward us. By them, God enlivens, strengthens and
confirms our faith.
The validity of the sacraments does not reside in any
particular mode of administration but rather in obedience to Christ’s commands
and receiving these divine gifts in faith. 5 We believe that water baptism was
commanded by Jesus to be administered to believers as a symbol of the new covenant
of grace. It signifies that we have accepted the benefits of Christ’s
atonement. By means of this sacrament, believers declare their faith in Jesus
Christ as Savior.
xx We believe that the Lord’s Supper commemorates our
redemption through Christ’s death and expresses our hope in His victorious
return. It is also a sign of the love Christians have for each other. If
believers receive the Lord’s Supper with faith and a proper and humble spirit,
God communicates grace to the heart through it.
xxi The Second Coming of Christ: We
believe that the certainty of the personal, and imminent, and visible return of
Christ inspires holy living and zeal to evangelize the world. At His return
Christ will fulfill all prophecies made concerning His final and complete
triumph over evil.
xxii The Resurrection of the Dead: We
believe that everyone will experience bodily resurrection from the dead at
Christ’s Second Coming, as guaranteed by His resurrection. The just will
experience the resurrection of life, and the unjust the resurrection of
damnation. The raised body will be a spiritual body, but the person will be
whole and identifiable.
xxiii The Judgment of All Persons: We
believe the Scriptures reveal God as the Judge of all and that His judgments
are based on His total knowledge and eternal justice. The culminating moment of
His judgment will be the final meeting of every person before His majestic and
powerful throne, where records will be examined and final rewards and
punishments administered.
xxiv Destiny: We
believe there is a conscious personal existence after death. The final destiny
of each person is determined by God’s grace and that person’s response. How we
have responded will be evident in the moral character resulting from our
personal and willful choices, not from God’s arbitrary decree. Those who choose
the salvation God provides through Jesus will live forever in Heaven with its
eternal glory, experiencing the blessed presence of Christ. Those who neglect
this great salvation will spend eternity in hell, experiencing everlasting
misery and separation from God.
